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).
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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.[1]
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.[2][3]
Brownpots are in charge of machinery at Cut and Stack.[4] They are most often seen operating chainsaws at Cut and Stack sites. There are 4 brownpots currently. [5]
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
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.[2] One leadership position, Load Pot, technically falls within the hierarchy as a Yellowpot, but does not represent any specific dorm. The Load Pot is typically a junior who is charged with the responsibility of supervising Load directly with a Brownpot and a Redpot. The Load Pot is the head authority of Load site.
Crew chiefs are in charge of each dorm's crew while at Cut and Stack, 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.[2]
Greenpots are in charge of administrative check-in. These women are responsible for things such as checking people in at the beginning of the day, selling merchandise, and dealing with paperwork. While no position is technically restricted to certain genders, this has been historically an all female position.
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.[6]
Female workers who supervised the volunteers who provided concessions (sandwiches) and other assistance to workers.[7]
The leadership roles themselves change each year as they are given, or "passed down", to younger students.[4] 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, Yellows, and any member of the applicable year. The Greenpots are the only non-dorm-specific pots that do not use crew chiefs or Yellowpots as candidates.