[Ansteorra] Getting ready for Gulf War

[Zach Most]

On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 6:32 AM, Jay Rudin <rudin at peoplepc.com> wrote:
> 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.
<snip>
> 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.

As far as I can tell, the calendar deputy makes at least 2 entries per
event, or someone does. After all, someone is adding the link to the
event website and clearly that information is not known 2 years out at
the time of booking the weekend. Someone is also putting in the exact
mundane town at some point (at least for some events), which as you've
stated cannot be known for sure until the site is booked. How much
more work is it really to also update the exact date of the event at
that time?

> 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.

<snip>
> 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.

Robin, I know it's never popular to say "but in X kingdom this is the
way it's done and it works fine", so I went and looked at _every_
other kingdom in the SCA to see what the trend was. Calontir also
records their calendar the same way we do (including listing wars as
weekend only things). Meridies has all their events (except the wars)
listed as single day events, if this is the case then it is accurate,
if it is not then it is a variation on our method but I can't say
which it is for sure. Out of 19 kingdoms, only 2 or 3, including us,
are doing it this way. If 16 other kingdoms are doing it the other way
how difficult can it be? Why are you so sure that it will fail? Is
there something about this kingdom that I, as a relative newcomer, am
unaware of that makes us that different?

With the increase in membership prices and the down-turn in the
economy I suspect many of us are going to have to make the difficult
decision to let our memberships lapse, and probably to attend fewer
events. It would be nice if the internet could provide these people
with the information they need to continue playing with us until their
finances improve and they can purchase a membership again.

~Eve