Why Does Being "Official" Water Bearer Even Matter To Me?

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Hello again. It has occurred to me that some Gentles may read this blog and start to wonder why it matters to me to keep the office of Water Bearer as an official position.

I mean, I’ve made it clear that I was involved in Water Bearing long before it was official (even before there were any sorts of organized guilds involved) and it seems important enough to me that I’ll probably continue to volunteer in the future.

So why not just allow the official SCA office of Water Bearer become a casualty of Corpora evolution (due to the increased liability risks that this activity brings with it) and then carry on with working to improve the health and safety of SCA related Water Bearing anyway?

For the very same reason that the SCA BoD is reviewing this issue in the first place… legal liability.

For the record, the actual purpose and benefits of the official office as defined by the SCA, Inc. is one I’m still addressing in correspondence with the BoD at this time (more about that here on my blog once I get a reply) so I don’t have a 100% accurate statement on that issue yet.

However, as I have always been lead to understand it, being a warranted officer gives some degree of legal protection to the Water Bearers (and other officers of course) in the event of an incident or accident leading to a lawsuit.

Side Note: One thing to keep in mind, of course, is that if the lawsuit is the result of outright negligence you will have a hard time defending even with a highly paid team of lawyers on your side. As with all things of this nature, the very best initial statement of defence is proof that the actions that lead to the legal claim were what any other prudent and reasonable person would have done given the same circumstances. (Emphasis added to reinforce how important this established legal concept really is to the topic at hand.)

In the event of a lawsuit (for example, from somebody that got very sick at an event and decided to blame the Water Bearing and sue) I am personally confident in my ability to prove, in a Court of Law, that anytime I have run Water Bearing, it has been done with the utmost care for the health and welfare of the people drinking the water.

As explained elsewhere on this blog, I take safety and sanitation very seriously and on multiple occasions, I’ve personally gone out and purchased new Water Bearing equipment or supplies for the group I’m helping if I didn’t like the condition of what they already had to offer (I used to have a job that paid absurd amounts of money and at the time I could afford to be generous that way).

My personal concern these days is that defending against a lawsuit (even if you win) could still potentially bankrupt somebody with legal fees for the defence process. Contrary to what the media likes to portray, a righteous defendant doesn’t normally get a settlement from an unsuccessful claimant (the Judge saying “I find in favour of the Defendant, Plaintiff to pay all legal and courts fees.” at the end of the trial just doesn’t happen that often in real life).

Some lawsuits are legitimate, either to address real injury or to ensure that similar negligence doesn’t happen to others so don’t think that I’m against the idea of people being allowed to sue for legitimate grievances. However, in too many cases (in my personal experience – yours may vary of course) lawsuits are often motivated by the idea that they can lead to quick riches and too many people are apparently under the impression that ‘nobody gets hurt but the insurance companies anyway’.

So… if this legal protection for SCA warranted officers performing their assigned duties does in fact exist, then you can understand why I have decided to work towards seeing Water Bearing continue as an official SCA activity – even if it has to change and evolve in order to do so.

This is why I’m so strongly in favour of improving the standards for organized SCA Water Bearing. As previously stated, this would help ensure that any risks to the public health and safety (and by extension, any potential liability risks faced by the SCA, Inc.) are kept to the barest possible minimum.

If it turns out that being a warranted Water Bearer offers you no more of a legal safety net than anybody else has, that will be a very different story at that point I’ll have to seriously re-evaluate my thoughts on the topic

I’d just like the comfort of knowing that I (and others) can volunteer and, as long as we do the job properly, carefully, and in accordance with modern health & safety standards, there’s no worry that defending from a frivolous lawsuit could lead to the fiscal destruction of everything we’ve worked for up to this point in our lives.

No matter what the eventual ‘liability protection for official officers’ statement is from the BoD or what the outcome of this suggested wording change to Corpora is, I’ll probably continue working towards seeing SCA Water Bearing improve and become, in general, a much more Food Safe type activity with minimal liability.

Thanks for reading.

Baron James Douglas
"Honor In Ministerio"
(In Service There Is Honour)

Barons James & The Water Cow

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In my first post I explained the motivation for creating this blog and gave you some insights into what I hope to achieve here and how I intend to do it.

My second post was reprints of the SCA Board of Directors e-mails that I either quoted or mentioned in my first entry. I will always republish any official SCA announcement that I quote or make reference to for both the sake of clarity (being quoted of out context sucks) and out of respect for the “Permission to Reproduce” clause that is included in these releases.

Now we’ve arrived at my third post and, as previously mentioned, it’s time for me to explain why this suggested rule change is of concern to me and why I feel qualified to comment on it at length.

Here goes nothing…

Please allow me to introduce myself and summarize my background & experience as it relates to the “the future of water bearing” topic under discussion on this blog and in numerous other locations.

My persona is Baron James Douglas and I have been a member of the SCA for 30 years. I have been actively involved in both Water Bearing and the Chirurgeonate (and several of their previous unofficial incarnations) for the past 25 of those years.

