[Cynnabar] Proposed Thoughts on Thursday Meetings

[Kell Carnahan via Barony]

Hiya, Cynnabar,

After contemplating thoughts of new practice sites yesterday evening and my
feelings on our local practice lately vs the regional practice in Jackson
last month, I’ve come to a new conclusion:

I think that business meetings should not happen at Baronial omnibus
gatherings/fighter practice.

What I *thought* having it all in one place would be like:  Oh, great,
it’ll be like whenever people taught a music/A&S class besides fighter
practice, and the entire Barony is there!  I love those days!

What including the business meeting at practices is actually like:

   -

   Business meetings feel rushed and annoying because they’re eating into
   socializing/fighting time
   -

   Fighter practices get compressed and rushed and almost not worth it, for
   those of us who can’t stay up really late


A general best case scenario, because we’re a great active Barony that does
a lot, is that a business meeting lasts a half hour.  This is with rushing
through everything and not having fuller discussions of any points.

So, best case scenario, the meeting feels rushed, and ends at 7:30.  By the
time everyone says hi to one another, trickles into fighting area, gets
armored up, and ends vital community bonding time of “how are you doing?”
updates, it’s 7:45 - 8 pm.

I’m not the only one who needs to leave practices by 9 pm to be able to get
sleep themselves, or get their children to sleep.  That means armoring down
by around 8:45 pm, to pack up and say goodbye and leave by 9 pm.

45 minutes - 1 hour of compressed practice time means that:

   -

   Can’t do drills, sparring, AND melee work ever.  Basically ensures melee
   work will never happen at these practices, like they used to at rapier
   practices that actually had more time.
   -

   Can’t do tournaments, because there’s no time for that and practicing
   anything.
   -

   I can’t organize to have teachers or outsiders come visit our practices,
   because with variable meeting times, practice time doesn’t start at the
   same time AND there’s little time for a class and any practicing, AND the
   compressed time makes traveling further to our practices not worth it.
   This really limits the capability of Cynnabar practices.


I’d say move practices to Sundays again to free up more time, but once
summer event season starts in May, there’s still the argument that Sundays
are needed for other life stuff when most Saturdays are taken by events or
other summer happenings.

You can’t tell me to “just skip the business meeting” because 1) I like
being aware and giving input to my Barony, and 2) almost everyone else is
still at the meeting, so practice can’t really start anyway.  What’s the
best end result to this line of reasoning? No fighters who need to leave by
9 pm (not an unreasonable time) can be at business meetings if they want to
fight? That feels exclusionary, even if it’s not the intent.

Having business meetings at practices means business meetings are rushed
and don’t happen well, socializing is rushed and doesn’t happen well, and
fighter practice is compressed to the point of almost not feeling worth it,
and therefore doesn’t happen well.

The best answer to opening up Thursday evening fighter practice/Baronial
omnibus gathering to actually feel connecting and uplifting and awesome
again: get rid of the business meeting on that evening.  It was a nice
concept, but it’s not working out well. Then practices and socializing and
everything can actually start between 6:30-7 pm and have a good long chunk
of evening to do all the things without feeling rushed and cramped.

Thoughts?

~Birke die Jaegerin
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