[SCA-Dance] KWDS report (What I Did on my Summer Vacation...)

[Jane & Mark Waks]

A variety of tuppence:

C. Timar wrote:
> In the past, KWDS was awarded to kingdoms

"In the past" is a bit ill-defined. *Historically*, KWDS was more about 
local groups, not Kingdoms -- for instance, ours was very much a local 
affair, with the Barony doing nearly all the work, and members of the 
Kingdom mostly involved at the same level as all the other dancers from 
all over the Society who helped out.

Far as I can tell, the idea that Kingdoms were involved in this was 
mostly a side-effect of Corporate sticking its nose in, rather than part 
of the original idea. Depending on how things play out, we may have no 
choice but to have the Kingdom involved at some level, but I don't see 
that as especially essential at this stage of the game, especially since 
it probably complicates things considerably. We've got bigger fish to 
fry first, and the local groups that want to do the heavy lifting are 
the important people from my perspective.


I agree with a bunch of what's been said so far. It's probably 
appropriate at this stage to revisit the every-other-year schedule -- 
I'm not sure whether we should change it or not, but I do believe a 
discussion about whether to move up to annually would be worthwhile. I 
almost certainly wouldn't go every year, but then I only make it 
occasionally as it is. (I agree with Brandubh that annual would probably 
result in me attending more frequently.) If there seems to be sufficient 
critical mass for annually, I don't object to seeing that happen. It 
would change things a tad, but (while I understand Darius' concerns) I 
don't think it would do great harm. I concur with Lowrie that it is 
reasonable to try it for a few years, and see how it goes.

(This is, I will note, yet another argument for trying to keep Corporate 
out of things as much as possible. Bureaucracy tends to shove things 
towards highly-regular schedules; a community-driven process is more 
able to experiment and play around with it.)

On Adele's concern about whether an annual KW event is less global: I 
haven't really observed that. I think it varies greatly from event to 
event -- where it is and how it's run looks to matter a lot more than 
frequency. I've been to a Known World Academy of the Rapier that felt a 
bit local, and Known World Heraldic Symposia that felt *more* global 
than the KWDS' I've been to. It's really all about the attitude of the 
hosts and the community.

Overall, I think folks are catastrophizing the idea of going annual a 
bit. It's not obvious to me that it would be an improvement, but I think 
it's unlikely to do major harm. If folks want to try the experiment, I 
don't see especially good reason not to let them.


I concur that, while I don't think Kingdoms should be involved quite 
yet, we should be spreading things around geographically as much as 
possible; that being the case, it would be great if the Midrealm bids at 
least chatted with each other. I don't think it's obvious that they can 
or should merge -- but it's worth having the conversation between them 
if they're willing to talk. I've been observing in recent years that 
local branches joining forces can often produce truly spectacular events.

I *would* like to see a European KWDS at some point in the 
not-too-distant future -- I can't be sure whether I would make it there 
or not, but it's appropriate for it to get outside the boundaries of 
North America from time to time. I do agree that, given the Society's 
demographics, it's appropriate for it to be in the US more often than 
not, but I have a slight bias towards the less-central groups. From the 
US' point of view, Lochac and Drachenwald are both "overseas", but from 
*their* POV, they don't have much to do with each other.

It's a big world, and I do think it's appropriate to get outside the US 
a little more than the statistics would suggest. Not 3 times out of 4 (I 
do think having the *next* one in Drachenwald may be pushing it), but 
reasonably often.


I'll be at Pennsic from Saturday evening onward; Sunday evening works 
fine for me, I believe. See y'all there...

				-- Justin