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SERA Cave Carnival Enhancement CommitteeIssues for Consideration
During the SERA WBM of 2004, a discussion ensued concerning the lack of attendance at the last SERA Cave Carnival (SCC), which is the only revenue source for SERA. At the end of the discussion, it was decided to form a committee to look into ways to increase attendance, and report back to the governing body. The volunteers that formed the SERA Cave Carnival Enhancement Committee (SCCEC) included Jim Wilbanks, Bill Stringfellow, Eric Crisp, and myself, Mark Joop, Chairman of the Committee. In 2007, the committee expanded to include Michael Gilbert and John Hoffelt.
The SCCEC held its first meeting during the SCC of 2005, held at Bucks pocket State Park, AL and hosted by the Central Alabama Grotto. The attendance at that event was 587, a significant increase over the 2003 (317) and 2004 (380) Carnivals. At the SERA WBM last year (2007), I made a presentation of the Committee’s findings, which are outlined below.
The SCCEC is trying to find solutions to low attendance at a SCC. We believe that low attendance results in the following situations:
- less income for the SERA treasury (just meeting expenses leaves nothing to help its IOs)
- less incentive for the hosting grotto to go through the effort (there is little reward and it is disheartening)
- less incentive for the caving vendors to participate (they do not recoup expenses)
- and for some people, less fun (they rather save their money and just go caving)
However, small caving events are easier and cheaper to host; smaller events also result in less impacts to caves and the local area, and some cavers prefer smaller and quieter crowds.
The SCCEC first identified apparent or perceived reasons why a caver would choose to not attend a SCC, reasons over and above the ones we can do nothing about (e.g., if one can’t afford the cost or the time off work). These reasons include:
- Floating event dates – too hard to include a SCC in the year’s vacation plans and it creates scheduling conflicts
- Camping in the heat of summer – not many people are willing to camp in 90º weather
- Location – the greater the distance from the heart of TAG, the less the attendance (people are not willing to travel long distances for a SCC)
- Too many unknowns about the event – perspective attendees are unsure about the host’s ability to deliver, about the location, or about the potential turnout
Similarly, we considered the reasons why a SERA grotto chooses not to host a SCC
- They are too small – not enough willing people in the grotto to do the work
- They are too remote – not enough people would come to their neck of the woods
- It is too hard to find an adequate location or one is not available in their area
- The expense is more than their treasury can bear
- It is not a good year for them when the rotation comes around to their turn
- The risk of loosing money is too high
With these issues identified from the perspective of both the caver and the host, the SCCEC came up with some ideas for potential solutions. Let’s look at each issue individually.
Sporadic event dates. It’s hard to plan around a floating date. Often, by the time the date for a SCC is announced, it conflicts with something a person has already scheduled. We believe that one of the strong points that make the TAG Fall Cave-In or OTR a success is that everybody knows when it is going to occur. If it is an event you want to attend, you make other plans around that weekend if possible. One idea to solve this issue is to have the SCC on a fixed weekend, like many other caving events (e.g., KOR, Speleofest, Crawl-a-Thon, etc.). A fixed date also helps the caving vendors plan their calendar year, as long as it does not conflict with other caving events. But in order to do this, the SERA Act of 2/22/86, which states that “Dates for SERA Cave Carnival will be decided by the host organization,” would need to be changed. The drawback to a fixed date is that it removes the flexibility for the hosting grotto to pick a weekend that works best for them or that is available at a particular location. But this issue could be overcome if the hosting grotto plans to host far enough in advance and if some permanent sites were available to them that were accommodating to the event.
Camping in the heat of summer. This issue is related to the last. The hottest months of summer are as bad a choice for holding a large camping event as in the freezing months of winter. The SCCEC felt that SERA needs to take “Summer” out of the name of the event. This leaves the cool months of spring and fall. Since the fall months (September and October) are claimed by other caving events like TAG Fall Cave-In, KOR, and OTR, this leaves the spring months of late April to early June. The SCCEC believed that a fixed weekend in late May, excluding the weekend of Speleofest (Memorial Day), would be a good choice.
