The middle east? I believe there already is a Middle East, and it ain't on this side of the pond
If we were, say, focusing on Turkish horse bows as a theme, I'd be all for it cause I think those are cool, but I don't think that's a focus for this group.
Let's say East Coast for now, so including yourself
.I.), me (Maryland), Marz5 (florida), and anyone else we can find. We can expand regions if need be, but since we're so spread out, we can worry about who's where.
Anyway, the "regions" don't really matter that much in the long run, it's the local groups we can set up and build interest. So I have the following ideas:
1. We need more people interested in this!!! More is better! So I want our New Years goal to be, by the end of March 2012, we should each try to have a minimum of two other people that we practice with on a regular basis. Once, twice, three times a week? Biweekly would be acceptable if the people were a ways away or if the weather's really bad. I think three people practicing could constitute a local "group". whatever we decide to call that. What do you think?
2. By that time, we should have our own website, or perhaps a subforum on here depending? I'd be glad to help with this or try to make one (my limited experience putting some emphasis on try). On this website, we'll have links to our youtube channel(s) and other warbow material, vendors that make bows, arrows, and all that jazz that we practice with, some articles about the history and practice of the English/European warbow, and a discussion forum where we can do whatever we need to grow and flourish.
3. Be able to communicate and coordinate the needs of each local group that's signed up with us. I think that for now, we shouldn't worry about being a super complicated non profit just yet. We need to have sufficient bottom-to-top support for that to really work. For now, local groups that aim to work together for a common cause-- that is, the appreciation of and skill in the use of the English/European warbow-- would be our best goal.
Needs might be the following:
-establishing guidelines for
safety, non-liability waiver forms, etc. Basic language for the archery range, when to loose, when to stop, when to retrieve, etc.
-Guidelines on acceptable parameters for bows, arrows, official events; what do we consider to be a war bow? We could borrow the English Warbow Society's guidelines for this for now, or think up our own potentially if that is permissible to them.
-Membership dues or free? If the range (like say, an indoor shooting range for winter archery) requires a minimum fee, and you're looking to expand your group, I'd highly recommend a monthly fee to help get money for extra supplies. But if you aim for more casual environment ("get your own stuff" rule), free is cool too. I think being flexible with this is good.
-Resources for local craftsman. I for one am very excited about the idea of making my own stuff, even if I suck at it at first. The people on here are fantastic for this, so let's stay in touch
4. Figure out how the EWBS does it and stay in close contact with them. We'd be starting as a chapter of their group, so we need to be mindful and respectful that they're the ones that know more about this than we do (for now anyway). The English war bow is their heritage and their weapon (not to say that it isn't some of ours too; I have Scotch/English/Irish ancestry for example), and if we're to be their chapter we need to recognize this and make sure we're on respectable terms with them, even if we give a little wiggle room to allow for other weapons (since we have our own archery traditions from native styles that are worth considering). From what I've heard from Dag, they sound pretty helpful and they have a relatively simple set up.
5. We can brainstorm and discuss the for quite a while since this is a secondary concern. Our primary weapon of study is the English/European Warbow, but I'd like to see if we can in our own spare time explore other bow arts and other European martial arts. The English staff tradition from the Renaissance is also very rich, for example. Or some of the European arts, like falchion/messer fighting, or sword and buckler, or even knife fighting, would compliment a martial archer very well. I'm not saying we'd require this, but what about having the bow as our primary weapon, and having some time to study other close combat styles on the side? Does the EWBS do this at all or is it bow-only for them? My main reason for including other martial arts is that we'd get help from people who have experience in these close martial arts (myself being an enthusiast), and it would be a very good pool of interest, as HEMA people are very serious about their art and would make excellent warbow practitioners. Some of them already study archery on the side, and it would be great if we could unite the disciplines. Close combat is separate from archery/ranged combat, but even so, I think the idea of integrating their study would be an angle that is rarely done these days in the Renaissance of their study.
That's the ideas I have so far. Hopefully it is not too much of a tangent. What do you all think?
