The next event planning meeting for the fall event is Monday 15 September 2008 at the normal 7:30pm at my home at 15318 Winter Mist, San Antonio, TX 78247. My number is 845-853-9251.

Ursae Lyon II Planning meeting agendas & meeting notes

Directions will always be accessible at my wiki: Directions here.

I will also be seeking people to take lead on several other things that always need to get done, gate, setup, takedown etc.

We have dropped the crest melee due to declining participation.

Lucia and Iago are hosting a tavern Friday and Saturday evening.

We should encourage stunt artisans to participate to assist fighters who may not know any artisans.

Haraldr will be contacting Settima to get the budget info.

The insurance cert is processed. I will be checking again with United Site Services but wish to also pre-pay for the facilities so we don’t have to worry about a check at the event.

The Alamo River RV Park (Same site as last fall) is our chosen site. Charlie is planning to have water brought down to our fields. We are currently planning to use the lower field along the river for our primary activities, but in the event of heavy rains we will need to move back up to where we were last year. Currently we are looking to set a list field, a TFP for the populace along the river, the noble’s pavilion on the opposite side of the field facing the river and matched 30’x30’ pavilions for the ladies of the field on the sides of the list. The kitchen will be down on this same level, near the feast tent if we are expecting inclement weather, otherwise close to the water and the activities.

We will be using Iago’s wedge tent for the gate pavilion as it works well with a side raised. We will be using the garage usually used for gate for the kitchen. We still need at least one more garage pavilion for the kitchen.

Several of us went to the site on 27 Sep to see what work would be required and do a check of the facilities. The ground in the lower field is fine. We moved the 40×40 tent to the middle of the site. So from the wedge by the entrance on the lower field will go kitchen, a 30×30, list field with nobles under the trees and populace opposite near the river, then the other 30×30 followed by games and the 40×40. This might mean a bit more of a hike for servers, but there was no suitably flat land for the 40×40 on the other end of the list field.

In the event of severely wet weather, we will have to move things up top. But so far, things are perfectly usable down on the lower field.

There are roads entering the lower field from the entrance area and from the far end. The center ‘road’ is no longer available. It wasn’t ever supposed to have been a road according to Charlie.

Site survey field trip was Sunday June 8th at 11am to view the two sites on the Medina River.

Many thanks to the people that came out to view our potential sites today. Bertha, Alexandria & her daughter, Branwen, Radegund, Godwyn and myself all went out to Medina Lake area to view the Paradise Canyon and Bedrock Resort locations to evaluate their suitability as event sites.

The Bedrock resort unfortunately doesn’t have any large enough flat spots for a list field and has been eliminated from the available choices lists. Paradise Canyon has a better setup, though it too really doesn’t have a large enough area for the list field in a central area of the site. There is one reasonable list field area, but it is the farthest south point on the property. There is an interesting stone ford across the river that prompted thoughts of a very interesting melee scenario, but the expense of getting rafts for the marshalls was deemed unacceptable. The biggest issue is that the site has an annual booking for the third weekend of October. It might be an interesting option for other times of the year, though it will probably be too expensive for our spring event.

After viewing both of these sites, Bertha, Alexandria (& her daughter) had to head back to town. Branwen, Radegund, Godwyn and myself were able to go down to Alamo River and meet with the owner, Charlie Brown, to view the property status and confirm availability on our weekend. It is indeed available. Charlie was very very pleased with us last year and is very interested in us coming out again. The price is staying the same, despite a 10% increase they’ve put through on everything else.

Nolte Island confirmed that they are booked for the Saturday of 18 October. They are, however, free for the weekend of 27 Feb to 1 Mar 2009. Fees would be $375/full day for first 100 people, then .75 per head with a $100 damage deposit. They further stated that October tends to book early so recommended reserving this year if we wanted the third weekend of October in 2009. Reservations require full payment in advance at the time they are made, which ties up a bunch of our capital, but not an insurmountable issue.

This is a live page and will be updated as often as I can think of things. Please feel free to email me any updates or suggestions. I also suggest interested people select the “subscribe changes” button on the lower right of the page to be emailed whenever the page is changed.

Haraldr