St Cath's 2014 Event Proposal

Put together by Anna de Wilde (Angela Wells) - I have just cloned the St Caths 2013 event proposal, which is a clone of the 2012 proposal  All mistakes are my own.

Dates and times

Friday 5 December 2014 to Sunday 7 December 2014

Site

Camp Sladdin. Thorpe's Quarry Road, Clevedon

People

• Steward - Anna de Wilde (Angela Wells)
• Deputy Stewards - Eleanor Hall and Maol Bhrìghde inghean Amhlaoibh (Shannon McColley)
• Bookings - Maximillian von Monsterburg (William Howard)
• Chores - Catherine Nuovo (Catherine Anderson)
• Feast Cook - Isabell Winter (Vanessa Marsh)
• Herald - Vettoria di Giovanni da Verona (Shannon Wanty)
• A&S Coordinator - William de Cameron (David Robb)
• Heavy Marshal/Rapier Marshal - Emrys Tudr (Matt Mole)
• Archery - TBA
• Event Chatelaine TBA
• Billeting & Airport Pick Ups/Drop Offs TBA
• Royal Liason - TBA

Schedule

Other notes

I would like to get the schedule sorted quickly, so that people will be able to organise themselves and chose the chores that they would most like to do.  This I hope will encourage people to pay as soon as they book, because it will be on receipt of payment that you will be confirmed in your first choice of chores.

Friday night will be garb optional, and the official opening of the event will be the Saturday morning.  This is a clearly personal want of mine, as I find getting into garb on the Friday after set up is taxing.

Royal Visit

The council was informed by his excellancy Rudiger, that Their Majesties Niall and Liaden will be visiting our shores and would like to attend this event. I have received a direct message from His Majesty advising me of this as well.  Barring no unforseen circumstances they would like to visit Ildhafn for this event.

I have added a line item in the budget to account for their attendance.

While this was unexpected, I as Steward welcome their visit.  This visit will however add extra stress on staffing requirements, and with a Royal Visit we may see an increase in numbers of attendance for this event. 

We as a group are aware of the resources of the site are limited, so this is the reason why I would like to cap numbers on the event to 60 for the feast and event.  I will also be asking all locals that have tents, to please tent, as we may be pushing capacity for the bunkrooms.

Budget

As the majority of our costs (food, and most of the site cost) are per-person, rather than fixed, the concept of a break-even number is less relevant than usual

I have based the break-even number at 35 adults at the full event rate, as a reasonable number across which to spread fixed costs. 

In the last few years we have seen a slow increase in numbers for the event, so I have decided to up the break even mark from 30 to 35. As the numbers for 2012 and 2013 were around the 40 person mark.  While I could make the break even mark 40, I have decided to err on the side of caution

[1] There's also a $100 bond for the site. (That is, we'll pay the $100 in advance, and then we pay the balance after the event.  This has been confirmed in an email from Lynette).

[2] It is traditional to spend around $40 on lunches for the set-up crew for the St Cath's 2012 at Sladdin. This is good practice as many of our members arrive early to help set up and it can be a long time from arriving and setting up to dinner.

[3] I have waived the cost of the feast for the feast cook, and built it into the budget.

 
[4] From Wendy's

Fire Wood

I have been in contact with Ignition Firewood and spoke to Carlos.  For 1 cubic metre of Dry Macrocarpa the cost will be $90 plus $10 delivery. He has advise that this will be in stock in November and the costs remain the same as the costs from 2012.

Iginition Firewood - Carlos
Web    ;http://www.ignitionfirewood.co.nz/

Food Costs, details of meals

milk, bread, tea, coffee and sugar for all meals = $3

breakfast  $4 x 2 = $8.00

lunch = $5 x 2 = $10

dinner = $7

feast = $18

=> $46 for weekend

Comments recieved from cooks about acceptable budgets:

• Consensus is that $3/head is good for porridge+toast breakfast, $4 to add bacon and eggs.
• Consensus is that $5 is plenty - will allow $5 both days, with the idea that the Sunday cook may spend less due to feast leftovers needing to be used up.
• $15 is enough for feast, $18 gets luxuries. I would like to give the cook a reasonable amount of say in the budget, within that range, so they can have an appropriate amount of money for the menu that they would like to cook. $18 gives them plenty to play with.
• The steward or deputy will purchase the milk and bread, tea, coffee and sugar for the whole weekend.  I have noticed as cooks we sometimes forget these items, or we buy lots of gluten free bread when one loaf would have done.  So I have taken .60 cents from the dinner and lunches to purchase these items.

