[SCA-Dance] Fwd: pennsicdance: The Future of KWDS, part 2

[Tim McDaniel]

On Sat, 23 Jul 2011, David Learmonth <david.a.learmonth at gmail.com>
wrote:
> The main thing that makes this a great event is having all these
> wonderful people there.  But many of us can't necessarily afford to
> travel each year, OR we potentially have other activities we'd like
> to do, either in or out of the SCA, on the off years.
>
> I'm concerned that by making the event too frequent, we dilute its
> significance, and next thing you know we have a basic run of the
> mill event.

My name is Daniel, and I am a herald. [1] Every year there's Known
World Heraldic Symposium.  I've been to most of them in the past 10
years or so, and a number of people have done so.  Sometimes people
can't go because of work or whatever, and sometimes they can.

I've not heard kvetching about how it's too frequent, or how it's not
special, or whatever.  (I don't hear such kvetching about Gulf Wars or
Pennsic either, both of them annual events.)  In fact, for me KWHS
*is* special.  Immersed in heraldry!  Meeting major heralds that I
haven't seen for the last year!  Going to dinner with them!  Hanging
out in a room party and gossiping and discussing The Future Of The
College and hearing a snarky story from Countess Elizabeth de
Rossignol from before she was a princess.

On the other hand, that's the heraldic event that draws from the Known
World.  There are kingdom heraldic symposia, but they're pretty small
beer.  There's no heraldic equivalent of Crystal Ball, or Terpsichore
at the Tower, or dance classes and evening balls at the war.

Maybe I'm just newish [2] or just haven't been involved in putting it
on, but I'm not bothered by the thought of an annual KWDMS -- quite
the contrary.

[1] A reference either to Alcoholics Anonymous or to the first line of
_Army of Darkness_.  Your call.

[2] "Funny, you don't look newish." [3]  Newish in dance.

[3] Shameless ripped off from Mel Brooks, of course.

> Just based on the bureaucracy involved, we know that bids take
> potentially a year to be approved, and that the event has to be set
> up and advertising by that time at the latest.

Hm.  Usually a Known World Heraldic Symposium bid gets announced in
spring, approved at KWHS in summer, and happens the next summer.

> Perhaps a compromise would be something like 2 years in a row, then
> skip a year, or something like that.

meet pause meet meet pause, repeat ... wait, that's a minuet step.
meet pause meet pause meet meet meet pause?
meet meet meet pause, four times in a row, then do something
     different?  (What can I say?  I like the Inns of Court.)

Or maybe: if people feel motivated to put it on and can find a site
and people, they do so?  There's bound to be a dry spell when nobody
feels like doing it, or we would have just had KWDMS 46.

Danihel de Lindocolina
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com