[Cynnabar] comping for events

Wed Sep 14 20:00:43 UTC 2011

I think Baron Daibhid has given us a good set of criteria for giving comps:

 an exceptional person coming a considerable distance
 a person with needed services who cannot otherwise come
 a professional performer whether or not an SCA member (E.G. Owain Phyfe)

It does not make sense to discount or waive site fees for all people who
teach or volunteer at events, regardless of their level of volunteering.

For reference, teachers at RUM, many of whom drive hundreds of miles to
teach, do not get discounted or waived gate fees.

Royalty get discounted site fees to events because they travel far and wide
to events almost every weekend...the costs add up fast.  They count as
exceptional persons.

--Sunnifa
(Who is attending the upcoming (niche event) Cynnabar Fiber Faire, and who
is teaching 2 classes and assisting with another.)

On 9/14/11 2:28 PM, "David Hoornstra" <dhoorn123 at comcast.net> wrote:

> Issues I perceive and my two centimes on each:
> 
> € Quality of event  Terpsichore is special in needing special people for the
> event to succeed. Key Instructors can be similarly important to teaching
> events. I think the criterion of Event Success should be written into whatever
> policy. It is a budget item like the cost of food.
> 
> € Fairness to all participants  the policy must OBSERVABLY respect everyone¹s
> effort. (Justice, to be done, must be seen to be done.) But exceptional effort
> deserves exceptional consideration. Asking a musician to play A LOT when they
> would rather be dancing is quite different from asking a duke to come and do
> what dukes prefer to be doing. Further, asking someone to do a specific thing
> is very different from an individual choosing something on the list and doing
> it.
> If you want to invite a celebrity (other than Royalty), ask for an earmarked
> donation.
> 
> The two factors above are about whether the comp is needed by the event enough
> to compensate for any perceived unfairness. Once that is decided, one should
> consider the individual¹s situation. I would comp for:
>  an exceptional person coming a considerable distance
>  a person with needed services who cannot otherwise come
>  a professional performer whether or not an SCA member (E.G. Owain Phyfe)
> 
> Daibhid
> 
> 
> 
> 
> From: Kevin Lemon <uillec1314 at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:18:04 -0400
> To: Malachy von Ulm <malachy at pfrc.org>, <barony at cynnabar.org>
> Subject: Re: [Cynnabar] Weekly Meeting Minutes for September 12, 2011
> 
> My thoughts and a question/comment.
> 
> I would like to see the Barony come up with a policy that is based on who, not
> at which event certain people get comped.
> 
> I personally feel the only people that should be comped at an event is
> royalty, out of respect.
> 
> In the past I (and I am not alone) have volunteered (the key word here is
> VOLUNTEER) to help with feast, lunch tavern, gate, etc. More that once I have
> been one of the first to arrive for set up and one of the last to leave at the
> end of some very long  days. I have never ask for or have I expected for my
> site fee to be comped. For me to find out that some people are getting their
> site fee comped (I don't know how else to say it) but it smacks in the face
> that their time is more valuable than mine. But it not about the money or
> time, I volunteer at events in the hopes that people attending have a pleasant
> time, but mostly it's my way of helping to support "my" Barony.
> 
> In another e-mail on the list there was mention of "reduced/comped site fee
> for non-SCA members", I always thought there was a non member surcharge on
> site fee's, why in the world would we comp them? To think that we are ask to
> subsidize some SCA members site fee's let alone some "non-members" is well
> dumb.
> 
> Uillec
> 
> 
> On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 1:14 PM, Malachy von Ulm <malachy at pfrc.org> wrote:
>> I didn't want to jump into the fray last night since the issue not only is
>> one of passion but one of finance.  I'll give my opinion here tersely with
>> no hard feelings how any may choose to take it.
>> 
>> On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 12:28:00PM -0400, Greg Less wrote:
>>> > Either way, the issue stands that if a reduced site fee is being offered
>>> to
>>> > some people who spend some or all of their day working, it should probably
>>> > be offered to everyone who spends the some or all of the day working.
>> 
>> Events should minimally break even.  Most of the time, the desire is that
>> the events bring in enough funds to permit the group to have operating
>> capital for other projects.
>> 
>> If it is the policy of the group to comp those who provide significant labor
>> for the event, that in itself is a form of expense that must be accounted
>> for.  As an example, an event was proposed that had a $900 budget.  If 25
>> people pay $4 less each as a comp for their labor at an event that has a few
>> hundred people coming, the event now needs to make up $200 somewhere.
>> 
>> If it should become the case that gate fees must rise to cover this $200,
>> are we doing anyone a favor?  For small events, probably not.  For larger
>> events, the additional cost from the comp is easier to spread out.
>> 
>> I am of the opinion that comping event labor is not something that makes for
>> good policy.  It may be appropriate situationally at large events.  Even
>> then, custom and culture may simply discourage it.  My finances are not
>> burdened by a site fee at this point.  I am more likely to donate some
>> additional funds to help an event have a gate fee that is low enough for
>> those who have to "choose between their pizza dinner and an event". :-)
>> 
>> I suspect many feel the same way.
>> 
>> --
>> Malachy
>> 
>> "Ancient nightmares. Archaic legends.  Enigmatic dreams. All of it is true."
>> Abney Park - All the Myths are True.
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>> 
> 
> 
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