This Autocrat's Attitude - Part 3

Click here to read Part 2.

Coordinating an event schedule out of the multitude of ideas from within your group can be a chore, but the sooner you have at least a preliminary schedule, the sooner you can start promoting your group's event! Here are some site- and schedule-related tips for budding Autocrats...

Get organized and start early
• If you’ve done your job well, there won’t be a bunch of last minute things that have to be done on site. An event should be fun for you too!

• Make sure there is something for everyone (fighters, artisans, children, everyone!) to do. It’s better for folks to complain that they “didn’t get to do it all,” than complain that there wasn’t enough to do.

• Though we refer to “SCA time” for a reason, lunch and feast must start as close to scheduled time as possible. Feastocrats don’t like having to keep food hot while the tourney ends, and hungry people don’t return next year.


Know your site
• Learn as much about the site as possible. There may not be anyone available on the day of your event to show you where the cleaning supplies, circuit breakers, climate controls, and other such things are. Most importantly, always know where to put the trash you generate at the event. You don’t want to be unexpectedly stuck with 16 bags of garbage on Sunday afternoon when you’re 30 miles away from the middle of nowhere!

• Look at your site every year. Just because you remember the site from last year doesn’t mean that something hasn’t changed! It helps to have the person in charge of each activity along when you look at the site. Visualizing your activities will help you decide what will work where. Try to have a backup location for each activity in case of unforseen circumstances.

• Drive your directions, from both directions, every year. Signs don’t always look the same when coming from the other direction, and even state highways can move!

In Loving Memory...

…of my mother who died two years ago on February 29th. She first accepted my involvement in the SCA when I finally learned to sew, but she still always referred to us in jest as,”those crazies.”

Miss you, Mom.