Meeting Minutes, Castle Wars, Dragoncon, Events, Fighter Practices, Midwinter A&S, Red Tower

July 2018 Baronial Business Meeting Minutes

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

11 July 2018, 7:30pm

Little Tree Studios

Notes submitted by Lady Raven Helmsplitter, South Downs Chronicler.

Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois) called the meeting to order. Master Wistric sez “Welcome! If you did not sign in, please sign in!”

Officer Reports

  • Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)
    • Events – Legends
      • Lord Lucien D’Artois – Grant of Arms
      • Lady Mairghread Wilson – Argent Shield
      • Sable of South Downs – Award of Arms
    • Submissions registered at LOAR
      • Lady Juliane de Vivonne – badge
      • Master Mathias Blackett and Mistress Mara Palmer – joint badge; household name was returned
      • Ruqayah al-Zarqa – device change
    • Submissions in Society Commentary
      • Jurgen der Vielfrass – new name and device
      • Quintus Valerius Gracchus – new name and device
      • Lady Alisandre de la Chapelle – new device
      • Lady Myndee of of South Downs – new name and device
      • Nikon Davidowicz – new name and device
      • Lord Mark de Wyttenye – new alternate name and device
      • Lady Stella di Silvestri – new alternate name; badge was returned at Kingdom
    • Submissions in Kingdom Commentary
      • THL Andreva Rigaldi – new name
      • Margot de Saint Denis – device resubmission
    • Submitted to Kingdom
      • Tryggvi Tryggsson – new name
  • Armored and Youth Marshal (Lady Mairghread)
    • Armored
      • Sir Gelleys has offered up an armored practice for unit/melee training, to be held the second Sunday of the month, in order to make ready for fall events (including Foxes and Castle Wars)
      • Project night, focusing on armor workshops and repairing loaner gear, will take place next week at Baronial Project Night.
      • The Kingdom Marshallate will count the Tuesday evening armored practice held at Swift Cantrell as an Owl’s Nest practice, since the location is within the shire and many of the participants are members of the shire
      • Jaden Baron has agreed to be the new deputy armored marshal (yay!)
    • Owl’s Nest (Lady Mairghread is serving as their knight marshal until they have one established)
      • Received the rest of the loaner gear from Crispin
      • Owl’s Nest has finally got their own knight marshal again (yay!), so Mairghread no longer has to be responsible for that anymore. The joint Owl’s Nest/South Downs’ Tuesday evening armored practice at Swift Cantrell will continue as before.
    • Youth
      • Nothing to report
  • Live Weapons Marshal (Mistress Mara Palmer)
    • Our practices are averaging about 10 people per practice, with 5-8 people on a line at a time
    • We’ve also been getting a lot of kids attending practice (or wanting to), so we will be looking at acquiring more youth loaner gear; we still have funds available from our initial budget request, so we will just move forward with the purchases
    • This Sunday (15 July), their Excellencies will host the Live Weapons Baronial Championship, so come on out! We will have a celebrity guest marshal to marshal the event
    • Mara is looking for volunteers to become live weapons marshals-in-training; if interested, please contact her directly
    • Please check the Facebook group, South Downs/Owl’s Nest Live Weapons Practice to track upcoming practices.
  • Rapier Marshal (Lord Brendan de Hay)
    • Practices. We are still having them (even without Brendan) Sunday afternoons, concurrent with armored. Tuesday evening practices at 7pm, at Liane Levetan / Brook Run Park in Dunwoody. We’re averaging 2-12 people. For updates regarding rapier practices, go to the Atlanta SCA Fighting Facebook group.
    • Brendan thanked Master Ximon for his help in getting loaner gear to practices when he (Brendan) had work conflicts with practices.
    • We have plenty of rapier marshals-at-large, so even when Brendan can’t attend practice, there has been no problem with having marshal coverage at practices
    • Reminder: Lord Konrad will be hosting a regional rapier practice at his home in Jasper. Facebook link to the event is here.
  • Chatelaine (Lady Justina di Silvestri)
    • Justina has a carful of gold key that was donated by a former SCAdian that she will need help processing/repairing.
    • Justina would like to hold another Baronial swap meet before? after? DragonCon, since she may not have use for all the donated items.
    • If you have borrowed any Gold Key, please return to Justina as soon as possible. Thanks!
    • Gold Key database is now available
  • Arts & Sciences (Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)
    • We have arts *and* sciences, and that is good
    • Lady Justina taught last month’s class on poisons and the macabre and was well received
    • Katerina will teach this month’s class, on the new PayPal system for reservations. If you are interested in volunteering with troll at an SCA event, please come out for this class. She will teach both parts, covering reservations, troll, etc. THL Andreva encouraged everyone to consider taking the class, because the more people who are approved to handle the new Paypal registration/payment system, the easier it will be for those running troll at events.
