If you think you are ready to Hare, contact the Hash Raiser Mamma's Little Shortcake. Via his email address bugaha2@yahoo.com. If it is your first time Haring, You MUST find an experienced hasher that can assist you or ask the Hare Raiser for assistance. Once the date is set, the rest is up to you.

Before you Sign up to hare you must consider several things:
Date
Out Of Pocket Costs
Location of Hash
Start Point Location
Beer Check Location
On-In Location / Circle
Where the On-after will be held

Date:

Check on the Website Calendar or at the Very bottom of this page to see if a hare is needed and find the date you would like that is open. The first Hasher to contact Momma's Little Shortcake and sign up for an open date is the Hare. Momma's Little Shortcake's hare calendar is the bible when it comes to Hare Raising and it is the final authority. The website calendar is merely a reflection of his calendar. Once a date is taken by a Hasher, if you want to assist them, or see if they want to swap you must contact that hare and make your request. If they agree you must BOTH contact Momma's Little Shortcake and inform him of the changes so he can adjust his calendar. If BOTH parties do not contact Momma's Little Shortcake then the Hare will remain as it was first entered into the Calendar. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Preferably when you sign up for your Hare Date, you should already know where you want your trail to start, and you need to provide that information to either to Momma's Little Shortcake, or you can give the start location to Finger Wave, Woody Wouldn't Pecker, Urine Sodomy, and/or Once Over Easy after you have contacted Momma's Little Shortcake and signed up for you date, so they can update the Web Calendar with the starting location.

If you do not provide a starting location when you sign up, you need to provide that location ASAP. If you have not announced the Starting location of the Hash and it’s within a week of that Hash, fully expect the Hash Mismanagement to start bugging the crap out of you until you do. Many Hashers only check their email and the website once a week, and the staring location MUST be up on the Egroups and the Website in time for those Hashers to get the info.

Out of pocket costs:

The hare(s) are responsible for buying the flour/chalk/toilet paper and for the beer up front, First get with the previous hare to get the coolers and any left over beer, water, chips, cookies, chalk, flour, etc.. they have, THEN buy the rest of what you need. Then get with the Hash Cash (Once Over Easy) after the Hash and give her your receipts for your re-imbursement. Make sure you buy just what we need, don't blow $200 on Sex Toys at Dr. Johns and expect the Hash to pay for all that, we do have a limited amount of Hash Cash
The hash covers the Hare Materials, Beer Checks, and the Circle (Beer, Water, Cookies, Chips)
The On-After costs are covered by individual hashers. If you have an On After at your House (as in a grill out or a party) the Hash will NOT reimburse you for those expenses

Location:

About any place you find that looks cool to you is fine. Everyone likes something different, so if it's your hash you get to choose the terrain. However, if this awesome place you want to lay a trail is on private property get permission first, also you need to make sure that Alcohol is NOT prohibited at that area (like a State Park or Lake).

Location Must Haves:

Okay you've found this really cool area to lay a hash in. Great! Here's what you gotta find before you start laying flour:

Starting Place

Every Hash has a start point, a place where we can gather.

There should be enough parking for everyone you expect to show up
Make sure that it's okay to park there. Hashers seem to get pissed off when they get back from the hash and find that their cars have been towed.
Try to find a spot that's easy to give good directions.
If you're laying a middle of summer hash, it's nice if there's some shade around.
And try not set a hash were Law Enforcement tends to hang out.

Beer Check

Somewhere between the start of the run and the end of the run, there will be a very special check...the "Beer Check" Some runs have one beer check, though typically there is two or three.

This should be a place where the hashers can slam a beer without getting harassed. They'll only be there about 15 minutes, so this is fairly easy to find.
At the beer check, beverages, including beer (gasp!), water, and soda will be provided.
If you plan on having the beer truck drive there it should be easy to find and accessible by a 2-wheel drive vehicle.
If you want to stash the beer, in a cooler or whatever, you can have the beer-check almost anywhere. If you do this leave a trash bag for empties. Make sure there is water in the cooler especially if it's really hot.
Bars and restaurants are fine for Beer Checks, but are expensive. Remember, One Beer Each, Hash Cash is not infinite!

On-In (Circle)

This is usually the toughest place to find because the hash be there at least an hour and it's better if we're not bothered by police or whoever. First determine if the location is going to be one of the following:
Outside - Public Place
Outside - Personal Place
Inside - Personal Place
Inside Public Place

On-In (Outside) - Public Place, Parks, Shopping Malls, Bars

MUST SELL OR ALLOW BEER!
Inform Shag Wagon where the On On will be if you are not taking the beer yourself. The Shag Wagon and others have to be able to get in and out of there and you have to be able to give directions how to get there.
If it's cold, try to find a place out of the wind. If we can build a bonfire without getting into trouble that's real cool!
In it's hot, try to find some shade... if possible.
If it's an "A" to "B" location, you'd better use a place we've never been before or someone might guess where you're going and beat you there.
If it's a particularly nasty shiggy hash, it's nice to have a water hose or creek around to wash off.
BIG HINT - The more secluded, the better

On-In (Outside) - Personal Place, Hashers Homes

MUST SELL OR ALLOW BEER!
Inform Shag Wagon where the On-In
will be if you are not taking the beer yourself. The Shag Wagon and others have to be able to get in and out of there and you have to be able to give directions how to get there.
If it's cold, try to find a place out of the wind. If we can build a bonfire without getting into trouble that's real cool!
In it's hot, try to find some shade... if possible.
If it's a live lay to a "B" location,
you'd better use a place we've never been before or someone might guess where you're going and beat you there.
If it's a particularly nasty shiggy hash, it's nice to have a water hose or creek around to wash off.

