From: tbarnes@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
Subject: Re: Help, first time autocrat!!
Organization: Indiana University
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 18:49:00 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.021422.24183@edsi.plexus.COM> grimmund@edsi.plexus.COM (Grimmund Blackwing) writes:
>
>Well met!
>	You might want to get a copy of _Event Planning for Autocrats_, 
>available from the Calontir Kingdom Seneschal's Office.  
>

 Good Idea. There is also an article in the Knowne World Handbooke on
how to autocrat. 

	Cople things to think about...confirm the site, in writing.  
>Decide on the feast menu *real* soon.  Decide if you want to serve  
>the feast or let them serve themselves.  (Hint: much easier for 
>them to serve themselves, requiring less staff for you.  More 
>elegant to serve the feasters, though.)  
>
Yes, confirm the site real soon. Get the seneschal to sign the
documents. Before you sign anything, make sure that the kitchen is
suitable for the feast and find out about any weirdnesses of the site
(dry, non-smoking, certain rooms must not be touched etc.)

NO, NO, NO, NO !  DO NOT BE FEASTOCRAT!!!!!! DO NOT BE FEASTOCRAT!!!!

Delegate the job of head cook (feastocrat) to someone else. Talk with
them often, get them to give you a menu in time for it to be included in
event flyers, maybe even let them handle feast reservations (esp. if
they have an answering machine and you don't), but put the onus of
serving the feast on someone else.
	Based on past experience, self-service feasts don't work. They
look tacky and aren't period, but even worse, unless you serve GOBS of
food, the first 1/3 of the feasters will take too much, the 2nd 1/3 of
the feasters will take the right amount of food and the last 1/3 will
get juice, gravy and gristle, if they're lucky. If everyone pays the
same price for the feast, everyone should get the same amount of food,
smorgasboard type feasts don't work. 
	If you have a very small shire, commit your people to hall
clean-up, cooking staff and jobs that MUST be done by a local
(feastocrat, autocrat) everything else can be filled in by volunteer
labor on the day, including servers (esp. if you give the servers a
price break on the cost of the feast). If you have slightly more people,
have hall set-up, servers and childcare volunteers from local people as
well. People can overlap, except for cooking staff and the autocrat, who
will be expected to work hard all day.

	Get an agenda established *real* soon.  Don't go overboard  on 
>detail yet, but it helps to have some idea of what you're doing 
>and in what sequence, and how much time you'll have for each 
>particular segment of the event.
>

An autocrat's job is to:

A) Find and confirm a suitable site (need seneschal and tenetive
feastocrat's cooperation, as well as approval of shire)
	This is the first make or break decision you will make as an
autocrat. Gang warily.
	Have a back-up site planned in case of disaster. (Don't commit
lots of time or money to it, but PLAN for it.)

B) Plan a rough outline of the event (how many people will come?, What
is the theme of the event, if any? Will classes be offered? Will there
be a tourney? Will there be court? Will there be dancing? Will there be
a feast? Will there be contests or special events on the day?).
	The outline need not be gospel, but it should give the autocrat
and other interested parties an idea of what might go on before the day.

C) Get the publicity out to the Kingdom newsletter. Send out flyers to
seneschals of all the groups likely to attend your event. (In the MK
I assume that people within a 300 mi. radius might be interested in a
"no-name" local event. For a big, well established event, like 12th
Night send a flyer to every group.)            
	This is the second make or break decision you will make as an
autocrat. If you blow the publicity you will have crummy attendence. The
advertising must go out on time. 

	What to put in the flyer:

	Who (your local group name)
	What  (the name of the event)
	When (time site opens, time site closes, time feast starts, time
tourney starts, time armor inspection begins, other times as necc.)
	Where (city, state, local address, map to site)
	What's Happening (any major tourneys, competitions, classes,
feast menu, court, dancing, post-revel)
	How Much (cost for site fee, cost for feast, announce
price-breaks for sending in money "before the day", who to send money to

	Checks should be made out to: Society For Creative Anachronism
Inc. - Barony/Shire of X. 

D) MAKE A DETAILED PLAN OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN - Make a list of what is
going on in each room/important location at each hour. Make a list of
equipment and people required for each activity. Badger the feastocrat
to do the same. 
	Check resources against needs, make sure that they match, on
paper at least. (If you are truly clever, you will make up a list of
space, equipment and personell requirements before you go to find your
site and before the publicity goes out. That way you can ask the site
owner if there are "X" that you can use on the day, and you can send out
a plea for volunteers for "Y" with the seneschal's flyers.
	Revise this list, worry over this list, haggle with this list.
By the time you have fidgeted with the list for the umpeenth time you
will have it memorized so well that you can freely improvise on the day,
even if you lose the list.

