June Faire - Sunday / Monday Thoughts.

[arontius]

.....Greetings All,

.....This is the final writing of my thoughts on June Faire XXV. I'm going to gather all of these, including any comments generated, and make them available to the Baronial Populace tonight. Probably on a free web-site somewhere.

.....Tomorrow night is the public June Faire De-Brief. I'm going to try and keep the discussion to about an hour to an hour and a half. We could go on for hours if we really wanted to do so. But if I can keep the conversation flowing at all, we can probably glean all the best ideas pretty quickly. Or at least that is the hope. :-)

.....As is typical with this stuff, the thoughts are rambling. Please feel free to add your comments, whether you were present at June Faire or not.

.....To save space on Live Journal, the thoughts are behind a Live Journal cut... …..June Faire Thoughts – Sunday / Monday.

…..The gate on Sunday was more even tempered on Sunday. The traffic was definitely lighter and manageable. Fewer volunteers were needed, but could definitely still be used. Isketol and Xian spent a great deal of time manning the gate again. Gate was shut down for good at 3PM, which was a good time for it to happen. The public traffic was pretty much a trickle by then. We may have missed some donation traffic, and had we the volunteer base I might have kept the gate open longer. But Isketol and Xian were rather beat and I wanted to let them go.

…..Parking fared a little better on the side street across the highway (near the dumpster) as we had more signage directing that it NOT be used for parking. We also had fewer VIP traffic and handicapped traffic with which to deal. Plus it was fully understood that the street at the bottom of eric hill could be used for both SCA and modern handicapped parking. This turned out to be rather messy. As usual, without constant patrol and watch, others who had no business parking in this area took advantage of it to avoid the designated parking. I am against utilizing this area for parking at all, and other possibilities should be explored.

…..The Sunday Farmer’s Market added to the chaos of the day. Discussion should be had with the town as to how to deal with the Market and its associated traffic well in advance of the event. Where will the customers for the Farmer’s Market park and pick up their merchandize? Is it possible to avoid the Farmer’s Market all together on June Faire weekend? Among other things this limited or disrupted the viewing of the Equestrian Activities from the eric hill and the road.

…..The Food Court and Arts & Sciences Enclave were both very well attended on Sunday. As has been stated before, both areas should be expanded to better attract and funnel the crowds attending them.

…..The General Store in town was not prepared for June Faire. We’d had several meetings with them prior to the event and they still did not have the variety nor the quantity of merchandize needed by an SCA event. The storekeeper made an emergent call in for ice. Basic food stuff (like bread, snacks, detergent, chips, etc.) were in short supply and did not appeal to the SCA crowd. The snack bar served good food, but not exactly what the SCA crowd likes. I would like them to do some of the things that the previous owners did, like the buffet breakfasts, lunch grills, etc. Ethel will be much better prepared to listen to the SCA ideas and suggestions next year. A meeting should be scheduled no later then March or early April to go over again what an SCA event will bring to her as far as the crowd’s wants and needs to ensure that she has them on hand. All said and done though, she and her staff worked super hard to keep up with our demands. All of her food was good and appreciated. She has had a good start.

…..All activities on eric hill seemed to roll pretty smooth on Sunday. Only issue seemed to be the water supply to the waterbearers. As stated in his report, the system of protecting the hose as it crossed the road from the water supply was not adequate to the people who drove across it in any one of a number of ways that damaged the wood supports meant to protect the hosing and connections. Something stronger should be thought out next year. However, having the water supply come from the west side of the hill worked out much better than the usual supply from the east side of the hill. Fewer people drove across it this year.

…..Constabulary had a difficult time collecting all of the lost and found from the event. They had a central point from which to direct activities. But it wasn’t labeled well as to being the repository for lost-and-found. A system for collection should have been thought out and advertised prior to the event so that it had a chance to sink into people’s minds. The same should apply for after the event. Many reminders need to be given to the general populace to get lost-and-found to the Baronial Constable as soon as possible.

…..People started breaking down camp early on Sunday, as is usual. The difficult part was that people drove over eric hill to get to their campsites (disrupting the ambiance of the hilltop) or else they drove BACK over eric hill to leave site, going against the one way traffic. Once again, more signage is needed to direct traffic in the proper direction. More information on this needs to be disseminated prior to the event. Everything that we sent out to the various e-lists and emphasized prior to the event seems to have been heeded. Evidence that this system works to a degree.

…..Officially, June Faire ends at 5PM on Sunday. By about 3PM things are seriously winding down. Maybe this should be discussed for future June Faires. If the official closing time is 3PM on Sunday, maybe a more concerted effort could be made to start breaking the event down so that everything could be moved to storage earlier.

…..Definitely need a leader designated before the event who is in charge of gathering all Baronial equipment and materials for the storage unit. This person should not be the Chairman of June Faire. This should be someone who can keep their involvement in the event to a low enough degree that they are still relatively fresh on Sunday afternoon so as to be able to give direction on break down and collection of Baronial equipment for the storage unit. Emphasis should be made prior to the event that leaders of the various areas need to have a plan in place for breakdown of the pavilions and equipment used in their area. If they could make arrangements for volunteers for their various tear-down operations PRIOR to the event. The U-Haul crew could more easily be able to just travel from place to place and place stuff into the U-Haul, instead of having to go from place to place, BREAK DOWN EQUIPMENT, and then place it into the U-Haul. This might help prevent the rush to the storage unit before they shut down for the evening at 9AM. This might also allow the tear down crew to get home themselves at a reasonable hour, as well as break down their own encampments.

