Let's start with the obvious BIG CAVEAT: I have no official authority and I am in no way speaking for anyone official. I wrote up the following for a new land agent in my block in 2022, and thought it might prove useful here.
Also, things change. This was written originally in 2022, and even then some details were tenative. I will try to point out any details that are uncertain.
This section is intended to be a rough overview. I've also included a section below titled "Important Details For Land Agenting" that is more specific.
If you want to camp at Pennsic, you have two choices, either camp as part of a registered group, or camp as a single camper. Pennsic rules strongly encourage camping as part of a registered group. That means two big things, a) somebody has to be the land agent, the person who sets up the group and manages the details of the group's camping area, and b) members of the registered group have to pre-register to be counted towards the group's allocation of space for camping.
Pennsic pre-registration for 2023 will end June 11 (I believe at midnight). A few weeks after that, the Pennsic Land Office will juggle the numbers and then email all the land agents their block assignment.
The block assignment email will include the names of all the groups camping in that block, the names of the land agents for those groups, and the email addresses for the land agents.
The land agents of each block are required to come to an agreement on which group camps where, and submit paperwork to the Pennsic Land Office about that agreement. This process is called "land grab", often contracted to "landgrab".
There are a number of rules for how the land agents must behave and what is required in negotiating the block map. Check the land agent handbook (see "Useful Links" section above).
Besides land agent, there are two more official but optional roles for each camping group, proxy and on-site rep. The definition and details of this have evolved (or been clarified) in recent years, so see the Land website and land agent's handbook for details, but a quick summary is:
The land agent proxy role is meant as an emergency measure when unforeseen events prevent the land agent from being there on landgrab day. A land agent can login to the land website and set a proxy for their camping group to handle landgrab day duties, i.e. negotiating with other camping groups and signing off on the block map.
A proxy can be anybody, even a member of a different camping group or a land agent for a different camping group, but note that the proxy has full authority to negotiate for the camping group they are proxying for, so you'd better trust your proxy. A proxy can act as proxy for more than one camping group, but each camping group can have only one proxy
After landgrab day, the proxy's job is over and they have no further role or authority.
The on-site rep role takes over the "be the single point of contact between your camping group and the Pennsic staff" duties. A land agent can login to the land website and select an on-site rep for their camping group. The on-site rep MUST be a person who is registered to camp with that group.
To serve as a proxy or on-site rep, a person must create an account on the Pennsic Land website. In the past, choosing a proxy and/or on-site rep was an informal process. In recent years, there is now a web form on the Land website to choose the proxy and on-site rep. That web form provides a pair of dropdown menus for names for proxy and on-site rep.
Important: To get their name to show up in those dropdowns, the proxy/on-site rep candidate must create a Land website account, do not (unless you're also a land agent for a different group) click the "click here to register a group", but do the same two "confirm contact info" and "attest to having read the rules" steps that regular land agents must do every year. Until the proxy/on-site rep candidate does this, their account name will NOT show up in the web form and the land agent will be unable to select them as proxy or on-site rep.
Note that the proxy form on the Land website turns off a couple days before landgrab (see the Land Announcements page on the Land Website for specifics). But there is an emergency process for a last minute proxy, for example if you get into a car accident on the way to Cooper's Lake (my first turn as proxy was because of exactly that; the land agent for a neighboring camp broke her leg in a car accident). See the land agent handbook for details for emergency proxy, but long story short, email dmland@pennsicwar.org, and also email all the other land agents in your block so they won't be surprised.
Cue the Fiddler On The Roof music...
Some of the details for the landgrab process get a little complicated. First let's talk about how it was "traditionally" done, until recent years.
Traditionally: Landgrab was done on the first Saturday of Pennsic, starting at 9am, Saturday morning. In recent years that process has been improved but that makes the scheduling a little more complicated. See below for more information.
Both traditionally and today: Single campers were not allowed to come in and look for a spot to camp until Sunday, after landgrab is over. That is still the case. Note that each block is required to set aside space in the block for single campers.
Both traditionally and today: No vehicles are allowed on to site, and no camp set up is allowed, until landgrab is completed for your block. You may park your vehicle and walk down to your block to look at it, negotiate with your fellow land agents, etc, but you may not drive on.
