[Steppes] Event Changes - verbose

[lizdenpeters at juno.com]

Good Gentles,

I have been thinking long and hard since Business Meeting.  I can
certainly understand why the Crown would like to clear the calendar
somewhat.  There are only 52 weekends per year including the weekends for
the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays.  If you delete those
weekends as available for events, that leaves 49 weekends per year.  In
Ansteorra, we have 13 Baronies and 27 Cantons and Shires.  It was
mentioned at the meeting that the Crown would like for each Barony to
have two calendar events and each Canton to have one.  If you do the
math, it calculates out to 53 events per year on the Kingdom Calendar.
Please note that this does not include Kingdom events.  However, having
four events on one weekend certainly dilutes attendance for all of them.
All of the Baronies, including Steppes, are going to have to make some
hard choices on this issue.

Currently in Steppes, we have three Kingdom Calendar events:  Steppes
Warlord, Steppes Artisan and 12th Night.  Fall Court is not a Kingdom
Calendar event.

Since Steppes Warlord is a large, fun, event held on a holiday weekend
and generates good revenue for the Barony, I believe that it needs to
stay on the calendar.  Due to logistics, I personally do not believe it
is feasible to combine Steppes Artisan with this event for the following
reasons:  1) manpower involved (it takes the cooperation and
participation of the entire Barony to power this event as is);  2) focus
(at this event, the focus is on the art of war and I believe it will be
difficult to re-define the focus to the public);  3) participation (many
of our artisans provide the services we need at this event and this would
cause them to have some uncomfortable choices to make); and, 4) the
number of activities at this event (if you looked at the schedule for
this year’s event, this doesn’t need further explanation).

This leaves Steppes 12th Night and Steppes Artisan – no easy choices
here, either.  My personal choice to leave on the calendar is Steppes
Artisan.  That way, this event could be expanded to a weekend, camping
event.  The Artisan competition could be held on Saturday as it always
has been and a mini-college of classes could be held on Sunday.  Please
note that this is my personal preference and it is for personal reasons.
Typically, artisan events are more low-key than fighting events – I find
all that frenetic energy floating around exhausting at fighting events.
Also, I enjoy the slower pace of the event.  I love to wander around and
see what the artisans have been doing, how they have set up their
displays, etc.  I love having a feast!  Like many people, I do not have a
lot of time or energy to devote to research and preparation of period
food; however, I appreciate the opportunity to taste examples and I am
grateful to the people who do the research and preparation of these
meals.  I also enjoy classes on the various aspects of medieval life.
With these classes, there are opportunities to learn new skills,
experiment with various tools, techniques and materials, and, through
these develop new interests, hone old skills and develop new skills.  The
first SCA event I attended was Steppes Artisan about four years ago.  I
was such a newbie that I didn’t know enough to wear period garb!  I came
in jeans and a T-shirt!  Everyone I spoke with was unfailingly gracious
and answered my numerous (and probably idiotic) questions with great
generosity of their time and knowledge.  I was hooked!  However, I also
understand that this event does not generate the revenue that Warlord and
12th Night do.

I also love 12th Night.  It is a superb way to end the holiday season.
It is wonderful to see everyone in their finest attire, sample a great
feast, have some good entertainment and a place where there are not a lot
of activities scheduled so I can converse with people I don’t have an
opportunity to in the general course of things.  The option of combining
this event with Steppes Artisan is viable; however, my feeling is that if
our Barony decides to do this, we will have to find another venue for
this event.  I am very uncomfortable with the idea of having all the
artisans outside the Sokol Hall in tents.  It is the middle of winter!
To find a location that would provide a large hall (to hold approximately
800 people), a good kitchen and a viable area for artisan displays is
going to be a lengthy process.  The optimum location would also allow our
brewers, vintners and cordial makers to show their skills as well.  Any
site fulfilling these criteria is going to be considerably more expensive
than the Sokol Hall.  However, a budget rationale might be to combine the
costs for these two events for, say the past five years, average it out,
and see if we can come up with a locale and budget that is within those
parameters.  This would probably be the best of both worlds, if we can
find an adequate site.  However, it will take the combined efforts of
everyone to pull this option off.  If this is not possible, I would like
to see Artisan and Warlord remain as our two calendar events.

YIS,

Lady Fionnuala the Fey (Nuala)