    • Reminder: Sunneva has made a schedule for all of 2018 as a Google Docs spreadsheet so you (yes, you!) can sign up to teach a class at one of our monthly A&S nights. She is pleased to report we have classes scheduled through most of the rest of the year; there is also a list in development for alternate/back up classes, so even if there are no specific dates available, please sign up!
  • Reeve (THL Andreva Rigaldi)
    • Quarterly report was due yesterday (10 July), and was submitted on time
    • Our current accounts show that we had $10,621 in the bank at the beginning of the quarter, and we are now at approximately $8,000. This is due to having just made payments such as the storage unit rental, site fees, etc., and is rather average for us at this time of the year. Our two big events in the fall will take care of our finances.
    • Mistress Allesandra will be the new deputy (yay!)
  • Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)
    • We have stuff! Yay!
    • Lucien planning to have another storage unit inventory update after Pennsic; he had planned to do this before Pennsic, but he has been asked by Sol Haven’s quartermaster to help them get set up.
  • Webminister (Lord Pietro di Conti)
    • We have a website!
    • Updates
      • Disk cleanup to get under the web site’s disk quota
      • Added Castle Wars 2018 banners and “Your Fate in the War of Roses” random image generator game – sharable to Facebook. Several members of the populace commented on how much fun the game is!
      • Updated Red Tower 2018 site with initial blurb, event site, link to Facebook page, link from toolbar
      • Updated website to WordPress 4.9.6
      • Added ability to share to social media from AtlantaSCA and tinkered with which images are used as thumbnails on facebook
      • Swapped Lucien and Ximon as Quartermaster and Deputy Quartermaster
      • Updated Alisandre to be Deputy A&S Minister
      • Updated honors and titles for Lucien, Sable, and Mairghread from Legends event
  • Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
    • Raven mentioned that recently, a couple of people had shown interest in becoming the deputy Chronicler, and asked if anyone is interested, please contact her directly.
    • Justina mentioned she is interested in serving as deputy, and has ideas about expanding social media opportunities, perhaps in conjunction with the Chatelaine?
  • Seneschal (Master Wistric Oftun)
    • After the recent “Find All The Sites” session, approximately 80 potential sites have been identified for further research. Anyone interested in helping research these potential sites, please contact Wistric.
    • A Future Farmers of America (FFA) site in Conyers was suggested by a member of the populace who had attended an event there recently. This has been added to the list.
    • It’s great that so many officers have gotten deputies lined up. All officers should consider finding a deputy for their position
    • September brings DragonCon!
      • Lady Stella is coordinating our presence at the parade. For those planning to attend, please check out the SCA at DragonCon page.
      • Owl’s Nest will be managing the table this year.
      • Ximon commented that he will again offer a six-pack (or equivalent) adult beverage of their choice to anyone who helps pull the chariot in the parade this year
    • Castle Wars!
      • Sir Iazzie is still waiting on getting the additional walls built – the funds are standing by.
      • Questions were raised about who owns the walls – Iazzie says we (South Downs) do, but things aren’t clear about the ownership of the towers
      • Things need to be determined about ownership and deputy ownership (in case the point person for the walls/towers is no longer available)
    • Do we still want to create a demo box? What would we want to include in it?
    • StreetsAlive will take place 30 September along Peachtree Street. Sawyer won’t be able to organize it, but Mistress Margavati can get info to Wistric to get things going. (note: this is the same weekend as MGT)
    • A high school teacher from Coweta County who attended the History Bee is interested in having us come do a demo at their school
  • Their Excellencies
    • Adela has re-authorized as an armored fighter! To celebrate, the baronial armored champion tournament will feature all combatants to fight her to sort out the fighters into brackets
    • Lorenzo is hoping to authorize in rapier by Red Tower
    • Their Excellencies reminded the populace that the baronial live weapons champion tournament will be held this Sunday during the live weapons practice, so come on out!
    • For those wanting to go to the live weapons practice and need arrows, they are available locally – just make sure you specify wood shaft, feather fletching, how much your bow draws (pounds) and the length of your draw
    • Upcoming events!
      • Royal University of Meridies (RUM) / Fighters’ Collegium (20-22 July)
        • Will be held in Murfreesboro – come on out!
      • Tournament of the Foxes (21-23 September)
        • We have sponsored Baronial teams for rapier and archery; we would love to also have an all-South Downs armored combat team as well! Represent!