On-In (Inside) - Public Place, Bars, Pubs, Restaurants

MUST SELL OR ALLOW BEER!
Confirm in advance with the Hash Cash what is the On-In budget is.
Upon arrival at the location, confirm the price and beer selection with bartender; tell him whom he may serve; set up an initial tab with a limit; and give him/her a starter tip ($20.00 for a pack of twenty or more). It is a good idea to get pricing in advance.
Get plenty of water and a few pitchers of beer ready for the pack.
Turn over the rest of the beer purchase to the Hash Cash / Beer Meister when they arrive.

On-After

MUST SELL OR ALLOW BEER!
They need to have food, or allow food. (example, allow us to order Domino's)
Should be fairly cheap, like most of the hashers.
It's really great if you find a cool place we've never used before.
Probably the best place to have this is at a hasher's home because:
We don't have to worry about DUI's
The party usually lasts longer
More singing and drinking games
If you feed us its okay to ask for donations, or we can order pizza
Hot tubs and/or pools are encouraged

HASH HINTS

Have at least two hares unless you are certain it will be a small pack.
Virgin hares must team with an experienced hare.
It takes about twice as long to seta trail walking as it will for the pack to run it.
Know how to mark the trail
If it looks like rain use flour MIXED WITH OATMEAL and use plenty of it - chalk disappears instantly.
Use a minimum of 10lb of flour to set a complete trail.
If using chalk, use large sidewalk chalks (make sure the color is easily visible - DO NOT use classroom chalk.
In case of snow, use colored flour, or sawdust.
Checks shouldn't be too difficult. You want to delay the FRBs (front running bastards) and bring the pack together.
It's best to stick with three marks and you're on with all falses marked.
The trail should be three to five miles. Front runners in after 45 minutes, the pack after an hour. Nobody complains about a short trail (assuming it's well set).

Setting the trail

The Start

Contrary to what you might have experienced on some runs there should not be any doubt where the trail goes, except at checks. Put down plenty of marks. All marks should be clear; marks should not be hidden; don _ t put marks in the street where a car might be parked later; mark all corners; also put marks mid block, especially on longer blocks. When using flour in parks, forest, open areas etc the next mark should be visible. If it is raining of may rain put the (flour) marks in places where it will stay - on trees, in dry spots, against buildings - and use plenty of it.

The Checks

If you're into being abused by the pack or like multiple down downs, ignore this section. More runs have been screwed up because of bad checks than anything else. The idea of a check is to delay the FRBs (front running bastards) and bring the pack together. The idea is not for the pack to spend twenty minutes trying to find a mark five blocks away. Nor is the idea to make runners give up and call the Hares.

You can choose one mark and you're on (i.e. no false trails), three marks and you're on or you don’t have to tell the pack anything. You can also mark false trails or not. For novice trail setters its best to stick with three and you're on with all falses marked.

A check is always easy if you know where the trail is going. It’s a lot harder for the pack who don’t have this inside information. Even a basic check at a crossroads has eight possibilities - both sides of each street, including a back check. If the first mark is not in a straight line from the check, say the first mark is one block north and some way down the block to the west, there are now 23 possibilities. So it’s a good idea to have the first mark in a straight line from the check.

Mid block checks are acceptable but bear in mind that even with the first mark in a straight line there are twelve possibilities.

Another common mistake is to put the first mark too far from the check or the third mark (if it’s three and you're on) too far away. The first mark should not be more than one typical N - S block from the check and the third mark (if its three and you're on) should not be more than two N - S blocks from the check.

The Trail Itself

It is up to you how long you make the trail but remember nobody ever complains about a short run (assuming its well set). You should aim for four to five miles. As a general rule the FRBs should be in after about 45 minutes and the last ones not much more than an hour.

If you really want to set a long trail you should include a turkey and eagle split. Don’t forget to allow extra time to set this. Somewhere along the trail (usually towards the end but this is up to you) the trail splits in two. The two trails can either meet up again or they can go their separate ways to the on in. Where it splits mark one direction T for turkey and the other one E for Eagle. The turkey is the short trail and the eagle the long one. You can make the eagle as long as you like but it should still be well marked. Also put a T or E next to the first few marks after the split in case people miss the actual split.

You can take the trail wherever you like, over walls, through the undergrowth, across streams, through parks, across bridges. Avoid long straight stretches because they are boring. Limit the number of times you take the trail across major streets because you have to keep stopping and it breaks the pack up. Zigzagging across the major streets is not a good idea

Make sure you don’t double back on yourself. At a check people may be checking several blocks from the check. If the trail goes too near to a previous check they might, inadvertently, miss out part of the trail.

And above all - Have Fun!