For Pennsic Royalty

For Pennsic Royalty: The official stuff used to have seven days to accomplish. Because in recent years the Coopers have requested folk be off site by Sunday noon (Closing Ceremonies used to be held on Sunday morning), there are now only five days to squeeze everything in.

You might want to talk to the Autocrat, your counterparts, and/or the Coopers to see if perhaps Opening Ceremonies could be held on Sunday afternoon with the first battles starting on Monday. That would give more time for battles and championships to be fought instead of having a bottleneck as there was at PW 31.

You might want to talk to the Pennsic Archery Marshal to see if the Populace War Point could begin on that middle weekend (Saturday?) so that there was adequate time to get it in. (At PW 31, Closing Court was to be on Friday after Great Court. The Populace Archery War Point shooting was supposed to continue through noon on Saturday!)

For you as King, please share the War Point schedule as early as possible with the Pennsic staff. At PW 31, while I as Queen knew the schedule in February, the East Kingdom Pennsic staff did not know what it was until May. No one apparently thought to inform (for example) the Class Coordinator, etc.

Once you are on site at Pennsic, have the table at the Midrealm gate staffed. Since we were both there for the full two weeks, official business from other royalty as well as “regular folk” was in full swing by Wednesday and we had to scramble to find folk to sit at the table to take messages.

For Pennsic royalty gift baskets you might want to consider some different procedures than in the past. One suggestion was that the attending Royalty exchange names so that each kingdom only prepares one gift basket for one other kingdom. Another possibility would be to follow Caid’s example. They asked their baronies to make a “basket” for one of the kingdoms, thus relieving the burden on the king and queen. Because so many folk have so little space, consider using flat fabric bags rather than “baskets”. They can be packed more efficiently for the trip home.

For a less-stressful Great Court, request that each kingdom only have one piece of business. Usually the East, Middle and Aethelmearc get two apiece. Be prepared, however, for that one piece of business to last much longer than you planned for. Also, avoid having battles or championships run past four or five o’clock on that final Friday. Last year, Great Court was delayed over two hours from its scheduled start because all the championships were fought (rather inefficiently) on that day.

Be aware that there is Closing Ceremony business (the presentation of the War Horn) that should take place at the final court. Since everything seems to be taking place at Great Court, let folk know (Pennsic booklet editor, Pennsic master schedule) that Closing Court and Great Court are together.

For the Queen: If you are not a fighter, you might want to make sure that someone sets up a viewing pavilion (or that huge reviewing stand) on the battlefield. Have someone contact the Battlefield Coordinator so that there is space reserved for it. There is no moderately-sized canvas pavilion at this point! There is a smallish sunshade and there is the QE2, the wooden reviewing stand. The huge tent (of the size of the Midrealm Royal meeting tent) is used by the Midrealm fighters.

Also, walk through the ranks of your Midrealm fighters and say something to them prior to the battles. Hand out favors to as many fighters as possible. You will also need favors for your archery champions and the rapier champions. The East usually has special tabards for those “teams”. For the Woods Battle, get certified as a water-bearer and give water to your troops. The Water-bearer Staff will come to Midrealm Royal to give you and your ladies a special session, if you ask them. Your presence is tremendously inspiring and your rank as Queen will let you troubleshoot problems more easily than anyone else except the marshals and the King. (At PW 31 there was no water buffalo at Midrealm’s Resurrection Point. The Queen was able to mobilize a car/van caravan to get bottles filled and hauled back so that the battle could start…and continue. It was a major safety issue. The Queen had the rank to tell folk what to do, where to go, and how to do it.)

At Pennsic 31, the Queen of the East and I jointly sponsored the A&S Exhibition. Would you like to continue this and make it a “tradition”? You should contact your Eastern counterpart, then contact the person running the Exhibition to see what day it is being held. Sponsorship for us involved attending the Exhibition at the same time and spending a hour and a half walking around talking to the artisans who knew we would be there at that time. (This information should be put in the Pennsic booklet by the Exhibition coordinator.) We provided a special pewter token for each exhibitor. You might want to provide a similar one and just change the initials to yours and the Eastern queen’s. You also might want to bring a small personal token to leave at displays that particularly impress you. It’s helpful to leave it on a small slip of paper that says something like “A token from X, Queen of the Midrealm, in appreciation of your display.”

By: Countess Alys Katharine, OP, OL, OW, OPF, ODH