[Ansteorra] Event Calendar

Mon Jan 3 05:27:42 PST 2011

With all due respect, this is being over worked....

Too much work?

All she asked was for it to be more precise.....as in one day or two or three.....  Really, is it that much more work to put Candlemas, Crown, a&s on the calendar as ONE day events instead of as a THREE day event?  Unless there actually is camping and other activities go on..they are only Saturday events....1 day.

And, as far as putting ALL the event info on the calendar, that IS a bit excessive and out of the scope of the deputies job.....however the pleas for information are often made on the list mere days before an event,  and when event websites ARE up the information is often sketchy, at best.

I do not think this is a plea for the calendar deputy to do more work, but rather a plea for event stewards to be more aware that quite a few people need the event information to be on a website as soon as possible,to be accurate and as detailed as possible so that planning may happen.  
(Shameless event plug:  look for Elfsea's April event site to be up shortly...see you there)

AND that these websites are linked to the calendar....which I have found more than a couple NOT linked...hunting for sites is not fun...the link should be easy to put on the calendar.

We need to remember, not everyone is long time player, maybe they haven't been living in Ansteorra since it's birth,they do not know the traditions, or that "it is ALWAYS a swiss five", or that Crown is ALWAYS only one day....etc.  More, and accurate, information is always a benefit.

Elspeth

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

----- Reply message -----
From: "Jay Rudin" <rudin at peoplepc.com>
Date: Mon, Jan 3, 2011 6:32 am
Subject: [Ansteorra] Event Calendar
To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA,Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>

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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