View source for Timetabling and scheduling

= Scheduling =

== Overview ==
The creation of a schedule for a Canterbury Faire involves a huge number of stakeholders and even the best laid plans will not make everyone happy.

This document outlines some guidelines to generating a schedule that will keep most people mostly happy.

Do NOT assume that the schedule should be the same as last year, and do NOT assume that an activity will be run the same as it was the last year. Always ask, and always communicate.

== Stakeholders ==

=== Royalty ===
It is important that the royals are communicated with as soon as possible when determining the schedule.

Whether they are attending and how much business they might have in court can significantly effect the scheduling.

Ideally they should be contacted immediately after the crown tournament to congratulate them, ask them if they are coming to the event, and inform them of the royal travel fund.

=== Martial coordinators ===
The coordinators in charge of the martial activities need to communicate with each other in order to ensure that all of the martial disciplines have a schedule that they are happy with.

As they share the same spaces and resources, good communication and compromise are required.

=== Cooks and food coordinators ===
The timing of meals is critical to the schedule, and those times are determined by the cooks and the food coordinators.

=== Arts and Sciences coordinator and teachers ===
The teachers of the classes and the coordinator of the classes will need to be consulted so that classes are scheduled for when the teachers want to teach.

=== Other activity coordinators ===
The coordinators for other activities such as the ball, half circle theatre, market, etc all need to be consulted to ensure that they are happy with the schedule.

Especially if some of them have an idea or vision that is outside the historical organisation of that activity.

== Order of operations ==
The following priority is recommended to be followed in order to make sure the schedule doesn’t have to go through too many revisions.

=== Step 1 Determine mealtimes and timeslots ===
The timing of the meal plan meals will determine when other activities can be. For example, there is no point in organising a 3 hour tournament after dinner if dinner is to be held from 7-8pm.

Meal breaks are usually scheduled as 1 hour long, this includes time for people to get to and from their meal area (which may involve getting changed), serve and eat the food, and clean up.

* Breakfast is usually 07:30-08:30, though the actual start time can often be earlier.
* Having lunch later than 12:00-13:00 means having a longer morning timeslot, however people generally don’t want lunch too late. 12:30-13:30 is not uncommon, and 13:00-14:00 is the latest that is recommended.
* Dinner time effects the schedule most significantly as it determines how long the late afternoon and early evening timeslots are. 
** Consideration should be given to how long there is between lunch and dinner. Too long between them will have people unhappy, and too short between them will mean people will not be hungry for dinner but will be hungry after dinner.
** An early dinner 17:00-18:00 means that the afternoon timeslot needs to start in the hottest part of the day to get most tournaments finished in time, however there is a significant after dinner timeslot that something could be run in.
** A dinner 18:00-19:00 means that the afternoon timeslot can start a bit later in the afternoon, but limits the length of an after dinner activity that needs light to about 1 hour.
** A later dinner 18:30-19:30 or 19:00-20:00 leaves lots of room for afternoon activities but very little room for an after dinner activity that needs light.

Depending on your mealtimes you can broadly break up the day into 5 blocks.

* Morning (breakfast until lunch)
* Early afternoon (lunch to mid afternoon, the hottest part of the day)
* Late afternoon (mid afternoon to dinner)
* Early evening (after dinner until sunset)
* Late evening (after sunset)

=== Step 2 Allocate key activities ===
There are several key activities which the rest of the schedule revolves around. 

The rest of the event must work around these key activities so pinning down their times is critical to not having to rearrange the schedule if one of them changes.

These include:

