Re: Population Distribution Inequities

["Gary Bryers" <gbryers@conterra.com>]

Poster: "Gary Bryers" <gbryers@conterra.com>

> But we don't, we live in Atlantia right now.  I don't mean to belittle
> anyone's concerns about having a voice at the BoD townhall meeting, or
> getting more Kingdom events nearby.  But I've visited in the Outlands,
and
> I've lived in Atlantia for a long time now, and our current demographic
> concerns are really pretty minor.   They may be inconvenient to people
> that they impact, but we can't all be lucky and live in Kapellenburg or
> Caer Mear, where the vast majority of events are within 3 hours travel.
> 
> 
> Dafydd ap Gwystl
> 

  You are right, Dafydd, we do have it better than some, but that is not to
say that things can't easily be made better.  For instance, it is no more
of a hardship for someone up north to drive 4 to 6 hours than it is for
someone down south.  And 4 to 6 hours is a reasonable distance for most
folks, in a given weekend.   10 to 12 hours each way stretches the
boundaries, however, and though I would never begrudge Storvik its share of
events, I would ask for all to consider that with events such as Curia,
which only happen a few times a year, and is generally considered
"mandatory" (as mandatory as a hobby can be) for officers to attend, be
held in a more centralized location.
	Curia and University, both, are unique each time they happen -- miss one,
and that oportunity is lost.  Sometimes you get lucky, and the class you
wanted to take is re-given at a closer university later, or a debatable
point is stretched across a number of Curias.  But this isn't often the
case.  And, to make things worse, there are no published (that I know of)
minutes of the last Curia, and here we are talking about having yet another
one, even further north than the last, this leaves a bad taste in the mouth
of those who are watching their hobby hard at work, in someone else's
hands, with the claim that "It is better to hold it where many people don't
have to travel very far, than to place it in the middle, where all can
travel a moderate distance".  I know that isn't the phrasing being used,
but it all boils down to the same thing :  the lesser populated areas will
say that way longer, and be forced to travel farther, because there is no
large presence by which large recruitment may take place.
  At any rate, long winded as this is, the point is that if we all just
give up the "I don't WANT to travel more than 3 hours" attitude, and start
looking at what the other guy has to do to get to the same "mandatory"
event, we can mend fences, smooth over bad feelings, and make this a hobby
worth participating in.  But when we fall back on other rationalizations, a
larger number of people stay disgruntled, which does nothing good for
anyone concerned.

Donal MakBrair
Seneschal, Nottinghill Coill
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