[ANSTHRLD] KWHSS 2009

[kobrien at texas.net]

Quoting Alden Drake <alden_drake at sbcglobal.net>:

> Considering this year's KWHSS is the first weekend of September, I don't 
> think the last two weeks of August would be too late.

There were several thoughts behind that date for this particular year that 
I've heard about:


1) the school is off in London then (different schedule), so we could get 
dorm rooms for reasonable rates (critical in London!)

2) having it so late would lose no less people than having it in Drachenwald 
would

3) the date suits the school systems for at least part of Drachenwald better


Note that the pool of attendees for a central-US KWHS will be different and 
will be impacted more by collision with US school schedules.

Having said that, I don't know what the college schedules are right now.  So 
I can't tell if they would impact with the late August dates.  Additionally, 
a number of the attendees have children.  And many make KWHS into a mini-
family vacation.  So, if we collide against grade school schedules, we may 
lose people there as well.


> As far as 30th year goes.  Baroness Druinne can probably provide more 
> detailed commentary on it, but while I think the site is in Canton, she 
> and Sir Morgan (I believe) are actively drawing from all the kingdom 
> branches to staff up the event, so as to not put all the workload on 
> Steppes/Elfsea.

Great idea!  However, consider though, that, depending on the venue for KWHS, 
the workload is totally different.  Hillary can address it better, having run 
one, but my understanding is that lots of work go in ahead of time by a few 
people (autocrat, class coordinator, proceedings coordinator), but very 
little by other folks until the event.  Even then, the type of work at KWHS 
is fairly different than running an event like Crown.

Here's some of the "general tasks" that I've seen folks perform at previous 
KWHSes:

- gate
- gopher (copies, run general errands, etc.)
- airport runs (if not at a hotel with a shuttle service)
- coordinate "outings" to local sites/exhibits - mainly on Friday; some on 
Sunday
- setup/run/cleanup for Friday evening meet & greet
- run a room where folks can meet and visit if there isn't a class that time 
period that they are interested in
- merchant coordination

Dinner on Saturday is nearly always catered or at a restaurant; so no feast 
work.  (Yippie!)

If the event is held at a hotel, the prices can be higher than if it's at a 
college, but lots of other things become easier:

- potential hotel shuttle
- dinner catered on Saturday or at a restaurant
- may be able to get hotel shuttle to local locations
- meet & greet on Friday: setup, cleanup, etc. mostly or all covered by hotel 
services
- "visit" suite (which isn't at all KWHSes) in hotel space (so some setup, 
cleanup, etc. covered by hotel staff)
- merchant room in hotel space (so setup, cleanup covered by hotel staff)

So, the amount of staff needed to make a KWHS run during the actual event can 
be lower or higher, depending on the venue selected.

 
> I'd be happy to have the event anywhere in Ansteorra, but I think the 
> DFW area would be the most likely spot to get as many of the kingdom's 
> heralds and scribes behind it; the rest of the country would probably 
> see it as a more central location from their perspective as well (at 
> least compared to Houston).

DFW area would definitely be better for folks driving within Ansteorra.  
However, my bet is that either DFW or Houston would be okay for attendees who 
are flying as both are airline hubs.

I know a good number of folks drove down from Calontir and in from Meridies 
when Y2KWHS was in Houston.  But gas prices were cheaper then.

Given how expensive hotels near the DFW airport have become lately, it may 
actually be cheaper for attendees if it were in Austin or the Oklahoma City 
areas.  Northern region would also be more likely to draw Calontir 
attendees.  But, honestly, it may be more helpful to the CoA to get Meridies 
& Gleann Abhann folks in.  

Hmmmm... Gotta think about this...

Mari