evnt-stewards-msg - 2/25/08
Suggestions for SCA event stewards. "Autocrat" is the old SCA term for this position.
NOTE: See also the files: demos-msg, Evnt-Fee-Form-art, event-ideas-msg, hotel-events-msg, tokens-msg, privvies-msg, gate-guards-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: JCASE%TUFTS.BITNET at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Date: 18 Jun 90 17:56:00 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Unto the Rialto, Sionnaichan am Diolaimadh in particular from Taran.
After several years of running the troll (actually, we had a revolution in
Carolingia a few years ago, and we now call it the gate, with an attendant
gate-keeper, any prospective Keymasters get shot), I have some suggestions
that I find help immensely.
1) ADVANCE RESERVATIONS ARE A GOOD THING! As much incentive as possible should be given towards getting advance reservations.
2) Names (SCA and legal) of ALL attendants are a GOOD thing. In your event
announcements STRONGLY request names of all attendees, not just 'Snulbugga the fair-haired and 14 guests.' Its been my experience that such a policy
a) encourages actual attendance,
b)discourages complicated reservation switching
and c) aids in refunds should they become necessary or desairable.
(Carolingia, by the way, follows a policy of refunding only if the event makes money unless the refund is requested well in advance (a day or two))
3) Have plenty of change. Take a look at your various fees, and try to figure
out what the likely amounts of requires change will be, and in particular the
amount most likely to be required. If you're standard fee is, say, 9.50, then
you will need several rolls of quarters, if it is 8.50, then add a bunch of
dollar bills.
4) Know how much you have in your cash bos to start. I have done a stint a
gate where no one bothered to count the cash at the start. People had kept
fairly good records along the line, but no one knew how much we were
SUPPOSED to have, because who knew what we started with.
5) On a similar note, don't let the autocrat dump the entire event chest on
you. Have a certain amount of cash, well known in advance, and tell the
autocrat to leave the rest at home. There is absolutely no need for the
gate to take responsibility for the $395.95 in checks that the autocrat
received.
6) When receiving moneys, of whatever kind, try using an accounting trick.
Use a worksheet of four colums. Have one column(or maybe two) for name, one column for money in, one column for money out, and a description column. Thus you might get:
Name Money In Money Out Decription
Snullbugga 10.00 1.50 Cash in, Change out
Snorri the Bored 8.50 Check # 5551212
This gives you an accurate record of whats gonig on.
7) Have shifts for the gate, preferably set up so that there are two people
on the gate at once. However, have one person in charge of the cash box.
8) Keep strict track of that box from the time the autocrat gives it to the
gate until the time it comes back, with strict accounting in between. The
record should show something like:
Gave box to gate - cash $25.00
Received back box, - cash $135.00 in
cash $25.50 out
checks $256.50 in
with the worksheet to show.
There are undoubtedly things that I have left out. The point to remember
is that the gate is an accounting office. The better the records that can
be kept befor, during, and after the gate period, the better for all
concerned.
Taran
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Lord Taran of Windy Hill John H. Case
Barony of Carolingia 87 Moreland St.
Kingdom of the East Somerville, MA 02145-1441
JCASE at tufts.bitnet
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From: ken at hayes.fai.alaska.edu.edu (Ken Burnside)
Date: 19 Jun 90 06:02:07 GMT
Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks
In the West, this is called the Constabulary. One of the best systems I've
ever seen (and got set into Kingdom Law) was the one that my predecessor
developed as Constable of Oertha.
You have a sheet with room at the top for the following information:
Event Name
Mundane Site
Mundane Date
Underneath it, you have lines with headers for the following:
Mundane Name Society Name Card Number Less than 18?
About forty lines per page is handy. Have these clipped to notebooks with
waiver forms underneath them, for those without SCA cards. Have about
two notebooks per person at the gate, with an absolute minumum of 3 of them.
Photocopy ALL of the waivered sheets, pass copies of them to your Seneschal,
the Chronicler, and the Chatelaine. Keep the originals for yourself.
Remember that patience is NOT a virtue. It's a NECESSITY.
Yorik the Blind,
Former Chief Constable of Oertha.
From: Sionnaichan am Diolaimadh
To: Jcase%tufts.bitnet at mitvma.mit.edu
Date: 21-Jun-90 10:24am
Subject: Running Troll
> 1) ADVANCE RESERVATIONS ARE A GOOD THING! As much incentive as possible
> should be given towards getting advance reservations.
I have done so; Talewinds will have our first flyer come this month.
> 2) Names (SCA and legal) of ALL attendants are a GOOD thing. In your
This is the reservation card I intend to use. I might point out that I will
likely be using a two-part system, gate gaurd and troll booth, due to the
logistics of the site.
