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Recently the thread “Authenticity Levels: Progress or Decline?” had kind of morphed into discussing putting on events.
And since I didn't want to get too off topic I thought I'd start a new thread. I have been carrying on a conversation backstage and thought I'd bring my part out to the light.
About a year ago I announced that I'm moving away from the organizing portion of events. If I attend an event I just wanna be a participant for a change. :D I thought maybe if I offered up some ideas someone might say, “hey, that doesn’t sound so hard – I’ll give it a try!”
Seriously though, organizing events isn't easy, but it is rewarding; especially when you see events like Struggle for Statehood, the Inn at Peak's Mill, and other similar events go off. The trial event is my last hurrah as an organizer, and I thought I might share a few ideas that I've learned over the last several years, in hopes that someone, somewhere will step up and organize better events.
First decide what it is that you want to accomplish, what bar(s) you want to raise? Do you want a pure immersion event with 24/7 first person action and interaction? A first person interpretation to the public? Or do you want to raise the bar in third person interpretation?
What kind of rules will you establish for your event, and how will you prepare to enforce them? Probably one of the biggest complaints that I've heard over the years is that organizers create all these great rules and regulations, but then fail to enforce them. I was innocent enough to believe that all organizers enforced rules till the 130th Gettysburg. :cry_smile
The next step is to decide how you can best accomplish your above goal. My advice is (especially for a first time organizer) think small. No sense getting overwhelmed with your first event. This is one advantage that we really have over the military. It's hard for them to pull off the Battle of Podunk Hollow with just two guys. But for civilians we can have anything from two people on up to a small town like McDowell.
The site doesn't have to be a historic home, village, fort, whatever. A lot of historic homes have been pretty much renovated to modern standards anyway so little about them still resembles the past. Use a field if necessary, surely somebody owns a farm that you can use a portion of. But once you find a site then write up an appropriate scenario for that setting that allows for a handful of people.
Of course you also don’t have to do a stand alone civilian event the first time around either, there’s also talking to military organizers and seeing if they want authentic civilians and become civilian coordinator! I’ve either coordinated or helped coordinate Recon II & III, we had our own group at WOTJ, Davis Run (McDowell), Goldsboro (cancelled)…
I was overall organizer for SFS, and I had to cap civilians at 30, Union at 30, and CS at 10 or something like that -- that's all that the land allowed for (90 acres). In the end we had something like 25 civilians, 15 US and 3 CS, but that was okay. We actually were able to come up with a reason that a captain would be out there with a small handful of soldiers; and why the CS were in such small numbers because one was wounded and his comrades were trying to help him get to help and/or back to their regiment after a skirmish that took place a few miles away at Point Pleasant, WV.
Don't be afraid that people won't come -- instead offer something so tantalizing that they can't not come. :sarcastic Seriously, about 2/3rds of the people who came to SFS drove over 250 miles (one way), with the furthest coming in Abby Walker (Wisconsin) 572 m and Don Cope (Iowa) 563 m. The two furthest military guys were the two from NY state 498 and 499 miles respectively. But then SFS was offering a lot that wasn't offered by many events then or even now.
I also want to state, once again for the record, that had I not had another event already scheduled for the weekend of Annette's Texas immersion event I would be seriously interested in attending it. She and I did converse on the planning portion a couple of times in which I threw my support her way. It's just I've been waiting for this 1888 event for the last two years, and I'm not gonna miss it. :tounge_sm
I don't mean for this to come across as bragging over my accomplishments; but a chance to tell people what people will do for a good event. I hope someone takes the challenge -- especially for an immersion style event. I'll be more than willing to share ideas, be a bouncer, etc. just please don't ask me to organize or assist. :angry_smi
Linda.
And since I didn't want to get too off topic I thought I'd start a new thread. I have been carrying on a conversation backstage and thought I'd bring my part out to the light.
About a year ago I announced that I'm moving away from the organizing portion of events. If I attend an event I just wanna be a participant for a change. :D I thought maybe if I offered up some ideas someone might say, “hey, that doesn’t sound so hard – I’ll give it a try!”
Seriously though, organizing events isn't easy, but it is rewarding; especially when you see events like Struggle for Statehood, the Inn at Peak's Mill, and other similar events go off. The trial event is my last hurrah as an organizer, and I thought I might share a few ideas that I've learned over the last several years, in hopes that someone, somewhere will step up and organize better events.
First decide what it is that you want to accomplish, what bar(s) you want to raise? Do you want a pure immersion event with 24/7 first person action and interaction? A first person interpretation to the public? Or do you want to raise the bar in third person interpretation?
What kind of rules will you establish for your event, and how will you prepare to enforce them? Probably one of the biggest complaints that I've heard over the years is that organizers create all these great rules and regulations, but then fail to enforce them. I was innocent enough to believe that all organizers enforced rules till the 130th Gettysburg. :cry_smile
The next step is to decide how you can best accomplish your above goal. My advice is (especially for a first time organizer) think small. No sense getting overwhelmed with your first event. This is one advantage that we really have over the military. It's hard for them to pull off the Battle of Podunk Hollow with just two guys. But for civilians we can have anything from two people on up to a small town like McDowell.
The site doesn't have to be a historic home, village, fort, whatever. A lot of historic homes have been pretty much renovated to modern standards anyway so little about them still resembles the past. Use a field if necessary, surely somebody owns a farm that you can use a portion of. But once you find a site then write up an appropriate scenario for that setting that allows for a handful of people.
Of course you also don’t have to do a stand alone civilian event the first time around either, there’s also talking to military organizers and seeing if they want authentic civilians and become civilian coordinator! I’ve either coordinated or helped coordinate Recon II & III, we had our own group at WOTJ, Davis Run (McDowell), Goldsboro (cancelled)…
I was overall organizer for SFS, and I had to cap civilians at 30, Union at 30, and CS at 10 or something like that -- that's all that the land allowed for (90 acres). In the end we had something like 25 civilians, 15 US and 3 CS, but that was okay. We actually were able to come up with a reason that a captain would be out there with a small handful of soldiers; and why the CS were in such small numbers because one was wounded and his comrades were trying to help him get to help and/or back to their regiment after a skirmish that took place a few miles away at Point Pleasant, WV.
Don't be afraid that people won't come -- instead offer something so tantalizing that they can't not come. :sarcastic Seriously, about 2/3rds of the people who came to SFS drove over 250 miles (one way), with the furthest coming in Abby Walker (Wisconsin) 572 m and Don Cope (Iowa) 563 m. The two furthest military guys were the two from NY state 498 and 499 miles respectively. But then SFS was offering a lot that wasn't offered by many events then or even now.
I also want to state, once again for the record, that had I not had another event already scheduled for the weekend of Annette's Texas immersion event I would be seriously interested in attending it. She and I did converse on the planning portion a couple of times in which I threw my support her way. It's just I've been waiting for this 1888 event for the last two years, and I'm not gonna miss it. :tounge_sm
I don't mean for this to come across as bragging over my accomplishments; but a chance to tell people what people will do for a good event. I hope someone takes the challenge -- especially for an immersion style event. I'll be more than willing to share ideas, be a bouncer, etc. just please don't ask me to organize or assist. :angry_smi
Linda.
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