Team Haggis Rides Again. :-)

.....Last night, Team Haggis III met for the first time as a group to talk about planning for September Crown 2012. After a long week of work all I wanted to do about 5PM was relax, have a little dinner, and decompress from the week. But I worked at putting on my Big Boy Underoos and got myself ready to head off to Round Table Pizza to meet.

.....My main goals for the night were essentially to just get started talking amongst ourselves. A mini sort of 'Team Building' exercise. Put faces to names and get used to the idea of talking to individuals in charge of various aspects of the event when questions arose or things 'need to be fixed'.

.....I was gratified at the number of people who showed up. There were many who had other obligations for the evening, so I had walked in expecting a smallish crowd. When we all sat down to dinner, there were fourteen of us there. Better than I expected really.

.....It was a little awkward at first. I wasn't feeling it. But as people started talking, I started picking up on the energy and synergy of working with a group. This is the thing that gets me excited about being an 'Event Steward'. When you work with a group to produce something that is larger than any one person could do completely by themselves, it is a remarkable feeling. As people feed off of each other with ideas, and then build larger ideas with the initial ones, it can be quite exciting.

.....As we went around the table and people introduced themselves and their jobs, they were a little tentative at first. But as they loosened up they started bringing up ideas. Others would take them and talk about how they could make those ideas work, or build upon them. Jenae was especially good at throwing good ideas on to the table for discussion.

.....Only thing I wish is that Druim Doineann were just a little closer and they could attend more of these. I think that if some of them could attend and feel that energy coming from the group dynamics, it would go a long way towards making them even more excited about doing things on a grander scale. We've got a site walk-through scheduled for October 1st to put together a tentative placement for all the various activities, so we'll see if we can get several of them on board to attend and get more involved.

.....This Crown will have a number of interesting features, if we can make them work out O.K. The Crown Tourney itself will be in a stadium. The placement of the required pavilions will be interesting as we'll not want to block viewing from the stands if we can help it at all. So dimensions will be paramount as we place everything. There should be plenty of space though.

.....The Marketplace will be both inside and outside. All the open space will be precious. Since we're in a Fairgrounds there are a lot of buildings with which to contend. We've got one building and the space around it dedicated to the Marketplace. But there will be a definite cap to the number of merchants we'll be able to place. We have a Team in mind to coordinate the Marketplace. There is a long time SCA person, a merchant, who just moved into the area about a year ago, who is going to be the Marketplace Coordinator. I was a little worried about how she would be treated. The An Tir Merchants, in general, are a fiesty lot. I don't want to chase her away if at all possible. So we are going to have TBT backing her up. She may not need it at all. But the merchants tend to give TBT a little more lattitude, so having her name alongside will help.

.....There is a really nice bardic stage area. I'd sure like to see it utilized fully. It has a stage and a horseshoe set of stands. It would work well for plays or performances. I'd really like to get someone dedicated to bardic activities early so they could promote the heck out of that and have some phenominal stuff put together for Crown. We have a couple of people in mind. But need to get that going very soon.

.....Electrical hook-ups for RVs will be nice. TBT and I will be in Lobelia. Although I'm a little hesitant on that. When that was mentioned last night, there were a couple of people who were disappointed. They wanted the Baron and Baroness to be in the Baronial Encampment, which will be essentially on the opposite end of site. We'll have the Rhys Monster with us though, so even though I would like to camp with the Barony, we pretty much are stuck if we want to have as foo-free a weekend as is possible.

.....I'm a little worried about the camping. There is a main camping area inside the Fairgrounds, but much of the primary camping will be outside the fencelines. Conceivably, people could arrive on site, set up their campsites, stay outside of the Fairgrounds proper, and not pay a site fee at all over the weekend. To attend any of the event itself, they'll have to come in the gate, but thinking of June Faire, there are a number of people who don't really care much about the event itself, they just want to come and hang with their friends. Which I understand. We'll have to be diligent about checking tokens at the gate unfortunately. Maybe make some runs through encampments with the gate books. Hmmm, something on which we'll have to strategize.

.....The Arts and Sciences will have a nice building to use. Lots of open space. Its own restroom. AND, its own kitchen facilities. :-) The A&S Team, with Madrun in charge, is already full of good ideas on how to utilize that space.

.....Must remind people to bring quarters by the handful for the showers. There are a number of shower facilities on site. But hot water requires quarters. Must find out how much it costs initially, and how much hot water that actually gets you.

.....What I really need to do now is put my notes together and get them published before I forget too much.

.....Aaron / Arontius.