Too many events

[mikekn]

The calendar is getting crowded again.  We've got too many really active groups in the region, which is normally a good thing. 

If we count all the cantons, we've got 26 groups in the region.  If they each have two events a year, then we could fill every weekend of the year - of course some holiday weekends won't be used usually, and very little happens during in August because of Pennsic...  Unfortunately (for scheduling) most of these groups have more then two events.  For example we have four that make it onto the EK calendar. 

So now we get things like this September, where three neighboring groups (Hartshorn-dale, Bhakail, Iron Bog) are each trying to have fighting, fencing, A&S, dancing events on the same weekend *sigh*.  In this case, two of them are demo/events being held in conjunction with non-SCA sponsored events, so we had no control over the date.  Still, all three will suffer because of the overlap.

Comments

[mikekn]

Ok - wasn't done with that first comment (deleted). (Dang fingers...)

Yeah, unfortunately the Kingdom calendar only gets the events after everything is in place for the event. We used to have a planning calendar where folks could add stuff without having a partial announcement ready.

Hartshorn-dale is having a demo/event at the Green Lane Scottish/Irish festival that weekend. Big event (over 80,000 attendees last year) and the park gives us a lot of space to spread out a play.

In theory, the seneschals of the various groups should be working together when trying to see if dates are clear or not, but I don't think much of that happens. (Can't tell, since I'm not a seneschal and can't get onto their lists)

[metageek.livejournal.com]

When I started in Atlantia, in 1993, the rule was that no two events could be on the calendar on the same weekend if they were under 150 miles apart, unless the autocrat of the first event listed gave permission. Oh, and Kingdom events had first claim on the first weekend of every month. Oh, and you couldn't schedule an event more than a year in advance, I think it was. The result, naturally, was a scramble to get on the calendar as soon as it opened up for the month you wanted.

I don't know if this is still the case; they might have come up with a less stressful approach.

[mikekn]

I don't like the race to get on the calendar very much. Do you remember if they had to have a full announcement or could you just claim a date and fill in details later?

Looking at their current on-line form, one field is "Conflict Status Desired" and either "other groups may conflict", or "other groups may not conflict within 100 miles" (looks like they lowered the range). It also looks like getting on the calendar is a separate task from getting an announcement in.

[metageek.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure; I think you had to have, if not a full announcement, then at least enough detail to make it hard to claim a date if you didn't have all your ducks in a row to hold the event. You probably had to have the site, for example.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

And then there was the West, which for a while allowed conflict fairly geographically close, if the "subject" of the event was different. So you could host an arts event conflicting with a fighting event, because of course those are different groups of people who are interested! Yuck. I'm fairly sure that got changed.

[mikekn]

I'm not sure it was any worse then the free for all we've currently got...

[jducoeur]

Ick; I really don't like the official calendar-based restrictive approach. It's a very poor substitute for actual inter-group communication...

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was a pain. Atlantia tends to be heavy on process--for example, every barony has to hold elections every two years (and you can't get more than two terms in a row). More Eastern Rite than the East.