Preferred Parking????

[DonaCatalina]

New Post on TRF FB Page.

Post:   Just noticed the Kings perferred parking this weekend. Unfortunatly we didn't have $10 cash but you can bet we will next weekend. Thanks for making that available. Nothing worse than the long trudge back to the car after you're already tired from a day full of fun. Yeah preferred parking!!!!!!!!!!

TRF Response:   The Texas Renaissance Festival Excellent! Yes, we had a lot of success with the preferred parking. It gives people a chance to park closer if they want too and all other parking is still free.
~The King

I didn't see this post this morning so I think it was deleted. What a laugh...someone seriously doesn't have $10 before faire even opens?

[Fenster]

Opinions both positive and negative are usually welcomed by any business.  If everyone says they love everything when they really don't they are just contributing to the problem. Lots of great new things at TRF this year, this is just not one of them.

[SolRac]

Legitimate concerns? No offense but if it bothers yall that much about the changes why dont you join SCA? I for one love my faire and many of the new friends i have found at faire. The prefered parking bothers you dont park there. If the other things that have come up as to advertising in faire, the new brazilian area and any other things either dont go to the area or go a criticize it. Life is too short to be complaining about the little things. Regardless TRF is my home away from home and i plan to keep it that way for my family.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

[PollyPoPo]

New Post on TRF FB Page.

Post:   Just noticed the Kings perferred parking this weekend. Unfortunatly we didn't have $10 cash but you can bet we will next weekend. Thanks for making that available. Nothing worse than the long trudge back to the car after you're already tired from a day full of fun. Yeah preferred parking!!!!!!!!!!

TRF Response:   The Texas Renaissance Festival Excellent! Yes, we had a lot of success with the preferred parking. It gives people a chance to park closer if they want too and all other parking is still free.
~The King

I didn't see this post this morning so I think it was deleted. What a laugh...someone seriously doesn't have $10 before faire even opens?

It's still out there, timed 20 hours ago on my screen (don't know what time zone).  It will have moved far down and perhaps the older posts are not coming up without pressing the "older stories" button or something.

[Hercules]

On average I pump about $7,500 annually into TRF visits. So $10 ain't gonna kill me. It's management's choice to charge for up-close parking and my choice to participate or not. I won't pay and will remain in free parking since walking a little further ain't gonna kill me either.

Just as a reminder, Scarborough has basically been doing the same thing via their Friends of Faire pass for years.

At Scarby non-FoF people will go out mid-afternoon and move their vehicles into the open FoF spots with no enforcement. Wonder if this will start happening at TRF too?    

[PollyPoPo]

 ...

[PollyPoPo]

On average I pump about $7,500 annually into TRF visits. So $10 ain't gonna kill me. It's management's choice to charge for up-close parking and my choice to participate or not. I won't pay and will remain in free parking since walking a little further ain't gonna kill me either.

Just as a reminder, Scarborough has basically been doing the same thing via their Friends of Faire pass for years.

At Scarby non-FoF people will go out mid-afternoon and move their vehicles into the open FoF spots with no enforcement. Wonder if this will start happening at TRF too?   

Well played, differing point of view, used first person throughout, offered facts, not adrenaline.  Point.

[SirRichardBear]

Just as a reminder, Scarborough has basically been doing the same thing via their Friends of Faire pass for years.

At Scarby non-FoF people will go out mid-afternoon and move their vehicles into the open FoF spots with no enforcement. Wonder if this will start happening at TRF too?    

I think the point was that they did in after opening day and without a lot of notice it was being done.  Scraby made a point of it being part of the FoF package and it did get a lot of comment at the time.

[Breandan]

Again, my issue with the parking has nothing to do with implementing paid parking, it has to do with how it was implemented. These things are symptoms of a potentially larger problem. My issue is this- if they are being this irresponsible, disorganized and unprofessional in marketing and public relations, what else are they being that way in? I dread that this is an issue that pervades the entire management system of TRF, because it was that sort of short-sighted thinking that led to several major incidents at the faire- the numerous PR and mismanagement disasters by George when he was GM (forcibly seizing food booth assets and the resultant blowback and lawsuit, the breach of contract lawsuits over the sale of TRF- Lance Williams v. George Coulam 2010, for those interested- a few years back that went public and got ugly, the fraud lawsuit filed by numerous shareholders- including his brother- a decade ago which also went public and got messy, etc.), the mismanagement of the campgrounds up until recently that led to a significant rise in all manner of illegal actions, and- most tragically- the cutbacks in security the day Brandon Smith was murdered (which, while it was never conclusively proven in court to be a contributing factor in his murder, AFAIK, it WAS so in the court of public opinion, creating a major PR nightmare for TRF), etc.- that have seriously hurt the festival and its reputation. This sort of mismanagement is WHY TRF had such a nasty reputation for the longest time, and still does in many circles.

