errata...was Re: SC - Site Tokens (was Feast Fees in Ansteorra)

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

oops. replace site fees with site tokens.
I can be so dense sometimes....
thanks,
- --AM

At 06:51 AM 3/14/00 -0800, you wrote:
>hey all from Anne-Marie
>
>Sieggy sez:
>>>     I had thought about using hats (cheap felt
>>> Robin Hood type hats) as feast tokens. (Lidsville!), and would like to
hear
>>> some ideas from others on the subject.
>>>
>The following is my opinion. Only my opinion. I realize that folks do
>things differently in different places, but this is my experience....
>(hows that for a disclaimer! :))
>
>I have a bit of experience autocrating events :). In my experience, site
>tokens are a waste of money and time.
>
>1. they only work if you require that EVERYONE display it prominently. This
>means I am required to wear a robin hood hat with  my Elizabethan, or worse
>yet, pin a bit of ribbon with a modern safety pin to the front of my hard
>research period dress. This also nmeans you need a crowd of people who's
>job it is to stop everyone and check that they have their site token, and
>be willing to throw people out who dont have them visible or handy. What a
>crummy job!
>
>2. a well controlled front gate achieves the same goal...controlling
>entrance, and making sure everyone has paid their site fee. Its a very easy
>thing to sneak into most events, and if the bounders are determined,
>there's nothing you can do to prevent it, short of issuing site tokens and
>having some poor schmuck run around and check everyones "site lint" :).
>
>3. as a society, we pride ourselvs on honor and honesty. I personally
>prefer to rely on thej populace to do the right thing and pay their site
>fee. Again, a well controlled gate, manned with efficient and organized
>people means its easy to come, sign your waiver and pay your money and get
>on with having fun. requiring me to display proof of payment is rather
>insulting to me. I hate this....I have stories about going to the showers
>and being stopped because my Estrella site token wasnt visible. 
>
>4. often site fees cost money. multiply the cost per token and the number
>of expected attendees, plus extras (you dont want to run out), and it
>easily comes to a good percentage of your site budget. Even at a smaller
>event, we're often talking 10-20%. This is the difference between breaking
>even and losing money at many events. At a larger event, it can easily run
>into $1000s of dollars, if the token costs, say, even less than a dollar.
>Surely there's more fun things to spend the money on? how about a brunch
>spread for the populace? decorations? hire a mundane early music consort to
>play for the dancing so you dont hagve to use a boom box? hire a
>dishwashing crew so the kitchen crew can walk away after the feast? you get
>the idea.
>
>5. Site fees cost time and effort. As an autocrate, one has enough to do
>what with all the other little tasks and such. Volunteer manhours are
>better spent manning gate, running money to the bank, printing site
>handouts, putting out directional signs, etc etc etc. I've heard horror
>stories of the autocrate team being up until 3am the night before the event
>putting beads on safety pins, or gluing sparkly bits on a rosette.
>Autocrates who dont get sleep before the event are pretty much guarenteed
>to burn out rather spectacularily later in the day....
>
>Now, I know in some places, site tokens are used as souvenires of the
>event. I have had crowns insist on tokens that show their names and faces
>and the date. My response to that is "great idea...can you have them to us
>the week before?" if someone wants to volunteer the time and money to do
>them, that's fine, but there's no room in my budgets (money or time) to do
>that. 
>
>Now, please realize that this is my experience and my opinion. Im
>notoriously cheap when it comes to throwing events :). so take it for what
>its worth! (ie not much :)) But I've been doing this for a long time
>(autocratting events, from tiny to huge) and I have yet to see the costs of
>site tokens outweigh the benefits.
>
>--AM
>
>I've also seen "site tokens" in the form of embroidered napkins for diners
>who were eating the feast, to indicate who was onboard and who was off. I
>also saw the person who volunteered to do this tear her hair out for weeks
>before the event. I dont know as the benefit (they were very nice napkins,
>and didnt require that I pin/wear/tie anything to myself :)) outweighed the
>cost...a very crispy helpful person and a burned out bernina.
>
>============================================================================
>
>To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
>Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
>
>============================================================================
>