[MR] The importance of pre-reg

[Baron Llwyd]

Long ago, I lived in that Kingdom.

The West has three Crowns per year. The Central West (Northern
California) is entirely made up of two Principalities which each have
two Coronet tournies and two Principality investitures a year. That's
ten locked off weekends every year (six more than for the
corresponding Atlantian events). Add in other major traditional events
and there was no room at all for small limited focus, relaxing, local
events. Things got done the same way, by largely the same people, year
after year.

I very much enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of the smaller local events.
I still have lots of fun with 5-10 fighters per list. I have time to
learn everyone's names and have time to both learn and teach. I can
spend some time just chatting with folks. Larger events tend to be
more rushed. I still enjoy advancing deep into a 50 person list, but
with the crowd it tends to become a more mechanical process of
watching opponent #4, selecting a set of maneuvers, executing them,
then waiting for opponent #5 to appear.

Others have hit on the merits of small events to try new ideas, to
train new staff of all kinds (cooks, autocrats, MoLs, marshals, etc.)

I love that any week of the year there is at least one event within
(arguably) driving distance.  Having choices is mostly a good thing
and I've seen how stagnant the opposite way can be. Of course, from
time to time conflicts can be annoying; I hated missing WoW to help
run a long standing local demo.

Llwyd
Tir-y-Don

On 10/27/06, Alan MacNeill <gormofberra at gmail.com> wrote:
> In theory I would (gasp) agree with you, Logan.  Fewer events would
> mean more quality of events.
>
> However, consider...
>
> There are 52 calendar weekends in a given year.
>
> Of these, at least 3 are basically unusable due to Major Holiday
> (Xmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter.  Others are bad as well)
>
> Kingdom has the first weekend of every month reserved for Kingdom
> events, subtracting 12 weekends available.
>
> Pennsic occupies three full weekends, not to mention the weekend
> thereof or thereafter when most SCA folks are in Prep or Recovery.
>
> By my math, that leaves 32 available scheduling weekends in the year.
>
> According to http://www.atlantia.sca.org/groups.php, we have 50 groups
> in this Kingdom.
>
> Which 18 don't get to host events?  Keep in mind that for the majority
> of groups, event hosting is the only way they can generate any income
> at all to cover expenses for the group.
>
> Add in that Baronies are expected to have more than one event a year
> (if only so that junior spaceranger autocrats can gain experience
> before tackling "the big one"), and that not every group has access to
> a site that can support The Full Featured Event...and whatcha gonna
> do?
>
> On 10/27/06, Logan <logan at ebonwoulfe.com> wrote:
> > i honestly think most of the issues brought up would pretty much go away if
> > we had fewer events with more offered.  any given weekend there are a half
> > dozen events on the calendar and, to be honest, most of them sound boring.
> > bang for the buck goes a long way in getting people excited about attending
> > an event.  autocrats need to do some pr work and get people excited about
> > events.  but, instead, we have cookie cutter event after cookie cutter
> > event.  events should be a service to those that attend.  autocrats need to
> > concentrate more on playing host than playing boss.  at least, that's my
> > thought on it.
> >
> > regards
> > logan
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