[MR] Fall Coronation

[ldmolly at md.metrocast.net]

Good Morning,

I think you cannot entirely discount the economy; to do so would be to overlook a very real fact: people have other things to worry about. 

Many people are struggling to hold onto their jobs & their homes. Many are operating without raises (or regular work) in an economy that continues to be even more challenging. 

Gas prices have increased by about 150% since January of 2010 (starting figures courtesy of Energy Information Administration, but the math is my own, smile)http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_history.html

This means that people have less disposable income to pre-register for events, spend on the gas to get there, eat at the feast, etc. Also, with all of these "real world" concerns, they often don't have the energy or interest in running events, pre-reg'ing for them or in some cases...even attending. 

Now, that does make the job of event stewards almost impossible. How can they plan for an event with any idea of who might show up? Reality is...they can't. Perhaps theonline registration system can be used to allow folks an option to indicate if they plan to attend & pay at the door, but that also opens a group up to planning for a bunch of "no shows" who had good intentions. 

As of right now, folks have no incentive to reserve space for an event because they figure that there's always room for "one more" the day of the event and are counting on being able to participate fully in all aspects of it. However, if you try to go to an upscale restaurant without a reservation, you may be disappointed to find that you cannot participate. In fact, you will probably be turned away hungry and may even be mocked for your lack of planning, smile. 

Until we can make it worth people's effort to pre-register, we will not overcome the natural tendency to be apathetic or forgetful about the need to do so.

Sorry I'm not adding very much towards solving the problem with this post. I'm just not sure HOW to solve it.
Molly

On Sun 05/22/11 1:17 PM , "Carolyn Cox" thefarseeing at bellsouth.net sent:
Unto the Tavern, 

If TRH have no bids for their coronation, what are they expected to do? A shortage of bids for kingdom events has been a persistent problem for years--beginning well before the ecenomy went south. It may well culminate with an Atlantian coronation held in another kingdoom We really need to be figuring out what is wrong, and I assert that the corrent economic woes are, at best, a small part of a big problem.

In service to the dream
Averey
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