* Courts. Budget on opening and closing, plus one other unless told otherwise.
** Opening court. 
*** This marks the start of the official event. 
*** This is usually held on the Monday morning and usually takes up at least 2 hours, plus about an hour of meetings afterwards.
** Closing court. 
*** This marks the end of the official event.
*** This is usually held on Saturday afternoon and usually takes up at least 2 hours.
** Royal courts
*** The timing and length of these will depend on how much of the event the royals will be able to attend (if they are attending at all).
*** If the royals are attending the opening and closing court then some business can be conducted at those and only 1 other court may be required.
*** The number and length of the royal courts will depend on the number of awards they wish to give out, and especially how many peerage ceremonies are scheduled. Peerage ceremonies are usually planned in advance and are public knowledge, while other awards are usually not public knowledge, so good communication with the royals is essential.
** Baronial/other courts
*** Sometimes the business can be conducted at the opening/closing/royal court.
*** Sometimes the baron/baroness will have baronial business that may need to happen at a separate court
** Mini-courts
*** Sometimes short courts with 1-3 items of business are conducted as part of another activity. For example giving a dance award at a ball, or a fighting award at a tournament.
*** These courts are not big enough to go on the schedule, but should be taken into account in the planning of other activities if they are known about.
* Pack down of village green.
** This is usually held immediately after closing court (while everyone is in one place) and takes up to 2 hours.
** It is important that this is allocated a time in order to get as many hands as possible.
* Feast/Repast
** This occurs from dinner time and goes into the late evening.
** This is historically done on Tuesday or Wednesday night.
* Ball
** This occurs in the early and late evening timeslots.
** This is historically done on Friday night in order to give the rest of the week to do classes and practice for the dancers and musicians.
* Half Circle Theatre
** This occurs in the early and late evening timeslots.
** It has been trialled in the afternoon in some years with mixed responses.
* Markets
** These require at least an hour of setup, which should also be put on the schedule.
** The market itself is usually scheduled for 2 hours.

=== Step 3 Allocate headline activities ===
Each of the activity streams has a headline activity which must not be clashed with by other marshal activities, and generally should not be clashed with by other activities if possible.

Each of these activities generally takes up an entire morning or afternoon slot.

These are:

* The Fighter Auction Tournament for armoured combat
* The Baroness’s Rapier Tournament for fencing
* Thorfords Arrow for Archery
* The A&S display (previously known as the Laurel Prize Tourney)

=== Step 4 Allocate other activities ===
At this stage the core activities are effectively set and it is possible to build the rest of the event around them. This stage generally has the most iterations of the schedule.

The marshal activities take up a lot of space and time. The marshal activity coordinators (armoured, fencing, archery) should work together to create a schedule that has no location clashes (no trying to do war during an archery shoot) and which minimises or at least spreads out the number of marshal activity clashes (if there is a free slot but clashes then something should move to the free slot to resolve the clash).

Other large activities which will have a lot of people involved in them which people might not want to clash with other activities should be allocated here. 

The coordinators of these activities should be consulted at each iteration of the schedule.

These activities may include; custard eating competition, singing, A&S displays, peasants dance, bardic circle.

=== Step 5 Allocate A&S classes ===
At this stage the biggest activities have been scheduled and people who are wanting to teach classes can more easily see what is going on so that they don’t clash with anything that they (or their target audience) wants to do (for example it wouldn’t be a good idea to run a fencing class during a fencing tournament as the target audience is probably in the tournament).

This step is left until last not because it is the least important, but because most A&S classes are short in duration and can more easily fit into gaps in the schedule.

This is also where people will look at any gaps in the schedule and try to think of what activities/classes could be used to fill those spaces.

== Information Required ==
The following information is required for each activity that wants to go into the schedule.

* Name. The name of the activity to be put onto the schedule. This should ideally not be too long.
* Description. The description of the activity. This can be as long as it needs to be, but it should aim to communicate with enough detail that someone who has not been to Canterbury Faire knows what it is.
* Person in charge. Every activity should have a nominated person in charge.
* Duration. How long will the activity go on for? This might be an exact time (2 hours), a range (1-2 hours), or even a slot (all morning).
* Location. Where on site will the activity be held. This will help to avoid clashes.
* Equipment required. What equipment is required for the activity?
* Restrictions. Are there any restrictions on the activity (maximum class size, age limit, etc).

If all of this information is provided then the schedule will be easier to make, read, and reference.

== Platforms and Tools ==
There are many platforms and tools for making the schedule. All of them have pros and cons.

At the time of writing Southron Gaard does not have a license for any paid platforms.

Platforms/tools which have been used in the past include:

* Google Calendar. Easily shareable and times can be accurately displayed and easily changed.
* Google Sheets. Easily shareable but formatting can be difficult.

== Publishing the Schedule ==
At the end of step 3 a summary of the key activities should be published along with the timeframe for the release of the next schedule update.

At the end of step 4 the schedule should be published to the populace along with another call for more A&S classes.

During step 5 the schedule should be published periodically. Once a month up to the end of the calendar year, and then once a week in January.