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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Greetings!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>I had the incredible pleasure of being named as the
volunteer coordinator for the war point at the Ravensmarch event held this last
weekend. I tried to model it after the way that the volunteers are coordinated
at Gulf War in an effort to make people more aware of how very important it is
to volunteer. I gave tokens for time given volunteering and many worthy folk
participated in the raffle pull at the end of the day for prizes for their time
given. This also happens at Gulf War and is a very popular activity since people
can get some very nice prizes for their service. I had a lot of fun and I think
the folks who played also had a good time.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>What I didn't expect was the eye-opener *I* got on the
time and effort for putting an event together. I've worked on probably a hundred
or more events and autocrated my fair share and still the numbers are
impressive.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Not everyone played the game. I estimate that for every
person who came and signed in at the volunteer area there was at least one other
person who did not. And this estimate is probably generous.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Yet the people who did come to me tallied up nearly *500*
hours of service from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. If my estimate of
1 of 2 is correct, then the actual number of hours of service would be closer to
*1000* !!! Wow. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>As I spoke of these numbers, Sir Kief av Kierstead told me
of a spreadsheet that Mistress Lorraine Deerslayer has done wherein her estimate
of the number of volunteer hours to put on a single weekend event from the
opening bid to the debriefing meeting is approximately 4,000 to 5,000 hours of
service by all involved.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>The point of this missive is to help all of
us understand why it is so important to volunteer to help at an event,
whether it be your own or someone else's. It especially is to help everyone who
attends Gulf War in March to understand why it is so vitally important
to volunteer some of your time there. Think about it. If it took 1,000
volunteer hours to make Ravensmarch happen this last weekend then Gulf War is a
magnitude of 10. That's 10,000 volunteer hours to put on a big war. Wow.
Double Wow.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Last year, for the first time, Ansteorra lost the war
point for volunteer hours at Gulf War. When you get there, make
volunteering a part of your plans for the fun at the War.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Look on the map or ask someone where volunteer point is
and go sign up. After all, it takes a village to win a war. :-)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>In Service,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>HL Annes Clotilde von Bamburg</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Kingdom Historian</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>You are not an archeologist trying to construct a society that has been
lost. You are a historian who is preserving what is now for the future to learn
about us.The only SCA historians who will be SCA archeologists will be our heirs
if we, as historians today, fail to do our jobs properly.</DIV></BODY></HTML>