I have served in the role of Local Group / Baronial / Principality / Kingdom Water Bearer in locations from Halifax to Vancouver and have also been both a Canton Chirurgeon and a ‘Chirurgeon At Large’ (warranted and serving at events but not holding a specific Officer position with any one group).

Between 1996 and 2001 I served in a senior staff position with, or as Director of, Water Bearing at Pennsic. I’m credited with the creation of the "Pennsic Water Cow” and I’ve been actively involved in the ongoing research, standardization, and promotion of Non Contact Water Bearing within the SCA for over a decade.

Additional Pennsic service experience includes a multitude of volunteer shifts at both Chirurgeon’s Points and on the battlefields as well as being an ambulance driver and spending three years as the “Chirurgeon On Crisis Pager” for South Point whenever overnight staffing volunteers were not available.

I have had the privilege of being recognized for my volunteer work with everything from service awards from multiple Kingdoms to the very simple (and incredibly meaningful) offer of a smile accompanied by the words ”Thank you for helping today.”

Mundanely I am a Certified Chef with experience that extends from cooking in a five star restaurant to being the manager responsible for the operation of all food & beverage facilities at a ski resort and a hotel / conference centre. My alcohol service experience is equally broad and ranges from tending bar in a Pub to serving as Bar Manager & Liquor Controller for a Cruise Line.

Within the SCA I have done just about everything that’s related to hospitality from running taverns at seven events in a single calendar year to being a Server & Dishwasher or preparing large Feasts to being the guy that agreed to stay late to sweep & mop the floors of the rental hall so we didn’t lose our deposit money. I once even spent three weeks “fighting City Hall” so my Canton could have legal outdoor alcohol service at an event being held in a public city park (this was back before the rules curtailing SCA funded taverns).

I am currently in a consulting role assisting restaurants with everything from menu design and food cost engineering to training both front of house service staff and culinary kitchen staff. I have a previous background in Law Enforcement that provided me the opportunity to serve as a professional First Responder / Emergency Medical Care Attendant in two different Provinces.

My current consulting duties include performing HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) reviews that help clients identify and correct possible “areas of risk” in the chain of events that begins with raw food being received from the supplier through to the meal being prepared & delivered to the Guest and ending with the dishes being washed and the garbage being taken out at the end of the night.

In addition to being a “Papered Chef”, my relevant formal education includes Diplomas in Hotel & Resort Management and Technical Documentation (specifically, writing training & teaching manuals) and I have a variety of Safe Food Handling, Safe Alcohol Service, and Sanitation & Hygiene certifications at Server, Manager, or Trainer levels from multiple jurisdictions.

I am currently working towards certifications as an Alberta Food Safe Instructor and as a St. John Ambulance First Aid / CPR Instructor. I sincerely hope to be able to bring these new skills to the SCA and to eventually make Food Safety and First Aid training much more readily available to members of the Principality of Avacal where I currently reside.

It’s just like I said in my first post… I’ve been doing this as a highly trained paid professional and as an unpaid volunteer (both in and out of the SCA) for a lot of years and I take the ideal of “safe & sanitary” Guest service very seriously.

In my first post I also stated that, in my experience, properly planned and executed Water Bearing has done more good for the general health and wellness of the SCA populace than it has ever done in the way of harm.

I’d now like to expand on the concept that Water Bearing has been good for the general health and wellness of the SCA as it relates to what is probably my most widely noted SCA accomplishment, the creation of the Pennsic Water Cow.

You might want to go and get a coffee before you continue reading. I have a feeling this is going to turn out to be 50% potentially informative history and 50% mild personal reminiscing.

What’s A Water Cow?

After hearing a great many horror stories about how bad the water was at Pennsic, I built a simple three-stage filtration system under a sawhorse (that had been painted bright Ealdormerian scarlet red) for use in our encampment at Pennsic XXIV.

Several Gentles that saw the filters hanging from the four-legged structure made jokes about cows (admittedly, they did look somewhat like udders) not normally being bright red and that it must be embarrassed by the fact it had a garden hose sticking in it’s rear end.

Before that Pennsic was over, the term “Water Cow” had been coined and after the success of having our own source of filtered water in our group encampment, it was decided that we should “expand the herd” and make another Water Cow for use up on the battlefield to water our fighters at Pennsic XXV the following year.

A sense of fairness prompts me to stop here and take a moment to clarify something…

For the record, the drinking water at Pennsic has been safe for as long as I can remember. I can vouch for this personally as I’ve seen some of the lab test results first hand. The problem is that because of local geology, it has much higher naturally occurring iron salts and dissolved sulphur content than many people are used to.

Higher, but still well within the limits set by Pennsylvania Health Laws. This means that it can cause some people (those whose digestive systems aren’t used to the higher mineral content that can be found in rural water) to experience temporary symptoms of gastric distress.

In most cases a day or two of discomfort was all it took before people adapted to the mineral rich water but for some people (especially those with extremely delicate stomachs or from cities with very highly processed, chlorinated and 99.999% mineral free tap water) the distress would continue for the entire war unless they opted to drink bottled water from the store.