Both traditionally and today: Once the Land Office signs off on your block's paperwork, each camping group is given 5 one-use car passes to drive on to site. These are one-use passes, each pass will be taken from the driver at the gate. There is no exit-and-reenter, you must have a car pass for each time you enter the campground with a vehicle, until after landgrab is over.
Both traditionally and today: The Land Office declared landgrab over and done at some point in the day, often in recent years by around noon on Saturday. After landgrab was over, car passes were no longer required to drive on to site. But if your block is still trying to agree on a block map, camp setup is still not allowed until the Land Office signs off on your block map.
Traditionally: because of the long drives often involved, people started arriving on Friday, and parked and camped on the battlefield until Saturday morning. Friday night was known informally as "zero night". This process was designed to facilitate land agents getting everything sorted out and set up, but SCAdians being SCAdians, things got a little out of hand with people partying on zero night, and ultimately the Pennsic staff started officially discouraging anyone not directly necessary for landgrab from arriving before Saturday afternoon.
In recent years, the Pennsic staff has made significant changes to make this process go more smoothly, get planned out and executed further in advance, and generally make the entire process less stressful and less of a hassle.
One major change is that groups can arrive on Friday and file their block paperwork on Friday. There have even been a few recent Pennsics where Landgrab was declared done on Friday.
It's very important to note that completing landgrab for your block on Friday is optional and depends on all land agents for your block committing to doing so. They are not required to do landgrab on Friday. They may annoy the other camping groups by choosing not to arrive at landgrab until Saturday, but there are no official repercussions for doing so.
Site opens at 9am, Friday morning, July 28, 2023. Nobody is allowed onto Cooper's Lake Campground at all, even to park and wait, until 9am, Friday morning.
Rules for Cars on site, camp setup, car passes, end of landgrab, etc, are as described in the "Tradition!" section, above.
In recent years, as part of the Pennsic staff's attempts to expedite getting landgrab sorted out, they have instituted an "express line" at Troll. The details of this have evolved and not always been clearly laid out, but the general idea is to try to get land agents through Troll as fast as possible, so block maps and landgrab can get sdone as soon as possible.
I believe the current (2023) rules are that before noon on Friday, only land agents and their immediate party are allowed to go through Troll.
"Immediate party" is a term I just made up because it's a little fuzzy. Obviously the intent is to focus on getting the land agents through Troll quickly so landgrab can be completed. Equally obvious, many land agents will be traveling with spouses and/or kids and/or partners and/or assistants, etc.
After noon on Friday, land agents may still request to be forwarded to the head of the line, but should have the rest of their party go through Troll normally.
Only a single party per camping group may make use of the express line at troll. If you designate a proxy via the Land website, the proxy may make use of the express line and you should use the regular line.
There is, as always, some room for discretion and judgement on the part of the Pennsic staff.
Note, from a post on the Pennsic Land Agents facebook group: Celestia Vianello "DM Event Resources here: Land Agents Only (and immediate family that arrive in a single vehicle) is from 9am to Noon. Not all day! This is to ensure we can process Land Agents first without the general population lining up at 9am and then spending three hours in the sun! Yes your children will be processed through with you. The rest of your camp can arrive starting at Noon on Friday and that night (and only that night) Troll is open all night."
EVERY YEAR land agents are are required to carry out both step 1, "confirm your contact info", and step 2, "attest that you have read the current Land Rules" (and make sure that you DO read the CURRENT rules).
You CANNOT set up your camping group at the Pennsic Land web site until you have done
Historically the land people have had problems with land agents with out of date contact info. These steps attempt to reduce that problem. You can't register a group without doing them.
I.e. go to land.pennsicwar.org., log in, click on the button that says that you have read etc...
So read the CURRENT version of the rules and then go click on that button.
This is a relatively new feature so you may not be used to it yet.
It's up to the land agent to make sure everyone in their camp is pre-registered.
To see your preregs
3a) go to land.pennsicwar.org,
3b) login to the site,
3c) select the menu item LAND AGENT MENU,
3d) from the dropdown list select VIEW PREREGS.