F) SCROUNGE UP VOLUNTEERS/EQUIPMENT - Make sure that your equipment
works. Make sure that your people will work. Make sure that you have
your most workaholic people in the most important spots. Encourage the
unreliable/reality-challenged to take less important jobs. Get people to
volunteer neccessary equipment.
	Haunt Business meetings, fighter practices and other get
togethers with Sign-up Sheets with spaces for names below each task.
Number the spaces for names, so people will know how many people are
needed. 
	Categories for sign-up sheets are:

	Crash Space (# people, smoking/non-smoking, pets/no-pets)

	Site Set Up (morning) - Hall, Classrooms, Lists
	Childcare (2 hour shifts)
 	Security
 	Troll
	Kitchen staff (subject to approval by head cook)
	Feast Servers (encourage by giving price break on the feast)
	List Mistress
	Field Heralds
	Kitchen clean-up (always runs short, get many more volunteers
than you really need, about 1/3 the number will really show up)
 	Hall clean-up (ditto, 1/2 will show up)
	Post-revel (a gregarious person with a big house who doesn't
mind having 5 dozen strangers on her living room floor)

	Marshall - the group marshal is in charge of organizing the
tourney. Ditto for the archery marshal, or light weapons marshall.

	Chiurgeon - you should have one. A local person would be best.

	Herald - the local herald should organize a herald's point. It
can be a consulting table as well. But the autocrat should be able to
find a herald to make an announcement when she needs one. 
	
	A lot of people in the group will naturally drift
int"traditional" roles. A lot of people will show up and help out on the
day, especially for hall set up and tourney related stuff. The grungier
the job and the later the in the day, the fewer volunteers you will get.
Plan accordingly.

FG) BUY STUFF - Neccessary expendables (masking tape, paper, photocopies
of site waivers, lots of change in change and small bills, a lockable
cash box for troll, site tokens, feast tokens, tourney prizes, contest
prizes, stuff for contests, expendables not provided by the site: toilet
paper, cleaning supplies.) are a must. If the shire approves it, buy a
"big-ticket" item for the shire to use year after year (cooking pots,
serving trays, a boom box etc.) if you really need the item.
	
	Take the cost of your site + the cost of your expenses and
divide by the number of people you antipicate (100-150 is a good number
for a small "no-name" event.) This is your site fee.

H) DO IT - By now you will have gotten all of your equipment, volunteers
and space together in one place.
	 Open the site, if it is locked (you did
get the keys didn't you). Do a very quick inspection of the place. Do a
very quick inventory of major equipment. If the site has valuable
equipment, make sure that it is made less obvious, or that the room that
it is in is locked. If anything is obviously missing, broken or
unsuitable complain to the management NOW.
	Set up the troll table. Get the site waivers, site tokens and
feast tokens out. Put the change in the cash box. Get the gold key garb.
Find the troll. Make sure that you have someone at troll at all times.
	Get the rest of your set up crew. Set of the hall and the list
as you want it. 
	Direct merchants to the appropriate place. (You did remember
merchants didn't you? Make sure that you have sufficient tables and
chairs for the event before you let the merchants have any. Make sure
that you have space for merchants before you allow merchanting.)
	Find the location of the nearest phone. Have the numbers for
police and fire depts. handy.
	Take a break.
	Make sure that the volunteers and equipment for the tourney, the
classrooms, the childcare rooms and the contest are in place. Make sure
that things run smoothly. Make sure that a herald is at heralds point,
make sure that the marshal is marshalling. Make sure that the cooks are
cooking. Make sure you have a chiurgeon. Find something useful to do
that allows you to sit down while you do it. 
	Periodically float to see if there are any problems. Make sure
that things are moving on schedule.
	Chase people out of the hall where you will have court &/or
feast. Round up your volunteers for hall set up. Supervise them while
they set up the hall. The feastocrat and autocrat should coordinate
feast hall set up. The autocrat should coordinate with the Royals if the
re is to be a court. Sit the feast. Skip the court and take a quick look
around.
	Make sure that the lists are taken down after the tourney is
over. Make sure you know who won what. Have the prizes ready to go at
court or feast. During feast (towards the end of the day) take a quick
look at the various rooms. If they are clean and orderly, close them up
and lock them if they aren't going to be used again later. Encourage
people to schmooze in 1 room, not half a dozen.
	After the feast, check to see that people are cleaning up the
kitchen. Round up people to take down the tables from the feast and
clean the hall if neccessary (spot mop up the worst of it if there will
court/dancing later). Then round up volunteers to clean rooms and halls.
After people have cleaned and reordered each hall or room, close off
that area. 
	Chase people out of the hall when the site closes (at least 1
hour before you really need to be out of the site). Clean the last of
the public areas. Make sure the kitchen is clean. Profusely thank the
people who stayed so late to work so hard. Do a final sweep to see if
the hall is really clean, locked up and orderly. Check to see if anythin
g is left behind. Load up all the stuff you brought. Turn out the
lights, lock the door.
	Go home (or to a mellow post-revel). Have your Significant Other
or a suitable substitute give you a long, meaningful backrub. Drink
moderately. Party quietly. Relieve your stress politely. Promise to not
autocrat an event for at least 6 months, if ever. Sleep in the next day.
Don't even think of the SCA for at least 24 hours. Count the money in
the cash box, plus checks. Give money to exchequer. Settle accounts with
ditto. Pat youself on the back and dream of doing crown.

Anyway, thats the way I did it. Your milage may vary.
 


Lothar \|/
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