[SCA-AE] Fw: food merchants at war

[Katrina]

Thank you for this, John Michael. It needed to be said and you stated everything 
very well.
 
Katrina 




________________________________
From: F. Page Steinhardt <sunshadow at twcny.rr.com>
To: discussion at aethelmearc.org
Sent: Sun, July 25, 2010 1:37:19 PM
Subject: Re: [SCA-AE] food merchants at war

Why is it that every year as Pennsic approaches there something that 
gets everyone upset that ultimately resolves as being an issue that the 
Coopers had nothing to do with, but immediately ignites a salvo of 
Cooper-bashing?

Yes, the Cooper family owns the grounds where we hold our annual 
get-together, and they have built a business catering to the needs of 
large groups like ours, and yes, the Coopers have ultimate say in whom 
they allow to sell goods on their property,

As a merchant dealing with Cindy Cooper, I have found her to be 
eminantly reasonable and easy to work with, especially compared to 
mundane show promoters, yes she has rules, but if you actually do 
business as a registered business with a tax number and appropriate 
permitting and all of that, you have already jumped through most of the 
hoops that she requires. If you are doing business without the 
apropriate tax permits, DBA's etc, then sooner or later the tax man 
cometh, and she doesn't want to be caught in that mess.

There are many more merchants wanting to sell at Pennsic than there is 
room for, so I understand there is a waiting list, and I know that if 
suddenly there was a food vendor in every other stall, none of them 
would make enough to cover their overhead and they would all be out of 
business.

Folks, we are a society that claims to be built on courtesy, chivalry 
and honor, would it be possible to extend a little of that to our hosts?

I realize that this may fall on deaf ears, but my inbox has been filled 
with multiple conspiracy dramas in the last few weeks, it seems that 
every time someone gets their skivvies in a twist it's either "The 
Coopers" or "The BOD" at the head of some new conspiracy to deprive all 
of us of our rights to enjoying the current middle ages, and having met 
both groups of individuals and watched these conspiracy theories 
propagate for a long as I've had e-mail, it gets a little tiresome

In service,
Master John Thorpe