Meeting Minutes

August 2023 Baronial Business Meeting

02 August 2023, Time: 7:32 PM EST

Notes submitted by Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong, South Downs Chronicler.

Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong called the meeting to order. Our 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)

  • RUM has happened, Pennsic is coming, Red Tower is coming, Castle Wars is coming. Heading to a very busy fall!
  • Officer positions are filling up, Thanks to Lord Eirikir and Baron Piers for setting up emails for officers, everyone should be set up with emails currently.

Herald (Lady Bú Feiyan)     

  • Magister Lorenzo: Been doing some consultations but nothing was submitted yet
  • Awards in South Downs at RUM: THLady Majda and THLady Alisandre – Red Raven, Baroness Laurettia – Kestral’s Talon, Lady Ogata – Baronial Award of Excellence, Valentina, Sumarlidi, and Karimatu the Wanderer – Award of Arms, Lady Ysabel – Meridian Cross, Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong – Court Barony.

Knight Marshal (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • THLady Mairghread: KM is at Pennsic, but we will still be having heavy practice for the next couple weeks, so come on out!

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Practices have been proceeding, weather and other events permitting.  Sundays starting around noon (concurrent with armored practice).  Schedule changes, cancellations, and any other relevant information is shared on the FaceBook group “Atlanta SCA Fighting,” and sometimes other locations depending on circumstances.  Loaner gear is usually available, but it doesn’t hurt to check the “Atlanta SCA Fighting” group in advance.  Sometimes when I’m not available, the “stunt marshal” might not be able to bring it.
  • This Sunday (8/6) and next Sunday (8/13), I will be attending the Pennsic War.  Our cadre of “stunt marshals” has been alerted, so practices will probably happen anyway.  Again, keep an eye on the FB group.
  • Shire of Owls’ Nest is holding Tuesday evening rapier practices at Swift Cantrell Park in Kennesaw.  Captain William posts on Atlanta SCA Fighting.  Athens School of Arms is not technically SCA, but is chock full of SCA rapier & C&T folks.  Athens School of Arms
  • As my mundane schedule gets even crazier, we’ve started a chat including every rapier marshal who might step in to fill those gaps.  Thanks to everyone for working together to keep practices happening.  I wouldn’t mind having a deputy step up who could take over from me in the not-too-distant future.
  • Big shout-out to folks recently giving rapier a try.  Looking forward to seeing more folks having fun!
  • Congrats to Conor Sofia on basic authorization, just in time for Pennsic!
  • Saturday, 8/26, there’s a Regional Fighter Practice at Fort Yargo State Park (https://fb.me/e/UiwfE6dO) and an InterKingdom BIRTHDAY BASH/fighter practice at Laurel Grove (https://fb.me/e/cuGfHkmfs). Both events promise to be awesome, simultaneously high activity (if you want) and low pressure.
  • Red Tower and Castle Wars are coming.  Look for more details of martial goings-on after your marshals return from Pennsic.  I would absolutely adore having another marshal to split and/or delegate duties to.
  • HYDRATE!

Live Weapons (Master Mathias Blackett)

  • We had thrown weapons practice, we had someone qualify for the Meridian Order of Weapons Master – Enzio Galente.
  • Date for the next Live Weapons session is TBD, potentially August 27th.

Exchequer (La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri)

  • $4432 in accounts
  • RUM numbers $1385 – gross from day-of Troll, total $1465 from paypal pre-reg , minus the paypal fee – $80. We have to split with Kingdom, so our total profit is $1385.16, minus $50 for the non-member fee, which we’re also splitting with Kingdom.
  • 282 total attendees, adult members –  255, adult non-members – 20, children – 7.
  • RUM: $150 budgeted for printing, but the total cost was over by $54. Total overall budget for the event was under the proposed event budget of $300, though. 
  • Vote brought up to approve overage, motion by Baron Piers and second by THLady Mairghead, vote passed and was approved.

Quartermaster (Maestra Isabetta de San Marco) 

  • We have stuff!
  • Looking for a new storage space
  • Still looking for a deputy

Chatelaine (Lady Ogata Mitsuko)

  • I have more information on a demo opportunity on September 16th, it is the Haralson County Annual Fried Pie Festival in Buchanan GA!
  • The festival goes from 9am to 4pm in downtown Buchanan. Please get in touch with myself or my demo deputy Lady Bu Feiyan if you’re interested in participating!
  • We also have a museum outing in the works, we’ll be checking out the High Museum’s exhibit on historic samurai armor and accoutrements! We are using a doodle survey to check off which days we are available. If you are interested in attending, be sure to check out the baronial discord server for that doodle link. I’ve personally been to the exhibit 3 times already and I am so hype for a 4th! I’ve also been advertising this to my friends outside of the SCA, so this is a great time to enjoy historic topics with some new faces.
  • I’d also like to give a big thank you to Sara Wandrawnyzcka for her gold key donation last month

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • Nothing reported, but potential demos covered by Lady Ogata

Arts & Sciences (HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)

  • From the A&S side of things there’s nothing to report this month other than I still need a deputy.
  • The report is quarterly, through Google sheets and forms. Quick and easy, please contact me or Lady Raven if you’re interested in this officer position!

