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

[Monique Rio]

My response to Gregoire is below. But to address some issues that were
brought up after his email,

I mention other organizations for a few reasons:

1)  To show that comping/discounting entry fee to events works in
other organizations and the events make money, and people still are
generous.

2)  Other groups are often better than us at developing intermediate
and advanced skills in an organized fashion. Part of this is because
they better recognize their teachers and volunteers. How many of us
with advanced skills got them just by going to events? None. Classes
offered at events are just the beginning; substantial outside work is
always required.

Also, the Renaissance festival is more like us than you might think.
Most performers are not paid particularly well, and there are only a
few true masters; most of them are there because they like performing
at the faires. (We say this as people who have performed at a
Renaissance festival.)

Here are my thoughts on this:

On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 5:55 PM, Greg Less <greg.less at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi All-
>>
>> 3) Teaching is volunteering. It's fun. It's also work. The fact that
>> in general the SCA doesn't recognize teachers through some kind of
>> discount (in effect making them pay to teach) doesn't make it right.
>>
>
> Back to who should pay...
>
>   In my opinion, if we comp teachers for doing what they enjoy, we are
> effectively subsidizing the hobby of some of the players and not othes.
> Since this is an opinion, and one that not everyone agrees with, let’s set
> it aside for now and instead look at some of the various slippery slopes
> comping teachers can take us down…

If I go to a dance workshop for swing dancing, the teachers get paid.
If I go to a music workshop outside of the SCA, the teacher gets paid.
We're not asking that SCA instructors get paid, but that they aren't
having to pay to teach. The slippery slopes I think are exaggerated.

>
> Every time a fighter steps into armor and fights someone who is less
> skilled, teaching occurs. Should my entry into Grand Tourney be comped? What
> about a knight’s? How about a duke’s?

The way I see it, the experienced fighter doesn't have to give the
not-so-experienced fighter advice. Is it a good thing to do?
Absolutely. But it isn't required. If she's having a bad day, she
doesn't have to be there, and if she is there, she doesn't have to
give advice.

Now, if the experienced fighter is teaching a class on fighting
(perhaps like what Sir Jocelyn did), that changes things. Now this
person has specifically volunteered their time. People are coming to
see this person. At the very least this person shouldn't have to pay
to be there.

Also, weren't people talking about maybe comping a few dukes to
increase the quality of the fighting?

> At Terpsichore the last two years Master Midair spent the afternoon teaching
> Jason and I to play chess. We were so inferior to his skill level he was
> playing both of us at the same time, while knitting. He clearly was acting
> as a teacher at the event. I hope he had fun, but it might have bored him to
> tears - we are really rank amateurs... Should his site fee have been
> waived?

It wasn't a chess event. If Midair didn't want to teach he didn't have
to. He truly volunteered his time. He should have gotten comped for
the track of classes he ran at 9AM. :P

>  What about people who work more than others? If one dance teacher at
> Terpsichore teaches one class, and another teaches four classes should the
> person who teaches four classes have four times as much site fee waived?

That's why you work it out ahead of time. There are many ways to do
it, and in any case as soon as a teacher's site fee is waived they're
no longer paying to teach/volunteer. They're actually volunteering
their time. To what extent they want to volunteer is up to them.

- Jadzia