Haha, nice haircut, Chris.

Hello All FanWar Friends and Players:

An important issue has come to the fore and unless we do something about it, all of you are going to find doing LARP a lot more difficult. The Sonoma County Regional Parks has made a rule that not only keeps me from doing events at Regional Parks, it keeps ANYONE from bringing ANY FOAM WEAPONS into the park. How this rule was justified I cannot imagine. The parks office doesn't regulate whether or not people decide to bring soccer balls, frisbees, or a million other games into the park. Yet, because a few people complained, all foam weaponry has been banned. If this kind of blanket ruling is allowed to continue, we will soon have nowhere to play except private property, and thus, no one will know we exist but us. Part of the beauty of playing LARP at public parks is that other children learn about it. A whole new world of play is opened up to them when the see kids making up their
own games and toys, and not buying mass marketed merchandise. The behavior of the Park Officials needs to be stopped.
Ultimately, I don't have a major issue with ME not being able to do events at the park. I can understand that the park wants to know when a large group is going to be doing an organized activity (though I do think it strange that they have a problem with 30 or so kids using a hill to play on, since that is what the park is for, especially since many of us have to pay for parking...). It is not as if we are using playing fields or playground equipment, but I can understand that they need to know that a large group will be present. What I cannot understand is how they can justify dictating WHAT you will play, and how you will play it. Children have the right to free play under the United Nations. See below!

"Declaration of the Rights of the Child
Proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 1386(XIV) of 20 November 1959

Principle 2

The child shall enjoy special protection, and shall be given opportunities and facilities, by law and by other means, to enable him to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity. In the enactment of laws for this purpose, the best interests of the child shall be the paramount consideration....

Principle 7

The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation, which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavor to promote the enjoyment of this right."

If these our OUR parks, then we have the right to play in them however we want to play, and the "public authorities" should "endeavor to promote the enjoyment of this right," as long as we are not infringing on the rights of others.

As is the case in so many other areas, if you don't fight for your rights, they will be taken away. Speak up if you want to be able to play as you please. This is not about FanWar, this is about your right to be who you are!

Christopher Melville

P.S. Pass this on to whomever you know is interested. I particularly think that Richard Louv, and the Alliance for Childhood would be appalled by this. See below for the background on this issue.

Hello All FanWar Players:

I am happy that everyone is eager to take action on this issue. The best way to do it is to go directly to the source which is the Sonoma County Regional Parks and the Director Mary Burns.

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I think that a flood of emails, calls and letters expressing our upset in a polite yet firm way, is the best way to deal with this. First of all, we want to model the behavior we expect the Parks to use. We feel they have been unfair and unjust. Requesting that the issue be discussed and revisited do to their oversight is the right approach, as it is what we would want them to do for us. Also, we want to have all the information before we make accusations, as that is what we would expect of them. We should request a copy of the new rules as well, so we can confirm that the rule is being interpreted correctly, and then take action accordingly. I stress being polite, as the Rangers have been very polite, though perhaps insensitive.
In order for everyone to understand how the problem started, I want to give some background information in case the Parks bring it up, you should be informed. The original problem started when we scheduled an event on a Saturday and someone else had reserved the picnic area at Riverfront Park. We were extremely cordial and modified our entire game to give the Permitted group extra space and a huge parameter, we weren't even in the picnic area. We used the park once a month on a Saturday and didn't have any conflicts for the next few months until summer when we scheduled an event for three days in a row in the middle of the week (Tue, Wed, Thur). Almost no one else was even at the park, but they had a problem with us being their the first day and said next time we would need a permit. I tried to get the required permit on extremely short notice the next day, but then I was told, "you need to find some private property" and "you are not to use Riverfront anymore." We moved to Ragel for the rest of the summer and had no problems until October when we were told we needed to tell them we were coming if we were going to have more than 25 people. The events were small at that time of the year, so I said we were a small group and they said, it doesn't matter, "I have been told not to let you into the park. We got some complaints at Riverfront." I argued at the gate and said we were a small group that day and so didn't get a permit and the gate ranger let us stay, but I got the impression that would be our last time at Ragel. Sure enough, the next time kids showed up with foam swords they were not allowed to play- I wasn't even there.
Please email, call, or mail letters to Mary Burns, the Sonoma County Regional Parks Director. Speak your mind, and be heartfelt, but polite. Don't take this issue outside the Sonoma County Parks yet, as that is gossiping and not being direct with the people responsible, as we would want them to be with us. If you need fuel for your letters/calls please go to my Rationale page here

