Index of Carolingian Steward's Knowledge
When I was considering whether to become Baronial Steward, I discussed
the duties of the office with the Seneschal and the outgoing Steward. We
thought it would be helpful if these duties were written down, and
therefore we did so. We believe that these policies actually have been
followed for some time; all that's new is our writing them down.
Eowyn
November AS 41 (2006 CE)
Policies of the Steward of Carolingia
The Steward of Carolingia is responsible for the baronial goods which
are used for SCA events and similar purposes. His/her duties include (in
approximate order of importance):
- Keeping the goods in a secure fashion -- as safe as reasonably
possible from theft, fire, flood, mold, etc.
- Being reasonably available to autocrats and other legitimate borrowers,
to allow them to obtain the goods as needed and then return them when done.
- Keeping an inventory of the goods involved, and making this inventory
available to potential borrowers.
- Marking the goods so they are distinguishable from other similar items
that might belong to individuals, event sites, etc.
- Arranging to repair or replace goods that are damaged or lost in the
course of use. It is expected that items used will suffer a reasonable
amount of wear and tear, and that some items will be damaged or lost by
unavoidable accidents. However, if it appears that items have been
wantonly damaged or lost, the borrower (or the user, if known) will be
expected to pay for repair or replacement. In this case, the matter will
be dealt with by the Steward, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
Seneschal, and anyone else they deem relevant.
- Keeping track of what baronial goods in his/her purview don't ever seem
to be used. After a sufficent period of non-use, arranging with the
Seneschal and other relevant people to dispose of such items.
- Being alert to what items autocrats wish to use that the Barony doesn't
own. If autocrats need gear that the Barony doesn't own, they should
if possible discuss such items with the Steward before actually
buying them. Others who have ideas of goods that they think the Barony
might want should absolutely discuss their proposals with the
Steward before obtaining the items; storage space and actual likelihood of
repeated use are factors, as well as cost or effort to construct.
NOTA BENE: The above duties circumnavigate a few gaping holes.
Specifically:
- The Steward is not responsible for transporting goods to
and/or from events. The autocrat should arrange to do this. An autocrat
may appoint one or more members of his/her staff as transport agents,
rather than picking up and returning the needed goods him/herself, as long
as the Steward knows who these agents are.
- The Steward is not responsible for cleaning items that get
dirty during use. The autocrat should arrange to do this before returning
the items. Items that are still dirty when returned to the Steward will be
given back to the autocrat for cleaning.
Autocrats or their transport agents may ask the Steward, in advance,
about making arrangements for exceptions to these two points; the Steward
is willing to consider extenuating circumstances. But do not assume that
such exceptions will be made without the Steward's explicit agreement.
The Steward will inform the Seneschal if an autocrat has had difficulty
making arrangements to deal appropriately with the baronial goods s/he
needs for his/her event. Autocrats should be aware of the Seneschal's
policy that egregious inability to deal properly with baronial goods may
impact consideration of any event proposals they may make in the
future.
Please note that only direct communication with the Steward ensures that
your message concerning baronial goods has gotten through. Intermediaries
such as the roommates, spouses, or other household members of the Steward
-- while often willing to take messages or otherwise be helpful -- are
not implicitly Deputy Stewards and are not responsible
for doing the Steward's job.
How to Borrow Carolingian Chattels Most Effectively
As Steward, I am not going to guess what gear your event needs or bring
it there myself. You, the autocrat (or other legitimate borrower), need to
do that. Here's how:
- As soon as your event is approved by the Seneschal, chat with me
briefly. Almost every event needs to borrow something or other out of the
baronial stores, so you and I should touch base, just to make sure I know
who you are.
- As your event firms up, come to this web site and check the inventory
below to figure out what you'll need to borrow. Items are grouped by
category, but check all categories -- I may have misplaced
something, or you may realize that you could use something you hadn't
thought of before. Ask your senior staff and former autocrats for their
advice; they may think of things you don't. I can also provide advice as
to what gear your sort of event usually needs.
