Uprising Redux (was Re: [Artemisia] Northern Region)

[cate]

> I've attended the majority of Uprising's since I moved here.  Each 
> year the price of attendance seems to increase with very good reasons. 
>  Each year, attendance has seemed to dwindle, also with very good 
> reasons and each year I have witnessed what seems an increasing number 
> of complaints regarding the event.
>
> That means two things.
>
> Firstly, the populace needs to understand that this is the LAST 
> kingdom-wide event left on the callender!  You may have to accept some 
> inconveniences to attend.
>
> Secondly, the autocratting staff needs to take every complaint to 
> heart and make every effort to make the experience ameniable for all 
> of their guests.  This includes some serious review of the site.  I 
> know finding sites is difficult, but have all avenues been truly 
> investigated, including a site that lies perhaps somewhat outside of 
> your territorial boundaries?

Good cousins and especially Iohne,

Many interesting points were raised in the above post to the list.  I 
have not yet seen any responses yet but I get the Aerie as a digest so 
it is more than possible there have been responses and I just haven't 
seen them yet.

I do think we could benefit from a discussion of not just the Uprising 
comment but also of the "low population density and dwindling 
volunteer" problem.

I have a few brief points.  First, Uprising is a baronial, not kingdom, 
event.  There has been much discussion in the past about the local 
group vs. kingdom status of Uprising, often contentious and usually 
frustrating.  The folks of 1000 eyes have spent many years and much 
work to invent, run and sponsor Uprising and because of this, they 
"own" this event.  It's been a huge investment on their part.  While 
one could argue that this large and important event _should_ be a 
kingdom event, an equally good case can be made to the contrary.  There 
are several large events of great prominence throughout the known world 
which are run by local groups: Ice Dragon (East), Egil's (An Tir) and 
Rowany (Lochac) come immediately to mind.  Within each of these local 
groups there exists a wealth of experience in running their events. 
This event-specific experience is concentrated within these respective 
groups.

"Nationalizing" an event like Uprising would dilute this autocratting 
expertise and would take years to build back up.  As a kingdom event, 
the logistics of running Uprising would also be much more difficult due 
to spreading the autocratting staff throughout the kingdom - the 
problem is one of communication.  It is non-trivial to coordinate the 
efforts of a dispersed staff.  In fact, it is a huge undertaking to do 
so.  I was an "autocrat's staff" at Pennsic one year.  My college 
roommate was the autocrat.  I watched the process of coordination first 
hand.  It was really hard to pull the dispersed staff together prior to 
the event (been there, done that).  Uprising is in direct contrast to 
this.  The organization for Uprising begins four months before the 
event.  The entire staff sits down together frequently to work on the 
myriad of tasks necessary to host the event.  The level of  
communication is amazingly good - and this is why a small number of 
people in 1000 Eyes can run an event this large year-after-year without 
falling over dead.  The system of autocratting Uprising works pretty 
well - do we really need to fix it? (that was meant to be a rhetorical
question).  So, while one could make a case for "nationalizing" 
Uprising, a good case can be made for not doing so.

As to the choice of site, I have two thoughts.  First, if there are 
complaints, please send the details to the Uprising staff.  No 
complaint goes unread.  Having sat through several of these Uprising 
meetings, I can attest that some complaints are acted on and some 
aren't - usually for logistical reasons and never for malice of 
forethought.  No autocrat in his or her right mind wants people to have 
an unpleasant time at their event.  But without knowing what people 
think about the event and the site, the Uprising staff won't know what 
to fix.

As to the site itself, I must confess I don't like the current site.  I 
would love to see a change in venue.  But please, do not think that the 
folks in 1000 Eyes have blinders on toward other sites for Uprising.  
The surveying of potential new or used sites does happen and not 
infrequently.  Looking in from the outside, I believe it's possible to 
think that 1000 Eyes is sitting on its proverbial hands resisting 
change, but from where I sit inside the barony, I know that this is not 
the case. (And for the record, I am not one of the people running the 
event or one of its activities this year - so this post is not a case 
of "enlightened self interest" nor self-advertising.  I do admit that 
some of the statements in previous paragraph may be putting words in 
the mouths of the Uprising event steward and staff, but I'm fairly sure 
that they would concur).

As to the low population density/ dwindling volunteers/northern region 
thread, I shot my wad on these subjects recently and will refrain from 
repeating my self for the moment.  I only have time right now to beat 
one dead horse, not two.  ;-)

ttfn
Therasia