Additionally, because of the high iron content, the water can actually experience oxidization when it’s left out in bright sunlight in a transparent or translucent container (such as a 1 Gallon Water Bearing jug). Water that was perfectly sparkling clear in the morning could turn several shades visible darker and have an almost ochre tint to it by the end of a bright and sunny day.

These two factors combined over the years to give Pennsic water a pretty bad reputation. Even before my first Pennsic I remember hearing wild rumours that Pennsic water wasn’t safe to drink and stories that made it sound as if it was better to go without water on the battlefield rather than end up with a stomach ache that prevented you from going out drinking on a camp crawl later that night.

Apparently it was all just a case of bad press. The Pennsic water is, and was, fine.

There, I feel better for having done my part to try and keep the record straight.

Back to the Water Cows…

Ealdormere has a very active and creative populace and by the time Pennsic XXV arrived, the Ealdormere Commissariat (essentially a support system for our army) had been born and we had a grand battlefield presence that included a Royal viewing pavilion, a wheeled armour cart (the Wain) for transporting weapons & shields to the battlefield from our camp at the bottom of Heart Break Hill, a giant red sun shade for fighters to rest under, and a drink & refreshment table (with pretzels, fruit slices, jerky, pickles, and even hot soup on the rainy days) that got set up and made available to our fighters and our official allies during every major battle.

We also had the new and improved Water Cow (now painted white with black spots, it had a carved wooden head, a frayed rope braided tail and had been upgraded to a four stage filter system) set up near the sun shade and our corps of Ealdormerian Water Bearers were going to make sure that they only served water from the cow.

Partisan Water Bearing (only being willing to serve certain people such as your own household or Kingdom) isn’t allowed on the battlefield at Pennsic so we gave all our Water Bearers blue baldrics that had big white Trilliums on them. They happily served anybody that asked them for water but the Ealdomerian and allied fighters knew that Water Bearers with the Trillium baldrics had the “special cow water” that had been filtered.

I was on the Pennsic Water Bearing staff at this point and had made no secret about what we (the sneaky Ealdormerians) were planning on doing with our Water Bearers. As long as Team Trillium remained non-partisan, the Ladies in charge of Water Bearing at that Pennsic were quite happy to have the extra help at their beck and call.

By about the third major battle of the war, we noticed that the Trillium Water Bearers were almost run off their feet and that a lot of the other Water Bearers had started to come to the cow to fill their water bottles rather than going to the other fill stations that had also been set up around the field.

Apparently when 5,000 fighters get together and spend their days hitting each other and then spend their nights drinking together, news travels quickly. The Water Cow was quite a hit and the topic of much positive conversation.

On Wednesday of War Week, the Water Bearer in Charge of Pennsic approached me and asked me: If Pennsic paid for it, could I build another Cow for one of the other fill stations on the field in time for the weekend?

I responded by spending that night and part of the next day building two more cows (they weren’t as fancy as the original mind you) so that all three of the battlefield water stations were now serving filtered water. Because of the four-stage filtration, people were saying that the water smelled & tasted better than it ever had before.

I think I received more than a dozen marriage proposals that year and don’t think I had to buy a single drink for myself during the second half of the War.

Now then, humility demands that I again stop here and set the record straight about something. Despite the almost mythical praise for the Water Cows that first year, there are two equally important factors that I believe were critical to the Water Bearing success that we experienced that year…

The Coopers (the good folks that own the campground where Pennsic is held) spend a small fortune on the Pennsic infrastructure every year and large portions of that money are devoted to things like improving their water supply and distribution systems. When older metal pipes and temporary extension hoses running above ground get replaced with modern high density plastic piping that’s been buried underground, you can’t help but see a general improvement in the overall water quality.

Additionally, the lovely Ladies in charge of Water Bearing at Pennsic XXV were incredibly smart & well organized and under their leadership, the Water Bearing volunteers that year all had to attend a formal safety & sanitation course before they could be warranted to enter the battlefield during water holds.

Even the much younger volunteers that could only water the crowds around the edges of the battles were all taught the basics of Water Bearing safety and shown how to watch out for basic health risks like cross contamination of water bottles and squirt tubes.

I am of the opinion that the health & safety standards and Non-Contact Water Bearing protocols that were set for Water Bearing team that year are probably the cornerstone of many of the overall improvements that have taken place in organized SCA Water Bearing during the past decade.

Add the Water Cows to this already powerful equation and Water Bearing at Pennsic XXV turned out to be a huge success.

We had to wait for the official post-Pennsic Chirurgeonate report to be released to confirm our theory but, in comparing notes at the time, the Chirurgeons and Water Bearers responsible for servicing the battlefields came to the conclusion that the volume of dehydration related incidents appeared to be down from previous years.

Apparently, more people (fighters and spectators alike) were willing to drink the water & the Gatorade and stay hydrated once the stories about the magical Water Cows had started making the rounds.