I am happy to let the cooks do what they want in regards to menu and purchasing of food stuffs. They may organise amoungst themselves on what they would like to do.

Food budget for St Catherine's 2014

Who cooks which meal:

• Feast Cook - Isabell Winter
• Saturday Breakfast - Lisbet
• Sunday Breakfast - Katherine of Glastonbury

Budgeting for children

• Site: Camp Sladdin charges per person per night, regardless of age, and whether you stay in tent or bunks. Thus, all children will need to pay the full site fee, regardless of age.
• Food costs: nominal for under-5s, about 1/2 for 6-11, adult price for 12+ (since teens eat at least as much as adults).
• Other: I have charged the site fee plus food, and not other costs.
• Children don't pay Kingdom Levy ($1per adult).

Proposed Prices for St Catherine's Faire 2013  

NOTES: Sladdin charges  $8.50 per night for those that bunk and $3.50 for those that tent, regardless of age. I have decided to charge the fee of $8.50 across the board, as trying to calculate who sleeps where is difficult and problematic.  This also gives us the flexibility if the weather is terrible and people decide to move inside to sleep. 

Minors do not need to pay for Event Memberships, or for Kingdom Levy. Pricing for children reflect what they're likely to consume.  Effectively children are being charged the site fee and food. If the child is not staying over night then only food costs will be charged.

The day tripping cost of $5 incorporates the misc. costs plus the Kingdom levy rounded up.

Table of Event costs. (please click to go to the google doc.)

All workings are in the google doc.

All the childrens costs are layed out in the table of event costs. 

Adult day tripping no meals - I have decided to only charge $5 as this is the standard cost that we charge for a day tripper.

Bookings

Bookings will be looked after by Maximillian von Monsterburg.

Bookings will close on the 21st of November 2014.

This is two weeks before the event, which is not the usual practice.  However for sanity of the team and to give some more time to get organised, I think this is a sound date to cut off bookings. 

I will advertise an option to contact the Steward to ask for an exception if you can not book any earlier then the week before, this will be only considered for exceptional circumstances.

Price hikes before event - I am inclined to keep the tradition of increasing the cost of the event by $10 in the last week of the event.  So there will be a price increase from the 14th of November 2014.

You will get to choose your chores when you book. 

I will be looking at trialling the idea of waitlist bookings, for those people who for circumstances out of their control they are unable to book, or unable to know up until the event, if they will be able to attend.

Cap on numbers?

I will be capping numbers. 60 will be the maximum for attendance for the event and feast.

Other

Sleeping arrangements

• Camp Sladdin has bunk-rooms, but they're not terribly comfortable or convenient. Amongst the complaints we've had are: beds too short for adults, too many beds and people in one room, beds too high (the bunk are 4 high), too noisy.
• We'd like to encourage all those who can sleep in tents to do so, so that the bunks are as little crowded as possible for those who need them.
• This will extend to encouraging those locals who have a spare tent to offer it someone whose only impediment to sleeping outside is lack of a tent, or the impossibility of getting it to Auckland.
• We'll warn people about the bunkrooms when they book, and suggest that those who are finicky about their sleeping arrangements consider day-tripping from a motel.
• There are a number of motels with rooms in the $80-$100 range in Papakura, about 15 minutes drive away; and some more luxurious bed-and-breakfasts close by in Clevedon. (These lists were the the result of a very quick search: there may well be better options available to those willing to look).

Booking, bond, etc

I have pencil-booked the site, on the understanding that we'll confirm our booking as soon as possible. The site manager has advised that the Bond and non-refundable booking fee will need to be paid by the 1st of July 2014.