[MR] suggestion for helping daytrip fees

[Maymunah al Siqilliyah]

I just paid $20 a night, including taxes and handling fees to tent camp 
in a NC state park.  My local state park (Pocahontas) charges $5 a car 
for parking on the weekends.


On 6/22/2010 10:17 AM, Kender wrote:
> 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
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