…..We ended up not following a regimen for collecting and maintaining funds generated at the event. This time it worked out as all involved were long time players and trustworthy. But future events need to hold a discussion prior to the event as to how funds are collected, counted, and stored. Just to ensure that all are on the same page and so that funds collected at gate were accidentally or on purpose end up going astray.
…..The town of Port Gamble collected all the coneage used on site, both those owned by the town and those rented by the SCA. Four cones ended up missing. They are not exactly cheap either. Future events should resist the urge to rent extra cones and strictly utilize what is owned by the town. If things are planned out in advance it will be found that the town owns more than enough cones to handle practically any situation needed. If not there are other methods that do not involve renting cones. Including using the sandwich board signs, eric stakes, etc.

…..The town advertised the use of ‘free’ firewood from an artist who works down in the mill area. When the site was cleaned up the crew ended up moving quite a bit of this wood from various encampments. If this is again offered in the future the amount that any one encampment should be allotted should be limited to an armload or two. Or else the offer should be turned down completely.

…..Clean-up was relatively easy. No major trash pits were discovered. The SCA crowd acted responsibly as is pretty typical. Clean up was started on Sunday evening. Monday morning’s crew only worked a couple of hours to complete the walk through of site.

…..There were a number of hay bales left after the event. This year the Port Gamble nursery let us know that they would not accept any for their use. A number of SCA folks took bales back to their homes to be used in archery ranges and such. The ‘Old Mill Days’ group (the carnival happening the following weekend) took the remaining bales for their use. Future events should make sure to check in with the town to collect the POCs for future Port Gamble happenings as an outlet for hay bales (as opposed to simply tossing them into the dumpsters).

…..The U-Haul driver needs to have a plan in place prior to the event as to how the U-Haul is to be turned back into the rental place. U-Haul must be turned in by Noon at the latest or else incur additional fees. This will have a bearing on any who wish to wait until Monday morning in order to put stuff back into storage. Waiting until Monday will also somewhat limit your volunteer base. It is always preferable to off-load the U-Haul on Sunday evening. All the more reason to have the volunteer team for this lined up as early as possible in the year.

…..Emphasis needs to be started early and prior to the event to get all receipts turned into the exchequer. Without this emphasis people naturally tend to sit on their receipts due to other more imminent concerns. It is important to get all the books for the event lined up as quickly as possible as it becomes more difficult over time to figure out how money was spent.

…..Accounting for the actual money and checks after the event takes a great deal of time. Some thought might be given before the event as to making sure that the exchequer has enough help available to make the final deposit and accounting go as quickly as possible. The most difficult portion being reconciling all of the gate sheets so as to figure out the NMS. Invariably there are many mistakes made in the filling out of the rosters and it takes time for the exchequer to decipher the true meaning of many entries.
…..De-briefings after June Faire should be a standard part of the after-event process. This is to capture as many lessons learned as possible in order to improve future June Faires. The Chairman should insist that each Board member give him/her some form of write-up as to what worked and what didn’t in their particular area. All of this information should be gathered and given to the Continuity Coordinator to be placed into the June Fair notebook. A meeting with the populace and then with the Board should be done as soon as possible to capture ideas and suggestions on how to improve June Faire.

…..New Board members should be cultivated at all times. If someone shows interest in a Board position, time is well spent in talking to them about what is involved and how rewarding it is to be a member of the Board. If a Board member observes someone who would especially make a particularly good Board member in some capacity, that person should be approached and asked if they would actually have interest in becoming a Board member. It is always good to aggressively be thinking of new / fresh membership on the Board.


.....Thanks for all the input. It is all appreciated!

.....Next year I look forward to taking things easier. Maybe a dance demo. Definitely some harp and gemshorn playing. It'll be fun. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Comments

[corbaegirl.livejournal.com]

Two comments:

Maybe use a length of metal conduit to run the hose through across the road? Just an idea, I really don't know how well that would work.

Also, we had wood left over after the event, and since we didn't know where to dispose of it, we took it with us for use at the next event we went to. Maybe either publicising an excess wood drop off location, or that any wood left over in camp has to be hauled off would work.

Again, great event.

[gwen-the-potter.livejournal.com]

I have another suggestion. I personally believe that the board got a late start this year. I think choosing the board as early as possible is important. A lot of things for next year (contracts, etc,) need to be taken care of sooner rather than later.

[angharadalbanes.livejournal.com]

I agree, and plan on doing just that.

[angharadalbanes.livejournal.com]

Definitely need a leader designated before the event who is in charge of gathering all Baronial equipment and materials for the storage unit. This person should not be the Chairman of June Faire. This should be someone who can keep their involvement in the event to a low enough degree that they are still relatively fresh on Sunday afternoon so as to be able to give direction on break down and collection of Baronial equipment for the storage unit.

I strongly believe that this person should be the Baronial Steward.