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And if anyone tells you you are a vocal minority, direct them to the link below to see the HUGE list of LARP groups around the world,

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Thank you for all your support!

Christopher Melville
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead

hey everyone, on November the 19th (next Monday) i'm going to the Sonoma county regional parks public hearing to oppose this new ban on foam weaponry. the meeting is at 5pm and i don't know where it is, but ill find out ASAP! anyone who can, PLEASE come! this is a HUGE chance to talk to almost all of the people in charge of the parks, and if we play our cards right, we can convince them that what we are doing isn't devil worshiping, or whatever they are afraid we are doing. so please! anyone who can SHOW UP! we need the support! And hey, if worse comes to worse, we can just use real swords . FIGHT THE OPPRESSION!!!!

Hello chris and other fanwar people! i went to the regional parks and rec. meeting and presented our issue to the board, and i got ALOT of input as to how to solve our problem. also the meeting was WAY easier that i thought it was going to be.

THE GOOD:
-the board had NEVER heard of any ban on "foam weaponry"
-the board was VERY interested in our case (i took up about 3/4 of the public speaking time)
-one member, said that he had some friends who's sons play fanwar. (he was all for us)
-they were interested in farwar, and we very willing to tell me several options as to how to go about solving the issue.
-even though all but one member had never heard of fanwar, once i explained to the board what it was, they seemed happy that we were doing it.
-one board member said that "the parks should be open to everyone"
-on the whole, the board had no reason to oppose us (they openly said this)

THE BAD:
-a man in the audience (we don't know who he was, we think he may be the manager of some park or something) brought up the reason we were banned.
-the "official reason we were banned from the regional parks is because: Regal park received several (it was never said how many) complaints and decided to shut us down because of this.
-the complaints ranged from: we were dressed in camouflage, we used swords/weapons that looked real (chris, your getting TOO good at making weapons!), we were too noisy, and we were disturbing the other people at the park who go to Regal to enjoy a quiet environment. (it was never addressed as to why we were kicked out of river front park)
-i'm also 90% sure the ban is in writing, because this man spoke of the ban as if it was in writing. (but he never said for sure)

WHAT THE BOARD SAID WE SHOULD DO:
-they are totally willing (and now legally required) to help solve this issue
-they said to call them (my mom is going to get the numbers) so we can set up a meeting between members of the board and the "officials" of fanwar (basically they want to talk to you chris)
-they want to try to fix this issue the easy way, instead of going to a public hearing, because thats ALOT of legal work
-they said that perhaps they could issue us some sort of "permit" that would allow us to play at the regional parks
-above all they said to call them back ASAP

So the meeting went really well. And when i say they were eager to help us solve this issue, they meant it, they were 100% focused on me, and asked alot of good questions about fanwar (like i said, we took up about 3/4 of the time for public comment). I really think that if we just call them up, like they said, and meet with them, we can solve this one way or another, and it wont be a hard fix. So if you have any questions, just ask!

-Jeff

That is awesome Jeff I totally wished I could've been there to help back up the point but it looks like you handled it like a well seasoned veteran at this. I'm glad we got the interest of the board so much. did your mom talk about it to?

yeah, a little.

I am Shamelessly promoting.

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Hey Everybody,

As an act of curiosity if anyone could design a magic set, how would you do it. What would be your theme ect.

I know quite a few Fanwar people watch Avatar, so I thought I'd share this: the lead artist posts storyboards and concept art on DeviantArt!

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