Yeah but I recall a cat herding conversation you and I had some time ago. LOL

In most other sectors its

a)There to represent its members legally as an advocate: I've certainly not heard of any LRPer legal action (discounting a couple of Libel threats on Pagga) so I'm not sure what use it would actually be on that score

b) To act as a voice for the industry in the media: You see it in the papers where chocolate is found to be unhealthy so someone from the Chocolate Manufacturers Association says "Its fine in small doses, the dangers have been exaggerated etc". Again we don't see a great deal of media coverage for LRPers, so this would be of limited benefit

c) Acting as a focal point for groups to network: we have Rule 7, LRP Alliance and a number of other boards for that so is that really necessary?

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Brighton Below : Organiser

Serenity: Capt Tom Crowson

RL: Simon / Trez

Well one can but dream…….

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RL: Mr Sofar

Curved core weaponry and bespoke stuff.

ShelfordFX

Would agree that a LRP representative body would be useful for things like "explaining in a professional manner" exactly what LRP is to third parties.

Ive watched people try to explain LRP to people and have absolutely cringed with embarrassment with their attempt to explain to the owners of a site about how we "dress up as Elves and Goblins and hit each other with rubber swords"

A national representative body would be able to represent those groups and speak for them, but then theres always the issue of one group under the protection of the national body causes trouble at a site, at which point the national body has some explaining to do. It also requires the national body to have a very good understanding of what each individual group is doing.

If its literature on what LRP is thats required then theres plenty out there already. We wrote one for our group

I think that in many cases its simply a case of saying "We're a theatre company, we have £2m of PL insurance, we've done a risk assessment and here's £500. Can we use your site please?"

I can see there being a use for newbies. They've seen "Tough Crowd" and want to get involved. They type LRP into Google and behold, theres a national body that will tell them where their nearest groups are, what it involves and what they'll need. But just a little bit of investigation would probably do the same

I'm starting to sound really negative here, sorry

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Brighton Below : Organiser

Serenity: Capt Tom Crowson

RL: Simon / Trez

I'll spell it out again in case many others missed it:

Committee has goals:

 - Promote LRP

 - Maintain a website

 - Educate others about LRP

 - Improve relations with scouts association, insurance companies, site managers, the police, the government etc

And probably several more we can think of later. Most of these overlap and probably include several subgoals each but this is just for example.

The best people, in my opinion, to achieve these goals are those who are trained and have experience in these fields. Just because I am a LRP organiser of a system which has a website does not mean that I know how to set up a website. I have people for that. I play in several systems that advertise and have heard of ones which have been on TV but this does not mean I understand the media. So, our selection criteria for 'who is on the committee' should not be based on what system you run or play but rather on what skills you can bring to the table. I see this as being the best way to get competent people in the right place to do the most good for the hobby.

So, the committee has 'positions'. You have the usual Chairman/president, treasurer (in case it ever gets any money to play with), secretary set up with a number of other jobs. We'd need, for example, a PR officer to work on hyping up the image of the hobby as well as an IT person to work on websites and other technical issues. These people would all be those with relevant skills and experience for the jobs they have to do but they would also be able to call upon others in the hobby for assistance on particular projects. For example, the IT gut will code, maintain and host the 'national LRP website' but he may put a call out to all the hobby for articles, photographs etc to fill it.

Is that clearer?

Matt, you may be right about needing more than one person to keep your wordcount down. I think I need one as well... and this is when I *am* working full time. In a few weeks time I get even more free time!

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The Whispering God is your friend... trust the Whispering God...

Ruins of Empire

1st - 3rd Feb, 2008, Gladstone scout centre, Chester

I personally think that it could be done by one person who knows how to design a web-site. Get other people to contribute to the content (i.e. what is LRP, other events) doesn't need a committee to do that

Again a lot of that is duplicating work thats on other boards. There's already a number of "Introduction to...." on the Larpguide pages and there are various "What is LRP" articles around

Im not sure what kind of "promoting the hobby" would be possible. Are we looking at promoting via the media? Writing articles might be good but where are we looking for inclusion, and are the places we'd look to promote us going to accept copy?

I'd also wonder what sort of "education" would be done. If someone said to me "I'm looking to go to Riftworld, whats it like?" then my first answer would be contact the organisers of Riftworld (just picking a group I've not been to off the top of my head here)

I can understand a "liasing with national bodies" but there are a number of issues with one group trying to explain what can be a very diverse hobby. i.e. The Forestry Commission say "We don't want to have LRPers on our land because they trample over plants and we've had incidents where fires have been started". What does the national body say in response?

If we were trying to campaign for something, if we had a specific and clear cause or objective then it would be a lot easier

Can you give more specific examples about what the body would do (as opposed to its goals)?

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Brighton Below : Organiser

Serenity: Capt Tom Crowson

RL: Simon / Trez

Unfortunately most of those pro-active souls have very little time as they write and run their own systems.