South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

5 June 2019, 7:30pm

Meeting site for June – we’re back at the Doraville Civic Center – 3744 Central Ave., Doraville GA, 30340

Notes submitted by Lady Raven Helmsplitter, South Downs Chronicler.

THL Lucien d’Artois called the meeting to order. Our Seneschal, THL Mark de Wytteney, sez “Welcome! If you did not sign in, please sign in!”

Tonight, we started with a brief review of the two bids for Castle Wars, and then the populace had the opportunity to vote on their preferred bid. The votes will be counted by His Excellence and the results will be announced at the end of the meeting.

Castle Wars Bids

• Bid #1: Battle of Agincourt
  • Co-autocrats: Baroness Isabetta de San Marco and Lady Angharat merch Morcant
  • Feastcrat: Countess Thorkatla, offering an above- and below-salt feast
  • Site: Camp Benjamin Hawkins, Byron GA
  • Cost to attend: $25 weekend, $15 daytrip (both with a $5 discount for members); Feast: $15/$8 (above the salt/below the salt)
  • Site tokens will be leather and made by Lady Angharat

• Bid #2: The War at the End of Time
  • Co-autocrats: Baron Piers Simmons and THL Maire Dhocair inghean Chiarain
  • Feastcrat: Mistress Marianna Cristina Tirado de Aragon
  • Site: Camp Benjamin Hawkins, Byron GA
  • Cost to attend: $26 weekend, $13 daytrip (both with a $5 discount for members); Feast: $10

After each presentation, slips of paper were passed around for the populace to vote. A box was provided at the side of the room to put the votes in during the meeting.

Officers Reports

• Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)
  • Awards
    • Kingdom Arts & Sciences (Artsy Crown)
      • Master Wistric Oftun – Order of the Velvet Owl
      • Lady Emmelina le Norreys – Order of the Velvet Owl
      • Emmelina le Norreys – Meridian Arts & Sciences Champion
    • Spring Crown (Artsy Crown)
      • Isabella Parr – Award of Arms (AoA)

• Knight Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)
  • Mairghread announced that her marshal warrant has been renewed for another two years.
  • Lord Brendan has agreed to step up as youth rapier marshal and is undergoing his background check.
  • Black Axe is this weekend and many members of the populace are planning on attending. Mairghread asked if Sunday’s fighter practice should take place, weather permitting. Several people said yes, so stay tuned to the Atlanta SCA Fighting Facebook group for the latest updates.

• Rapier Marshal (Lord Brendan de Hay)
  • Weather is improving, so practices are more frequent and back at Liane Levetan/Brook Run Park. Practices continue to take place on Tuesday evenings and Sunday afternoons, weather and event schedules permitting.
  • There have been anywhere from three to 15 people showing up at any given practice.
  • The park has finally fixed the lights near the practice field – yay!
  • We’ve had several newcomers out for practice – yay!

• Live Weapons Marshal (Mistress Mara Palmer)
  • Mistress Mara sez “We’re still doing the PEW PEW PLONK PLONK” (direct quote)
  • Acquiring (more) kids’ loaner gear is becoming a priority, since there’s a lot of kids coming to practice.
  • She does have receipts from the past two years, and once she gets Fynlo to sign off on them, she’ll submit them for reimbursement.
  • This June marks the second anniversary of the live weapons program in South Downs! Yay!
  • At last June’s (first anniversary) practice, the Baronial Live Weapons Championship was held. She suggested that this championship could be held each June as an annual event.
  • Practices for the next several months have been scheduled and are posted on the South Downs and Owl’s Nest Live Weapons Facebook group. Current averages for Royal Rounds and tassels can also be found here.

• Chatelaine (Lady Justina di Silvestri)
  • We had several newcomers come out to Artsy Crown, and several of them came back! yay!
  • With all the newcomers coming to events, Justina realized that we need more summerweight garb available in Gold Key. Chitons are a great option – pretty much one-size-fits-all, and very lightweight. She’ll research cost to purchase fabric to make several chitons; Bú mentioned that Fine Fabrics recently had linen on sale for $3/yd, and Mara mentioned that she has a lot of old bedsheets she acquired a while ago specifically to make chitons. Once she’s finished unpacking and locates the sheets, she’ll donate them to Gold Key.
  • Reminder: we (the Barony) have been invited to present panels at DragonCon this year; this would be a great and fun opportunity for us! If you are interested, please contact Justina or Bú (who will follow up with our contacts at DragonCon about this)
  • Reminder: Mark mentioned that we should try to get involved with some of the events (Lemonade Days, Cherry Blossom Festival, etc.) at the park(s) where we practice to see if we could do demos.

