[MR] suggestion for helping daytrip fees

[Kender]

Rebecca, I would like to know where those groups with $5 events are located.
I would guess that the larger SCA populations are in areas with higher
populations - in and around the cities - which means higher costs for sites.
And I can tell you that here in Washington, DC, there are very few places to
camp. Looking up all of the local campgrounds, I see a primitive site at $16
per night, or commercial campgrounds that allow RVs, and tent camping is $43
- $50 per night for two people, with your own tent! And they will not rent
out the site to a group; everyone would have to reserve a spot on their own,
and they probably can't provide a large field for fighting, or a hall for
A&S, or a kitchen for the feast preparation. So the site we use, at $5 per
person for the weekend, is indeed the cheapest we can find. However, that is
on top of the site fee for daytime use, and there are other things to be
figured into the fee, as has been mentioned. The camping fee is added for
campers only, and we try to keep event fees as low as possible.

Also, as Lord Jack Black mentioned, Autocrats must guess how many people to
expect at an event, and then divide the total budget among that many people.
Most baronies can't expect 500 people to attend their event, so the site fee
is divided among, for example, 100 at my barony's smaller event, leaving us
to request a higher event fee for each person. If the event regularly drew
200, we might divide the costs among that expected 200, but remember that to
accommodate 200, other costs than site fee would go up.

To add an even closer comparison than has been mentioned yet, WWII
reenacting events run about $30 (tent) to $50 (barracks) per person for a
weekend (add $10 or $20 for the dinner/dance Saturday evening), and they are
not geared towards 'family fun' at all. And for the gentle who complained
about the cost of an SCA metal symposium - consider how much you would pay
at a non-SCA symposium or day of classes - it would run into the hundreds, I
assure you, as the teachers would ask to be paid their regular teaching
rates. This is the same in the glassworking, woodworking or sewing arts. I'm
grateful to be a part of this Society where I can learn so many things at
such a reduced cost.

To be honest, I use site fees to help me determine if I want to go to an
event. If the event is $5, I assume it's a small local event with no lunch
provided and not a lot of activities planned. I also prefer a wet site,
which is harder to find.

-Lady Kunigunde von Darmstadt
of the Barony of Storvik


Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:30:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Becky McEllistrem <bmcellis at yahoo.com>
To: atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Subject: Re: [MR] suggestion for helping daytrip fees
Message-ID: <361636.54825.qm at web31802.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

I am actually very happy about that for your barony.

However I still don't think that's realistic to the norm when so many groups
clearly can do good events with $5.00 day trips.

Rebecca