Physically, all the cows did was filter the water for sediment & minerals and improve the taste and smell with an active dual charcoal treatment.

Psychologically, however, the cows became a symbol of the very real effort that was being made (by an staggering number of hard working volunteers) to improve not only the quality of the water at Pennsic, but also the quality of the water service at Pennsic.

In the years that followed, I built more Water Cows and experimented with other creations like the “cool mist sun shades” (I’ve been told that they still get set up outside Chirurgeons Point and on the battlefield) and the “nine water bottles at once” quick fill stations at Water Bearers Point.

By Pennsic XXX, there was a Pennsic supplied Water Cow at every outlet on the battlefield, at both Main and South Chirurgeons Points as well as at the water spigot near Merchant’s Row. A team of us even hand buried 750 feet of plastic piping (that had been supplied by the Coopers) so we could install a spigot and put a Water Cow at the new Archery Field located way the heck and gone behind the reserved parking area.

And yes, our initial theory that dehydration related incidents appeared to be down from previous years at Pennsic XXV was borne out by the official Chirurgeonate incident summary that was circulated after the war.

Even better? These types of preventable incidents continued to decrease over the next few years as the Water Bearing team came into it’s own as a full fledged Pennsic Service (prior to either Pennsic IIXXX or IXXX it had been a division of the Chirurgeonate Service) and the safety standards and Non-Contact Water Bearing protocols continued to improve as a result of what was learned every year.

My heart and my career took me to An Tir not long after Pennsic XXXI and unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get back to “The Debatable Lands” since then.

But every year, normally sometime in June or July, I still get at least 1 or 2 e-mails from Gentles asking me for advice on the best way to design and build a portable water filtration system to take to Pennsic for use in their group encampment.

For some reason, this pleases me immensely.

Hopefully you now have a better insight into why the continuance of official SCA Water Bearing is of concern to me, why I feel qualifed to discuss it at such great lengths and why it is that I’m willing to set myself the challenges I described in my first post.

Unless the SCA BoD issues another official release on this topic or I get some particularly invigorating feedback on these first three posts, you probably won’t see anything new on this blog until after I’ve had my first official meeting with the Peace Country Health Department sometime after the July long weekend.

Until then, stay well and stay watered.


Baron James Douglas
"Honor In Ministerio"
(In Service There Is Honour)

The Missive That Started It All

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Here is the full text of the official informational release from the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. regarding the proposed change to Corpora as it relates to Water Bearing within the SCA.

It is available in many locations online but because I quoted it in my blog, I have made the full text available here as per the “Permission to Reproduce” clause included in the release.

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From the President, Patrick Anderson:

Earlier this year, I was asked by several people in the waterbearing community to examine the various laws of states and countries related to waterbearing as an organized and official activity of the SCA, Inc. Various states have informed officers of the SCA, Inc. that while our activity does not directly violate the food codes or health regulations of their states, if there were to be an outbreak of illness, the SCA, Inc. could be held liable for that outbreak. Several health care professionals and attorneys have reviewed this topic and agree with this assessment.

I was asked to examine the best way to both ensure a safe fighting environment for our fighters, and to comply with the various state and country laws. The relevant laws vary from state by state, county by county and country by country. I determined that the best way to do this would be to make “waterbearing” unofficial and unsanctioned by the SCA, Inc. and proposed this change to the Board. The only other option would be to regulate waterbearing, and to regulate it such that it follows the various food safety codes of the various states and countries the SCA participates in. This would be unwieldy, impractical and expensive for the SCA to do. Further, it is likely that waterbearers would not be able to continue to serve our fighters using any of the current methods of waterbearing.

The proposal put before the membership for comment would stop waterbearing by any SCA branch or other official group. The SCA would not have an office of waterbearer at any level. Marshals would still be permitted to allow waterbearers on the field, but any waterbearing must not be done by any officially sanctioned or regulated groups of the SCA. Households are welcome to provide water to fighters, as are unofficial and unrecognized “guilds”. This does not bar groups from putting out the "serve yourself water coolers" at events. (In my Kingdom they are usually the big orange cylinders.)

The Board and Corporate officers understand that many people have spent time waterbearing within the official framework, and now hope that you continue to volunteer unofficially. This proposal has been brought to enable fighters to continue to have a waterbearing service provided to them, without the extremely strict governance that official waterbearing will require.

The actual text of the proposed rule is below. This rule has not yet been approved by the Board, and is being sent out for comment here. The Directors request comments from the membership regarding this proposed revision no later than October 1st, 2008. Please send them to:

Corpora Revision
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas CA, 95036
email: comments@sca.org

Thank you for commenting.
Patrick Anderson, President, Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

Proposed language to be added to Corpora:

The activity of providing beverages to combatants and spectators at SCA Combat activities is not regulated, warranted, organized, controlled, or sanctioned by the SCA, Inc. or any affiliate or subsidiary entity. All warrants, authorizations, or other formal recognition of this activity are by publication of this change revoked. This document does not either address or restrict such volunteer activity or the methods by which it occurs.
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Patrick Anderson
President
Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
president@sca.org
952-412-4112

Comments are strongly encouraged and can be sent to:
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas, CA 95036

You may also email comments@lists.sca.org.

