Re: [Middlebridge] FROM THE AUTOCRATS-PENNSIC 24 SUNDAY CLO

Tibor writes, regarding Pennsic:
 
> But many folks are members of the SCA, yet do not get Kingdom Newsletters.
> Many others do not read the Rialto. They may well show up to Pennsic,
> expecting the same treatment they have always gotten, to find out they are
> out of luck. Worse yet, when they discover that some folks have been
> granted exceptions, and they cannot.
>
> They will cry "unfair". They will be right.

You know, there ought to be a way that ALL SCA members could have
access to information about Pennsic and other important topics that come
up. I'm sure that everyone would be glad to pay their share of the costs of
something like, oh, say, a kingdom-level newsletter! :-)

Seriously, if folks choose not to (or cannot afford to) avail
themselves of basic information sources, they must take their own
steps to make sure that they keep up on things. Like read a friend's
newsletter. Or ask their seneschal. All we can do is to make the
information *available*.

I'm not sure that I understand your alternative. Do we say that no
changes can be made to an event unless they have been announced at
the previous year's event? That would be ludicrous. Yet, short of
that, I think the changes have been communicated as well as possible.

> If the problem is with people who will not leave, the Coopers have a simple
> solution, and one I am sure they have used with other camping groups before.
> They must contact the authorities, and have trespassers removed. For anyone
> who stays on the property when the campground is closed, is a trespasser.

You've got a point there. The argument I keep hearing, "We're not
allowing you to stay 'til Monday because some folks have been staying 'til
Thursday" is ridiculous. The problem clearly is not when the cutoff
is, but making sure everyone adheres to it. I really don't see that
the earlier cutoff is any easier to enforce.

> Make no mistake, under the current rules, Pennsic will end at dawn on
> Saturday. The largest encampments will have to leave the site to fetch
> their rental trucks and trailers, and the balance of the weekend will be
> spent watching the event be taken apart, while the participants dodge
> vehicle traffic and listen to power tools.
>
> This is especially incongruous when you examine the pricing structure, which
> charges a large bulk fee for a weekend that will be essentially worthless.

I don't have any problem with acknowledging the War as a week event
rather than a weekend event. My vacation time is easier to schedule
that way, rather than taking a week and a day. But I do agree that
the current pricing structure becomes rather silly under those circumstances.
 
> I really do consider the current plan to be inadequate. A simple return to
> the old rules and timing, with a willingness to punish only those who
> deserve punishment, is a far better plan. I urge you to consider it.

A reasonable suggestion, if you were addressing the people who made
the decision. But I doubt if the Coopers subscribe to this list. Why
waste our bandwidth railing at the autocrats about this? The only
thing they can do at this point is to revise the schedule and pricing
(and the latter may have already been built into the agreement with
the Coopers).
 
Lancelin Peregrinus / Grant Root
lancelin@dnaco.net
--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---
From: "Grant Root" <groot@dnaco.net>
--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---
Received on Fri Jun 2 20:17:41 1995