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From the Commissary The Commissary was up and running at Gettysburg. Thank you to all those who helped throughout the weekend with firewood, water, serving and cleaning, a special thank you to Bonnie Gunstone and Cindy Moore who trudged up that hill from the Civilian camp to help and Alex Hesson who was invaluable on Sunday. Gettysburg was not only our biggest event but also our very first. It was a major undertaking. There were some scary moments there, but we made it. It was a valuable lemming experience and we plan on doing some things differently for South Mountain. First of all, prepayments are not going to be requested. They are going to be required. Thank you 4th Ohio, you were the only company who prepaid by the deadline. Without prepayments, we cannot effectively plan, budget and prepare. Originally, prepayments were supposed to be in by June 1, then the 15th then 26th then to accommodate eve ryone, the deadline got moved back to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 2. We wanted to make this easy on everyone, but we ended up making it hard on ourselves. Jeannie and Lin had to ran round like crazy at the last minute, during the event nonetheless, buying more food, fighting the traffic in and out, throwing it over the fence in the Confederate camp, guarding the food until the other could move the truck, find a parking place, take a shuttle bus back to camp, find help and then walk it all into our camp. This will not happen again. Deadlines will be set and there will be no exceptions. Those who do not meet the deadline, will have to rind mealtime accommodations elsewhere. Even though the information went out in two newsletters and was mentioned st a number of meetings, there seemed to be much confusion about the deadline and whether or not we wereactually operating at Gettysburg. We will send out formal notices and reservation forms to every paid member of MARA for the next commissary event, which will be South Mountain in September. This way there should be no confusion and every individual can take care of themselves. The Commissary was established (1) as a convenient and inexpensive way to feed the masses, and (2) as a central meeting location for MARA members when we cannot ad be camped together. The mealtimes will be arranged so that everyone will eat close to the same time. Meals will be served by company. A lottery drawing will be done the night before to determine in what order the companies will be served and will be called in that order the next day. Each individual should come through the line; we want to see your smiling faces. AN in all, our Commissary did a good job and all those who were involved should be very proud. We did what we set out to do and exceeded it on very short notice (we served 140 people for three meals on Saturday). We appreciate all the help. If you would like to volunteer for South Mountain or have any suggestions, please contact the Commissary st (301) 9456162 or (301) 2236454. |