This announcement is an official informational release by the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.; Permission is granted to reproduce this announcement in its entirety in newsletters, websites and electronic mailing lists.

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About a week after the above announcement was brought to my attention, there was another official SCA, Inc. announcement in response to inquiries that had been received on this topic thus far.

Because I make reference to this announcement (even though I don’t quote it) I have chosen to reprint it here both for the sake of clarity and out of respect for the “Permission to Reproduce” clause included in the release.

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

There have been a couple common questions that have come through on comments and in various email lists. I have asked Mazelle Attiya, the Society Exchequer and Interim Corporate Treasurer, to address those. Her comments are below.

I appreciate your patience and your well-thought out comments.

Patrick
President, Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

Letter from Mazelle Attiya follows:

Allow me to address two specific questions that numerous people have asked in regards to the proposal dealing with water bearing activities.

1. Does it mean that we can't use SCA Funds to purchase water, Gatorade, food, etc for the fighters?

The answer is yes, groups, including kingdoms and the major wars can still use SCA Funds to purchase supplies and food products for the populaces' use. Donations can still be taken for this but instead of it going to the Waterbearer's Fund; it will have to be place into a different Fund.

I will be discussing this with all the kingdom exchequers. The group funds currently set aside for waterbearing would still belong to the group to purchase water, etc. It just is not labelled as belonging the guild/office anymore.

2. What happens to the equipment and supplies that belong to the office?

Since SCA Funds were probably used to purchase the equipment and supplies, then it all belongs to the group that bought the items. The items still need to be listed on inventory and in the case of items valued over $500 have to be included on the depreciation schedule of the group as should currently be the case. Nothing changes there at all.

The best analogy that I can give is the following: think of the Waterbearer's Office as a division of a large corporation. If the division is dissolved then the assets would be absorbed back into the rest of the corporation. Same sort of scenario is happening here. There is no impact financially as to who can use a group's equipment, howeverindividual groups might have policies in place that restrict usage, such as not allowing individuals from borrowing equipment for usage outside of the SCA.

You do not need to be an officer of a group to use its property. Feastcrats/Headcooks would be a good example of non officers using group property.

If any one has any further questions or comments, they may contact me at treasurer@sca.org.
Mazelle Attiya
Interim Corporate Treasurer/Society Exchequer
--
Patrick Anderson
President
Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
president@sca.org
952-412-4112

Comments are strongly encouraged and can be sent to:
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas, CA 95036

You may also email comments@lists.sca.org.

This announcement is an official informational release by the Society for Creative Anachronism , Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce this announcement in its entirety in newsletters, websites and electronic mailing lists.

The Quest For Water

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I’d first like to apologise for the large amount of material covered in this initial post. However, rather than attempt to break the topic up into smaller segments, I decided it was best to get all of the groundwork and logic behind this blog out in public all at once.

Water Bearing is a topic near & dear to the hearts of many Gentles in the SCA and I feel that the current proposal by the SCA, Inc. Board of Directors (and the well reasoned discussion of possible alternatives) needs to be circulated as widely as possible.

If you have even a passing interest in the future of SCA Water Bearing, please read this entire post. By the end of it you will know whether or not it is worth your time to come back later and read updates as the situation progresses.

Thank you.

Baron James Douglas

PS: I’m going to use the generic terms “Food Safe”, “Food Safe Certificate” or “Food Safe Certification” throughout this blog. Please read them as implying whatever the correct name or formal title is for your local Health Authority’s version of a Safe Food Handling Certificate / Safe Food Handler Certification.

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Earlier this month (June 2008) I was forwarded an e-mail regarding possible changes to the way that Water Bearing is handled within the SCA. Patrick Anderson, President of the SCA, Inc. Board of Directors (BoD), has suggested that, after consulting with several Health Care Professionals and Attorneys, it would appear impractical to regulate official SCA Water Bearing such that it conforms to the varied food safety codes of the numerous geographic regions that the SCA has active participation in.

To allow the current situation to continue could expose the SCA, Inc. and/or it’s Officers to possible legal repercussions should there ever be an outbreak of illness that is directly traceable to the manner in which Water Bearing was handled at an SCA event.

To this end, President Anderson has proposed the following language be added to Corpora:

"The activity of providing beverages to combatants and spectators at SCA Combat activities is not regulated, warranted, organized, controlled, or sanctioned by the SCA, Inc. or any affiliate or subsidiary entity. All warrants, authorizations, or other formal recognition of this activity are by publication of this change revoked. This document does not either address or restrict such volunteer activity or the methods by which it occurs."

In the original official information release and in a follow up message posted on various SCA e-mail lists, it has been made clear that this proposal is not intended to curtail or limit the activity of Water Bearing or to prevent any SCA group from using official funds to purchase the supplies necessary for Water Bearing.

The goal, simply put, is to make Water Bearing an unofficial and unsanctioned activity in order to limit the legal liability of the SCA, Inc.

