[Steppes] A&S at Warlord

[Jay Rudin]

Catalina wrote:

> Traditionally that has been the responsibility of the Steppes Artisan to 
> organize. I haven't checked the website to see if anything was planned or 
> not.

"Traditionally", things occur because somebody volunteers to do them.  For 
two decades, there was no A&S display at Warlord.  The first one I recall 
was held by Mistress Branwyn O'Brallaghan to celebrate the tenth anniversary 
of her Laurel.  It was considered an unusual idea then, because Warlord is 
primarily a camping / fighting event.  There was no hall at the site yet, 
and most A&S events were indoors in air-conditioning.  But she wanted to do 
it, so she did.  She announced her plans, rented a pavilion, and got 
volunteers to help her run it.  That's the way to make something happen in a 
volunteer organization.  It happens that she was the newest Artisan that 
year, but that had nothing to do with her decision

I understand from another source that when they were baron and baroness, 
Fritz and Catrin asked their most recent Artisan to help with this. 
However, Mahdi and Valeria made no such request of Baroness Ameline when she 
was named the nineteenth Artisan.  (I was herald at that court, and could 
hear it all.)  Nor did Miguel and Conall make such a request when they 
became vicar and vicaress.  Nobody else can assign duties to the Artisans. 
Not me as former baron, or any other former baron or baroness.

Our event bid specifically said that any activity beyond the five Steppes 
competitions would go in the schedule as soon as somebody agreed to do the 
work.  That has been announced at many Steppes baronial meetings and 
business meetings.

The website offers a way for *anybody* to establish any activity they want, 
just by agreeing to do the work.  If people want such a display, they need 
to volunteer to make it happen.  It isn't either a requirement of the event 
nor anybody's specific duty.  It happens because somebody says "I'll do the 
work."  Mistress Serena nd I have tried to make it easy for people to say 
"I'll do the work".  Special thanks are due to Lord Alisdair for automating 
the process to make it even easier.  And even this happened because Alisdair 
volunteered to do it, not because somebody else decided he had to.

We've tried to make this clear.  I'll try again.

To everybody:
If there's an activity you want at Warlord, you can make it happen, and we 
will help you get it on the schedule.  Just go to 
http://www.bmhanson.net/warlord/otheract.php, read the instructions and fill 
out the form.  That guarantees you reserved space, a mention in the gate 
handout, and announcements in court.  You just need to volunteer to do the 
work.

Please don't assume it's somebody else's job.  Steppes Warlord is the 
biggest continuing event in Ansteorra, and it's a co-op.  We all need to 
support each other and pitch in to make it work.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin
Steppes Warlord event steward