[Elfsea] On The Economics of People

Timothy Rayburn timothy at elfsea.net
Tue Oct 8 11:19:29 PDT 2002


TRM has requested thoughts on the way to free up calendar dates.  Several ideas have been thrown around which ignore some basic truths I would like to point out.

It is a truth that on any given weekend there are a finite number people who are willing to travel to an event.  This can be swayed somewhat by the events being held through marketing and advertising, but only a bit in most cases.

Secondly, the dilemma of the Kingdom Calendar is a self created problem.  Limiting events that a group can hold, while mandating that a certain number of events must be held (according to your group type) is trying to manage the economy of people in Ansteorra, and I'm not surprised at all by the trouble we now face.

So let me suggest something completely outside the box.  Change the rules of the Kingdom Calendar to the following :
  1 - No event will be added to the Calendar closer than 6 months out.  Barony's still have a perpetual date, and all other Baronial events must be declared 8 months out.
  2 - Any group can hold any event any weekend.
  3 - Groups already on the calendar can move their event, subject to rule #1.
  4 - There are no limits on the number of events for any group.
  5 - Nothing can compete with Crown Tourney or Coronation.

This system is simply put, fair.  It allows any group who wishes to hold an event on a given weekend.  At 6 months out, that weekend is frozen and you /know/ who you are competing with for the attention of people.

If a small western shire desires to compete with a Central Regional event, they can.  Shires have two addition months from when a Barony's date is frozen to decide if they want to move off of or in to a particular weekend.

The removal of event limits will encourage groups to put on the calendar smaller baronial gatherings which already are affecting attendance but you can't know about them without extensive research.  For instance, if Ravensfort had a work weekend for the Stones scheduled on the same weekend of your event, and Greywood and Bordermarch were doing the same at Jones Country you might not currently know this without reading there email lists, but with this they could let everyone know about these smaller gatherings.  You could plan for 3/5ths of the Coastal Region to be busy with other things and as such unlikely to attend.

Would this require a major change? Yep.

Would this hurt small groups? No, they could compete with whomever THEY chose to.

Would this hurt Barony's?  Possibly, if a MAJOR shire event (3 Kings) was put onto your weekend after you were frozen.  But this is the risk for given some leeway to smaller groups.

Could Elfsea and Steppes, both with there eyes open, choose to compete on the same weekend with different events?  Yep, and the success or failure of each would be determined by the attendance and effort put into the event.

Remember always that people will go where they think they will have fun.  Trying to regulate that via the Kingdom Calendar is a bad idea, and will fail in the end.  It's possible small changes could put off eventual collapse of the structure, but I believe like any regulated market where both supply (events) and demand (people) are not under the control of the regulating agency it is doomed for failure eventually.

Timothy of Glastinbury




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