So why does this possible change to the rules matter to me and what qualifies me to comment on it? I have been a member of the SCA for 30 years and have been very actively involved in both Water Bearing and the Chirurgeonate (and several of their previous unofficial incarnations) for the past 25 of those years.

I have an extensive background in food & beverage safety, hygiene, and sanitation (click here for an “all about me and my relevant qualifications” blog entry) that can be summed up in a single sentence: I’ve been doing this as a highly trained paid professional and as an unpaid volunteer (both in and out of the SCA) for a lot of years and I take the ideal of “safe & sanitary” Guest service very seriously.

This proposed change has not yet been approved by the Board and is currently being sent out for comment by the SCA membership at large. The Directors have requested that they receive comments from the membership regarding this proposed revision no later than October 1st, 2008. (BoD contact information here.)

This proposal seems to have generated a great amount of discussion on the various SCA mailing lists that I read and while some of the responses I have seen have appeared counter-productive or even inflammatory, many of them have been well thought out. I honestly hope that all Gentles with something to say on this topic (whether their opinions are Pro or Con) are also passing their comments along to the BoD for review.

Unfortunately, there seems to be an underlying opinion that sending commentary to the BoD would “… just be a waste of time…” because “…their minds are already made up…” or that the BoD is “…just a bunch of bureaucrats trying to take the fun out of my game…” (these are all direct quotes from Gentles who shall remain anonymous for the sake of peace and harmony).

My experience has lead me to form a much more positive opinion of the BoD.

I’ve never been on the BoD but after having lived in four different Kingdoms (East, Middle, Ealdormere & An Tir) and played in several others, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and chat with multiple BoD members (current & past) both about official SCA business and just socially over a drink around a campfire. I have found the vast majority of them to be well mannered, intelligent Gentles that volunteered to take on a challenging yet occasionally thankless job that is, in fact, critical to the continuance of the SCA as we know it.

What many people often seem to forget is that the purpose of the BoD is to ensure the long-term survival and sensible evolution of this pastime of ours so that we’re all able to enjoy it for many years to come. Sometimes, that can mean suggesting a less than popular rule, policy change, or a course of action that is often in response to, or in anticipation of, a real or perceived liability issue.

Think about that for a moment as you consider this: if the BoD were to knowingly let a reasonably foreseeable liability issue continue unresolved, it could eventually (in a worst case scenario) lead to legal action that might result in the financial ruin of the SCA, Inc.

Human nature and history have both shown that the people who currently complain longest and loudest about rules and regulations would probably be among the first to condemn the BoD for not having taken any action to prevent the disaster in question. How’s that for a double standard?

With that little bit of soap box speech out of the way, let me state for the record that I applaud President Anderson and the BoD for addressing this issue and I applaud even louder their willingness to accept and consider commentary from the SCA membership at large rather than just announcing a de-facto rule change.

Over the years I have seen Water Bearing grow from a haphazard last minute activity to one that, in many regions, is very clearly organized and run by Guilds, groups or indivduals that follow sensible "Non Contact Water Bearing" guidelines and use easy to understand, Health Department approved sanitation protocols to ensure that any risks to the public health and safety are kept to the barest possible minimum.

While a great number of Gentles are out there working very hard to ensure that SCA Water Bearing is as safe as possible, the reality is that practices and behaviours that put the health of event attendees at risk still take place on a regular basis. The most common high-risk Water Bearing activities I see are:

The use of old style water bottles that require the user to make full mouth contact with the straw, nozzle, or bottle neck in order to take a drink

Newer contact free “sport style” bottles being used in a full mouth contact fashion by the people drinking from them (this is often the result of a lack of communication between the Water Bearer and the person drinking)

Potentially contaminated contact free bottles (as described above) not immediately being removed from service until they can be properly sanitized and the contents refreshed

Water Bearing equipment not being properly cleaned, sanitized, and allowed to fully air dry after they have been used (e.g.: when packing it all away at the end of the event or when cleaning it at home immediately after an event) or when equipment is not properly sanitized just before it is used the next time (e.g.: when it arrives at the event after being in a dusty storage locker beside a box of leaky tiki torches for two months).

While these four common occurrences these may seem like trivial risk factors, they could in fact combine in a devastating illness outbreak among the populace at an event were the proper conditions present.

Caution, Science Content!

Mumps is a viral infection of the salivary glands and is also referred to as Infectious Parotitis and the Mumps virus is found most often in saliva. It is spread from person-to-person when infected saliva or droplets enters a person’s mouth or nose from a sneeze or cough, or from other activities that involve the exchange of saliva, such as kissing or sharing food, drinks or water bottles.

One out of three people who are infected with Mumps have symptoms of a cold but no salivary gland swelling and an infected person is able to spread Mumps from three days before any symptoms appear until nine days after salivary glands begin swelling. A person is most contagious in the one to two days before salivary glands begin to swell. In rare cases, Mumps can lead to serious complications such as sterility, meningitis, and deafness.

