8 January 2025, Time: 7:30 PM EST
Notes submitted by Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong, South Downs Chronicler.
Magister Lorenzo called the December meeting to order. The Seneschal Lady Raven Helmsplitter, started recording the meeting and greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Lady Raven read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.
Officers’ Reports
Seneschal, (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
- Schedule for this month:
- 01/08 – online – Business Meeting (Zoom)
- 01/15 – in person – Dance
- 01/22 – online A&S class
- 01/29 – in person – Social Potluck
- March 31st, will lose space at Doraville, the Civic Center will no longer be available.
- If you know of any place that would work well for us, please let Raven know!
- Central location, near a MARTA station, good parking preferred
- If you know of any place that would work well for us, please let Raven know!
- Events in 2025
- Red Tower – Bid due June 1st
- Castle Wars – Bid due August 1st
- Midwinter – Bid due November 1st
- If you are interested in Event Stewarding any of these events or want to learn how, please let us know!
Herald (Magister Lorenzo Petrucci)
- Been quiet, not much going on with heraldry/names
- The following awards were received by members of the Barony at Bryn Madoc 12th Night:
- Lorenzo Petrucci – Baronial Award of Gratitude
- Seong Myeong Su – Baronial Award of Gratitude
- Sumarliði Smjor Engill – Baronial Award of Gratitude
Knight Marshal (Baroness Maighread Wilson)
- Potential Deputies: (no objections by Barony & will work on getting them Warranted)
- Ajax (Eirikr’s squire sibling) – does not have a vehicle and cannot store loaner gear
- Cristoff – was suggested, but I have not spoken with him yet
- Kicked back by DEMHC for lack of recent fighting experience. Will follow up with DEMHC on developing a Marshal Training Program for Heavy Combat.
- Update: Did Marshal training with Ajax at Red Tower (inspections, how to run an authorization, how to marshal the field, etc). Will continue to work with them on getting Warranted.
- Changes will be coming to reporting structure per SEM/KEM in January 2025
- Upcoming practice considerations:
- 1/12/2025 – NO Practice Panhandle (snow storms projected)
- 1/19/2025 – Practice as weather permits
- 1/26/82025 – Practice as weather permits; FC/WC – will need stunt marshal
- 2/2/2025 – Regional practice location Panola State Park 1000 am
Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)
- Practices have been happening. As always, thank you to our crew of Stunt Marshals, keeping practices going while I’m gallivanting around the country doing Mundane work stuff.
- Upcoming! War College/Fighters’ Collegium. Ayako will be teaching basic spear defense for rapier fighters, coordinating with Duke Timothy, who will put it into context for meleé.
- If you, your significant other, or your offspring are interested in fighting rapier, let us know. You may contact me directly (rm.southdowns@meridies.org).
- Practice location: Brook Run Park in Dunwoody, https://maps.app.goo.gl/m7P3kWaEjWMfVDDK8
- Sunday afternoons, weather and other events permitting. Watch the Facebook group “Atlanta SCA Fighting,” (That’s the official announcement point), or the Baronial Discord server channel “Rapier”
- HYDRATE!
Live Weapons (Master Mathias Blackett)
- Nothing reported
Exchequer (Lord Salim Al’Hallil)
- Thanks to Justina for all her help as previous Exchequer.
- $6398.67 in the bank, waiting for paypal from Castle Wars to hit
- Working on end of year report paperwork, will hopefully get that in soon.
Fundraising Deputy (THL Majda Anwar)
- Nothing reported
Quartermaster (Lady Genovefa and THL Samurra)
- Still trying to get a second key made
Chatelaine (Baron Mark de Wytteney)
- Nothing reported
Demo Deputy (VACANT)
- Position is still open, if you are interested, please contact Lady Raven.
Arts & Sciences (Lady Maryam al-Jawhariyya)
- Midwinter coming up, come out and teach and take classes and see the A&S competition.
- 01/23 – Scribal Night at Lorenzo and Myeong Su’s house
- If anyone is interested in hosting the next session of the South Downs Supper Club, please let Maryam know!
Provost (Lord Ælfric Hort)
- The month of January will be my last full month as Provost. I will be handing off the office to Sumarliði officially at our February business meeting.
