[Cynnabar] Generalist Events vs. Niche Events or Opening the Can of Worms

[Aaron Elkiss]

I wanted address a couple points here:

On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 1:53 PM, Heidi Lemon <heidi.ma2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> If WE do not support our Barony by doing the work AND paying the entrance
> fee we will have no seed money to put on any events.

I think we should decouple the discussion of event financials from the
question of whether we should provide comps and discounts. If you
estimate paid attendance accurately and set your budget and site fee
appropriately, you can take a loss, break even, or make a profit of
whatever size you like. Providing comps and discounts does not imply
that we would need to take losses on events.

> If all the people that volunteer should get comped, that is not fair
> either.  This is a game we play, either you support your play or you don't.
> And if you notice, no matter what event it is a "niche" event or a
> "generalist" event it is the same base group of people who volunteer to
> help.  It would be nice to see some new faces at set up, tear down, gate,
> tavern, etc.  More hands make less work for all.  It is just that the whole
> of the populace should support all the events that the Barony puts on, but
> there are groups of people that you only see at certain events.

More people might be more likely to volunteer if they were not paying to do so.

> I still work all day in the
> kitchen and PAY my entrance fee HAPPILY.  There are many times Uillec and I
> give more than the entrance fee as a donation, SO WE CAN DO THIS ALL AGAIN.

It's great that you're willing to do that, and we certainly shouldn't
discourage people from donating money, but I'm not sure it's fair to
ask people to donate money as a prerequisite for donating their time.

-a