The History of MsC
by Master Taino
Sunday, Sept. 1, 2013
Crowne Plaza Rockville
Good evening. Tonight I will tell a story. The story of the Master/slave Conference.
The story of MsC does not begin with Master Taíno. It really began with two people the Universe placed in my path:
The first one is Master Steve Sampson from Butchmanns, the man I consider to be my mentor, the man who I followed and from whom I learn a lot in this journey. Master Steve is a man who leads by example and by encouraging others.
After the International Master/slave Contest was moved to Dallas in 2003, Master Steve saw a need to create feeder contests. That lead him and Butchmans to create the Southwest Leather Conference in Phoenix. Right after, he started encouraging other friends across the country – myself included – to follow. So, Master Steve planted the seed and the idea in my head and encouraged me to run with it.
While brainstorming what and if we wanted to do this, my thoughts immediately took me to the experience that changed my life – MAsT 99. That unique event, in Atlanta in the Spring of 1999, became the first educational event on Master/slave relationships that I can remember.
Although many people made possible MAsT 99, it was precisely Guy Baldwin who suggested, when asked, that the event should become an educational event. When Guy was invited, he took over the educational aspect of MAsT 99.
What Guy Baldwin did in Atlanta was exactly what I wanted to do in Washington DC five years later.
Why? Because I wanted others to experience what 400 of us experienced in Atlanta.
So, tonight, ten years later, I want to thank Master Steve and Guy Baldwin for showing us the way. I called Master Steve last week and thanked him for that on behalf of all of you, the attendees of MsC. And tonight, I want to thank Guy Baldwin for showing me the way. We at MsC are keeping alive your vision of 1999 and we are making sure that “the Guard Continues”. Thank you SIR.
So what exactly happened in Atlanta that we wanted to continue in Washington? MAsT 99 was an educational event on Master/slave relationships – with no dungeon and no SM classes. And although most attendees were kinky, our focus was in our relationships.
And that was exactly my vision for MsC. We have plenty of events dedicated to SM. We wanted an event dedicated SOLELY to our unique relationships.
One of the initial struggles was to come up with a name for the event. I knew that I wanted the words “Master – slave” in the name. Also, I wanted a good acronym. Finally, slave rene, who has served on the MTTA board for nine years now, with his natural poise, said in a meeting and paraphrasing him: “If it is going to be an educational event, it means it is a conference, then why not Master/slave Conference?”
As soon as I heard that, I knew we had a name: Master/slave Conference – MsC.
In the matter of the contest, I wanted to keep just the Northeast Master/slave Contest, and resisted those who tried to persuade us to produce other types of contests. During the past nine years, we have had two couples, Sir Stephen and slave Catherine and Master Larry and slave barb, become International Master/slave in 2005 and 2007.
In our first event in 2004, we expected 100 attendees. We ended up with just over 200. The hotel ended up being too small for our first Conference.
At the second conference in 2005, one couple in our team had the vision of creating a proposal for a Master/slave Flag. Today, the symbol flies all over the country and beyond and Masters and slaves are very proud of our flag.
During that same conference, Master Skip and a group of fellow Masters decided to embarrass me by presenting me with a Leather kilt, a vestment that I despised at the time. Master Skip, I think you won the battle, and I now kind-of-like my kilt. Thank you, my friend.
In 2006, for the first time, we brought Mama Vi Johnson and her Library to MsC.
Today, the Carter-Johnson Leather Library is an important part of our event. At the same time, the Library inspired our commitment with our History. When in 2009, we moved to Labor Day Weekend, we had an extra evening and we decided to dedicate it to our traditions and history.
The first five years of MsC were not easy. We were in five different hotels.
It was like reinventing the wheel every single year. Every year we were given a pink slip after the event.
Finally, we spent the last five years in our previous Silver Spring venue, where our event grew and averaged 500 attendees over the past three years.
2009 was a huge turning point, although a very challenging year. Our event grew to 400 attendees but it was preceded by a lot of losses. It was a painful year for our MsC family. We lost, less than three weeks before MsC 2009, one of the founders and dearest friends, Master Jack McGeorge. His loss followed the passing of Sir Steve Desdier from San Francisco who was responsible for getting our non-profit status and served as our treasurer of the MTTA Board and pro-bono accountant and the passing of slave bill, one of our more loyal volunteers. Since then, we honor all three with awards named after them.
That year, I also fulfilled a dream to pay tribute to Guy Baldwin and those who put together MAsT 99. We used the tenth anniversary of that event to recognize those who showed us the way. It was a very moving and powerful conference.
During the following years, MsC continued its growth and has fully become the welcoming home of our community. But when it was became clear that we were not welcome anymore in Silver Spring, we immediately called Mr. Earl Raven – who was our esteemed manager in Silver Spring for two conferences. He was extremely interested in having us here in this two-hotel complex. For the first time in ten years, we have not one but two hotels exclusively for us. All this means that the future is looking great.
As the executive producer of this event, I am so proud of the men and women who staff and volunteer for this event. They are professionals. They are dedicated. They share the vision.
But over everything else, MsC is about you… our attendees. You have made it possible. You have made it a success. You have made it yours. MsC is your event. MsC is your home. Without you, this would not be possible. You have made MsC the place for education, networking and history.
You have made MsC the premier event on Master/slave relationships.
Thank you very much.