[MR] The importance of pre-reg

[Alan MacNeill]

Your points are valid in the planning portions of the event, but the
thing is that, with few exceptions, adjustments can be made as little
as a week in advance if the pre-registrations are far off the mark.

If you discover you have 100 fighters pre-registered when you planned
on 20, you can try to adjust the field size larger and maybe consider
more melee scenarios/pool knockout formats over the round robin style
your MiC was planning

If you discover you have 50 pre-registrees rather than the 200 you
planned on, you can (at least around here) call the Portapotty folks
and get them to deliver fewer.  If you discover you have 300
pre-registrees, you can call the portapotty folks and possibly get an
extra or two added on.

If your head cook has planned for 100, but only 20 have pre-registered
a week out, they can buy less food and cook for 30.  If you discover
you have a feast waiting list of 50, the cook can (facilities
permitting) try to cook for 150, or the group can figure out a way to
create an below the salt meal, or alternative arrangements can be made
(maps to local restaurants, etc).

None of these adjustments are pleasant, but they are all possible, if
you have adequate pre-reservations.  If the attitude of "Meh, I'll
just show up if it's a nice day" is prevalent, then none of these
adjustments are possible.

It's not just people shortages that are an issue.  Too many folks can
be a problem as well.  There was an incident locally several years ago
where a site scoped for 200 or so ended up having over 400 show up,
and the local site administration had a coniption fit.  Hard
attendance caps and "I'm sorry, we're full, you can't come" limits can
eliminate this, but at the cost of turning away someone who has driven
hundreds of miles.

As for the "we wouldn't risk half our bank account", it was a special
circumstance.  Our bank account was around $1k, mostly gained through
holding small expense limited scope events, and we needed to step it
up a notch.  Sites that could support our event plan were in the $600+
range, so by the time you added the other miscellaneous expenses (all
of which were pruned to their absolute bare minimum), we had all of
the bank account at risk.  Admittedly, the Barony gave us a "We'll
help if disaster strikes" assurance, but that was a favor we didn't
want to turn in.  And so, once we had pre-registrations arriving, our
tension levels decreased dramatically.  We were also able to expand
our feast by 20%, the Marshal was able to spend some time (and money)
on more interesting scenario design, and the autocrat was able to
sleep the night before.

It's a good thing, really :)

On 10/27/06, Siegfried <crossbow at freeshell.org> wrote:
> Gorm, an excellent reply, but there seems to be some issues with your
> logic, at least given how every event I have been involved with (extreme
> northern atlantia & AEthelmearc (way back when)) are run
>
> > Perhaps my experience as an autocrat is unusual (although I doubt it), but...
>
> Well, it may be, or we may be running into local differences:
>
> > 1.  By not having an adequate estimate of how many fighters will show
> > up, the MiC of the event does not know if it's worth their time to
> > devise Melee scenarios, if their planned field is too large (or too
> > small), or even if they have enough Marshallate support for their
> > event.
>
> Unless you are going to require pre-registrations to happen with a
> cut-off 2 months before the event ... then pre-regs don't help you here.
>
> Scenarios are planned at LEAST 2 months in advance, and if structures
> need built, hay bales need ordered, etc, those also have to happen at
> least 2 months (if not earlier) in advance.
>
> > 2.  By not having an adequate estimate of how many people in general
> > will show up, the Autocrat doesn't know how many people are necessary
> > to support for essential site services such as changing areas, hall
> > seating (not just for feast,for A&S, Court, or just socializing),
> > bathroom facilities, site tokens, and 100 other "little touches" that
> > make an event more than just "Meh, it was another event".
>
> Unless this is a 'first time ever' event for a group, groups typically
> have a decent idea of how many people are going to show up anyway.  At
> least in Northern Atlantia, pretty much every weekend at this point on
> the calendar has 'traditional events'.  Highland Foorde for example has
> hosted 2-4 traditional-ish events, and we know based upon the event the
> bare minimum that will show.
>
> We plan budgets to break even if the bare minimum shows up, if more do,
> GREAT!
>
> > Porta-potties need to be pre-reserved and generally pre-paid, and at
> > $75 (or more) each, they're sometimes the 2nd largest expense in an
> > event budget.  Having too few leads to...unpleasant times...having too
> > many leads to the event losing hundreds of dollars, so that money
> > isn't available to host the next event.
>
> And again, porta-potties in my experience need reserved months before
> the event, so again, unless you require reservations THAT early.
>
> > 3.  The Cooks of an event risk either woefully undersizing their feast
> > or woefully overbuying for it and crushing the budget.
>
> Again, usually feast size is set when the event announcement goes into
> the Acorn.  It's based upon previous events, and sized at a maximum that
> is reasonable to actually fill up, or at least hit 75%, no matter what.
>
> Then much food is bought, pre-prep on food is done that is needed, but
> alot of stuff can be returned, if day-of it turns out that a number of
> people didn't show up.  But if budgetted at 75% 'minimum' anyway, that's
> usually not a big problem.
>
> > 4.  The local Baronage and Kingdom Royals (if it's a Progress event)
> > have no way to know if someone who they wish to give an award to may
> > or may not be there, which leads to "quick and dirty" award giving
> > rather than having scrolls prepared, knowing who will provide the
> > Order Medallion, etc.
>
> I've never known pre-registration sheets to be checked for Barony/Royals
> to actually decide who was getting an award.
>
> Instead, again, those things are planned well in advance (or always last
> minute) ... and are arranged privately with friends, or via the 'Events
> person will be at' when using the online award recommendation thing.
>
> > When I proposed the first Siege of the Black Tower to Rivers Point,
> > our Senechal and Exchequer were rightly very, very scared that I was
> > risking the group's entire checking account on an untried concept.
>
> I will add, I've never been in that situation, every group I have been
> in, from checking accounts of $5000 to $500, has never taken on an event
> that would risk more than 1/2 of it's bank account.  And even then, you
> aren't going to lose ALL the money in worst case.   So there is always
> room to have more events later to build the coffers more.
>
> I wouldn't ever, IMO, in any group I'm involved with, want to see us
> undertake an event we weren't financially prepared for.  I'd want to see
> us do smaller events, building up to the big ones.
>
> So, just pointing out some differences.
>
> Siegfried
>