[MR] On Event fees (and Metalsmith in particular)

[Gustav von Silberwald]

Rebecca,

As most autocrats in the last 5 years can tell you, the cost of sites has shot way up. An example is the Sapphire site, Tom Scott Park, I believe tripled in price this year. Now it is a cheap site, but not nearly as cheap as before. The cost of insurance and improvements is a big driver for sites implementing increases. Because the site is the largest percentage of an event cost, the event fees are going up. Even with unimproved sites, there are requirements for water, portapots, parking, etc... that have increased in cost in the last few years.

As the SCA ages, I found people have changed what they expect in event sites. That is also driving the cost up. 1) Distance. Given traffic in the north and the sheer distance to events from the south, the majority of people want to keep their drive as short as possible. So you need to find sites are considered reasonable driving distance to maximize your attendance. Sites like these are in more demand so it cost more money. 2) The increase in family participation in the SCA has led people to want better facilities, bathrooms and running water for example. As a father of a 5 year old, it is much easier for me when I have my child if the facilities are better. Again, better facilities cost more money. So you can reasonably say our location and quality requirements are driving costs.

To all:
To ensure (hopefully) the event breakeven, I have based the event fee on a minimum amount of people who may attend. The attendance level is based on the average number of people who have attended this event in the last few years. This is how you have to base your fees to cover costs. It seems like $20 is a lot of money, but we are getting a lot of what we need to accommodate both the teachers and students at the lowest cost possible for the group not to lose money. We  are aware that some people on tight budgets may not be able to afford this event. As an autocrat, one of the hardest things is trying to keep the balance between reasonable cost for an event with affordability so the maximum number of people can afford to attend without the group seriously risking losing money. 

Gustav



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