Note that the VIEW PREREGS page gives you SCA and mundane names of people who pre-registered for Pennsic at www.cooperslake.com (see below) and selected your camp during the pre-registration process.
The VIEW PREREGS page does NOT give you contact information for campers pre-registered with you. That information is not provided to the land.pennsicwar.org site by Coopers Lake.
If you see a strange name on the VIEW PREREGS page, contact your camp members and see if they can figure out who it is. Try this *before* contacting Land, because Land doesn't have their contact info, as mentioned above. All Land can do is relay a request to Cooper's.
Normally the land agent does THREE things:
4a) Set up the group at land.pennsicwar.org.
4b) Negotiate camp borders with other land agents in your block and show up at Pennsic Landgrab to sign off on the block map.
4c) Remain on-site for the entire duration of Pennsic and act as the point of contact between the Pennsic staff and your camp.
You can arrange for 4b (negotiating and signing off) to be done by somebody else -- that's a proxy.
You can arrange for 4c (on-site point of contact) to be done by somebody else -- that's an on-site rep.
Both proxy and on-site rep are OPTIONAL, you DO NOT have to set them up unless you want to/need to.
Proxies are responsible ONLY for the land grab negotiation process. After land grab their job is done.
On-site reps are responsible ONLY for being on-site (except for short town runs etc). They are NOT able to act as a proxy.
See steps 5 (proxy and on-site rep forms), 6 (showing up in the select list) and 7 (express line at troll).
To arrange for a proxy or on-site rep, you have to do it ahead of time, via land.pennsicwar.org,
5a) click on LAND AGENT MENU
5b) click on GROUP PROFILE
5c) scroll down to the sections for on-site rep and proxy.
5d) use the select dropdown lists to select your on-site rep and proxy (IMPORTANT: See below "6) Proxy and On-Site Rep select list dropdown")
You can select or change the proxy in land.pennsicwar.org up until midnight, July 26. See the land.pennsicwar.org Land Announcements page; login, click on LAND AGENT MENU and select Land Announcments
You can select or change the on-site rep via land.pennsicwar.org AT ANY TIME, including DURING PENNSIC.
This form and dropdown select list are relatively new. I think it was added for the 2019 Pennsic.
The point of these new land.pennsicwar.org forms is to make less work for the land staff so they can spend more time solving problems.
PROXY EMERGENCIES
The above is not to say that if you have a car accident on the way to Pennsic, your camp is out of luck. The land staff will, of course, make exceptions for emergencies. See the Pennsic Land Agent handbook
Section "VI. Arrival at the Pennsic site"
Subsection "4. In case of emergency:"
"a. If you know more than a day in advance that you cannot be on site for Friday of Land Grab (By noon, unless a later time is agreeable to all Land Agents on the block), you should designate an emergency proxy by emailing Land 2 at the Land Office land2@pennsicwar.org.
b. If something has happened en-route, and you have determined that you will not be able to arrive on site by Friday at noon, you should designate an emergency proxy by emailing Land 2 at the Land Office land2@pennsicwar.org and CC all the other Land Agents on your block to keep them in the loop."
As stated above, you can log into land.pennsicwar.org and select a person to serve as either proxy or on-site rep (or both). HOWEVER, and this is an important detail, you select that person or persons by choosing from a dropdown on the land website, and people only show up in that dropdown if they have set up an account for themselves at the land website.
IMPORTANTLY, for you to use somebody as a proxy or onsite rep, they have to do all three of these steps a) set up an account b) click on the checkbox to confirm their contact info, c) click on the checkbox to attest that they have read the land agent rules.
ADDITIONALLY, for somebody to serve as an on-site rep, they have to meet a fourth requirement -- they have to be registered to camp at your camp.
If you don't see your desired proxy or on-site rep in the select list dropdown, yell at them to make an account and complete steps 1 and 2 above.
IMPORTANT: The dropdowns list people by the SCA name they put in when they set up their land.pennsicwar.org account. The list is by alphabetical order. If your desired proxy or on-site rep has included their SCA titles in their SCA name, then they will show up in alphabetical order by their title, i.e. "Baron Joe" will show up in the Bs, not in the Js.
