With so many new people becoming active in the group, it seems like a good time to run an A&S Collegium, to introduce them to some of the art & craft activities that are currently practised and studied by the group - and maybe to pique their interest in a particular skill or area! This will be an ungarbed event.
This will be a one day event, followed by a pub trip. I consulted with the populace, and although a few people liked the option of a two day event, the possibility of a fabric shopping trip was brought up. By making the event only one day, this allows for those that wish to go fabric shopping to do so on the Sunday morning, without disrupting the flow of the Collegium, and also enables us to hold our regular Sunday A&S as per usual.
- Stewarding Team
- Date & Time
- Location & Site Payment
- Format
- Classes
- Lunch
- Budget
- Baronial Supplies
- Class Costs
- Advertising
- Bookings
- Billeting & Transport
- Potential Pub Trip
Stewarding Team
Steward: Lady Vettoria di Giovanni da Verona (Shannon Wanty), membership #83147, exp. Feb 2015
Deputy Steward: Mistress Katherina Weyssin (Katherine Davies)
Caterer for lunch & nibbles: Lady Anna de Wilde (Angela Wells)
Date & Time
Saturday April 12th 2014 with classes running from 9.30/10am to 4.45pm, including a lunch break. Site hire from 9am-5pm that day
Location & Site Payment
The Chelsea Rooms at the Cedar Centre, 56a Tramway Road in Beach Haven.
This is a new venue for us, but the lady I spoke to (Moira) was pleasant to deal with.
Cost for us will be $50 for both classrooms for the entire day from 9am to 5pm.
I have looked at the rooms and they look to be completely suitable for what we would like to use them for, and a really good price.
The venue has the advantage of providing two full-size classroom spaces with seating, tables, whiteboards, a kitchenette with all the usual facilities, toilets, and an outdoor covered deck space linking the rooms.
Format
This will be a traditional Collegium, with a number of classes put on by volunteers within the group. Where there are classes with similar skill sets (e.g. fibre arts), these may be clustered together.
I am aiming to offer two streams of classes throughout the day. Classes with similar skill sets will not be overlapped, but people will then need to decide which class they most want to attend.
I expect most classes on offer to be about an hour in length; however, if someone wants to teach a class that is significantly longer or shorter than this I am willing to explore whether this will fit in the schedule.
I will be keeping time and giving people a "ten minutes to go" warning to ensure that classes keep moving and that no teachers are cut short because a previous class ran over. There will also be a ten minute gap between classes to give people time to make coffee/tea, go to the loos, and have a bit of a natter before the next class.
Classes
I will be looking for volunteers to run classes, primarily in areas they are already expert in. I will do this by advertising to the Ildhafn & Cluain lists asking what people would be willing to teach classes on, and also asking for indications of classes people would like to attend.
Depending on what sort of response I get, I may also approach people individually around the possibility of teaching classes.
I am looking primarily for practical or demonstrative classes, however, theoretical classes are also welcome.
I plan on having classes running from 9.30am until 4.30pm. This will allow time to set up and pack down at either end of the day, as the room is available to us from 9am to 5pm.
I would like the schedule to be in place by the start of March 2014, to give people plenty of time to see what will be on offer. Also, where there is materials cost & preparation associated with a class, this gives the teachers plenty of time to prepare. Please refer to the Class Costs section below the budget for costings that teachers would like to pass on to class attendees.
I would like to provide a catered lunch each day, as this will enable people to just get on and focus on activities, without stressing about finding something to eat.
I will ask for a volunteer willing to cater this, with food that can be prepared ahead of the event.
I am envisaging a "packed lunch" type meal, which can be eaten on disposable plates without cutlery, to make clean up easy. There will also be some food suitable for grazing available throughout the day, and tea and coffee will be freely available. If the budget doesn't stretch to disposable plates, I will either volunteer my own or arrange to collect the new Baronial feast plates for use.
Due to the pricing of the site, this is a very low budget event. I am being conservative and setting a low break even figure of 15 people, which I would expect us to make easily with all the newcomers to the group.
Site Hire for both days is a set total cost of $50.
I am budgeting lunch costs at $6.50 per person. The lunch budget includes an allowance for disposable plates, and also tea and coffee and nibbles throughout the day.
I am including miscellaneous costs as I am expecting to purchase at least one rubbish bag, and there's almost certainly going to be some other miscellaneous costs that I haven't thought of yet - but I wouldn't expect overall cost to be more than $15 in total.
| Item | Total Cost | Per Head Cost | Charge |
| Site Hire | $50 | $3.33 | $3.50 |
| Misc. Costs, eg rubbish bags | $15 | $1 | $1 |
| Lunch, tea & coffee | $5.50 | $5.50 | |
| Total | $10 |
Based on the budget above, I propose to charge everyone $10 for the day. There is no Kingdom Levy, and we do not need to charge for Event Membership, as this is an ungarbed event (see the Kingdom of Lochac Laws VII.4.1 p27).
Participating older children/teenagers will be charged at the same rate as adult financial members. Participating children are those who are actively attending classes
Non-participating younger children who are present will be free of charge if they're just tagging along, or $5 for lunch to be included for them.
Use of Baronial Supplies
I shouldn't need to use any baronial supplies for this event, as the event is ungarbed and the catering limited to stuff that requires little preparation, done ahead of the event, and that can be served from my own equipment onto disposable plates. In the event that I do end up needing to collect & return baronial equipment, I am quite happy to do so at my own cost.
Class Costs
I have not included any potential charges for classes within the budget. Not all classes will have an associated cost, however, I would expect that a couple of classes where there is significant material given out may have some cost to be passed onto the students.
I would like to get these costs advertised well in advance, with payment for these classes to be made directly to the person running the class by those attending, either in person or on the day.
As Steward, I am happy to confirm with those booking for the event whether they want to take part in a class with an associated cost, and to let them know the amount and how to pay for this. I will be customising the auto-reply message that people receive on booking to include something around these classes, along the lines of "Please note that some classes may have specific charges associated with them. The Steward will contact you about whether you are interested these classes, as prebooking will be required to allow teachers time to prepare materials".
Advertising
I plan to primarily advertise on the Ildhafn website, and to our local and national mailing lists, as well as on Facebook, and may request volunteers to forward the advertising to other groups.
I will also ask the lady at the Cedar Centre about advertising there, and look at advertising with the local community groups.
Bookings
Bookings will open shortly after Canterbury Faire (i.e the first or second week of February), with bookings closing the week before the event, on Friday 04/04/2014.
Billeting & Transport
I expect that the majority of bookings will come from around Ildhafn city. However, we may have a few people travelling from Cluain, and there's an outside chance that we could get people from further down country
I will therefore be asking on the booking form if people are able to offer or would like billeting - but will be sure to say that billeting options are limited. In the event that we do get out-of-towners booking and are unable to offer billeting, I will also help with finding alternative accommodation options near to site.
Transport-wise, I will include on the event page relevant public transport information, but again, I will be asking on the booking form if people require or are able to offer a ride to others.
Pub Trip
Given that the Collegium is a daytime activity, I am inclined to booking a table somewhere for Saturday evening for those that would like to get together then.