While a widespread outbreak of this nature may seem unlikely, consider this… in the Fall of 2007, the Alberta inter-university hockey series had to be postponed after more than six Calgary-area hockey teams reported outbreaks of the Mumps virus (in one case, 14 members of a single team had became infected).

The outbreak was directly traceable to common sports related activities such as shared water bottles and bodily contact with surfaces or equipment that had become contaminated by the sweat of an infected person (both of which are very real risk factors commonly encountered by both martial activity participants and non-combatants alike at many SCA events).

Given what I’ve described above, you might wonder why I’m not in favour of the current proposal to discontinue Water Bearing as an official SCA activity? In my experience, properly planned and executed Water Bearing has done more good for the general health and wellness of the SCA populace than it has ever done in the way of harm.

The key words to that statement are “properly planned and executed" Water Bearing and trying to ensure that this planning and execution meets or exceeds local health standards and regulations is where the BoD is finding itself facing difficulties.

President Anderson states (in part): “The relevant laws vary from state by state, county by county and country by country. I determined that the best way to do this would be to make “waterbearing” unofficial and unsanctioned by the SCA, Inc. and proposed this change to the Board. The only other option would be to regulate waterbearing, and to regulate it such that it follows the various food safety codes of the various states and countries the SCA participates in. This would be unwieldy, impractical and expensive for the SCA to do.”

I fully agree with, and support this conclusion as stated but have an alternative course of action to suggest that I’m hoping might satisfy the risk analysis people involved (the BoD and the SCA, Inc.’s Legal Counsel) without causing the front line people involved (the Water Bearers of the Known World) too much extra in the way of additional work or grief.

First, I’d like to relate a personal experience that shows just how difficult it can be to comply with varying health standards between different regions…

As part of my Chef training, I acquired a “Safe Food Handler Certification” that was issued to standards defined by the Federal Government of Canada. When I moved to British Columbia, the local Health Department informed me that this wasn’t sufficient so I went back to school and acquired my “BC Food Safe” Certification.

When I later moved to Alberta, I was informed that neither my Federal nor my BC Provincial Certifications were sufficient to work as a Chef in Alberta. So I went to class to get my “Alberta Food Safe” certification and guess what I found? Alberta uses the exact same training curriculum and exam as British Columbia does! The textbooks we were given and the video clips we watched even had the “BC Food Safe” logo all over them – only the certificate & wallet card mailed to me after the course were any different.

If this kind of bureaucratic redundancy exists in two neighbouring provinces of the same country, imagine the sheer volume of paperwork that the BoD would face if they attempted to consolidate and codify the relevant food handler regulations from the Health Departments of every different region that the SCA is active in.

So… problem identified, acknowledged, and explained at length. Now what?

My proposed solution (that I will be sending to the SCA, Inc. Board of Directors as a formal commentary submission once I have all of my research data firmly in place) is that instead of eliminating Water Bearing as an official function of the SCA, we simply hold those who seek status as Warranted Water Bearers to a higher standard (specifically, the standard dictated by the local Health Authority responsible for the geographic region in which they are active in the SCA).

The concise legal wording still needs to be arrived at, but in essence, I will propose that for a Water Bearer to be recognized as official officer of any SCA group, they will be required to acquire their local equivalent of a Food Safe Certification and that Water Bearing at any event they are in charge of must meet or exceed the local Health Authority’s standards for such an activity.

Is raising the standard (and thereby requiring more effort on the part of the volunteers involved) really a better solution that eliminating the office? I think it is.

The SCA as a whole already requires Chirurgeons to acquire certain minimums of First Aid training before they are even allowed to apply to be a Warranted Chirurgeon and certain Kingdoms have some very high standards of technical / practical knowledge and integrity that must be met before candidates can be approved for officer positions such as Knight Marshall or Exchequer.

At first glance this suggested solution may seem like simply downloading more responsibility onto the shoulders of the front line volunteers but consider these questions:

Would you consent to being treated by a Chirurgeon if you knew they had no proper medical or hygiene training?

Would you risk your physical well being by having somebody with no training or experience as a Marshal (or even as a Fighter) be the one that authorized the next Fighter you faced in armoured combat?

Would you eat at a restaurant that didn’t have a permit from the local Health Department (or worse, one that had failed a Health inspection)?

If you answered ‘No’ to any of these questions, why would you agree to accept a drink of water from a group of people (acting in their capacity as Water Bearers), no matter how earnest and well meaning they may be, in which nobody has any proper education about the basics of sanitation or the risks of illness that can be spread though unsafe Water Bearing?

For the record, I’m specifically suggesting that these certification standards would only be mandatory for any Gentle wishing to be a formally Warranted SCA Water Bearer. This would still allow for general volunteers (the back bone of service within the SCA) to help with Water Bearing at events.

The difference would be that the Gentle(s) in charge of Water Bearing at events would actually have the proper training required to ensure that all applicable local legal sanitation protocols are being followed. Again, this would be to ensure that any risks to the public health and safety (and by extension, any potential liability risks faced by the SCA, Inc.) are kept to the barest possible minimum.