There is an express line at troll to help expedite land agents getting through troll and sorting out land.
NOTE: This is a particularly important and somewhat tricky topic because people tend to want to show up early and the Pennsic staff are trying to balance being reasonable (i.e. land agents can bring their spouse/partner/etc and kids in with them) with not letting the thing turn into a free-for-all.
The land agent express line has taken different forms and the rules have evolved as the Pennsic staff have tried to figure out the best way to do it. As always, remember the BIG CAVEAT: Nothing I say is official.
IMPORTANT: Basically ONE person per group gets to use the land agent express line. If you assign a proxy at all, the proxy gets to use the express line, you don't.
7a) There is ONE slot per camp in the express line.
7b) Either the land agent or the proxy, whoever shows up and goes through the express line first, can use the express line to check in, and then that slot is used up and the other cannot use the express line.
7c) The other person CAN use the normal Troll line, however.
In the most recent Pennsics there was a VERY new process for land map preapproval. I believe it was introduced in 2018 or 2019 and even then was only in early testing, i.e. not available to all blocks.
I don't know if Pennsic is using PMAP this year, but I strongly suspect it won't (everyone has enough problems to deal with and I'm sure that applies to the Land Staff as well).
The Land Announcements Page says "July 5, 2022 9:00am PMAP submission opens" and "July 24, 2022 11:59pm PMAP submission deadline"
I don't know what the exact details of the PMAP process will be this year.
If PMAP IS available, it will require all land agents in the block to
8a) negotiate and agree on a map, and then there will be
8b) some sort of process to notify land and confirm that all land agents agree. In the past this has required a very complicated email reply/forwarding process. I do not know what the process, if any, will be this year.
IMPORTANT: For somebody to serve as a proxy or on-site representative, they MUST sign up for an account at the land site. Otherwise they will not show up in the dropdown for the land agent to be able to select them.
To do this, they -- the prospective proxy or on-site rep -- have to
a) create a username at land.pennswar.org,
b) login to the site and click on the "attest" link on the main page,
c) review their contact info on the attest page, click the "attest" checkbox, and click the "Save" button.
In more detail:
1. Point your web browser at land.pennsicwar.org.
2. Click on "LOGON" in the top, left corner.
3. On the login page, click on the link "create a new username".
4. On the "Create Land System Username" page, fill out the form.
4 a. Note, make sure you send EXACTLY what you put into the "SCA Name" box to the land agent for whom you are going to Proxy or On-Site rep.
4 b. It's probably best to leave off any SCA title in the "SCA Name" box, as that will affect where your name shows up in the dropdown list for selecting a Proxy or On Site Representative. If you DO put your SCA title in, it will show up in the list alphabetized by your title, so make sure you tell your land rep that.
5. After you submit the signup form, YOU'RE NOT DONE YET. The land site will then show you the login form. You have to login and go through the standard contact info confirmation and "attest that you have read the land agent rules" process. This process helps prevent problems when contact information is wrong or gets out of date.
IF YOU DON'T DO THE ATTEST AND CONTACT CONFIRMATION, YOUR NAME WILL NOT SHOW UP IN THE PROXY AND ON SITE REP DROPDOWN LISTS.
Note: EVERY account in the land site has to do this EVERY YEAR, so you'll need to login to the same account and do the same confirmation next year.
6. Once you log in, you'll see an announcement at the top of the page. Scroll down and you'll see:
"You must attest that you have read the current Land Rules. This is reset every time the Land Rules are updated. You will not be able to register a group until you have fixed this."
Click on the link "attest that you have read the current Land Rules."
7. This will take you to a page where you'll be able to review your contact info.
Make sure you check the checkbox at the bottom of the page, labeled "I attest that I have read the rules and agree to abide by them."
Until you check the checkbox and click the "Save" button, your name will not show up in the dropdown list on the page for selecting a Proxy or an On Site Rep.
8. The land agent can find the Proxy and On Site dropdown lists on the Land Agent Menu, "Group Profile" page. They will have to scroll down to see those sections.
Note, unless you set up an actual group, YOU won't be able to see the Proxy and On Site Rep dropdown lists, only users who set up a group, i.e. land agents, can see the "Group Profile" page.