Location. Finding a good location to hold a SCC is probably the single most difficult task for the hosting grotto. You have heard business strategists exclaim, “location, location, location!,” when emphasizing the most important factor in being successful. Well, this is true for the success of a SCC also. Let’s face it, who wants to spend a weekend camping at a KOA 5 hours away from home? So a bad location, due to either its unattractiveness or the long travel distance for the majority of TAG cavers, will doom a SCC. When you look at the distribution of past SCCs and the number of attendees at each, you will see a pattern where the farther the event was held from the tri-state corner, the less the attendance. The biggest events were held at Smoky Caldwell’s farm (790) in 1995 and at Raccoon Mountain Caverns (726) in 1997. Granted, there are other factors that affect attendance, such as time of year, weather, and even economy, but all things being equal, a site equidistant from most TAG caver’s home is a key factor.
Finding a site that meets the unique criteria for a successful SCC is not easy, mainly because the choices are slim. It has to accommodate 400-700 campers, have plenty of hot showers, be close to a variety of caves, have a central place for Vendor Row (with its electrical needs), and have some attractiveness in terms of amenities, such as a lake or stream, wooded, etc. so that non-caving family members can enjoy the site. It’s no wonder that many grottoes turn down the opportunity to host a SCC when faced with the daunting task of figuring out where to hold it.
So the SCCEC came up with an idea to solve the location problem. One solution is to find 3 to 4 permanent sites that any hosting grotto could use at their discretion. These sites would be caver-tested and -approved, ideally within a 60-mile radius from the tri-state corner, have most of the desired amenities, be close to a good assortment of caves, and the owners welcome the event and reserve the location for the event. Ideally, one site would be in the NW corner of GA, one site in an area centered about Scottsboro, AL, and one or two sites in TN no further north than I-40, no further east than Cumberland County, and no further west than Cannon County. All the members of the SCCEC agree that the other most important contributing factor to the success of the TAG Fall Cave-In and OTR is that they are held in a fixed location. Cavers and vendors alike know what to expect, groups and grottoes have their favorite places to camp, and everyone knows how to get there. Another benefit to fixed locations is that small or remote grottoes would be able to host a SCC at one of these sites, where all the details have already been worked out, eliminating the burden and risk of finding a suitable site themselves. SERA grottoes would still be able to host a SCC at a different site, but they wouldn’t have to. The down side to fixed locations is, of course, the impact to the area caves, but having 3 to 4 sites would lessen the impact to any one area through the rotation between sites. While the participants may enjoy the idea of going to a SCC at a wide variety of locations within SERA states, this approach comes at a large gamble to the hosting grotto.
The concept of a permanent SCC site is that, whether it is a commercial facility or private land, the owner wants our business, reserves the weekend for the SCC, and all the logistics have been ironed out in terms of issues like camping areas, vendors row electrical hookups, signage, parking, band location, hot tub location, etc. Such sites are very much landowner-dependent. In a perfect world, these sites would be owned by cavers or be caver-friendly.
One downside to a fixed SERA sites in the heart of TAG is that far-away grottoes may be discouraged from hosting the event so far from their home territory. But with many of the logistics already in place, the number of site visits by the hosting grotto would be minimized, and the increased income from a potentially bigger event would offset the costs of increased travel.