Upcoming Events

  • Red Tower (5-7 October 2018), co-Autocrat Lady Veronica reporting
    • We have all volunteer positions covered; Veronica read through the list to confirm
    • Veronica will get together with Andreva and Mathias to work through herald logistics and duties
    • Mara requested donations of large pieces of cardboard for live weapons targets
    • Lorenzo asked about site tokens – Veronica has a bagful of tokens from past events that she will be using
  • Castle Wars (15-18 November 2018)
    • Juliane needs volunteers! We already have 378 (via the Facebook event page) planning on attending.
    • If we don’t offer a GTFO breakfast Sunday morning, we should at least make sure there’s coffee “so people don’t die”
    • There was discussion about offering a volunteer war point, perhaps a York vs Lancaster competition
    • Need donations for the volunteer raffle
    • Ximon asked about a truck rental to haul supplies from the storage unit (and walls?) – Juliane confirmed the truck rental is included in the approved budget
    • Andreva reminded everyone that per Kingdom law, any receipts submitted for reimbursement can not include any personal items on the receipt, regardless of how minor the cost.
  • Midwinter A+S (9 February 2019)
    • We have a theme! The Gutenburg Printing Press!
    • That’s pretty much all that’s ready to mention now

Other SCA Business

  • The Knowne Worlde Courtesans Guild podcast is live, baby! Justina is one of the podcast’s field reporters. She said they are looking for interviews, stories, poetry and other cultural aspects of SCA life. The podcast will be a digital salon hosted by the courtesans of the Knowne World Courtesans Guild and featuring artisans of historical arts from across the world. Tune in for intelligent discussion of history, re-enacting the pre-1600s world, and news of the Society. If you are interested in talking about your art, please contact Justina and she will be happy to chat with you!
  • In local courtesan news, the Courtesans of Meridies are sponsoring an adult-themed scribal challenge at Meridies Fall Coronation 2018! They want to see your naughty scribal side…
    • Prize: Replica Roman brothel coins (spintriae) and more!
    • Rules: Teams allowed, tracing allowed, incomplete allowed, documentation encouraged but not required.
    • Due to the nature of the subject, ONLY AGES 18+ may enter this challenge.
  • Justina is also sponsoring a category in the Meridies Scribal Challenge for Fall Coronation!
    • Best use of Poisonous Pigment in a Scroll
    • Prize: Historic poisonous plant seeds for the garden
    • Teams allowed, tracing allowed, documentation encouraged. Please include a description of materials used. Have fun!!!
  • Ca d’Oro has teamed up with the Sable and Gules Theater at Gulf Wars 2019. Lady Þýri’s fashion show was incredibly inspiring, so they are going to host a fashion show Monday of Gulf and will process to the Ca d’Oro department for a salon to discuss what each of them are wearing. They are looking for models – show off your garb of all eras and inspire newcomers! If you are interested, please contact Justina, or Sable and Gules directly
  • Iazzie mentioned that we need to start thinking about kingdom-level bids for 2019 – perhaps RUM/Fighters’ Collegium?

Non-SCA Business

  • None

Next South Downs business meeting will be held Wednesday, 1 August 2018, at Little Tree Art Studios.

–Raven