MARKETING DIRECTOR'S REPORT

ACWS Commercial Events 2003

At the AGM in November the board proposed that ACWS should promote a number of more commercial events during the 2003 Season. I have been tasked with planning and promoting these events and together with the Projects Officer will be running them this year.

Firstly I would like to explain why we are doing this. The number of event opportunities has been dwindling for some time, we have to find events which not only allow us to enjoy our hobby of re-enacting the American Civil War, but which also provide sufficient income to the society to properly run the event. Our costs are constantly rising (Black Powder, Insurance, Transport and other operating costs) and unless we, the members are prepared to pay for these costs ourselves we need to find events which will pay for them.

Events promoted by others, (Multi-Periods, Local Authorities etc) often offer us less than we actually need to put on our battle’s and we now find that we only get one or two full paying events each year. This has been made worse by the loss of English Heritage Events (for those of you who do not know, EH has a new policy of only booking re-enactors who have a historical association with the site and we have not been invited to The Festival at Stoneleigh "because we are American re-enactors").

So in order to ensure that we generate sufficient income the Board has decided to run three full events ourselves. These are Hoghton Tower, Weston Park and Cornbury Park. We wish to keep Weston Park as authentic as possible, but at the same time broaden the appeal so that we cover our costs rather than lose money (as we have for the last few Internationals). So at Weston Park we will be trying to recreate "Britain and America in the 1860's".

There will be no cross "contamination" between the two parts of the event, but it will allow us to make much more use of the park, which this year we have to rent.

The other two events will be mini, multi-period events with an American Theme.

The income we will generate from these events will allow us to run "pure" ACWS events and campaigns and I hope will benefit all members of the society, please support the board in this new venture and of course we all welcome your ideas, suggestions and feedback.

Roger Willison-Gray Marketing Director