Thoughts on Nov 9-10

[DonaCatalina]

We had a great time. There seemed to be a lot of people wearing nothing but bedsheets who shouldn't have been. There were a lot more shops selling Chinese imports; but we don't patronise those.
The French Court was the most fun and the most interactive.
Someone in their costume department really needs to help King Henry with his garb.
Several members of the English Court will never be able to hear 'exit stage left' without laughing. It was great to see those of you we did run into. Sir Martin et alia.
See you guys again on Celtic Christmas.

[Fenster]

Chinese imports are one thing, but what I don't get is the addition of items that are not even close to period.

In addition to the steampunk stuff I'm seeing superhero garb and toys such as wooden AK-47's. Is there nobody on staff that checks these things?  Are they only worried about the King's English and keeping phones hidden? Getting out of hand in my opinion.

[Sir Martin]

It was great to see you and your family also, Dona Catalina . . . hope I didn't talk your ears off.   

Fenster - I have heard quite a bit about the demerit system lately, and have to wonder how the wooden AK-47s and other firearms I saw this past weekend fit into the scheme of things.  I don't remember the name of the shoppe, but it was somewhere around 267 or 268 ... in the building that was previously occupied by Entropy. 

[Breandan]

Honestly, if I was a vendor out there and they tried to fine me for one of my employees checking a watch or slipping in their accent, I'd personally dump a stack of photos of that sort of thing, the paintball gun range, and numerous immersion-shattering garbage TRF itself puts out, etc. onto the new vendor coordinator's desk and tell him that I'll pay the fine when they remove all of that. I have been told by Terre that they were improving the jurying of vendors to bring them more in line with the immersion of the faire and to increase artisanship. Instead, I see more and more cheap internet junk, modern items, and so on. I won't say he lied to me, but I WILL say that what he said would be happening last year and what I see this year do not match up in any way.

[Terre Albert]

We try to police the vendors.  We did remove those items or I was told they were.  The demerit system was designed to help with customer service and hold everyone to the standards.  It was not designed to run people out and there is no fine involved.  We have always done this but never provided detailed feedback as to why the vendor was in violation.  This lets each vendor fix the issue before more serious action is taken.  A lot of rumors about has been flying around.  The watch thing is one of those rumors, it states clearly no set ups will be used to issue a demerit.

[Breandan]

As I have said in discussions like this last year- my intent is not to tear down TRF, my intent is to try to give you an honest external non-sycophantic voicing of issues that need addressing in the hopes of improving the fair. If I thought you wouldn't listen, or that TRF wasn't worth saving, I wouldn't bother. I'd be happy with LARF and Sherwood and leave TRF in the dust. I think you truly want to see the faire prosper and grow, but I also think you are hampered by a variety of neck-dwelling albatrosses that are your Achilles Heel in doing so. I and others here are trying to give you the red flag warning of "Terre, this is an issue, please look into it and fix it because it may blow up into a major problem in time."

Complaints of things like this have been dismissed as Privy Rumour for years, and people here have become jaded by hearing the issues swept under the rug with the ren faire equivalent of swamp gas explanations. Rumours fly, no doubt, but these were issues voiced by vendors who had been subjected to it directly, not "I heard from a friend of a friend of a friend" sorts of things. Said vendors remain anonymous, of course, for very valid fears of retribution from the vendor coordinator, but the issues voiced have been correlated from numerous sources. I myself saw the insane contract handed to a demonstrator out there that no one in their right mind would sign (hence why there's been a change of demonstrators in a couple of areas), which was produced by the very same VC.

In my own direct personal experience, you told me last year that you were going to be increasing jury restrictions for vendors this year, and yet as recently as AHE weekend I saw with my own eyes the very things voiced in this thread, along with the aforementioned paintball gun range and other immersion-shattering things that cannot by any stretch be justified when so many other vendors and demonstrators are under the thumb of the demerit system for comparably trivial infractions. To be fair, I cannot judge how much improvement has been made overall, but after visiting probably 60% of the shops this year I got the impression that not much has truly changed. How accurate that is, I cannot say with solid certainty, but it FEELS like it's still a Renaissance-themed flea market. That is bad enough by itself, but when you add to it reports from vendors that they were nailed for trivial infractions with the above glaring issues allowed to run unchecked, and it becomes an issue of apparent hypocrisy and favoritism. Now, I understand you do not have complete micromanaging control over everything that happens at TRF, but rather than jump to the dismissal of concerns as rumour, would it not be a wiser managerial move to at least look into the issues presented and see if there might be some problems with how your vendor coordinator or his staff are applying the demerits?

You know acutely well from the incident involving me a few weeks ago that your employees will take actions or pull stunts without your authorization that go WAY beyond their scope of authority and the protocols you set forth. I won't tell you how to run TRF, but I can say that were I in your shoes- and I speak as having run a bodyguard company for nearly ten years now, where one tiny screw up on an employee's part in paperwork, much less field operations, could cost the company huge fines, litigation, or even criminal charges, so I take managerial oversight VERY seriously- I would quietly take complaints and candid commentary by decades-long patrons and employees/vendors/demonstrators of faire and do a little bit of increased oversight and investigation into just what has been going on among my subordinates. It's just prudent.

No one here on RF.com wants to hear PR throw-away dismissals. They don't go over well- we are not the beer-n-bewbies crowd, and are by and large far too intelligent and discerning for that to work on anyway- and we would much rather get an honest "I am unaware of the issue, I'll look into it and see if there's any validity to it" than dismissing it out of hand. We want to work with you, we want TRF to be successful, but that support is best answered with candid honesty. You've done more in that regard than most, but be aware that the PR approach used on Facebook and the like is painfully transparent to many of us here. Again, this isn't a castigation of you or TRF, it's voicing issues that have come to light and trying to see that they are addressed.

[Terre Albert]

Thanks, if you want to discuss send me an e-mail or stop in to the office. 

[Sir Martin]

Terre,

We really appreciate you stopping by and providing us with your insights.  I know I've said this before, but I do not know of any other GM who visits patrons of their faire here with such regularity.  In fact, I only know of one other who has even stopped by.  The attendance figures from the past few years are proof that more people are enjoying TRF than ever before.

TRF has so many vendors and performers, it is virtually impossible that all can be pleased with a given set of rules.  That probably applies to almost every type of venture.  You get enough people together and someone will feel that something is unfair.  I have heard from numerous vendors that they appreciate your willingness to listen to their input more than any GM in memory.  My comment about the wooden assault rifles I saw in one of the shoppes was not so much a complaint as it was a "what the heck are these things doing here?"

So far this season, I have only seen two things that were unpleasant, but TRF management was not to blame for either of them.  On All Hallows weekend, a small aircraft flew around and over the festival a few times with a "Will You Marry Me" banner.  Sure, it was romantic and all, but the plane flew so low that the noise disturbed several shows and certainly broke the illusion the performers were providing for the crowds.  On Roman Bacchanal, a guy flew over several times in an ultralight aircraft.  It was annoying, but again, I'm not sure what can be done about something like this.  It may need to be addressed if the frequency of flights increases.

Years ago, some of the performers would come over and put on a show at one of our steak houses here in Beaumont on the weekend before TRF opened.  They sang, told jokes, and gave out a few door prizes (comp tickets and a couple TRF steins from years past).  It was called "Wenches Night" and the outdoor pavilion at the steak house was always standing room only.  I hope that can be considered again in future years.


Breandan,

You have a lot of insights and suggestions that I'm sure could help Terre with future operations.  I hope you can visit with him in the near future.

[Breandan]

I plan to, just trying to find a moment where he and I aren't up to our eyeballs in our respective work