Hosting and Planning an Aisling Fair

Many problems can and will arise during the fair. However, if you have followed the instructions given, these can be minimized. When a problem arises, work together to solve it, there are many resources available to solve minor problems that occur. There are also many steps that can be taken to avoid problem.

Always have back up aislings available for each event. It may even become necessary to enlist your siblings.

The chair person should be available to assist in every event and help find last minute replacements when needed.

Plan ahead and pool your gold so there is plenty of prize money for planed events. Use entry fees towards prize money.

Have extra gold on hand to reimburse an aisling who has bought a seal and is unable to use it. Though this is not the committees responsibility, the problem does arise where a seal is sold and there is no available booth.

Write to mundanes immediately when finding a "bug", this should be minimal if all features have been tested prior to the fair.

Deal with disturbances and thefts immediately, don't allow it to continue or go easy on the criminal. Be aware of sibling offenders.

Improvise when needed. If one area holds a significant error, move the event to another area.

Don't limit your committee, allow every aisling to become a part of it if they wish. Encourage others to join, someone may just be waiting to be asked to become a part of it.

Never criticize another's ideas, all ideas are good ideas.

Work together with all involved and put your personal feelings aside. Don't try to hurt another by crossing your boundaries and stepping on their toes, you could lose a valued assistant.

Enlist the assistance of previous committee members, they hold great wisdom and guidance as they have already experienced and carried out what you have just started. Their wisdom could prove to be beneficial to the current committee.

Always remember, this is the community's fair, not the committees. Without the attendance of the community, there would be no fair.

No one person should take credit or blame for anything. This is a team effort and all are responsible from the chairperson, mundanes, committees, event leaders and the fair goers.

Guilds may be included in the fair to host and plan events or even just to be recognized, but the fair as a whole should never be considered a guild planned event.

Events that require voting

It is almost impossible for the community to vote on a large number of contestants. A vote or panel of judges may need to be set up to pick finalists in the event of a large number of entrants. The mundane burgesses have assisted and been no the panel of judges in the past.

A panel of judges should be a mixed group with diverse paths, insights, and opinions. If the vote takes place outside of Temuair, all votes should remain closed with one individual accepting all votes and another receiving a copy of those votes. This keeps the influence of others from interfering with one's vote. The final results should than be tallied and sent to mundanes. A copy of all votes should be available upon mundane request to determine the fairness of the individual counting the votes.

If the vote takes place by a panel of judges within Temuair, it can be done through discussion and agreement or through mailing or whispering votes to the lead judge. Votes through whisper can be verified with memories and journals.

Most aislings that are planning a fair have the best interest of the community at heart or they would not be planning the fair in the first place.

Any aisling entering a contest or having siblings in a contest should be excluded from the panel of judges.

**Timeline**
	Make announcement seeking committee members and start planning. Once you have an outline of all events, all events have a host, and mundane approval set the date.
((4-6 weeks before the fair))	Start taking submissions for contests and posting them for community view. i.e. drawings, stories, essays, poems, etc. Play should be written and cast should begin rehearsing, ask mundanes to open fairgrounds to officials and those that need to rehearse. Begin testing features in the fair grounds. Ask mundanes to gossip about fair events, give descriptions of each event. Include information on seal pricing, event hosts, information outside of Temuair and how to enter contests.
((3 weeks before the fair))	For aisling judges: Any pre judging needing to be done before a community vote is set up by mundanes should begin now, it can take time to get all votes. Allow a week for judges to decide.
((1-2 weeks before the fair.))	Community votes controlled by mundanes should begin now and last 7-10 days.
((1 week before))	Final walk through and testing of all features. Ask mundanes to gossip about the final schedule of events.
((2 days before))	Hold a meeting with all officials, explain what is expected of them and the consequences that could happen should one not use care when issuing seals.
((1 hour before))	All officials working the fair should gather in the fairgrounds for a short meeting. Be prepared for a massive amount of aislings wishing to purchase seals during the first day of the fair ((3 hours)). At least 4 officials should issue seals and at least 2 guards should patrol each area. The two stages may be patrolled by teachers that don't necessarily hold office.

Previous fair discussions are available here.