I haven’t done extensive research yet, but at first glance, getting a basic Food Safe certification in most parts of Canada and the United States appears to be changing into a fairly easy task. I think that many Regional Health Authorities have finally realized that the more affordable and readily accessible the certification process is, the more likely it is that businesses will take the time to get employees certified and that this could result in a general improvement in the levels of health and sanitation care practiced in those same businesses.

A couple of quick examples: The King County, Tacoma / Pierce County, and Kitsap County Health Departments (all in Washington State) all offer online study materials designed to prepare students for the formal class which is a 2 hour process including exam. The fee is just $10 and the ‘Safe Food Worker’ permit issued is valid anywhere in the state.

In Nova Scotia, the ‘Food Handler Education & Training’ program is offered at most Community Colleges as a 5 – 7 hour single day or two evening course for an average price of $30. Again, the resulting certificate is valid anywhere within the province.

If you’re wondering if one single certified person among many could actually make a difference, consider this: while some regions do require every single person working in a kitchen or a bar to have Food Safe or Liquor Safe certification, the majority of regions allow kitchens and bars to operate as long as at least one properly certified responsible person is on duty at any time that the facility is open.

As a mundane society we have come to expect this form of government mandated Guest care & safety from the food & beverage businesses we patronize. What’s wrong with our Noble Society seeking that same level of BoD mandated Guest care & safety from the Gentles who are supplying food & beverage within the framework of the SCA?

Please know that I am only referring to setting standards for Water Bearing here.

The Food Safety requirements that must be met by Gentles running Feasts or Camp Kitchens are already well entrenched in mundane law. While not specifically codified in Corpora, it has always been understood and accepted that anybody organizing a Feast or Camp Kitchen is obligated by mundane law to ensure that their food handling practices meet or exceed the local Health Codes & Regulations that are in place to ensure the health and well being of their Guests.

Part of the problem currently facing Water Bearing as an organized SCA activity is that even regions with clearly defined safe food handling guidelines may not have any specific guidelines that clearly address the challenge of a group of volunteers providing water service to 500 people during a weekend camping event.

A very important question that has come up among Gentles discussing this topic online is would a volunteer certified in one region legally be able to perform their duties in another region. (e.g.: Could a Warranted Water Bearer with State of Washington issued Food Safe training legally go down to California and run Water Bearing at an event there without first having to take the State of California Food Safe training?)

This is a very valid concern that I briefly discuss towards the end of this post and that I intend to explore in depth in future postings.

Now for the punch-line… I have agreed to be Head Water Bearer and Chirurgeon in Charge at Quad War this coming August long weekend. Quad War is not only being held outside the control of my local Health Authority, it’s being held in another province altogether!

So what comes next for me and where will this blog go from here?

First I am going to contact my local Regional Health Authority (Peace Country Health in Northern Alberta) and find out what standards they would require for the Food Safe provision of volunteer water service at an SCA event.

I will keep a journal of my progress on this blog with specific details and clarifications posted later on the website www.waterbearing.com.

Once I have properly documented how Water Bearing could meet the standards set by my local Health Authority, I’m going to contact the appropriate Health Authorities in the Province of Saskatchewan (where Quad War takes place) and present them with the Water Bearing standards required in Alberta.

I will then ask the question “Given the practices, procedures, and out of province certification presented here, can I come into Saskatchewan for the weekend and provide volunteer Water Bearing service that conforms to your local rules and regulations?”

My hope is that I will be able to use Water Bearing at Quad War as a test case to demonstrate that meeting or exceeding different health code regulations and/or acquiring the appropriate permits for an event location that’s a 12+ hour drive from my home (in a region that I’ve never even visited before, let alone worked or lived in) won’t be as impossible as some people think it will be.

This experience should allow me to clearly document the process of finding out just how easy or difficult it might be to function as an SCA Water Bearer and still “meet or exceed the local Health Authority’s standards for such an activity” at an event that’s being held in a Regional Health Authority other than the one in which the Water Bearer is already certified.

After Quad War I will forward all relevant information (along with my suggestion as to the proposed Corpora wording change regarding Water Bearing) to the SCA BoD with an invitation to further discuss and/or critique the process as I experienced it.

My ultimate goal is to show the BoD (and the SCA populace at large) that “accredited cross border Water Bearing” can be done and to help ensure Water Bearing remains an officially sanctioned SCA activity (even if it means that Water Bearing is forced to evolve as a process and that the volunteers who make it all happen are required to advance their own knowledge and skills as part of this evolution).

In truth, I don’t know what the future of this endeavour holds but you have my word (something I value very highly) that I will accurately report events as they happen, even if doing so means that my experience only serves to reinforce the liability concerns about Water Bearing as they are currently being examined by the BoD.

As Albert Einstein once said: “A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.” Perhaps the destination of this journey shall prove to be one and the same…

Please come back again and join me as I find out.

Baron James Douglas
"Honor In Ministerio"
(In Service There Is Honour)