KH3

The Venue

·        Make sure there’s enough and safe places to PARK

·        Make sure there’s enough LIGHT – and preferably a GENERATOR. Light should be especially around for the Hash Cash, circle, drinks and food.

·        The food should be at an appropriate place, so that a line is easy to form and there’s some light around

·        Make sure the PINEAPPLE/MELON/WATER ARE READILY AVAILABLE when the first hashers/walkers/runners come back and have it in a place where people have easy access. If you give the workers at the venue instructions, make sure they know this as well, and don’t only start getting the fruits/water out when people are coming back.

·        The KH3 employs a few SECURITY STAFF that guard the vehicles every week. You may want to instruct them in advance if you have special demands where cars should park.

Setting the route

·        Put marks as much as possible on the RIGHT hand side of the road, for safety reasons (it is far safer to run/walk facing traffic than with it coming from behind you);

·        Don’t just make a long route, a short route with plenty of FALSE TRAILS, CHECKBACKS, HOOKS is what the hash is all about.  If you start setting the trail along a dead straight road, find some way of getting off it at some point, even if you come back to it later.  The last thing the Hash should be is a run along a boring straight tar road

·        Usually there are about at least three CHECKPOINTS, try to put them at open places if possible with a view. Use checkpoints to get the Front runners and the slow hashers together again.

·        The route should for a big part go OFF THE TARMAC roads and AVOID THE EVENING TRAFFIC – make it an interesting trip through bushes, high-density suburbs, sandy, dusty (preferably not!) roads etc! It’s not about distance and running at top speed, make it difficult and fun. You must try and stay away from crossing of main high ways like Jinja road etc.

·        The run should have a route for walkers, hashers and a few extra loops for runners. Count on it that we usually leave around 6.01pm so that you don’t have a full hour. Also count on losing 10-12 minutes for the checkpoints, this leaves you with 42min of running. Make sure you have lots check backs and hooks to keep the group together. We should NOT be coming in much after 7 PM. First time hares tend to make the routes too long (and boring), so limit your ambitions! You do NOT need to set 3 completely different routes – it’s much more fun/interesting if everyone meets up/crosses routes etc on occasions.

·        Never set the route by car/boda-boda.  Apart from being a Hashittable offence, you lose all perspective about the length of the run when you use a motor vehicle.  As a general guideline, reckon on just under two hours to set a one hour Hash (but much depends on the terrain and how inventive you want to be for the walkers’ route and how much experience you’ve got in setting).

·        Usually not enough attention is paid to the walkers route: Please give them an interesting route as well! – and the walkers do NOT want to be back in 30 minutes!

The Food

·        There should be ENOUGH FOOD for everybody. On an everyday hash, we usually get at least120 people, so you should cater for around 100 people with the food as about 20 will not stay for the run (but check with Al’s Bar the week before). Caterers will usually want to set a number before the event (regardless of the number of people that show up). It is much worse not to have enough food, than to have too much.

·        Food should not cost more than 3,000. If you have a problem with that, see the HASH CASH. Water usually costs 500 shilling per bottle and the fruits usually costs 30,000.

·        There should be plates, forks and napkins as a minimum (included in the fee for food)

·        The venue should have plenty of COLD beers and soft drinks available (at least .. crates of beer and .. crates of soft drinks), ready to serve when hashers get back. Also ENSURE that the venue has PLENTY OF STAFF to give out drinks (at least 2 people) and enough CHANGE to give back.  The most important thing, of course, is bottle openers and some bars start-off the evening with none.  I’ve only ever been to a couple of Hashes where the bar has enough (an opportunity for a sponsor, perhaps?)

The Money

·        The hares are responsible for the finances of the evening, but
payments usually go through Hash Cash. Please stay behind and balance the books with Hash Cash for on spot queries, transparency and segregation of duties

·        RECEIPTS are the 8,000 fees of the hashers

·        EXPENDITURES are the payments for: lime/food, fruits/water, security paid on the day of te run. If you want other things to be paid, ask permission from HASH CASH before making any payments from your pocket.

·        We try to make a  profit on every hash. This money goes to our account and is used for the annual Hash Bash, a special occasion (t-shirts for 50/100 runs or someone special who’s leaving) and/or a charity.

Kampala, March 2011