• Arts & Sciences (Lady Alisandre de la Chapelle)
  • We have A&S in the Barony, and it is good! Yay!
  • Alisandre thanked everyone who took or taught classes at Artsy Crown.
  • With the end of the quarter approaching, she will be submitting her report for baronial Arts & Sciences activity for the past three months. Please let her know what projects you have been working on so she can add it to her report.
  • Mark has a friend who is interested in teaching a blacksmithing class, perhaps on making tent stakes. This class would need to be offered on a weekend.
  • This month’s baronial A&S class will be “Introduction to Middle English,” taught by The Honorable Lady Wenyeva atte grene. This class counts as RUM class HIS-2110, toward the Literature HIS requirement, so if you’re working on getting your RUM credits done, you won’t want to miss this. July’s class “A Tour of Online Linen Sources,” will be taught by Lady Alisandre herself.
  • Thanks to the response from the populace, Baronial Arts & Sciences classes are nearly completely scheduled for 2019, but there’s still opportunities to share you knowledge! If you are interested in teaching a class, please fill out the form or contact Alisandre directly.

• Reeve (THL Andreva Rigaldi)
  • We have money! yay!
  • June’s report has been submitted, and Andreva announced that the baronial bank account has a balance of $9,301.75 right now.
  • With this report, she can move forward with submitting site deposits for upcoming baronial events.

• Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)
  • We have stuff! Yay!
  • We need a couple more keys for our storage unit. Ximon offered to meet up with our locksmith, since the locksmith is out in Covington and Ximon works in Conyers. Iazzie offered he can also meet with the locksmith if necessary, as he games with him.

• Webminister (Lord Pietro di Conti)
  • We have a website!
  • Added Bú Feiyan as deputy chatelaine for demos
  • Added a link to guided documentation forms to the A&S page
  • Updated Kingdom of Meridies links to the Kingdom of Meridies website.
  • Updated pages for:
    • Lord Nikon Dawidowicz
    • Lady Agnes Halydaye
  • Updated awards for:
    • Mistress Mara Palmer
    • Lady Justina di Silvestri
    • THL Lucien d’Artois
    • THL Maire Dhocair inghean Chiarain
    • THL Mark de Wytteney
    • His Excellency, Master Wistric Oftun
    • Lady Emmelina le Norreys
  • Submitted quarterly report to the kingdom webminister reporting deputy
  • Pietro announced that our website’s domain needs to be renewed with our service provider, GoDaddy. He is working with His Excellency to take care of this, but will need approximately $21 from the reeve to pay for another year.
  • Mark thanked Pietro for all is excellent work as webminister.

• Minister of Children (Lady Melusine of South Downs, THL Mark de Wytteney reporting)
  • Lady Melusine and her deputies have been busy, running children’s activities for both days at Artsy Crown. It was a very successful weekend, had lots of kids take part.
    • There were some minor problems at the event, in particular there was little to no signage directing attendees to where the children’s activities were taking place, so it was difficult to find them.
    • There was also a shortage of water available at the children’s activities location.
    • Really important lesson learned: Work with the event autocrat to make sure children’s activities are held in a central, visible location; not only does this make it easy for parents to find the children’s activities, but it also allows the kids to see what’s going on overall at the event.
  • The local groups’ Ministers of Children met with the kingdom MoC to discuss how best to run children’s activities, and how best to respond to the range of ages involved and their range of interests.
  • She is looking for volunteers to teach classes for the kids at events; she is particularly interested in classes that reflect on the event theme and not just busy work.

• Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
  • Lady Raven is beginning to work on the next issue of the baronial newsletter, The Read Tower and has received a couple of articles.
    • Raven is always looking for more material – articles, photos, artwork, etc., so if you have something you’d like to contribute, please contact Raven directly.
  • Agnes thanked Lady Raven for her work as Chronicler, in particular how enjoyable she makes reading the business meeting minutes.

• Seneschal (THL Mark de Wytteney)
  • Reminded everyone to please sign in if they hadn’t done so already.

• Their Excellencies, Master Wistric and Mistress Sunneva
  • Her Excellency mentioned that we had four members of the populace entered pieces at Artsy Crown: Emmelina, THL Veronica da Lucca, Agnes, and Mistress Alessandra. She is particularly pleased to announce that Emmelina received a perfect score for her work! yay!
  • They were glad to host a first-time baronial Memorial Day cookout at baronial homestead 🙂 and it was a lot of fun! Thank you to everyone who was able to come out.
  • They also thanked everyone who helped out with Carver, the Baronial Bebbeh, at Artsy Crown. As His Excellency’s folks are moving to the barony
  • They also announced that the baronial champions will be chosen at Red Tower.