#####
Reservations Form -- PLEASE PRINT: #
#
Mundane (Given) Name: # Circle all
# that apply:
_____________________,_______________ #
Last First # Fri Night
# Sat Night
SCA name: ___________________________ # Sun Night
#
Group: ______________________________ # Sat Feast
# Sun Feast
--- If paying by check, fill out: --- #
# Sat Daytrip
Check #: ________ # Sun Daytrip
Address: ____________________________ #
____________________________ # ___________
#######################################
Member: YES NO Tent or Cabin: ________________
Tag Number: ________________ Initials: _________
Ref. Number: _______ AMOUNT PAID: $__________
#####
> announcements STRONGLY request names of all attendees, not just
I am primarily concerned with mundane/real-world names, as those are the ones that change less often. Society names can be all too fluid.
> by the way, follows a policy of refunding only if the event makes money
> unless
> the refund is requested wsell in advance (a day or two))
To be fair to those who decide they want feast during the event, we have
established a cutoff date of midnight Friday night for refunds, until after
the event. This will prevent us from being stuck with a dozen extra seats for
feast to fill a half hour before feast, as happened at the first event I
trolled.
> 3) Have plenty of change. Take a look at your various fees, and try to
We round things up to the nearest dollar, to avoid coinage if at all possible.
Since quite a few Trimarians prefer solid coin over paper money, I need but
bring sufficient change to cover breaking dollars and stuff, for it to carry
over. A branch of my bank is not two miles from the site, in case I need any
financial finagling. I will need many dollar bills, though. If they don't
pay in coin, they pay with $20 bills.
> 4) Know how much you have in your cash bos to start. I have done a
Easily done; the system we're inventing will have receipts for all monies in
and out of the drawer.
> autocrat to leave the rest at home. There is absolutely no need for the
> gate to take responsibility for the $395.95 in checks that the autocrat
> received.
Well, as reservationcrat/Troll, I receive the checks for pre-registrations.
See below for how I'll be handling not having them on hand.
> 6) When receiving moneys, of whatever kind, try using an accounting
> trick.
> Use a worksheet of four colums. Have one column(or maybe two) for name,
I will be running off of my golem a series of receipts, fully filled out for
all amounts of payment save for the person's name and the date; receipt stubs
for my records; cash in-and-out vouchers for whatever reason. I'll also be
photocopying the checks I receive in bulk onto pages, so I do have a record of
who sent in checks prior to the event, without having the checks themselves.
> 7) Have shifts for the gate, preferably set up so that there are two
> people
> on the gate at once. However, have one person in charge of the cash
> box.
Point taken. I'm starting to build a circle of people who will be assisting
me in handling Troll.
> 8) Keep strict track of that box from the time the autocrat gives it to
In Trimaris, the Reservationcrat handles most of the funds, acting as a
clearinghouse for Autocrat and Feastcrat.
> is that the gate is an accounting office. The better the records that
> be kept befor, during, and after the gate period, the better for all
> concerned.
Absolutely. I thank you most humbly and sincerely for your input on this.
Sionnaichan the Friendly Troll
From: ddfr at quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman)
Date: 10 Nov 90 06:46:12 GMT
Organization: University of Chicago
Bored at Crown?
I would like to strongly endorse one of the points implicit in Sgt.
Morgan Athenry's discussion of what to do at Crown Tourney--that one
is not limited to doing things the autocrat has scheduled.
In my view, what the autocrat is providing at an event is not a play
but a stage. If you are at an event and are bored, do something--tell
a story, start gossiping, ask a fighter to explain to you the blow
that he won the fight with, pull out a board game and teach someone
to play it, volunteer to bone some chickens or decorate the feast
hall ... . Don't stand around waiting for someone else to entertain
you.
Feeding Children (and other People)
One of the difficulties mentioned with regard to feeding people at a
feast is the problem of how much food to send to each table. My
impression is that this is a problem even if there are no children
present. Different adults have different appetites and different
tastes, so one table may eat much more of a particular dish than
another.
My own solution to this is redistribution. Have someone wandering
around the hall, looking for tables that obviously have more of
something than they are going to eat and transferring the surplus to
tables that have run out. This not only results in a more efficient
distribution of food, it also feels hospitable, since it means that
there is someone visibly paying attention to whether or not the
guests are being properly fed.
Cariadoc
From: haslock at rust.zso.dec.com (Nigel Haslock)
Date: 12 Nov 90 21:47:49 GMT
Organization: DECwest, Digital Equipment Corp., Bellevue WA
An approach that I have seen used with success is to create a smalls table.
Set aside a table, or tables, specifically for the 5 to 12 year olds. Feed
them an abbreviated feast and allow them to police themselves. Supervise
them from somewhere else, i.e. not sitting at the same table.
Thus the autocrat can offer a seat at the smalls table for $X and a seat at
the main feast table for $Y. Sub-smalls, who are normally free anyway, eat
their parents scraps or whatever their parents brought for them.
There are problems. Can a smalls table be filled? Will the smalls actually
stay at their own table or will they run to their parents at the first
opportunity. Can the cooks cope with multiple menus?
