[Moo] On Volunteering at Pennsic

[Adrianna du Chesne]

On volunteering at Pennsic.  A personal missive and perhaps some currently
unthought ideas;

If you are there the first few days, instead of mentioning (numerous times?)
to your campmates that the merchants are not yet open-walk by and see if
they need a hand to set up.  Steadying a pole that was about to fall will
make the people whom are setting up just a little less grumpy about the task
they are set to.

If it a hotter day, venture out to the fields where assistance is always
needed by the tent heralding a big flag with a blue tear.  Sterilizing and
filling water jugs for our men and women in armor (as well as those whom
take up the bow)is not a hard process!  We're mostly all adults, but who
doesn't like to play with water on a hot day?  (linens dry very well; try
not to wear white though.....)

At night; security shifts are extremely fun, though the cart shifts fill
very quickly (sign up with a friend or try your luck!)  There's also that
line of weary travelers coming home after an arduous journey whom need
assistance in "trolling" in.  The tales these travelers tell are memorable
to say the least!

There's also heralds point, chirurgoning (most shifts require first-aid
certification which you can take as a class on-site, but if you have
accurate scribal skills to notate reports & file at point, they need you
there too!), marshaling, both newcomer & information points (remember how
lost you were at your first Pennsic?), A&S point, gate guarding,
fete-allowing, camp duties (make life easier for those you love), or even if
you're walking by and see shoppers whom have strained their purse-strings a
bit further than their arms allow, helping take up their load is
volunteering too!

Most "points" ask that you sign-in to log your hours (though I have
personally yet to hear of one year where the volunteer war point was
actually awarded).  I humbly request of you to do so if possible so that
future leaders in these positions can accurately account for the amount of
labor to expect.

Personally; I focus the first week on getting people in (troll, tent
set-ups), and the second on making people comfortable (waterbearing,
Information points, chirurgeoning).

On a further personal note; what I love about this "game" is that *we* make
it happen.  "Volunteering" does not only occur at set "points" at Pennsic
(likewise all events).  It's the camaraderie and helpfulness, that is not
actually required.

It's because we want to-
                 the best kind!
-- 
En Service;
     ~Adrianna~
     Exchequer
Canton of Sudentorre
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