by bill the nun » Sun Mar 19, 2017 11:56 am
Some folks in Fal Dare have expressed frustrations recently. It's possible they have expressed what others elsewhere have privately felt. What specifically is your plan of action regarding relationships with our far flung lands?
I believe that it is difficult to overcome distance for some issues, but I furthermore am of the belief that with good communication and resources made available, anything is possible. That being said, I have a write up for my entirety of a reign plan, but an excerpt defining a view on this is: If any land writes/ executes a kingdom reign themed quest, I would love for them to post it publically with encouragement for our other lands to give it a try. I believe this will create a shared experience for lands no matter the distance, and we can bond/discuss over a common topic. Additionally, I can’t wait to meet with the fellow monarchy elect to elaborate on other ideas. As far as Fal Dare specifically, it seems that their CAAmtgard forum is quiet and the Facebook group has River Gale written all over it—I hope to encourage more communication from their group and others in the near future.
We have several freeholds within our reaches. Some members have expressed desire to join Westmarch. How can Westmarch handle more lands? Should we?
While growth is what keeps Amtgard alive, as the ebb and flow of a population (for whatever reason) needs to be mitigated, I believe that a thing done in moderation is the key. Massive growth of outlying lands in a boom is great to the degree of communication to support it. If we continue to get a spread of freeholds across the state(s), but don’t focus on keeping them in the loop of being a part of the big picture, they will effectively fall off the map. If there is a good system in place to keep an outlying land as ‘part of the group’ via an ambassador system or what have you, I think that growth can be achieved in outlying lands as well as locally with our core groups.
There has been talk of quests. Can you give a plan? How is your quest line different from the other candidates? Obviously, quest lines vary depending on other members of monarchy.
I didn’t really want to have something overbearing that individuals wouldn’t be able to have a little bit of personal creativity with. So, my intention with questing is more on the individual land and what they would like to run with. Population and visitation can sometimes dictate what a land is able to run, so this theme is much more open and able to be customized by the individual land—but also create a personal feeling of pride/attachment to the games they have created, furthering the hope that this will inspire inter-land communication (see above).
How will your quest line improve visitations and build relationships? What can happen in lieu of a quest line to accomplish this?
This is pretty much already answered by my previous responses, but to reiterate the basic idea: Land A writes a themed game/quest pertaining to the kingdom theme, they run it (and get help from the kingdom monarchy publicizing it as appropriate to encourage visitors and communication), they post it on the WM forum for other lands to read/run etc and a group discussion ensues about said game. This encourages land creativity, kingdom involvement and overall inter-land communication thus strengthening relationships.
Westmarch is a very diverse and spread our kingdom, with many aspects to manage. Not just that, we are a legal entity, with tax forms, legal filings, etc. What special skills have you developed over the years, either Amtgard, LARP, or mundania, that will help you manage this collected of groups and individuals?
I am very organized. Managing a veterinary practice and the employees within has grown our bottom line over the past 9 years I’ve been there. I have been in Amtgard since the beginnings of Crimsonwood and pre- WM, I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together. My skill set is residing with organizing events or people, maintaining clean records, establishing attainable goals and clear communication.
What about Westmarch can you improve?
I believe we can strengthen our relationships with each other while encouraging new bonds with new people, thus strengthening and growing WM as a whole.
What is the greatest problem Westmarch currently has?
I think there are a fair amount of people that do post, communicate, participate--- but I feel that those people are usually the same people (with a few variations), and I’d love this business model/reign theme to change that. I know we have amazing people in this kingdom that just need to find their voice, I want to be a part of helping them find it.
What is the greatest thing about Westmarch?
We are a baby kingdom when compared to others, which means that we are a generation of new ideas mixed in with our old school veterans. We are a melting pot of Amtgard and I adore being a part of it. We have the greatest juxtaposition of population that our ability to reach new heights is endless.