[MR] Permanent Crown locations....

[Bruce Glassford]

I trust you good gentles will excuse the intrusion of someone who has
neither autocratted nor otherwise managed a society event (yet), but,
I seem to see a series of issues that have been mentioned in this
discussion that are well addressed by the original proposal, but could
equally well be addressed by simply planning the event much further
out without causing the other issues mentioned by those of us in the
far reaches of our long skinny kingdom (among other locations)?

The issue seems to be finding a suitable site on short notice - the 6
months between reigns is very short for putting together an event,
even assuming an immediate acceptance of proposal for the bid.

Would not the majority of the problem also be solved by planning the
event 12-18 months in advance, with the current crown agreeing to the
one two or three reigns out ? It was mentioned early on that one of
the perks of being crown was to select the location, and that that
would be lost by a permanent site - and many of the statements about
the problems focus on items that would be easily cured by merely
setting the plans far enough out.  In several other uses of my time,
there are large conclaves that meet annually - and rotate around the
kingdoms relevant to that conclave (some massive entity called the
United States... ).   In those organizations, the bids are sent in
three years in advance to host the conclaves (occasionally even
further in advance), and the site selections are made two years in
advance (at least).    That provides time to get facilities suitable
for hosting, and allows the advance time to plan the logistics.  I
know right now where the conclaves for two of these will be held for
the next three years, and the crews running them have known and have
been planning for each. (And attendees can plan on whether to attend
or not).

By having advanced bids, groups can prepare with sufficient time to
obtain sites suitable for the event, and the groups in the further
flung areas can certainly retain the hope of actually hosting one of
these key events.    Being turned down for bids two years out also
tends to cause less of a resentment than putting all the work in to
prep a bid on short timing, only to be declined because "it's too far
away".   Centralized events are a nice thought, but as Magister Eadric
pointed out so well, even central is too far for many of us to be
willing/able to attend.  For myself, a day of travel time each way is
prohibitive most of the time - although there are occasional events I
have attended a days drive away, my mundane taskmasters allow me
little respite from my labours, so it is indeed a rarity that I can
attend items outside my local ambit. (And, alas, far too few of even
those).


... humbly...

... Bruce