St Catherine's 2012 - proposal

• dates and times
• site
• staff
• schedule
• budget
• pricing
• bookings
• other

Dates and times

Friday November 30th to Sunday December 2nd.

Site

Camp Sladdin. Thorpe's quarry road, Clevedon (same site as last year's Investiture).

People

• Steward - Katherina Weyssin (Katherine Davies)
• Deputy Steward, wrangler of Things Martial - Eleanor Hall (Nicola Halliday)
  • Archery - Geoffrey de Wulf
• A&S Wrangler - Christine Bess Duvant (Chantelle Gerrard)
• Herald - Ludwig von Regensburg (Patrick Bowman)
• Bookings - William de Wyke (Al Muckart)
• Hospitality for visitors - Aesa Hrolfsdottir (Wendy Rowsell)
• Cooks
  • Ludwig (Friday dinner)
  • Catalina (prefers breakfast, willing to do lunch if needed)
  • Fina (roving cooks' 2IC)
  • Antonia (feast)
  • Isabel (willing to do any meal - a lunch?)
  • Katherine Xavier (prefers Sunday breakfast, willing to do a lunch if needed)
  • Anna de Wilde (prefers breakfast, willing to do a lunch if needed)

People I'm still looking for

• Extra marshals and heralds, lists-keepers, teachers, etc
• Bookings and advertising - I can do this, but will happily hand it on if someone would like to take it
• Volunteers to help with set-up, pack-down and gate
• Food buyer - I may need a food buyer for out-of-town cooks; perhaps one of the Auckland cooks will be willing to double-up

Schedule

Things I'd like to see

• A&S activities (classes, group projects, display, show-and-tell, etc)
• games and activities for people of all ages
• performances and entertainments
• archery (of varied nature)
• fencing (whether tournament, classes, sparring, melee)
• armoured combat (whether tournament, classes, sparring, melee)
• suggestions - what would you like?

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. Nevertheless, I've set the break-even number at 30 adults, as a reasonable number across which to spread fixed costs.

[1] There's also a $100 bond for the site. (That is, we'll pay the $100 in advance, and pay the balance after the event).

[2] Caterine and Eleanor spent $40 on lunches for the set-up crew for the Investiture at Sladdin. Exact number will depend on how many people I need, and when, but I'd like to continue the practice (at least for events where a small portion of the attendees have to arrive 3 or more hours earlier than the rest, and thus are in danger of missing a meal).

[3] Site+food for 2 non-paying adult: I intend to invite the Crown, so need to fit them in the budget now, whether or not they come (clearly I can't ask until May, when the next Crown P&P are selected). If we don't get a Royal visit, this will become one of - profit, free event for steward + 1 (probably distributed across cooks), something I couldn't otherwise afford. Discuss with council?

[4] From my house to site; from site to the new quartermaster's, wherever that is

Food Costs, details of meals

$5 breakfast, $6-7 lunch, $8 dinner, $19 feast? => $50 for weekend?

Comments recieved from cooks about acceptable budgets:

• Ludwig requests $6pp for a cheap dinner, or $8pp for a fancier version. I'm inclined to give him $8. He's planning a dinner that can come out in stages, or be eaten cold, for whenever people arrive. So all those on site will be fed at ~6pm; those that arrive at 7 or 8 will be fed then; and if any are arriving later in the evening they'll find something tasty put aside for them in the kitchen.
• Consensus is that $3/head is good for porridge+toast breakfast, $5 to add bacon and eggs.
• Consensus is that $6 is ok for lunch, $7 plenty - will allo $7 on Saturday, $6 on Sunday when there will be leftovers
• Antonia (likely feast cook) says $15 is enough for feast, $20 gets luxuries. I'd like to give her (or whoever ends up cooking it) a reasonable amount of say in the budget, within that range, so she can have an appropriate amount of money for the menu she'd like to cook. $19 gives me a round number for all meals.

So . . .

Who cooks which meal:

Ludwig and Antonia requested specific meals. Isabel offered "any meal". Catalina, Anna and Katherine Xavier all prefer breakfast, but are willing to do lunch. Thus, I have as many cooks as meals, but will decide, with cooks, who does which breakfast and lunch once more of the schedule is in place.

Budgeting for children

Site: Camp Sladdin charges $8.50 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: laundry etc costs as much for kids as for adults; kids don't pay kingdom levy ($1per adult).

Proposed Prices

NOTES: Sladdin charges the full $8.50 per night for all people, regardless of age, so we must too. Minors do not need to pay for event memberships, or for kingdom levy. Otherwise, I've attempted to make the pricing for children reflect what they're likely to consume.

As written, there's a small price-break for kids attending only part of the event: for adults, I'm subtracting the cost of meals and accomodation not required (i.e. still charging for miscellaneous costs, such as laundry and lighting), whereas for children I'm adding the meals and accomodation that are required (so not charging miscellaneous costs).

Bookings

Bookings to me (unless someone else wants it). People will get to pick chores in the order in which they book - book early for the chores you like. Last chance to book is one week before the start of the event (i.e Friday November 30th).

Price hikes before event - "Slacker Tax"? I'm a little torn. It's the bookings in the last fortnight before the event that cause me to lose sleep and/or change plans. I'm inclined to a price hike of $10 for the last week of bookings only (i.e from 16th Nov); negotiable (at my discretion) if you have a reason to book late other than slackness.

Cap on numbers?

Will check total (reasonable) bunking available at site; and consider how many we can reasonable seat at a feast - the hall at Sladdin is not large.

Aesa (who ran St Caths there in 2009) had 51 people, adults and children, seated at the feast. That was about the maximum capacity of the hall. Should we (being optimistic here) get more than that, we'd need to either cap the event, or overflow into the second hall (assuming there are chairs and tables to do so).

Other

Visitors

I'd like to aim for a Royal Visit, if possible - we'll be about due for one, and the second reign of the year is often more convenient for the Crown (no CF and Festival to compete with, generally a slightly quieter reign). To that end, with Their Excellencies' permission, I'll endeavour to invite the new Crown Prince and Princess to attend, as soon as we known who they are. If they can come - yay!, if not, no harm done.

I'd also like to make a concerted effort to include some of the members of the Barony whom we've not seen much of for a while (assuming they want to be included, of course).

I hope that advertising early will make it easier for friends from other parts of the Crescent Isles to attend - I've already had some nibbles in repsonse to the request for cooks.

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.

I'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. I'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've pencil-booked the site, on the understanding that I'll confirm our booking as soon as possible - by the end of February at the latest. If someone else tries to book it during that period, the manager is going to call me to check that we still want it (she knows I'll be away for CF).

I don't know when she'll want the bond and booking fee paid.

Meal Plan, Cooks, Food buying

I intend to be a pretty laid-back steward. I'll ask the cooks (and other staff) what they need of me; but keep out of their hair as far as possible, trusting that they're all capable of providing tasty meals, within the budget, and on time. I'll suggest that they combine their ingredients list and have one person do the shopping, but won't insist on it.