[Sca-cooks] What would you do?

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

> Many good responses so far and I'll try and avoid repeating the same 
> things over again, but I also agree that such a situation doesn't occur 
> without the complicity of the feast steward.  The money part of any 
> non-trivial feast should have been worked out with the autocrat and/or 
> exchequer weeks, if not months, in advance.  I can't think of any 
> legitimate explanation for having this be a last-minute surprise.

*sigh* I _almost_ had this happen. We had a new exchequer who had been 
carefully told by the kingdom that the SCA did not like us to give cash 
advances. 

The autocrat, who was experienced, made the mistake of thinking the new 
exchequer knew that Standard Operating Policy was to make out cash advance 
checks at the fighter practices and the meeting before the event. I told 
the autocrat that I would need some cash advance-- my dayboard money was 
$800 and I had already spent some out of my own pocket, for which I 
expected to get reimbursed.

The exchequer didn't tell the autocrat that she was going to be gone for 4
weeks on a business trip, coming back the day after the last fighter
practice before the event.

I, and the other person who was making food (her budget was $600, and she
didn't have even the ease in her personal budget to cover a tenth of that
for any length of time), kicked up a terrible fuss and managed to get
checks signed. The autocrat was very unhappy, we were unhappy, and the
exchequer threw a fit; her friends going around saying that it WASN'T
unreasonable to expect people to expend $1000 or more and wait to get
reimbursed.

Since then, there are 4 designated signers on the group's checking 
account, and I make sure that at least 2 if not 4 of them know when I'm 
going to need cash advances or reimbursements. 

But yes, these situations can come up suddenly. 

-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"You must live feverishly in a library. Colleges are not going to do any 
good unless you are raised and live in a library every day of your life." 
--Ray Bradbury