South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

5 December 2018, 7:30pm

Doraville Civic Center – 3744 Central Ave., Doraville GA

Notes submitted by Lady Raven Helmsplitter, South Downs Chronicler.

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)
  • Awards – Castle Wars
    • TBD
    • TBD
  • Submissions
    • TBD

• Baronial Polling (THL Mark de Wytteney)
  • Polling begins at tonight’s meeting for non-residents
  • Polling will continue at next Sunday’s fighter practice and next week’s baronial meeting
  • He explained the polling process:
    • Voting will be a ranked system for the three sets of candidates; everyone will vote their order of preference for the sets of candidates
    • Ballots are being mailed for residents of the Barony today

• Armored and Youth Marshal (Lady Mairghread)
  • Armored
    • Has been out of the loop for a little bit, due to real-life responsibilities
  • Youth
    • Completed reports for the youth program
    • Is working on rewriting the rules for youth rapier

• Rapier Marshal (Lord Brendan de Hay)
  • Nothing to report

• Live Weapons Marshal (Mistress Mara Palmer)
  • Mistress Mara was counseled by the populace to walk, not run, to the lectern as she approached to give her report
  • Practices have been going well, although they are starting to slow down as the weather has grown colder
  • Reports that Live Weapons will need more equipment – in particular, bows, arrows, and longer arrows
  • Castle Wars
    • went really well – great turnout, and many new participants. A total of 70 participants signed in at the archery range.
    • W did have a few safety incidents at Castle Wars, especially with people walking behind the targets. Mistress Mara emphasized that even if out of range, people walking behind the targets make the archers really nervous.
    • Thanks to the Barony of Bryn Madoc, who marshaled the throwing side of the Live Weapons activities at Castle Wars
  • It seems that there were many people who didn’t realize that they could come to our practices, even if not part of our Barony. Our practices are open to all, not just the members of the Barony!
  • Please check the Facebook group, South Downs/Owl’s Nest Live Weapons Practice to track upcoming practices.

• Chatelaine (Lady Justina di Silvestri)
  • We had a lot of new people attend Castle Wars – it was awesome!
  • Lady Justina mentioned that there is a new Newcomers group on Facebook, and encouraged everyone – new and established members – to join, to ask and help answer questions and see what new people want to know about Meridies and the SCA in general.
  • Upcoming demos:
    • Anachrocon in February
      • Master Mathias mentioned that Anachrocon has asked for a commedia presentation. Anyone interested in helping, please contact Mathias directly.
    • DragonCon
      • Justina reminded us that we’ve been invited by the alternate history track to provide a couple of classes
    • Kennesaw State University (KSW)/OwlCon
      • Master Wistric mentioned that last March, KSW sponsored OwlCon; they have planned to hold it annually, but he’s not seen anything about this year’s event yet. Jaden and Lauren are looking into its status for this year
    • Possible demo at a library in Milton? More information to follow

• Arts & Sciences (Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)
  • We have A+S in the Barony, and it is good! Yay!
  • We had 19 classes at Castle Wars, most well-attended
    • Courtesans’ track and the Newcomer’s track were both really encouraging
    • The period firearms demo was really exciting
    • Mistress Sunneva thanked everyone who took and taught classes
  • Next year’s classes for South Downs A+S nights are already scheduled through July 2019; if you are interested in teaching a class, please fill out the form or contact Mistress Sunneva directly.
  • Our next A+S class will take place on January 23, when Sir Iastreb will teach the History of Chess

• Reeve (THL Andreva Rigaldi)
  • Castle Wars’ report has not yet been completed, pending final PayPal report
    • we made approximately $3,700 in profit
    • If you have receipts for Castle Wars, please send them to Andreva THIS WEEK
  • We have money in the bank, no outstanding checks
  • We have purchases we have made for the Barony that we need to approve:
    • $151 for tiki torches (HE South Downs)
    • $64.58 for 2 coffee pots and (?) air presses, which are so much easier to manage than industrial coffee urns (Justina)
    • $82 for dollies for transport (Lucien)

• Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)
  • Nothing to report

• Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
  • Nothing to report

• Webminister (Lord Pietro di Conti)
  • We have a website!
  • Sent Warrant for Appointment to the Office of Group Webminister to Kingdom Webminister at the Request of Rhiannon Mulholland
  • Updated Castle Wars website
  • Posted in-person polling announcement
  • New profile pages for:
    • Lord Guido of Axbridge
    • Lord Lucis Wicanius Cicero
    • Lord Jacob Mór
    • Captain Nikoslav Mikolaevich
    • Safa
  • Updated profile pages for:
    • Lord Nikon Dawidowicz (device, awards, and spelling)
    • Captain Brendan de Hay (awards)
    • Lady Myndee of South Downs (awards)
    • Lord Quintus Valerius Gracchus (awards)
    • THL Mark de Wytteney (awards)
    • Lord Jarec Markov (awards)
    • THL Juliane de Vivonne (awards)
    • Master Davio de la Rouge (awards)

• Minister of Children (Lady Myndee of South Downs, THL Mark de Wytteney reporting)
  • Much of the Minister of Children’s report is regarding Castle Wars
    • One of the things thats important about the office is the issue of background checks. However, the MiC of a local group is the only one who is allowed to be sponsored/paid for by the Kingdom to get a background check – not even her deputy can be allowed to have a background check through the Kingdom. This restriction is causing problems with events with good turnouts for kids, such as Castle Wars. We’re not allowed to leave any children unsupervised, or supervised by a non-cleared volunteer – if one kid needs to go to the bathroom, they all need to go to the bathroom
    • We would love to have enough authorized support (without having to depend on the occiasional MiC from another group) to be able to split the group into younger and older kids so everyone can do cool things
    • Mock court was a huge success
    • We want to be able to get the kids active in what they are interested in doing in the society – not just passively doing arts and crafts “kids’ activities”
    • Mairghread mentioned her experiences with youth marshaling, comparing and contrasting her requirements with background checks with what the MiC has to go through
    • It was clarified that the Kingdom will only pay for one background check for an MiC per group, and that outside background checks are not applicable in the SCA. It was asked if it’s possible for the Barony to pay for an additional background check through the Kingdom, and if we knew how much the background check would cost, if finances are part of the problem? Can the group sponsor additional background checks?

