The Regional representatives, Matt Swain for Dunedin and Jared Hansen for Hamilton, I think they are appointed by National Committee, rather than voted by the AGM attendees. Is this right?
Is there anyone else interested in these positions?
I think Jared and Matt are doing fine representation, just thought the question needed raising, and other people given the chance to jump in and get involved if they wanted to. New blood always tasty, um, you know what I mean - new people warmly welcomed.
I’ve split this into a new topic, so that the national nominations topic can stay about nominations.
Ryan
I was offered the role by Anna Klein, although I’m not sure in which official capacity she was acting 
As far as other people being interested in the position, it’s possible but I think unlikely. I probably shouldn’t be the one to bring that up (slight conflict of interest there 
) but I’m willing to put out a few feelers if people think it’s necessary. I’m not sure how many people down here are NZLARPS members, I wouldn’t be totally surprised if I was the only one at this stage.
That’s correct.
I’ve been thinking about regional larp too. We’ve had quite a strong focus on Auckland and Wellington, and that’s been very successful which is great.
But the focus on other cities and smaller towns has been pretty diffuse. Part of the society’s mandate is to “encourage and promote in New Zealand the organisation and playing of all genres of live action role-playing games without restriction.” I interpret that as spreading the gospel of larp everywhere in NZ, so people can be exposed to it so they can discover whether they like it. Many people have never heard of it, let alone had a chance to experience well-run games.
Often, small and somewhat insular local communities of larpers do spring up, but then die off again when they stop running a single campaign. The society offers a great umbrella so that players who have enjoyed one larp are encouraged to carry on playing in others or running their own, within a community that’s bigger than any one game.
Ultimately, running plenty of great games is what gets new people larping and keeps us coming. It’s hard to bootstrap a larp community in places where one doesn’t really exist yet, but not impossible. Once you get some games going, new players quickly become game runners themselves and then it becomes self-supporting. It’s okay to import some larpers from other centers for early games, but what you really want is enough locals to run games mostly for each other.
I think that places like Whangarei, Hamilton, Tauranga, Gisborne, Taupo, Rotorua, Nelson, Dunedin and Christchurch all have good potential to develop significant larp communities.
If our ultimate goal is to help regional larp communities to form, I wonder whether the regional representatives are the most efficient way to help that happen. It would be great to hear from Jared and Matt about their thoughts on it, and get the input of the whole community. Does the current system make sense? Might it be better for NZLARPS to plan in terms of wider regions, like Northland, Waikato, etc. (while still paying attention to big hubs like Hamilton)?
I don’t think this is something the committees can achieve on their own, and as the alcohol discussion shows sometimes full community engagement brings to light new ideas and people who want to help.
I don’t think this is necessarily anything that needs constitutional amendments. The structures are there to support all NZ larp, and the committees can always pass motions to help achieve it.
I think what we need is a way to get lots of larps running in lots of centres, and have those larps well-advertised. Then local larp communities will form around those games and take the ball and run with it. But how do we achieve that?
It’s not about spreading NZLARPS. It’s about spreading larp, to give people the chance to enjoy games close to where they live.
In terms of bootstrapping larp communities, I think running larps in public halls has a lot going for it. Halls are private, cheap and usually readily available. NZLARPS can also often get discounts when booking them as we’re a registered society.
One-off pregen larps are great for new players because they’re pre-packaged which makes them easy to run, they don’t require a lot of commitment from new players and they show off the variety of larp genres and styles. They’re usually well-suited to halls.
Campaigns are great too because you get to spend more time as your character and develop them (and their costume), and you also get to hang out longer with other players. You can also happily run a small campaign in a hall, as I think The World That Is does, you don’t need a big expensive camp ground.
In my opinion it’s not healthy for all the larp in a town to be focused on a single fantasy or WoD campaign with hardly any other larps. When a single campaign is the sole focus of a larp community, that community lives or dies on the success and continuation of that campaign. A single campaign also can’t meet diverse tastes. Some potential larpers aren’t interested in the fantasy or modern supernatural genres, and those are too often “the only game in town”.
Starting off with a variety one-off larps, then also running a couple of short campaigns (possibly run in a hall), maybe have some mini-cons where multiple larps run in the same hall over a single day, that seems like a practical way to bootstrap an ongoing local larp community. As opposed to running a single larp campaign in isolation.
The national committee passed a motion to approach you about the role, and as I recall it was me who actioned it via PM and then a chat at Teonn. 