I am trying to ride Terre's butt to keep the faire from devolving back to those levels of mismanagement. I am trying to hold him- and TRF as a whole- accountable for their actions and to the basic modicums of corporate responsibility that any sane business is held to. If nitpicking the relatively minor things and ticking them off forces them to step up to the plate and better organize their business to head off any potential disasters, I have done my job. Terre has done a magnificent job cleaning up the campgrounds, and while still VERY rough around the edges compared to a state park campground, it is many, many times better than what I have seen in previous years. This year, opening weekend was spent relaxing, occasionally yelling at the raver mini-camp and rushing my kids away from the clouds of pot smoke coming from it and another camp, but generally a helluva lot better than previous years. A few years ago, my experience in the campground consisted of treating a couple of cases of alcohol poisoning, preventing one date rape, carrying one drugged woman back to her camp with her boyfriend, carrying an underage girl I found passed out in broken glass to the nearest authority, and yet ANOTHER one drugged up the gills back to her boss. In one night. Nor was that uncommon that year.

The campgrounds were fixed because a lot of people- myself included- raised PRECISELY the kind of ruckus we are raising right now. It worked. Now, we are trying to head off the disasters before they happen rather than correct the issue AFTER someone has been hurt. I am not attacking your Sacred Cow to be an asshat, I am trying my damnedest to keep it from becoming a trouble-plagued pariah again. Terre has done some good, and I have praised him for it. He has also screwed up- or people under his management have- and I am going to hold him accountable for it, as I am not a sycophant who will only sing the praises of TRF while blithely ignoring the problems (they get enough buttkissing on Facebook, they don't need any more from me anyway). This is what it means to be a manager, and if I didn't think he had what it takes to step up to the plate I'd be calling for his ouster rather than asking him to fix the issues. His initial responses were disappointing and unprofessional, not even a canned PR response, just ad hominems (FYI, for those unfamiliar with fallacies, I use it in the technical term of challenging the questioner rather than addressing the question) and dismissive responses. He finally stepped up and answered some of the issues, for which I thank him, but that should have been his response from the outset. I ride his butt because I KNOW he is better than that, and CAN fix the issues before they spiral out of hand, if he would but get that company organized and better managed under his oversight. I know George is a major monkey wrench in that, as he micromanages from time to time (and rather erratically), but Terre has shown he can work around that interference. So, if you think I am picking on him, I am not, I am holding him up to the standards I and every other business manager are held to and trying to cut through the ocean of lazy, sloppy and self-destructive business paradigms that have plagued TRF for thirty years and more. Manage like a businessman, play like a rennie.

[Zardoz]

Wow Karnov, (Cory) thanks for joining the R/F forum just to snark at me and Breandan!

Not sure how telling repeat paying patrons to stay away helps your king though.
If you ever make a constructive post I look forward to reading it.

[Karnov]

Wow Karnov, (Cory) thanks for joining the R/F forum just to snark at me and Breandan!

Not sure how telling repeat paying patrons to stay away helps your king though.
If you ever make a constructive post I look forward to reading it.

And I look forward to hearing a constructive post from you too. I just cant understand how you complain so much?
I came to this festival for the first time a couple of years ago and found this forum and all I see is complaining...
Why...and then attacking the management?
Why?

[PollyPoPo]

Oh, dear, looks like another thread is about to be locked up.

[Karnov]

Oh, dear, looks like another thread is about to be locked up.

nb4thelock

[PollyPoPo]

Ah, playing a game just to do it.

Classic definition of a troll?

[Terre Albert]

Lock it or kick the troll off.  Who ever it is they don't have anything positive to add to the discussion.