<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Actually, I was just out at Share House on Jackson d. the other day and they had a lot of hockey helmets and other stuff for CHEAP.<div><br></div><div>RanthulfR</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Nov 16, 2011, at 4:03 PM, <a href="mailto:andrew@prometheusmotionpictures.com">andrew@prometheusmotionpictures.com</a> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"> <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> <span>Recycle Ann Arbor has youth hockey helmets (usually 2 or 3) on the shelf nearly everytime I go there. Hockey pants and elbow and knee pads as well.</span> </div><p style="margin: 0px;"> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> <span>I'm not in a position right now to volunteer for anything, but in the future I would be interested in getting a youth combat authorization / marshalette. I've already been background checked to death from working at CPS, and would certainly be willing to do it again.</span> </div><p style="margin: 0px;"> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> <span>Best,</span> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> <span>Hjorleif</span> </div><p style="margin: 0px; "></p><div> <span> </span> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div> <div style="margin: 5px 0px; font-family: monospace;"> <br> On November 16, 2011 at 3:27 PM Randy Asplund <<a href="mailto:randyasplund@comcast.net">randyasplund@comcast.net</a>> wrote: <br> <br> > Unto the members of the Barony, Greetings from Sir RanthulfR, Youth <br> > Marshal, etc. <br> > <br> > At our last Baronial meeting we had a discussion about promoting Youth <br> > fighting in both boffer and rapier in Cynnabar. I volunteered to write <br> > to Lord Nylas Kazmer, the Kingdom & Pentamere officer responsible for <br> > Youth Combat, and ask his advice. The following is my letter to him <br> > and his reply back (posted with permission). I am forwarding it to you <br> > all because it is a bit much for reporting at a meeting, and it <br> > affects many who are not regular at the meetings. <br> > <br> > <br> > <br> > > On Nov 14, 2011, at 9:34 PM, Randy Asplund wrote: <br> > > <br> > >> Hi Kazmer, <br> > >> <br> > >> This is a scoping out kind of letter. I just got back from the <br> > >> Cynnabar weekly business meeting. The subject of demos for boy <br> > >> scouts came up. I suggested that we talk to youth fighters in the <br> > >> area and see if any wanted to be in a demo for kids close to their <br> > >> age. That inspired a long discussion about what we could do to get <br> > >> youth fighting going here. <br> > >> <br> > >> We all recognize that we have parents bring kids around every once <br> > >> in a while, the kids are enthused, but we have no loaner gear or <br> > >> youth of the right age/size for them to spar with. The people at <br> > >> the meeting all want to have the barony be ready to provide youth <br> > >> fighting, but we just don't seem to have the youth critical mass to <br> > >> accomplish it. <br> > >> <br> > >> I suggested that we point parents to the materials online so they <br> > >> could become familiar with armor & weapon standards and learn the <br> > >> rules. Then we would send them to the larger youth practices when <br> > >> they are held out near Detroit. My thought being that once we had a <br> > >> few doing that, we wold gain the critical mass locally to pt it <br> > >> together here with regularity. <br> > >> <br> > >> The concern expressed by the others was that once they went out to <br> > >> Detroit, -if indeed the parents could be talked into that drive- <br> > >> they wold keep going there instead of settling here, even after <br> > >> local opponents were found. <br> > >> <br> > >> I asked if they would like me to write to you to see if you might <br> > >> have some helpful suggestions on how to get our group "over the <br> > >> hump" so to speak. <br> > >> <br> > SNIP <br> > >> Have you any advice or thoughts on it? <br> > >> <br> > >> RanthulfR <br> > >> <br> > <br> > On Nov 16, 2011, at 12:34 PM, Lord Kazmer wrote: <br> > <br> > Sir RanthulfR, <br> > <br> > Achieving a “critical mass” is always the problem with youth combat. <br> > Nothing is more frustrating for the kids than not having anyone to <br> > play with. One of the reasons that youth combat has been successful <br> > at the Roaring Waste practice is that we draw from several groups. No <br> > one group usually has enough kids for a viable practice but by drawing <br> > on the surrounding groups the critical mass can be achieved. The <br> > Roaring Waste practice is really a regional practice and by holding it <br> > once a month we can sort of concentrate participation. There is a <br> > limit to how far parents will drive though, probably less than an hour. <br> > <br> > Some of the marshals in Andelcrag are trying to get a Baronial youth <br> > combat practice started out there because, again, they don’t have <br> > enough kids in any one group but the barony as a whole has quite a <br> > few. They want to try the once a month model but are having trouble <br> > settling on when and where. <br> > <br> > An Ann Arbor practice could also draw in other groups. I know there <br> > are interested kids in Talonval and Weald Lake. Some have come to my <br> > practice on occasion. A trip to Ann Arbor would be much more feasible <br> > for these parents than to come to my practice. You could also draw <br> > from Brackendelve. The Detroit area youth combat practice is always <br> > the last Sunday of the month. If Cynnabar started a monthly practice, <br> > the second Sunday for example, those who are inclined to could attend <br> > both. Some of the kids who come to my practice would attend more than <br> > one a month if available, but we have been reluctant to hold ours more <br> > often for fear of losing that “critical mass”. When we started, about <br> > 12 years ago, we had my son Bill, and Maximilian’s son Odd. Those two <br> > got awfully tired of only having the other to fight with. As time <br> > went on, and with the availability of loaner gear, we got more kids to <br> > play. One of the “problems” with YC is that the kids do age-out. <br> > About three years ago we had a bunch of division 3 kids at my <br> > practice. Then they started turning 18 and were gone. Leoric from <br> > Weald Lake was the last one. Now my oldest regular participants are <br> > 14, but I have 5 or 6 more right behind them in division 2. Wait a <br> > couple years and I’ll have a bunch of division 3 kids again. <br> > <br> > On-line information for parents is somewhat lacking, other than the <br> > kingdom rules. This is an area which I want to correct. I hope to <br> > get some more resources posted to the kingdom website. <br> > Loaner gear seems to be the key. Parents are dis-inclined to spend <br> > money on gear until they are sure that their child is actually going <br> > to stick with it. I’ve suited up many a child over the years who, <br> > after one practice, decided they would rather do fencing or archery. <br> > <br> > Accumulating gear is a slow process, my stash is about 12 years in the <br> > making. I started by asking for donations of old sports gear. I got <br> > more roller-blading elbow and knee pads than I needed initially. <br> > Hawkland Moor authorized me to spend up to $75 which I used to buy <br> > hockey helmets at Play-it-Again Sports. I’ve also hit garage sales <br> > and flea markets for most of the rest. The only armor that isn’t <br> > commercially available are gorgets, but I’ll bet that some of your <br> > local fighters have scrap leather and barrel plastic lying around and <br> > could throw together a few. Someone from Cynnabar would need to step <br> > up and be the point person for the program. This should be a youth <br> > marshal with a background check (you need one of those present <br> > anyway). Assistance can then come from parents, fighters, and other <br> > adults. Remember, you don’t have to be a warranted youth marshal to <br> > work with the kids, just to “spar” with them. <br> > <br> > What can I do to help you get started? Would you like me to attend <br> > one of your baronial meetings to discuss this with the group? I would <br> > also be willing to attend one of your practices and bring my loaner <br> > gear, although I can’t make a regular practice of this. Boy scout <br> > demos can be a fertile recruiting field. Over the last few years I’ve <br> > had several families get started in SCA because the kids were <br> > introduced to youth combat either at demos or by friends in the SCA. <br> > Little known fact: most of the kids in youth combat do not have a <br> > parent who fights. <br> > <br> > I will be teaching a class at 12th Night in January for parents and <br> > kids who are interested in learning about the program. As part of <br> > that class I am working on a set of hand-outs on how to find or make <br> > youth combat gear. I plan to post these on-line eventually. <br> > <br> > At the very least, lets keep talking. <br> > <br> > THL Nyilas Kazmer <br> > Middle Kingdom Deputy Earl Marshal <br> > Youth Combat <br> > <br> > <br> > Randy Asplund <br> > Facebook: "Randy Asplund, Artist" <br> > <a href="http://www.RandyAsplund.com">www.RandyAsplund.com</a> <br> > Maker of Medieval books and <br> > Illustrator of Science Fiction & Fantasy <br> > (734) 663-0954 <br> > 2101 S. Circle Dr. Ann Arbor, MI 48103 <br> > </div> </div> </blockquote></div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><div>Randy Asplund</div><div>Facebook: "Randy Asplund, Artist"</div><div><a href="http://www.RandyAsplund.com">www.RandyAsplund.com</a></div><div>Maker of Medieval books and </div><div>Illustrator of Science Fiction & Fantasy</div><div>(734) 663-0954</div><div>2101 S. Circle Dr. Ann Arbor, MI 48103</div></div></div></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span> </div><br></div></body></html>