Too Many Unknowns. Some cavers enjoy caving events and will attend as many in a year as they can. These people pre-register for a SCC because they want to attend regardless of where the event is held or who is hosting it. You see these cavers at every SCC. Many cavers wait to the last minute to decide whether or not to go, reserving judgment until some of the unknowns become known (e.g., weather, other opportunities, who among their friends is going, whether they feel like traveling or staying home, their gut feeling about the worthiness of the event based on where it is held and who is hosting it). Some cavers may decide whether they will attend a SCC based on their confidence in the hosting grotto. If they are unsure about the hosting grotto’s ability to pull it off, they decide not to go. If they are confident in the hosting grotto, based on that grotto’s reputation, then they decide they will go if nothing better comes along. Fixed locations that people are familiar and comfortable with would eliminate some of the unknowns in the equation, as it would focus most of the attention on the event itself rather than on the hosting grotto (i.e., who is hosting it really won’t matter). Each grotto hosting a SCC at the same location may add a unique flare to the event, but everybody would generally know what to expect, because the site itself gives the event its defining character. It seems logical that the more stable the event is, by removing some of the unknowns, the more desirable the event will be.
But what can we do to solve some of the issues that grottoes have with hosting a SCC? Providing several permanent sites would certainly help grottoes, especially small grottoes, with the location issue. But small grottoes also have financial, staffing, and experience issues. There is already a policy in place in the Acts of SERA (2/24/01) that allows as much as $500 to be loaned to the hosting grotto to help with setting up a SCC, provided there are such funds available in the SERA treasury. There is also a policy in place in the Acts of SERA (3/31/90) that allows more than one grotto to work together to host any SERA function. But it is the experience level of putting together an event for 300-700 people that may be lacking in small to medium-sized grottoes. It takes moxie and a talent pool to pull off an event of this magnitude. The prospect of hosting a SCC can appear quite intimidating to a lot of grottoes, which is why only a hand full out of the 40 something grottoes in SERA actually do host the SCC. How can we change this? One solution is to form a SCC Advisory Committee, formed by people who have past experience setting up a SCC or similar event, who could provide advice and help to less experienced grottoes as they go through the process. With such a committee available, less experienced grottoes may not feel like they would have to tackle this big task on their own from scratch. As it stands now, grottoes that have hosted 2 to 3 SCCs have that past experience to build on, whereas grottoes hosting the SCC for the first time do not have that advantage, and find themselves reinventing the wheel. This committee would be a resource tool, who could bring in cavers with expertise in certain fields when needed (e.g., electricians, plumbers, website builders, printers, t-shirt designers, etc.). This committee would also be responsible for continually revising and updating the SERA Cave Carnival Event Guide, which should be a living document as lessons are learned. This committee would also keep a record of locations used for a SCC and the number of people that attended the events held at those locations, as a measure of caver approval.
The Cave Carnival is a great means of funding SERA, as it is a win-win scenario for cavers and grottoes. Cavers from all over the SE get another opportunity to come together, socialize, make new friends, cave with others outside their grotto, and have fun, while at the same time funding their Region of the NSS and helping out a fellow grotto. Some Regions are funded by adding dues to the grotto dues. That would feel a lot like paying taxes. But if we don’t participate in the SCC each year, SERA’s hands are tied due to lack of funds. Our Region should be the organization we turn to for financial support of our caving projects or caving publications that benefit cavers in the SE. I’m thankful that one of our SE grottoes, namely DCG, has stepped up to the plate to meet this need, but it should be the Region, not one its IOs, that is fulfilling this role. The umbrella organization should be providing for its constituents, because it is the bigger organization, and there is strength in numbers. I ask you, what purpose does a Region serve if not to promote and help its members in our cause, namely to protect, conserve, and understand our karst environment.
So with the problems stated of the difficulties of hosting a SCC and the ramifications of having a low attendance, the SCCEC would like to find out what the member organizations and individuals think about our suggested solutions. Below are some questions that we would like for you answer so that we know how to proceed. Please poll your grotto and provide feedback, even if it is not a consensus. Also, individuals are encouraged to complete the form so that many opinions may be heard. Our next move is very dependent on your input, and would range from doing nothing at all and keeping everything as it is, to researching permanent SCC sites, to forming a SCC Advisory Committee. Please take the time to fill out the attached survey and mail it back to me, the SCCEC Chairman:
Mark Joop/SCCEC Chair
1435 Andera Dr.
Maryville, TN 37801