(no subject)

[sue_n_julia]

Went to the kingdom heralds symposium this weekend. We expected a small event; it was being held in a small shire in British Columbia. It was smaller than expected as there were several cancellations (including Black Lion who had mandatory job foo sprung on her for this weekend); six people, all teachers (ETA: four teachers and two others), showed up. So we reconfigured our plans to paw books and gape at heraldic pictures from England and France.

That's not what we travelled eight hours for. Should have been six, but Juliana and I missed the turn in the Google directions (directions with no town names). It was a pleasant drive through Okanagan wine country -- and we brought some home.

S

Comments

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

ooh. thank you for posting this - it reminded me to go pull the wine out of the freezer where I'd stuck it to chill.

[ctseawa.livejournal.com]

You do know that's not how you're supposed to make ice wine, right?

grin

[cryptocosm.livejournal.com]

That's not what we travelled eight hours for.

Yeah, I know what that's like. If it's any consolation, though, I have discovered through my consultation table special appearances that the mere fact of having a kingdom herald show up in a remote location can have a positive value entirely independent of actually accomplishing anything while you're there. You may not have done what you set out to, but banking a bit of good will doesn't hurt.

Of course, I'm the sort who can drive eight hours just for the hell of it. I suppose that makes a difference.

[sue-n-julia.livejournal.com]

Things have gotten better for travelling, especially since we figured out how to use the heating pad with the inverter.

S

[sue-n-julia.livejournal.com]

The consult table is my job right now, and I do go all over the place for it (last summer I went 14 hours northeast of home and 11 hours southwest of home, all within the kingdom). But I prefer to do it not in some small shire, where fewer than 20 people are there to get help. On the other hand, we did consults for nine people, which is a halfway decent day at a much larger local event.

It was also a bad weekend for me: the end of the break between winter and spring quarters, which means I graded finals the first part of the week and prepped classes the second part. I was also supposed to have sent an article out by yesterday, but I guess it'll be the 15th instead.

-J

[devreux.livejournal.com]

Wow ... only six attendees? Yeah, not what I would have driven eight hours for, either. :-P

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

I think Meridies hit upon a good idea with their heraldic symposium in February -- it was co-located with another event, one of the barony's annual teaching event. This meant it had a larger draw than just heralds, and it also meant a lot of non-heralds went to heraldry classes, which is always a good thing in my books!

Northshield also does something similar to help prevent problems with low attendance at heraldic symposia -- the last couple ones have been held in conjunction with a dance symposia. This is definitely an option I'd recommend to folks, to find another event to tag along with, or to find another potentially small-audience specialty topic and make it a joint venture.

[sue-n-julia.livejournal.com]

Normally, we have a Heralds and Scribes symposium. I don't know why that didn't happen.

This event had several problems: the event was so far from the kingdom center, it wasn't on the kingdom calendar, it was opposite another (albeit small)event an hour away, and it wasn't advertised/announced on any lists until about a week before the event.

S