[MR] Event fees for WOW

[Alan MacNeill]

I might suggest you rethink your philosophy, at least in terms of the
"Major Events" (ie Sapphire, WoW, and any others in that size
category).

I know not how it goes for the folks down Carolina way, but as a
recent past Seneschal for the group that hosts the Other Big event
(the Gem Joust series) on an annual basis, if we only cleared $500 at
the end, we would not be able to continue hosting the event.

Having a "Major" event has a significant amount of overhead associated
with it above and beyond a "regular" event.  Caer Mear, for example,
has to support a portable shower facility, multiple dayshades (and
even with those, others need to be borrowed), a large list field
marking facility, storage to keep all this stuff for a year, rental
trucks to tote it back and forth to the site (volunteers is great, you
got 8 folks with 8 pickups that can reliably show on a Thursday
evening and then again on the following Tuesday?  we never did), and a
whole host of other stuff that the normal "One Day, small field, A&S
competition in the hall, maybe a court" sort of event doesn't have to
worry about.

In addition, a major event requires more than the usual load of
porta-potties, TP, dumpsters, etc, etc, etc.  Not to mention the fact
that sites that can support 750+ people camping tend to be relatively
rare and expensive and demanding of their cash up front.  There's a
reason there were only a handful of bids for Atlantian 30 year, there
aren't that many places in Kingdom that can hold it.

Caer Mear spends over $5,000 *ahead of the event* to put on Sapphire
annually.  All of that money is risked, every time.  If there is a bad
year (think Atlantian 20 year rains), the event might just lose.

Additionally, that infrastructure has to be maintained, even if the
event is not held for some reason...storage lockers don't say "Oh,
Kingdom decided they want Memorial Day weekend for a celebration this
year?  Well...your storage is on us then!" (Admittedly, it did not
happen this time around, but it was a very real concern).  That means
that $2,000 (roughly) is spent, even if the event doesn't happen, just
to make sure the stuff is there for next year.

There is a very real reason that groups that host "the Big Ones" need
to have significant financial reserves, and that they need the event
to "clear" more than a thousand bucks.  It's necessary to make sure
the fun can be had again next year.

Caer Mear is fortunate, they've hosted the Memorial Day weekend event
for 20+ years now, with a relatively reasonable size progression and a
long string of mostly successful events has made it so the bank
balance has that buffer.  The folks behind WoW are just now being
exposed to their event, and it went from 0 to one of (if not the)
largest events in Kingdom.  They now are faced with needing to make
sure they have the capital to handle a failure if it comes.

I can't blame them for raising the fee.  I may or may not attend this
year, but the relatively cheap (on a dollars per day basis) amount
they're charging isn't the reason.

I hope that helps you understand where they're coming from,

In unbiased Service,

Gorm of Berra

On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 3:43 PM, Steve Lackey <edeconde at gmail.com> wrote:

My philosophy is that any event that nets a group more than $500.00 in
"profit" (defined simply as moneys left over after all event related
expenses have been paid) for a group is obscene in todays economy, and
is not providing a service to the membership at large.