The substantive portion of my quarterly report to the Society Youth Combat Marshal is attached below.
— Mathghamhain, East Kingdom Youth Earl Marshal
With the arrival of warm weather, youth combat got back into swing this quarter, with five events held in the East, but youth turnout remains low, with just 2-6 kids taking the field at each of those events. On a positive note, a larger pool of youth are typically found at the handful of local practices that are held weekly or biweekly; with luck, we’ll see more of those kids at events this summer after school lets out.
Over the coming months we’ll be looking for opportunities to finish the training of a new generation of MITs, who we hope can then help us rebuild the youth combat program in some of the less-central areas of the kingdom.
Their Majesties of the East have recently made some changes in how kingdom youth championships are scheduled; we’re hopeful that this will provide more opportunities for youth to be recognized, and bring additional visibility to the program.
Our leadership team has workshopped some feedback to the proposed new revision of the Youth Martial Handbook, and look forward to updating our kingdom handbook to match.
And of course we’re making preparations for our busiest week of the year at Pennsic. Rules have updated, schedules have been laid out, and messages sent to coordinate tournaments and training sessions.
This summer should be a busy time for us all!
