Submitting a Crown or Kingdom Event Bid
By HL Grainne Rosa Iarann
What's Involved
This article is for anyone whose eyes have ever glazed over at first sight of all the forms and information required to submit a bid for a Crown or Kingdom event. Take heart, intrepid Autocrat, it's done all the time and no one has yet been permanently maimed. It is, however, not for the inexperienced. If you are reading this with an eye toward autocratting a Crown or Kingdom event and you have never autocratted before, run, don't walk, to your nearest experienced Autocrat and have a discussion about your plan. Some people thrive on sink-or-swim challenges, but you don't want to find out ten days from the opening of an event that you're in over your head. Too much time, effort, and money must be invested into making a Crown or Kingdom event happen to treat it as an experiment in personal mettle. If you really must do an event at this level for your first autocratting experience, co-autocrat with someone much more experienced or serve as Deputy Autocrat this time around. Learning experiences are much easier to take if you are not also where the buck stops and the person with whom final responsibility and consequence rest.
Tackling the Forms
The first thing you will need in order to mount a successful bid for a Crown or Kingdom event is a demonstrated plan. Autocratting an event like this is pretty much like autocratting any other sort except that Crown and Kingdom events usually provide the backdrop for the conducting of the Kingdom's most important business and they are often more elaborate and more expensive. The Kingdom Seneschal, Exchequer, and Crown will want to know that you have a preestablished roadmap to follow and a good idea of how to get there before they grant you and your proposed event team the green light to proceed. The Crown & Kingdom Event Bid Form is a good place to start.
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The top of the Crown & Kingdom Event Bid Form is pretty straightforward. First check the box for the event you want to bid on. Your options are usually going to be Twelfth Night, July Coronation, Arts & Sciences Championship, Crown Council, May Crown, September Crown, or An Tir/West War. If you have a proposal for a Kingdom event besides the ones just listed, there's an Other box. If you want to autocrat an Other event, be prepared to provide detailed information on what you have in mind.
Next, provide the name and contact information for the sponsoring branch and the hosting branch. Please note that these will not always be the same branch. The sponsoring branch is the one providing the financial backing and often the support of key officers and event staff. The hosting branch is the one on whose lands the event will actually take place. The hosting branch usually provides the bulk of the volunteers needed to run the event. For example, Twelfth Night 2003 was sponsored by the Kingdom of An Tir but was hosted by the Barony of Adiantum.
Please also note that the Site Contact person will not always be the Autocrat. If someone besides the Autocrat is the primary liason between the event and the hotel, park, or other venue where the event will take place, that person and not the Autocrat should be listed as Site Contact.
Financial Planning
Without doubt, the most crucial aspect of event planning is financial support. It cannot be overemphasized that there is no such thing as too much care and attention given to keeping track of incoming and outgoing funds. Please make yourself familiar with SCA and Kingdom financial policies and adhere to them rigorously.
You will need to designate someone who is responsible for receiving and distributing funds. Someone will need to write deposit checks to vendors and accept registration or feast reservations. This may be the hosting branch Exchequer, it may be a member of the event staff whose primary duty is preregistration, it may even be you, the Autocrat. Whoever it is, let the Kingdom know early on.
There are other sundry details to deal with. Is there a split of profits between the sponsoring and hosting group? If so, what percentage? Your site fee is already set, but will that be US or Canadian currency? Does the site fee change after a certain date? Does the site require a deposit? If so, will the Kingdom or the hosting branch be providing it and how much is it? There are lots of other things to consider, but those are some of the first questions that will have to be answered. Contact the Kingdom Exchequer very early on in the bid process to work out these details and confirm who will be responsible for what.
You will also be expected to turn in an Income Projection Summary, also known as a preliminary budget. You will simply need to figure up how much things are likely to cost and balance that against the income of how many people are likely to attend at the given site fees. Don't worry, it's supposed to be inexact. Unless you have warped back in time from your own event's review meeting, there's no way to predict with 100% accuracy how it will go. You can, however, get a pretty good idea from the experiences of other Autocrats, the history of the event or like events held previously, and from known quantities like the rates certain commonly used vendors charge for their services. It can seem a little daunting to compile all that information into a single document at first. The included spreadsheet was used as the template for the An Tir/West War 2003 budget and worked quite well. Use it customized for your event or make up your own. It doesn't matter as long as you end up with something that works for you and your event.
Take a breath. You've made it through the first page! Let's keep going.
Site Information
Next we come to site information. These are the details that will effect how the event actually runs at the site. You will need information on how many people the site is expected to hold, how many campsites there are (if any), how many cabins there are (if any) and how many beds they hold. Is there a feast hall and, if so, what is its human capacity? Is there a kitchen? Is there a source of water? Is it drinkable? Will there be permanent toilets on site or portable ones and how many? Are there showers and hot water? Is there a bardic circle or fire pit? Are pets allowed? How about horses, and do you need an insurance binder? Before your eyes glaze over again, remember that you can get most of this information from the rangers, caretakers, or owners that look after the site. A web search or a phone call or two will probably yield most of the facts you will need. If you are unfamiliar with the site, taking a walking tour yourself is highly recommended.
If your event will include a tournament, there are some other factors to consider. How many fighting fields will be available and what size and configuration are they in? What is the ground like? Are the fields level? Do they contain potential hazards like gopher holes? You will want to include the name and contact information of your event's Marshal-in-Charge. You will also want to consult with your MIC regarding these details before submitting your bid. If your event is a Crown Tournament, your Marshal will also want to consult with the Crown to find out any special arrangements that They may want made.
Putting It All Together
When you have collected all the necessary information and filled out the forms, be sure to get all the appropriate signatures and complete the required attachments before submitting it. No, really, don't stress over the attachments. You need a Feast Plan if your event will include a feast, and you need a Constabulary Plan in general. Here's how to deal with both: hand the Constabulary Plan form to your Constable-in-Charge and hand the Feast Plan form to your Head Cook or Feastocrat, if you have one. Remember that delegation is a Very Good Thing right from the top! If they don't know what to do with these forms, you probably need to recruit more experienced event staffers. Likely they will, however, and will bring them back to you completed. Be sure to go over them, ask any questions you may have, and sign the Constabulary Plan before the bid is submitted.
Once you have everything together and filled out, you will want to send a copy of your bid forms, all attachments, and anything else you may think relevant to the Kingdom Seneschal, the Kingdom Exchequer, the Kingdom Events Deputy, the Crown and the Heirs (if applicable). If all goes well and your plan seems reasonable and sound to the Kingdom Officers who will be reviewing it, you will hear back from them with confirmation that your bid has been accepted. At that point, you will want to get the standard Date Reservation form and Event Information form to the Crier and the Kingdom Calendar Deputy as early as you can manage. If your bid is declined, don't be afraid to ask for feedback as to why. It's always good to have new Autocrats for Crown and Kingdom events, and the Kingdom Seneschal and Exchequer should be able to tell you exactly why your bid didn't make the cut so that you can turn in a more suitable bid the next time. It may not have had anything to do with your bid itself, actually. The Crown may simply have wanted to use a different site. By all means, do bid again if your first one is not accepted.
Crown and Kingdom events require a lot of time and effort and provide a great autocratting challenge, but they are also a lot of fun and you get to work with some really terrific people. So, best of luck to you, dear Autocrat. Put your best foot forward and get that bid in. The whole Kingdom will be looking forward to seeing what you have put together.