[MR] Event listing, making plans, etc.

[Michael Houghton]

Howdy!

On Thu, Feb 13, 2003 at 04:03:03PM -0600, Brown, Tracey wrote:
> The process for registering and listing events is ever changing and
> (I hope) improving.  To give you an example...  a year ago if you
> wanted to have your event listed on the Kingdom calendar you had to
> send in a hard copy Event Registration Form complete with signatures of
> the autocrat, group Seneschal and MiC and MoL (if you planned on having
> fighting).  Now if you want your event on the calendar you can go to
> SPIKE and fill out your event's information and I get it right away.
> The hard copy with signatures still needs to be mailed in but I will
> generally list an event (if it's more than a month away) without having
> the signatures.  My process is to send the Webminister a copy of the
> updated event calendar and 2 months of flyers as soon as I send the
> hard copy of The Acorn to my printer.  The way things are set up now
> there is a large human reliance, thus the website getting updated is
> contingent on me remembering to send the files, the email not getting
> lost in cyberspace, the webminister having time as

Thank you for that look inside the process.

If event planners could get meaningful event information to appear on
the kingdom web site (a single, central location) well in advance of
an event, I think we will see an increase in the early publication of that
information. It is not rare to see event flyers three and four months
ahead of time, but they are hard to find if you don't happen to snag
it when it appears.

With the current publication schedule, there is less incentive to get
the information out in a more timely fashion. I think that, were there
to be less obstacles in the information flow, event planners will learn
to get the word out sooner about their event.

If I have to hunt down event information at local group web sites, or
by trying to email someone (who might not even be the right person),
I'm less likely to do so. That tendency is strengthened when I can find
information about events elsewhere without that hassle.

For events that have limitations (in my case, on merchant space) that
require prompt action to get past, waiting for the information to come
out in the Acorn may be too late. That, in turn, places an unfair
premium on having inside information, or knowing someone.

I do hope that the revisions and automation being considered will work
to ease this problem. Just making it less work to get the information
up on the web site is a start. However, the policy the bars the timely
publication on the web site is a disincentive to putting that information
together as promptly as one might like. After all, why should I bother
sending event flyer information to the Chronicler six months ahead of
time when it won't see the light of day there for several months.
Printing up paper flyers to put out at other events involves making
a committment of sorts to specifics that may not be all sorted out.

yours,
Herveus
--
Michael and MJ Houghton   | Herveus d'Ormonde and Megan O'Donnelly
herveus at radix.net         | White Wolf and the Phoenix
Bowie, MD, USA            | Tablet and Inkle bands, and other stuff
                          | http://www.radix.net/~herveus/