I'm not a big fan of the strict rotational model just because of the economics and logistics. I live on the border of a small principality, not part of the population center of the kingdom. The principality is mostly rural with a larger population center, but the strict rotation to small groups means that many events are some distance to travel from one edge to the other, with quite small turn-outs - almost just like local events rather than regional ones.
From an economic standpoint this makes little sense to me. The hosting group usually loses money and the whole principality loses out on opportunities to develop as a cohesive organization because so many people are missing. I would suggest a different strategy. I would run some stats on population densities. The areas with the highest concentrations of populations should have the most events. They serve the greatest number of people, and it is even a benefit if they are central. Events still should rotate, but not perhaps at one turn each - it would depend on the logistics.
Groups that are small who feel this is unfair to their coffers could be paired with the larger sponsoring groups to share in the gate. For example the larger Barony in the populous area could be in charge of finding the site, the booking paperwork etc, and the smaller shire could be in charge of running gate, the lists and all the other jobs that take time, patience and love.
I suspect that no matter what happens, a certain percentage of the population base just will not travel for a variety of reasons, most probably for monetary reasons. Which is why, if I were an outlying branch, I would only put in bids for crown tournaments.
I'd also consider a survey to see how far people are willing to travel and then find, if necessary, a compromise area outside of the 'power base' for some events until my local base was firmly established and go from there.
As to event sites, that's a toughie. I have been saying for decades that our kingdom should have bought a piece of land for events starting back in 1984. The amount of money we put out just for our crown tourneys would have bought it several times over and even as a non-profit it is possible to generate profit to put back into the organization (just think, showers, classrooms, a living history village...). No one has ever listened. My experience with finding sites and those people who do is that we drive around and around, asking questions, checking out buildings and networking until something comes up. It's an art in itself!
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From an economic standpoint this makes little sense to me. The hosting group usually loses money and the whole principality loses out on opportunities to develop as a cohesive organization because so many people are missing. I would suggest a different strategy. I would run some stats on population densities. The areas with the highest concentrations of populations should have the most events. They serve the greatest number of people, and it is even a benefit if they are central. Events still should rotate, but not perhaps at one turn each - it would depend on the logistics.
Groups that are small who feel this is unfair to their coffers could be paired with the larger sponsoring groups to share in the gate. For example the larger Barony in the populous area could be in charge of finding the site, the booking paperwork etc, and the smaller shire could be in charge of running gate, the lists and all the other jobs that take time, patience and love.
I suspect that no matter what happens, a certain percentage of the population base just will not travel for a variety of reasons, most probably for monetary reasons. Which is why, if I were an outlying branch, I would only put in bids for crown tournaments.
I'd also consider a survey to see how far people are willing to travel and then find, if necessary, a compromise area outside of the 'power base' for some events until my local base was firmly established and go from there.
As to event sites, that's a toughie. I have been saying for decades that our kingdom should have bought a piece of land for events starting back in 1984. The amount of money we put out just for our crown tourneys would have bought it several times over and even as a non-profit it is possible to generate profit to put back into the organization (just think, showers, classrooms, a living history village...). No one has ever listened. My experience with finding sites and those people who do is that we drive around and around, asking questions, checking out buildings and networking until something comes up. It's an art in itself!