- Fairly close to the event, tell me what you need and arrange to pick it
up beforehand, and if possible to drop it off afterward. You probably
shouldn't try to pick up baronial gear more than 2 weeks ahead of your
event; on the other hand, by 1 week before the event you should have made
arrangements with me for the pick-up. I will be very grumpy if you wait
until a day or two before your event to talk to me about what you
need....
Similarly, you almost certainly shouldn't try to return the
gear in the evening right after the event ends. But by 1 week afterward
you should have made arrangements to bring the gear back, and generally it
should be returned to the stores by 2 weeks afterward.
You
don't have to be the person who transports the gear. It may make more
sense for the cooks to pick up the kitchen equipment, or for your set-up
crew to get things there, or for someone other than you to bring the gear
back to me. That's OK. Just let me know who I should expect to deal
with.
By the way, please send me your request for gear using
the plainest form of text possible. I have trouble dealing with HTMLized
mail, and Microsoft word documents are worse.
- At the pick-up time we have arranged, I will be at home, with the gear
you asked for extracted from the rest of the stores to the degree possible.
I will (technology willing) have a copy of your list of requested gear so
we can check it off as we load. I will help load it into your or your
transport agent's car.
- At the event, try to have things cleaned up as you go (this mostly
applies to kitchen and serving gear). Otherwise you'll have to clean it up
afterwards.
- When the event ends, use the list to make sure you're taking away from
the event site all the baronial gear that you borrowed. Going back to the
site later to look for what you forgot can be difficult.
- After the event, clean everything that got dirty but hasn't
yet been cleaned, and if you didn't do so before, make arrangements to
return the gear to me.
- At the drop-off time we have arranged, I will be at home. I will
(technology willing) have a copy of your list of requested gear so we can
check it off as we unload. I will help unload it from your or your
transport agent's car into my house. If any of the gear got lost or
damaged, you should be ready to explain to me what happened.
- After the gear arrives at my house, I will inspect it for cleanliness.
Depending on the timing, this may happen right when it's dropped off, or I
may not be able to get to it until later. If I find things are dirty, I
will talk to you about them; most likely I will want to know how to get
them back to you so you can clean them.
- If there are any problems about dirty, broken, or missing gear that you
and I can't solve between us, I will have to report them to the Seneschal.
Please don't let this happen.
Useful Projects
I have discovered a number of projects which would be useful in
maintaining and improving the barony's goods. I am not presently able to
do any of these myself -- but maybe someone else would be. If you're
interested, please talk to me.
- Indoor Lists?: We have a bunch of wood and ropes which, I am
told, is supposed to be some sort of set-up to mark off lists indoors or
where we can't stick things in the ground -- see the inventory. But my
predecessor didn't know how it was supposed to be put together. If these
bits -do- serve this function, it would be nice to know how they work, so
they could be used. It's possible they need to be repaired.
On the other hand, if they don't work as indoor-type lists, I'd
like to know, so we can think about disposing of them.
- Tablecloths: Several of the white tablecloths are stained, and
therefore need to be bleached. One has a large burn hole (8" sqaure?) in
the middle, which should be patched. All of them could use being ironed --
does anyone have access to a mangle, or other form of industrial-strength
cloth flattening technology?
- Linen marking: Right now, none of the table cloths or other
linens are marked to indicate they're Carolingian property. It would be
better if they were marked.
- Live chess garb: Somewhere along the way, one of the pawn
armbands got lost from the rest of the set of live chess uniforms. It
would be nice to have a new one to make the set complete.
- Tapestry work: The Carolingian tapestries could use some
improvements. Several of them need hems run along one or more edges, and
all of them need more grommets placed along the hems to allow for better
hanging and tying down. This work would help them last longer.
Also, one of the tapestries is only partly painted; the cartoon (the
outlines of the pictures) is drawn in, so paint just needs to be applied in
suitable colors. Ygraine is working on finishing this.
Further down the line, there are two pieces of tapestry cloth that are
blank. I don't know whether the cartoons have been designed for those or
not. If yes, then interested people could apply those designs to the cloth
to start the painting process; if not, then we have an opening for a
tapestry designer.
- Road Signs: Several of the road signs are just wallboard
shields, without posts. It might be useful to add posts to them.