Since I have seen knights start food fights, I don't think that a smalls
table will create significantly more mess.
Fiacha
Aquaterra, AnTir
From: ayk at camex.camex.com.COM (Andrew Kobayashi)
Date: 12 Nov 90 23:21:48 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Master Kobayashi gives greetings!
On the subject of "children at feasts", i speak as the proud father
of one three-year-old son. My opinion is that the cooks should do
whatever makes their life easiest. If the price is too high, i'll
go off-board.
We generally go off-board anyway at anything we judge will be a
"big" event, because (through no one's fault in particular) the
feasts just don't start on time. Grown-ups can cope with this
(most people i know don't ever believe the published starting time
for the feast anyway at such events). But when my son gets hungry,
he's *hungry*, and no amount of explaining will make him any less
grumpy. We formed this rule at the "Debacle at Birka" last year,
which i won't relate here. Suffice it to say the feast was late,
and i had to take Matthew (my son) out to a restaurant.
This brings up a pet peeve (minor flame alert). Why is it that
"more food than you can possibly eat" is considered *good* when
advertising for a feast? To my (perhaps old-fashioned) (but then,
if not in this group, where? :-) way of thinking, this sounds like
bad planning, especially with the way feast prices have been
escalating over the years. Carolingia is no less guilty of this
than any other group, and i've been meaning to look into it in my
Copious Free Time. (ho ho).
Anyway, is it really the case that we still can't plan a feast with
a reasonable margin for error after all these years, so that it is
necessary to serve outrageous quantities of food to make sure no one
goes hungry? And, for that matter, what's wrong with not leaving
the table stuffed to the gills?
Peevishly yours,
--Master Kobayashi Yutaka/Andrew Kobayashi
Carolingia,East/Boston Area,MA,USA
From: L6PJDU%IRISHMVS.BITNET at MITVMA.MIT.EDU (Cathy Lindsay 239-6679, 219)
Date: 12 Nov 90 14:31:00 GMT
Greetings from Katherine of Constantinople!
To comment on what to charge for children at feasts: perhaps it
would be useful to define what age is the cut-off. For instance,
a ten year old and a two year old (on average) aren't going to
eat the same amount of food. While it may be fair to charge
80% of the adult feast price for the ten year old, this would be
unfair to the parents of the two year old. I am sympathetic to
the problems of cooks in determining how much food to prepare, and
to autocrats trying to be fair as far as prices, but I don't think
charging children the same as adults is right, especially when the
children in question are quite young.
As the mother of an eleven month old who eats people food (not
baby food) I was intrigued by the idea of a children's feast before
the feast proper. One reason is that all too often feasts start
*very* late (I have been to feasts that began at 8 or 9:00), and
while waiting that long may be tolerable to an adult (or not :-) )
I wouldn't want to explain to a three year old that it's o.k.,
dinner will be served in just two short hours! Also, in the case
of a very young child (like mine) who needs assistance in eating,
one or the other of the parents does not get to have a
civilized repast when the child eats with them. I'm not saying
this isn't fun at home, but at a feast this would not be ideal!
(Oh, m'lord, please don't take that dish away yet, I haven't
had a chance to sample it yet!) If the smalls' main hunger were
satisfied first, then they wouldn't be hungry and unhappy for
long periods of time, and they could still be with their parents
for the main feast, but perhaps be more engaged with playing,
and occasionally tasting.
Even before I became a mother I thought that when they were
looked after properly, it added to the flavor of an event if
children were present. It is, after all, very artifical to have
a society where you only see adults from, say, 18 to 40 (and I
have seen events where this was the case: very few children, and
almost no one who looked over 40). And I agree with Cariodoc
that having isolated children's activities is not the best. But
in the case of very young children it may be wise to provide
foods they will eat, and before the poor things expire of hunger!
Of course, wise parents should bring food with them to events
(bread, cheese, fruit, whatever) but I still like the idea of
letting the smalls eat first.
Katherine of Constantinople mka Cathy Lindsayt
(it *is* Monday morning, I can't even spell my own last
name aright: Lindsay!)
Shire of Whitewaters, MK L6PJDU at IRISHMVS (bitnet)
L6PJDU at IRISHMVS.CC.ND.EDU (Internet)
From: justin at INMET.INMET.COM (Justin du Coeur MKA Mark Waks)
Date: 14 Nov 90 16:33:47 GMT
Kobi writes:
>This brings up a pet peeve (minor flame alert). Why is it that
>"more food than you can possibly eat" is considered *good* when
>advertising for a feast? To my (perhaps old-fashioned) (but then,
>if not in this group, where? :-) way of thinking, this sounds like
>bad planning, especially with the way feast prices have been
>escalating over the years. Carolingia is no less guilty of this
>than any other group, and i've been meaning to look into it in my
>Copious Free Time. (ho ho).
Well, since I have feasts on the mind a bit (being the Chef for the