• Seneschal (Master Wistric Oftun)
  • If you haven’t signed in, please sign in
  • The 4th Wednesday this month is Boxing Day, there will be no meeting

• Their Excellencies
  • His Excellency greeted the populace “Hi! I’m your lame duck baron!”
  • He then asked if anyone was going to Magna Faire, and what activities they were planning on taking part in – A+S? Fencing? Anything else?

Other SCA Business

• Castle Wars Post-Mortem
  • THL Juliane stated that the #1 lesson learned was that we have the most awesome kingdom in the world
  • HRH Sebastiannos commented that his #1 lesson learned whas “Don’t give a kid a big tin of candy and let him go off with it!”
  • Other lessons:
    • When we got on site, we realized we didn’t have all the things we need for the lyst field – marking tape, flags, etc.
    • We should have a check off list for the field in advance
    • As a barony, we delineate in advance what each staff position involves, so there’s no confusion and less stress (esp for new people wanting to volunteer)
    • 3 hr courts are long
      • His Excellency really liked the idea of morning court to take care of a lot of the smaller awards done
      • HRM mentioned they had roving court which helped, but His Excellency pointed out the only people who would see court would be those who happened to be there
    • Having a co-autocrat would also be a great mentoring opportunity
      • Everyone needs a Nikon! But seriously, having a general assistant is a great idea
      • Iazzie mentioned that at MGT the autocrat has the co-autocrat take up the next year’s event. This would also help educate the autocrat – they have a year to find out all the details while co-ing
    • Issues that couldn’t be anticipated – at the Shrine, the radios didn’t work between the hall and the field. need to figure out how to work around it.
    • Lucien mentioned that Tir Briste has 3 co-autocrats (for Fools War?), each with a specific area of the event, so one person doesn’t have to run back and forth – makes communication around the event site much easier
    • Duke Thomas pointed out that CW is one of the biggest events of the kingdom, so we really should have a team of (co) autocrats just to manage
    • Landcrat
      • We need to address parking issues
      • Parking was really problematic, site manager was grumpy
      • We should have a parking team to manage where cars go as people arrive, especially with events this size. PARKING CZAR!
    • (Ximon) Cleanup
      • The people who were there until the end did an amazing job
      • We might consider working with a smaller group (for $$$) to help with set up and break down
      • Iazzie suggested that we contact Gulf Wars people to see how they handle volunteers for setup and breakdown
    • Andreva pointed out that yes, we make a decent profit with Castle Wars, but we also have had events over the year that have lost a lot of money
    • Volunteer raffle on Sunday didn’t get a great turnout because it was on Sunday
    • Lucien mentioned that we spent a lot of time on Sunday doing trash runs. Perhaps the pottycrat team could also do trash runs throughout the weekend.
      • Wistric mentioned that (Ben) had an idea – his Amtgard group has each camping group assigned a camp master, and each camp submits a deposit at registration. When their group is cleared to go, they get their deposit back.
      • Make it a competition? Whoever leaves their camp the quickest and cleanest gets an attaboy and kudos. hmm…
      • Better advertising in general for calling for volunteers
      • Rain was also an issue because the portapotties couldn’t be set where they needed to be – portapotty groups were supposed to be where the trash cans were set.
      • Andreva pointed out that it wasn’t that the site was trashed – it was that piles of trash bags were left at the portapotties, and it took forever for Ximon and Farouq to load up the trash and haul it to the dumpsters.
      • Could the parking people also inform groups about the trash situation – where the dumpsters are and that everyone is expected to dispose of their trash before they leave?
      • Perhaps the pottycrat could also have a trash detail throughout the weekend, going along camps collecting trash bags?
      • Dumpster locations? We can place them anywhere, since we have it brought in ourselves
    • Problem – the portapotty truck could not get on the swamped field, which is why so many cars were left on the field
    • Ximon, Lucien, Lorenzo, Wistric, and Ben did an awesome job
    • Truck was totally worth it, but it cost a lot more than was budgeted. Need to revisit budget for the truck
    • HRH mentioned that it would save the Barony a lot of money in repairing the castle wars by getting a trailer that is dedicated to storing the walls
    • Storing walls in storage unit, good short term solution but trailer is good long-term solution
    • RV fees were more than we expected/were told. need to clear that up
  • Midwinter Arts + Sciences
    • Please check with Lady Alisandre if you are interested in volunteering. We already have several volunteers for troll
    • Justina mentioned that we are looking for teachers for the Courtesans’ track – classes on any of the courtly arts, not just “R-rated,” are welcome
  • We are opening bids for Spring Coronation (HRH Sebastiannos and Morgan!), which will be held at the Fools War site
  • We need an autocrat for Red Tower 2019

Other SCA Business

• • Andreva announced that if you aren’t going to Magna Faire, she will be performing that same evening with her new vocal chamber group and invites everyone to come to the concert. It’s their first concert and “we have no idea what is going to happen.”
  • Mathias and Mara are planning a fuzzy PJs and dinner party (when?)

Next business meeting will be held Wednesday, 2 January 2019, at the Doraville Civic Center. Happy holidays and a happy new year!

Thanks!

–Raven