- Class night for January will be on the 22nd. Lady Hessa has graciously offered to teach a class for us on gefrens (German hair accessories) and answer questions about hair accessories in general. This will be an online class via Zoom.
- We are looking for volunteers to teach February 26 and March 26 – both of which I believe should be in-person in Doraville. The rest of the year (minus Nov. and Dec.) are also open, but with meeting location still in flux, scheduling online via Zoom is probably our best option at the moment. Please reach out to myself or Sumarliði if you would like to teach.
- I’ll get into Midwinter class specifics more when we discuss the upcoming event, but there is still time if anyone wishes to sign up to teach. Deadline for teacher sign up is January 17 – Friday a week from now – so please encourage anyone you know to sign up before the deadline passes
Chronicler (Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong)
- Looking for a deputy!
- Always looking to interview the populace for each issue, so please fill out this form to get included! Eventually I’d like to collect these into one PDF so we have a good collection of information about our members: https://forms.gle/MNxww3KUQJo2VsEG9
- Please submit photos, art, articles, shout-outs, or anything that you’ve found interesting and want to share! I’ll always be collecting stuff for the newsletters going forward. You can submit either through this form: https://forms.gle/8SyEF9D7c8rMCnZP6 or email me at chron.southdowns@meridies.org.
Social Media Minister (Baroness Emelina le Norreys)
- Nothing reported.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer (DEIB), (Lady Lily of South Downs)
- Tried to collaborate with Provost to work on classes and schedule rearranging, due to how New Years landed, we will not have a DEIB class this month
- Would love to have the populace of the Barony to fill out a questionnaire about DEIB and your interests/needs for future DEIB classes or services.
- Survey should be posted by Friday and will be accepting responses through the end of the month.
Webminister (Acharya Mewadi Margavati Bai)
- Making small updates to the Midwinter site
- Doing some maintenance
- Looking for a deputy, please reach out to Margavati if you’re interested!
- Some changes coming
- Please send info or any changes that you need on the website to web.southdowns@meridies.org.
Minister of Children (VACANT)
- Position is still open, if you are interested, please contact Lady Raven.
Their Excellencies, (Maestro Ximon Cordoba de Martillo & HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)
- Baron Ximon and Baroness Rhiannon
- Be ready for the cold weather that’s coming, take care and be safe.
- As always, we’re proud of our group and seeing some of our members being recognized by another Barony for the service that they’ve been doing.
SCA Business
- Midwinter – Feb. 1st
- Genovefa
- Things are coming together well, firm cut-off date of Jan. 17th for scheduling, so please submit activities before that date so we can get the schedule out early.
- We do outdoor space if you want to teach outdoors
- Social Media posts will start coming out soon, please share/comment/like the posts to help push the posts out there.
- Classes don’t have to be performing arts related, so if you have a class that you’d like to teach, please feel free to submit them!
- Will go over the staff list again to see if there are any holes, we could always use more troll shifts.
- We must set the sanctuary back as part of using the site, so please help pitch in to reset the space before we leave.
- We do have Friday night reserved for set up as well, will figure out time
- There are two gender neutral bathrooms, a quiet space is planned for, and the site has an elevator.
- There will be signs on doors and we will be putting together a site map with rooms labeled
- There is space big enough for dance classes and a decent sized kitchen if anyone wants to teach a cooking class as well.
- Standard A&S faire planned, with a couple tweaks
- Novice category, Laurel category, both by populace vote
- Genovefa
- RUM Bid
- Genovefa and Sumarliði
- Looking to use the same site that we’re using for Midwinter
- There might be another bid in for RUM, will still work on our bid regardless
- Bid presented, motion to vote on bid, bid approved and will move forward to submit to RUM.
- Genovefa and Sumarliði
Non-SCA Business
- Last weekend, Alisandre, Pietro, Brendan, and Raven went to Raleigh to see a museum exhibit on the Venice Ottoman Empire, will be moving to Savannah at the Jepson Center at the Telfair Museum next. Had some kaftans and items on display.
- Forth Castle is planning a demo at the exhibition. – March 29th – and have asked if people in the Barony would be interested in helping out at the demo.
The business meeting was closed @ 8:32 PM EST
The next business meeting will be held on February 5th, 2025, 7:00 PM EST via Zoom Meeting.