Aggie Bonfire leadership

The Aggie Bonfire leadership was composed of Texas A&M University students who were in charge of the construction of Aggie Bonfire, known as Bonfire, a large bonfire burned on the Texas A&M University campus annually from 1909 until 1999. The Aggie Bonfire Leadership was responsible for safely managing the large number of student participants. Leaders were generally identified by the color of their "pots" (hard hats).

History

In 1965, membership in the Corps of Cadets became voluntary for students at Texas A&M. The leadership of the Corps had always taken the lead in directing the construction of Bonfire, but they held no authority over the "non-regs", or civilian students. A separate Bonfire leadership structure was instituted. The new leaders were designated with colored hard hats, or pots, with the overall leaders known as redpots.citation|last=Smith|first=Jonathan M.|date=2007|title=The Texas Aggie Bonfire: A Conservative Reading of Regional Narratives, Traditional Practices, and a Paradoxical Place|newspaper=Annals of the Association of American Geographers|pages=182-201|accessdate=2007-08-15|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.2007.00530.x]

Leadership roles

Redpots

Redpots are the leaders of Bonfire. These nine seniors and nine juniors were in charge of Bonfire as a whole, from the design of the structure to ensuring that all participants were following safety precautions while overseeing both Cut and Stack. There was no official written documentation for Bonfire, and all applicable information was passed orally from one year's redpots to the next. Senior redpots were responsible for training the junior redpots in the proper process and procedures for building the next year's Bonfire. The head redpot, who has ultimate authority over Bonfire, is known as Head Stack.cite web | title = Students in charge when bonfire pile collapsed, Texas A&M says | publisher=CNN | url =http://www.cnn.com/US/9911/24/bonfire/index.html|date=November 24, 1999 | accessdate = 2007-03-03 ]

Brownpot

Brownpots are in charge of machinery at Cut and Stack.citation| last=Brown|first=Kelly| title = Brown pot after Bonfire accident: looking back and looking onward| newspaper=The Bryan-College Station Eagle | url =http://www.theeagle.com/bonfire/storyarchive/november2000/111500chiptheilmovingon.htm|date=October 2000 | accessdate = 2007-03-03 ] They are most often seen operating chainsaws and preparing lights at Stack. There are 5 brownpots, usually three from the Corps of Cadets and two representing the civilian, or non-reg, participants.cite web | last = Cook | first = John Lee, Jr.| title = Bonfire Collapse | publisher = U.S. Department of Homeland Security | url =http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr-133-508.pdf |format=PDF| accessdate = 2007-03-03 ] Unofficially, Brownpots have a reputation for causing mischief for the upper leadership.Fact|date=February 2008

Buttpot

Buttpots are all members of the corps of cadets and are all juniors (the name "buttpot" referring to "sergebutt", the moniker for all juniors in the corps) each corps outfit would have one junior designated as Buttpot for the outfit and would be in charge of all crew chiefs and fish for their unit, as well as serving as the spokesperson for the outfit. The nonreg equivalent would be a yellow pot. Buttpots could be identified by a Maroon pot with their outfit name on the front and "Buttpot" clearly written on the back

Yellowpot

Yellowpots are the liaison to higher on-site leadership for crews. Each dorm with enough volunteers will have a yellowpot designated who serves as spokesman for that dorm, as well as manager to the crew chiefs of his dorm.citation| last=LeBas|first=John| title = Bonfire design evolution fueled by informal techniques|newspaper=The Bryan-College Station Eagle | url =http://www.theeagle.com/bonfire/storyarchive/november2000/111300bonfireevolution.htm|date=October 2000 | accessdate = 2007-03-03 ]

Crew chief

Crew chiefs are in charge of each dorm's crew while at Cut, Stack, and in the case of Walton Hall crew chiefs, Load, serving as both instructors and supervisors. With larger dorms, there will be multiple crew chiefs to ensure that there is adequate supervision of the larger crews.

Greenpot

Greenpots are in charge of administrative and financial aspects. These students, are responsible for things such as checking people in at the beginning of the day, managing finances, and dealing with paperwork, but are rarely involved with the physical labor, unless they volunteer for it. [http://stuact.tamu.edu/stuorgs/bcs/info/constitution/BCS-1.doc]

Outhouse Crew/Orangepots

The Outhouse Crew is in charge of building the orange outhouse that sits on top of the bonfire stack. The Outhouse Crew is made up of 6 sophomore cadets from The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band. A crewmember is chosen from each of the four band outfits and a head crewmember and grode crewmember are also chosen. The outhouse is built in a secret location before being unveiled in front of the Dixie Chicken on Northgate. From there the outhouse is taken to the bonfire stack where a Redpot rides it to the top as it is lifted by crane. [ [http://www.aggieband.com/info/glossary.html Aggie Band Glossary of Traditions ] ]

Pinkpots

Female workers who provided concessions and other assistance to workers. [ [http://tamu.scout.com/3/Trad_Bonfire.html Scout.com ] ]

Transition of roles

The leadership roles themselves change each year as they are given, or "passed down", to younger students. The process for determining who gets the responsibility of these roles changes from pot to pot, but ultimately, the candidates are voted on according to who best represents the desired qualities. In the cases of crew chiefs and Yellowpots, the vote is decided within the dorm by the leaders for that year, and candidates are usually chosen from the freshman of that dorm. For the higher positions, such as the Redpots, the candidates are chosen from the pool of crew chiefs and Yellows. The Greenpots are the only non-dorm-specific pots that do not use crew chiefs or Yellowpots as candidates.Fact|date=February 2008

References