Starting a Mess

[lukegilly13]

Re: Starting a Mess

Ryan, you'd be perfect for it. It's called Millin' Muck. I'll PM you the details. Right now it's living history only....I have a program that has been approved by several public school superintendents in my area and yours and that's where I do most of my work....also do 3 annual ones for National parks and 2 for state parks....always try to schedule around reenacting schedules.

[Ryan Halsey]

Re: Starting a Mess

Sounds great. Do I need to get rid of my stripes? Ill get in touch with you. Hopefully Ill see you this weekend. I just got back from a not so much fun, rainy campaign. But I got to be a sharpshooter. (my mess)

[Charles Heath]

Re: Starting a Mess

Luke,

I don't recall if the quip "A mess is but a half-way house" is a Braunism or a Thorsenism, but that short statement yields much wisdom, especially in this day and age of rising administrative costs coupled with complex event logistics. In simpler terms, a mess is a useful carpool. Invariably, whenever we've attempted to have one of these adult discussions about the more businesslike aspects of the hobby, some wag will jump up and down screaming something to the tune of "We've been doing this forever and never had to do any [insert your favorite word for feces] like that out here!"

If your mess isn't part of an incorporated group, consider the benefits of finding one and joining up. Aside from the obvious tax benefits, and the real savings of in-kind and cash donations, other real world issues, such as reenactor insurance, event insurance, and we have entered a whole new world of security deposits, letters of credit, performance bonds, landowner liability, and other bottom line shockers for living history events, it's a good thing to be associated with a group that has deep pockets, or a financier who can arrange for smooth paper transactions.

Let's just say the Four Man Mess decides to form and have a monthly newsletter. They charge a modest $20 per year dues to cover postage and stationery, so their first year budget is eighty dollars. The four members receive twelve issues each for a total of forty eight x .42 in postage, which is a little over twenty bucks, not including envelopes, paper, staples, and that liquid gold known as a printer cartridge. Let's round it off at thirty dollars, so fifty is left in the shoe box.

Life is good, and six months later one of the members decides they need a website for that all-so-crucial Internet Presence, and (free sites generally stink) they have the in-house web tinkering ability, so that much is gratis. Let's just say the total cost for a typical low-budget domain and annual happiness fee is roughly sixty bucks, so the Four Man Mess is already ten dollars in the hole, except for the fact they have picked up two new members which puts them thirty bucks to the good.

The next thing you know, the Four Man Mess (with six members) wants reenactor insurance. Well, golly, a heck of a lot of things have changed since the days of Stan Popin and Policy #CGL012035 from the Canal Indemnity Company when the premium was $6 per head. That would be ten years ago, for those counting the days. After getting the price quote for that exact insurance from a current popular provider, for a "Historical Reenactment Group," without cannons or horses, at "around" $800 per year, the six men of the Four Man Mess do the math, and realize that price, along with the regular dues exceeds a Franklin-and-a-half.

Playing the long odds on a scratch off ticket, one of the more altruistic mess members covers the annual fee for the reenacting insurance, and even manages to pay the affiliation fee. The mess decides to put on a living history. As part of their activity permit, and the brand new rules that go with them, they are required to put up $5,000 cash for damages. The mess members look around at each other, scrape out change from under the living room furniture, and decide this simply can't be done.

The break even point appears to be approximately forty dues paying members. With the ever growing administrative (read financial) burden driving the hobby back together (you read that here first), The Four Man Mess (with six or eight members) may do itself well by hooking up with a larger organization to better create a little economy of scale. If this seems completely foreign, and it will to some, let's just say a number of excellent living history organizations with decades of experience have quietly gone out of existence due to the lack of funds to cover insurance costs due to a dwindling membership. A number of the consolidations and realignments in the past 18-24 months have also been along these lines, and for the same reasons.

I'm also reminded of another phrase, and that is "The company is the building block of the hobby."

[garyjd]

Re: Starting a Mess

I think if your mess requires a website/page try a blog. One or all the members could be given the ability to post entries or pictures. I'm sure it could be structured in a way where it's not that different from a website. My .02 ~Gary