June Faire Roundtable - Part II

[arontius]

.....We had another interesting June Faire Roundtable Discussion last night. I changed the format a little based on the first discussion. I started earlier, at 6PM, and designated the whole 'experience' be limited to an hour to an hour and a half. I think that the strategy worked for the most part. The only problem I felt was that I had really wanted to just briefly discuss the three potential June Faire sites and then turn the meeting over to the June Faire Board Chairwoman, Angharad. But things just didn't work out that way. Angharad didn't seem upset about it, so I'll not worry about it to the best of my ability.

.....Dragon's Laire is a pretty resilient lot in reality. It's only been three and a half months since the June Faire on the Uplands, and everyone is already pretty passionate about the next one. This is a good thing. There was a little part of my mind that was a little worried that we would have to rebuild some momentum in the minds of the populace towards holding the event. A useless worry on my part.

.....Pretty good turn out as well. Not quite as many as the first discussion, but I counted at least fifteen people. If I hadn't scheduled the discussion so closed to KBC we might have had an even larger turn out.

.....The entire meeting revolved around the three potential sites. How they would work and not work, and various ideas on how best to set them up. As in the first meeting, a LOT of good ideas came out of the discussion.

.....The first site was Port Gamble. We went through what was being offered by the town: the hilltop, the ridge across the street, most of the bowl (excluding the area where we used to hold the food merchants), the wedding pavilion and surrounding territory (minus the new wedding 'building' being constructed behind the storage shed), the lower hill (with a little more territory marked 'off limits' closer to the Bed-And-Breakfast). The lower parking area (mill site) will be off-limits, so we would need the Uplands for parking (keeping in mind that part of it will be turned into a soccer field and off-limits to parking). Port Gamble wants $4,500 for the weekend for this package.

.....The second site discussed was the Fairgrounds. The Kitsap County Parks and Recreation Department wants us to move our dates to May 29th, 30th, and 31st for 2009, as our traditional weekend conflicts with 'Kid's Day' at the Fairgrounds. But they have not finalized are application as they are still trying to figure out what exactly to charge us. The application I turned in to the Department has us utilizing all the main grounds of the site, the lower horse arenas, the parking on the lower rocky area, the soccer fields and use of either the Sheep Barn OR the Cat Barn. When they come back to me with a price it was requested that I ask about using President's Hall and / or Thunderbird Stadium.

.....The third site discussed was tribal owned land off of Hwy. 305 just outside Poulsbo. The Site Coordinators, Master Andras and THL Elisabeth Trostin, walked the site along with Angharad. They were convinced that the site is just too hilly, with not enough flat areas, to be adequate for use as a June Faire site. I personally disagree with that assessment, but they also brought up what I thought was a very good point. That being that once again, for the second year in a row, we'd be working with an unknown quantity, something that will require a great deal of work to make useable, and do we REALLY want to do that the year after the fun we had with the Uplands? I really had to concede to that point.

.....By the time we ended the discussions at 7:30, the consensus was that we wanted June Faire to move to the Fairgrounds. It is a known quantity. It is VERY centrally located. Relatively flat, with established roads. It has Silver Spurs in which to expand if needed. Plus lots of potential to do a lot of things, including equestrian (although Tsuruko has not yet bought into that). I would have to agree with the group.

.....I've asked Talia to keep working with the Tribe. I would still like to use the Poulsbo site for a Crown event, or maybe one of the wars of which we keep speaking of doing. It is a beautiful place with lots of potential (and great views of Mount Ranier).

.....More to follow.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Comments

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

When did the policy on the soccer fields change?

[elisabeth672.livejournal.com]

Thank you ever much... but no need to promote me. (Teasing) Unlike the rest of y'all, I just have my AOA and I'm still not even sure what to do with it.