St Cath's 2013 Event Proposal

Put together by Christine Bess Duvaunt and Caterine de Vantier (now Vettoria di Giovanni), largely plagiarised from Katherina Weyssin's St Cath's 2012 Proposal.

Dates and times

Friday 6 December 2013 to Sunday 8 December 2013

Site

Camp Sladdin. Thorpe's Quarry Road, Clevedon (same site as last year's St Cath's).

People

• Steward - Christine Bess Duvaunt (Chantelle Gerrard)
• Deputy Steward - Vettoria di Giovanni da Verona (formerly Caterine de Vantier) (Shannon Wanty)
• Cooks - 2 x Breakfasts, 2 x Lunches, 1 x Dinner, 1 x Feast to be cooked
• Herald - Vettoria di Giovanni da Verona (Shannon Wanty)
• A&S Coordinator - Christine Bess Duvaunt (Chantelle Gerrard) - deputy TBC
• Heavy Marshal/Rapier Marshal - TBC
• Archery - Geoffrey de Wulf? TBC
• Children's Activities Coordinator - Catherine Nuovo TBC
• Event Chatelaine TBC
• Billeting & Airport Pick Ups/Drop Offs TBC

Other Key People we are still looking for:

• Extra Marshals, List Keepers
• Extra Heralds
• Teachers
• Bookings & Advertising Coordinator (Chantelle can do the advertising if this can't be filled)

Schedule

Things We would like to see

• A&S Activities (classes, group projects, display, show-and-tell, etc)
• Children's Activities, run by an activity coordinator... Catherine much?
• Heraldic Themed event....classes / encourage people to get their bling on / Heraldic tournament / standards / A and S comp for heraldic display
• Games & 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
• We will put a call out for people to start thinking about any A & S classes they want to see/run before they get to the booking form
• We will also put out a call for any suggestions of activites that people may want to do at the event - i.e. anything they have liked in the past/haven't seen for a while and would like to do again? Anything at other events that they have enjoyed and want to either run or do.

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, based on last year, we'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] Katherine spent $40 on lunches for the set-up crew for the St Cath's 2012 at Sladdin. Exact number will depend on how many people we need, and when, but we'd like to continue the practice (at least for events where a small portion of the attendees have to arrive three or more hours earlier than the rest, and thus are in danger of missing a meal).
[3] Site+food for 2 non-paying adult: we intend to invite the Crown, so need to fit them in the budget now, whether or not they come (clearly we can't ask until May, when the next Crown P&P are selected).
If we don't get a Royal visit, this will become either profit, or  free event fees for up to two people from the stewarding team at the discretion of the steward (so probably toward steward, and/or cooks), something that wouldn't be affordable otherwise. To be confirmed with Council when we know whether the K&Q are able to attend.
[4] From Wendy's

Fire Wood

We haven't included an allowance for firewood in the budget at this point. There is some left with William de Cameron after last year's St Cath's, but this may be used for Crescent Fence. If in discussion with Council the group thinks it would be a good idea to have a fire on at least one night, then we would need to allow for purchase of wood in the  budget. Based on last year's St Cath's, this would be $100 including delivery, so for a break even of 30 people it would amount to an extra $3.30 per head. This would give an overall cost of $85 for adult full members if we decide to purchase firewood. We would need to check with William de Cameron about whether he would be willing to do the same as for last year, and store any remaining firewood to either use himself or be used later by the group, with him using some as payment for storage.

Food Costs, details of meals

$5 breakfast, $6 lunch, $8 dinner, $20 feast? => $50 for weekend

Comments recieved from cooks about acceptable budgets:

• Consensus is that $3/head is good for porridge+toast breakfast, $5 to add bacon and eggs.
• Consensus is that $6 is plenty - will allow $6 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, $20 gets luxuries. We'd 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. $20 gives them plenty to play with.

So . . .

Food budget for St Catherine's 2013

Who cooks which meal:

• TBC  - Chantelle to advertise to the list.

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 for St Catherine's Faire 2013  

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, we'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, we're subtracting the cost of meals and accommodation 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).

Building in an offset of costs as part of the pricing for adults attending only part of the event seems the fairest way to cover these costs. The greater flexibility this allows people means that the number of people booking for the entire event may decrease - but the same costs still need to be covered. We've worked this out to be about $2.50 per person for the partial event attendance pricing. This works out to be about a quarter of all costs that don't relate to food or accommodation, for an adult attending the full event.

Bookings

Bookings to both Steward & Deputy Steward (unless someone else wants to handle them). We would like to have a go at creating a booking form, but will discuss this with the webwright, as we may need some help with this.

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 29).

Price hikes before event - "Slacker Tax"?  It's the bookings in the last fortnight before the event that cause concern and/or change plans. We're inclined to maintain a price hike of $10 for the last week of bookings only (i.e from 19th Nov); negotiable (at our discretion) if you have a reason to book late other than slackness.

Cap on numbers?

Last year Katherina had to cap the event - we have confirmed with her that the upper limit is about 60 people. We will look at doing the same if necessary.

Other

Visitors

• Christine would like to invite the King and Queen to attend. To that end, with Their Excellencies' permission, we'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.
• We'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).
• We hope that advertising through multiple forums will encourage friends from other parts of the Crescent Isles, and from other groups, to attend

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). We'll check with Katherina which ones she found for last year's event.

Booking, bond, etc

We've pencil-booked the site, on the understanding that we'll confirm our booking as soon as possible. We'll confirm with the site manager when she'll want the bond and booking fee paid.