Event Steward

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The officer in charge of an event. The slang term is Autocrat.


The event steward is a special officer appointed by a territorial branch, such as a Barony or Shire to oversee and manage the preparations for an event. In Middle Kingdom usage, the event steward's authority is absolute on the actual day or weekend of the event. This is why the more common term is autocrat, of course. The intent is to diminish any appearance of disorganization and disagreement.


It is important to note that the Seneschal of the territorial branch staging or sponsoring the event is in fact the legally responsible SCA officer at any event. The seneschal signs legal contracts for the branch and has the authority to withdraw the SCA's recognition and approval for the event in the case of a dangerous or illegal condition the seneschal is not able to correct. (As far as the writer knows, this has never actually occurred in the Middle Kingdom.) For this reason the Event Steward is considered to be a deputy of the hosting group's seneschal.


The authority and scope of duties for the event steward varies from branch to branch and from event to event. The officer is likely to appoint various deputies to assist with various duties. Most common are the Head Cook, who manages the feast, a Marshal in Charge for each martial activity, etc. Generally, the event steward has the responsibility of designing the theme and schedule for the event, choosing a site and date and reporting to the branch regularly on progress. In reality, the branch is likely to supervise much of this decision-making process closely. For events a branch stages annually, the event steward is usually obliged to follow the branch's instructions on all these matters. This sort of thing is a matter of local custom.

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