Upcoming Events

• Red Tower (4-6 October, 2019)
  • Lady Justina and Lady Isabella Parr will co-autocrat, with an event theme of Labyrinth: The Return of the Goblin King.
  • Hard Labor Creek State Park has already been booked for the event.
  • We have been planning things and are very new at autocratting, so we will need a lot of help with this. We need volunteers! Will post volunteer positions online in the near future.
  • Attendees will be divided into two teams: followers of the Goblin King and those protecting the Baronial Bebbeh.
  • Would love suggestions for Labyrinthine things to do at the event.
  • Iazzie is interested in having fighters help for the Friday night Labyrinth; he’ll need four fighters (at least) who can commit to being at the event Friday night and play Labyrinth gods. Suggestion: can HRM play the Goblin King?
  • The nastycrat (the person responsible for keeping the portapotties in good condition) will have a special princely title.
  • Mara has three to four novelty shoots planned, but is open to additional ideas.

• Castle Wars (21-24 November 2019)
  • His Excellency, having counted all the ballots, announced the winning bid: THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT! YAY!
  • Mark thanked both bid teams and said it’s always great to have multiple bids for an event, so let’s get started to get a great event going together!

• Midwinter Arts &Sciences 1 February 2020)
  • It’s still a little early, but no bids have yet been received.
  • We don’t have a site yet, it will be proposed as part of the bid.
  • Given the way classes are taught, it will be important to have a site with easily accessible electricity and projectors.
  • Iazzie is interested in directing a short play that would be presented just before court.

Other SCA Business

• Mark reminded the populace that the barony is required, per kingdom law, to submit a bid for a kingdom-level event each year. If you’re interested in autocratting, please feel free to contact someone who’s already done the job to see what you might be interested in taking on.
  • As we make our way through our own baronial event bids, it was noted that event sites for Midwinter would also work well for RUM, so we could submit a bid for RUM based on the info we’d develop for Midwinter.
  • We only need to *submit* a bid each year – it doesn’t have to be a winning bid to fulfill the requirement – but we would be very likely to win a bid we submit so the bid needs to be seriously developed.
  • Here is an unofficial list of kingdom-level events (pulled from the kingdom website):
    • Meridian Challenge of Arms (February)
    • Spring Coronation (April)
    • Artsy Crown (Memorial Day weekend)
    • Royal University of Meridies (RUM) (July)
    • Meridian Grand Tournament (September)
    • Fall Coronation (October)
    • Fall Crown List (November)

• His Excellency asked “who is going to Pennsic?” and reminded the populace that online paid registration ends 19 June.
• Black Axe is this weekend! Marianna is cooking feast and there are still feast spots left!
  • Mark can’t make it, so he would like those attending to let him know about anything important that might happen
  • Nine Lives Fundraiser will take place at Black Axe
• DragonCon
  • Duke John is not sure he’ll be able to attend DragonCon this year due to ongoing health issues, but he can guarantee that the chariot will be there.
  • Justina reminded the populace that this year, we have access to a room where we can host panels and more importantly, get on the schedule. This will allow us much better visibility as well as a way to present all the info we want. We really should take advantage of this opportunity.
  • Master Lorenzo has volunteered to serve as default coordinator unless/until someone steps up
• Master Mathias and Mistress Mara will be headed to Scarlet Guard in Aethelmarc and will be representing the Barony.
• Reminder: Maire announced that this year’s Knowne World Costume and Fiber Arts Symposium will take place this June at the University of West Georgia. She is serving as class coordinator, and there are still spaces available to teach. Baronessa Isabetta is serving as troll coordinator, and they both encouraged anyone who could to volunteer.
  • Master Ximon is serving as event coachman, coordinating rides to and from the airport.
  • Mistress Margavati will be co-hosting a non-European salon on the second-floor landing of Pafford Hall (the main building where the classes will be held). Books, ideas, snacks, and hangout space will be provided, so if you want to come talk about things that are outside of Europe in period, stop by!

Non-SCA Business

• Lorenzo has lots of moving boxes and materials in his truck, free for the the taking!
• Mairghread mentioned that Lord Guillaume Sinclair of Thor’s Mountain and known to many in the barony has been diagnosed with cancer and has undergone surgery. He is home now and recovering – everything is so far, so good.
• Andreva’s choir is hosting a fundraiser cabaret at the Northside Drive Baptist Church next weekend – broadway music, desserts, and coffee will be featured. For more information, please contact her directly.

 
Next business meeting will be held Wednesday, 3 July 2019, at the Doraville Civic Center.

Thanks!

–Raven