Provost (Lord Ælfric Hort)

  • This past month we had a good turnout for our monthly class night – History of Comedy with Master Mathias Blackett.  August’s class night will be August 23 via Zoom.  Mistress Christianna MacGrain will be back with us teaching “Medieval Flavors”
  • I currently have all Teaching spots filled for the remainder of the 2023 calendar year.  In the next week or so, I will be putting out the teacher sign up for Red Tower.  We will also need teachers for Castle Wars later in November, and of course I will need teachers again next year for A&S class goodness, so please get with me if you have any questions or want to discuss anything that you might want to teach in the future.

Chronicler (Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong)

  • The July issue of The Read Tower has been posted!
  • The August issue will be posted by the end of the week, but may be shorter than the July issue.
  • That said, I’m going to be collecting interviews from members of 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.
  • If you’re going to Pennsic this year, please grab some photos for me and let me know what your favorite memory is from this Pennsic. I want to do a post-Pennsic “South Downs: On the Road Again” section for the September newsletter.
  • Baronial calendar will get integrated and posted/linked once I get back from Pennsic.

Social Media Minister  (THLady Agnes Halydaye) 

  • Nothing reported, but ramping up Red Tower social media.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer (DEIB), (Lady Lily of South Downs)

  • On DEIB this month, still looking for teachers for a class on intercultural connectivity in period, specifically the Silk Road.
  • I’d like to thank my teachers from last month, Dorian, Alawyn, Sumarlidi, for the fantastic class on Quiet Spaces!

Webminister (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • Nothing reported

Minister of Children (Vacant)

  • Position is open, please talk to Lady Raven or Lady Una with any questions or if you’re interested
  • A background check is required for the position

Their Excellencies, (Master Wistric Oftun & Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)

  • This is our penultimate meeting with everyone! We’re going to Pennsic on Friday.
  • We really appreciate how the barony held together for the past three years during the pandemic and during our tenure.
  • Thanks to Myeong Su and the RUM crew for a great event. Congratulations to everyone who was recognized at RUM and we’ll see you at Pennsic or Red Tower!

SCA Business

  • RUM:
    • Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong:
      • Thanks again to everyone who helped with RUM! If you’d like to run RUM or have any questions, please feel free to contact to me at seongmyeongsu.sca@gmail.com
  • Castle Wars Bid:
    • Ysabel and Hessa have revised the bid for Castle Wars from before, revised budgets look good.
    • If anyone is interested in learning how to run an event, please contact Lady Hessa or Lady Ysabel so you can shadow and learn
    • Paypal fee line may be off on the spreadsheet, will check and edit
    • Macintosh may not require additional insurance, will check contract to confirm
    • Lady Hessa has talked to Ellawin about Equestrian
    • General budget may be used to cover emergency expenses, like ant killer, etc.
    • Mairghread made a motion to approve the budget, La Magnifica Justina seconded the motion.
    • Bid has been approved.
    • PDF of the bid will be passed around to the Financial Committee for signatures.
    • La Magnifica Justina made a motion to add $100 to the General Budget 
  • Red Tower:
    • Baron Piers: 
      • Site visit on the 12th, if you want to go, let me know so we can coordinate timing. 
      • THLady Mairghread may go to have a deputy marshal look at the field.
    • Lady Raven: 
      • Look at the parking situation for weekend parking. Check if they’ll allow for archery for the large field in the back.
      • Possibly look into using the field set up from Red Tower last year to see if we can set up the same way for this Red Tower.
    • Master Mathias: 
      • Magistra Mara will be taking over as live weapons marshal since Conor couldn’t get the weekend off.
      • Site tokens: get with Mathias to see if we have site tokens already
      • Quote 200 site tokens in just materials for fingerloop from Luke, $100 was budgeted for site tokens.
  • DragonCon:
    • Not doing anything for DragonCon as the Barony for the parade or demo table.
    • Lord Ælfric remembers someone mentioning a change for an onstage demo at DragonCon for 15 mins, may need to look into if there’s a post for that for more information.
  • Pennsic Meridian Hafla:
    • Acharya Margavati: If you’re going to Pennsic, Meridies is hosting a hafla on Tuesday night by the request of Her Majesty. If you’re available from 7pm-9pm on Tuesday to help setup or come afterwards to help cleanup, or want to volunteer for checking IDs, we’d love to have you, Meridian Royal Camp is in block N03. You’ll get free food (before everyone else!)
    • Party starts at 9pm, if you come before 8 to help direct traffic, it would be appreciated.

Non-SCA Business

  • None reported.

The business meeting was closed @ 8:25 PM EST

The next business meeting will be held on September 6th, 2023, 7:00 PM EST via Zoom Meeting.