[Ansteorra] Acceps for 12th Night

[Jessica Smith]

Eve wrote: 

>All I'm requesting is that the Kingdom calendar be a bit more precise
>in the date information instead of just giving a weekend. I don't feel
>like that is too much to ask.

Beware of passive constructions.  They don't give clear information.  "All I'm asking is that the kingdom calendar be a bit more precise...."

Doesn't sound like a big deal, does it?  Let's look at the work engendered, rather than the result.

The calendar deputy's current job is to prevent conflicts -- to ensure that nearby branches don't accidentally schedule on top of each other, and to guarantee that each required event get scheduled before other events.  That's all.  But you are asking for the conflict-preventing office to become a continuing source of information about detailed event schedules.

Currently, the calendar deputy's job is to reserve weekends for events.  A branch decides when it wants to have an event, and the seneschal sends in a request.  If it's a Permanent Event Date, they don't even do that; the deputy simply schedules it on its PED, two years before the event occurs.  Either way, it's now on the calendar so people know roughly when it will occur, and a nearby branch won't schedule an event on the same date.  For purposes of long-term planning, this takes place often a year or more before an event steward is chosen, a site is located, or we even know if it's possible to have a three-day event.  The calendar deputy takes one action per event.  He/she is not involved in event announcements, planning, or anything else; his/her job is merely preventing scheduling conflicts.

Your request is to turn the conflict officer into part of the information crew for every single event.  Under your proposal, either we have to rent sites and plan out our entire events two years in advance, or every change in the event has to be communicated to the calendar deputy.  So when we get a site and know if we can camp, we have to re-submit to the calendar deputy.  The event stewards, already with plenty of work, need to run their schedule by another kingdom officer if there's a change.

Meanwhile, the calendar deputy would now be responsible for knowing the detailed schedule, which is virtually never known when the bid is submitted.  And since many event stewards are late with info, the calendar deputy would be expected to find out who the event steward(s) for every event is/are, and contact them for updates.

The job's requirements would triple -- at least.  Each event steward in the kingdom would now be expected to contact the calendar deputy with each change of possible site, and with each local suggestion of a Friday night tourney or Sunday morning meeting.

And why?  So that you can use the weekend-reserving calendar to find detailed event information instead of the event schedule.

It's a tempting idea "that the kingdom calendar be a bit more precise."  But it's a lot more work, and it would fail.

I agree that it would be nice to have detailed schedules earlier than we get them now.  But if that's what you want, you should ask the local branch to get the detailed website up earlier, rather than a kingdom deputy who is not on the event staff.

If you want their to be a kingdom officer in charge of tracking the exact dates for every event, then don't ask some other office with other duties to do it; invent a new office and submit to the kingdom that you want to do this.  If you succeed in making it work, and people become dependent on it, then the office will continue. 

I hope it doesn't happen.  I think this kingdom has too much bureaucracy already.  But what I want won't matter if you're willing to do the work to get it started, and others decide they want to do the work to keep it going.   But the crucial fact is this -- if you want new work done, *you* must be the first one to do it.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin

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