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May Baronial Business Meeting Minutes

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

3 May 2017, 7:30pm

Atlanta Friends Meeting House

Notes submitted by Lady Raven Helmsplitter (mka Helena Bretherton Hay), South Downs Chronicler.

Lord Lucien d’Artois called the meeting to order. Master Wistric, our new Seneschal (huzzah!), chaired the meeting.

Officer Reports

  • Herald (Lord Lucien d’Artois)
    • Talmere’s Lusty Month of May will be hosting this year’s Meridian Heraldic and Scribal Symposium, so come on out! (13 May, Pickett’s Mill Battlefield Family Group Shelter
    • This year’s Knowne Worlde Heraldic and Scribal Symposium will be coming to fair Meridies! The shire of Nant-y-Derwyddon has the honor of hosting it, and will be held in Knoxville the weekend of 23-2 June, 2017. For more information, please visit the symposium website
  • Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
    • Still working on getting the newsletter up and running – hoping to publish soon! Please contact Raven if you’re interested in submitting content.
  • Armored Marshal (Lord Robert Throckmorton)
    • Seneschal Master Wistric reporting on behalf of Lord Robert
    • Reminder to all of new location (Liane Levetan / Brook Run Park, 4770 N Peachtree Rd, Dunwoody, GA 30338)
    • Still looking for loaner gear donations!/li>
  • Rapier Marshal (Lord Brendan de Hay)
    • New practice location! Liane Levetan / Brook Run Park in Dunwoody. Everyone is really happy with it (not the least because of the ice cream truck at the park on Sundays)
    • Reminder that Dreamstone (5-7 May) is being held at Indian Springs Park in Flovilla, not the usual spot (Camp Daniel Morgan, where Rob Zombie is filming a movie this weekend)
  • Chatelaine (Lady Stella di Silvestri)
    • We’ve had a few new people show up at meetings and events – they have been excited and have felt welcome – keep it up!
  • Webminister (Lord Pietro di Conti)
    • Now that Wistric has become our Seneschal, Lord Pietro has taken over as Baronial Webminister (huzzah!)
    • We still have a website! huzzah!
    • Working on an artisan database; info, handouts, etc. you’d like to contribute, please give to Pietro
  • Arts & Sciences (Lady Veronica da Lucca)
    • Lady Veronica taught a painting and shading class last month for the Barony
    • Working on a class to teach at an event? Give it a run through by teaching it at the monthly baronial A+S class! A+S mistress is always looking for volunteers to teach classes. This month. THL Marianna has offered to teach a cooking class at her house (Italian! gnocchi!); Mattias has offered to teach a commedia class.
  • Reeve (THL Maire)
    • Not present at meeting, but Their Excellencies confirmed that we have money! huzzah!
  • Their Excellencies
    • Knowne Worlde Heraldic and Scribal Symposium is coming!
      • 23-25 June 2017, in Knoxville, TN; hosted by Nant-y-Derwyddon. For more information, go to their: website
      • Come on out and support Meridies!
    • Dreamstone is coming! This weekend (5-7 May), at Indian Springs Park. Pirates! Adventure! Ports of call (well, maybe)! Come join the People’s Barony of Bryn Madoc at Dreamstone XXXVIII! For further information, visit the event page on Facebook or here
    • Lusty Month of May is coming as well! Hosted by the Shire of Talmere on Saturday, 13 May, at Pickett’s Mill Battlefield Family Group Shelter. For more information, please visit the event site
    • The weekend before the Knowne Worlde Heraldic and Scribal Symposium in Knoxville, the Knowne Worlde Dance Symposium will be held in Baltimore, MD (the lands of Fair Atlantia), 15-18 June, 2017. Interested? check out the website for more information.
    • Fundraiser lunches! We have negotiated an agreement with the Shire of Owls Nest – Owls Nest will host the fundraiser lunch at Red Tower, and we will host the fundraiser lunch at Crossroads. If you are interested in helping out with the fundraiser lunch at Crossroads, please contact Their Excellencies.
      • Stella asked what the average attendance at Crossroads is. Sir Iazzie replied that the event is usually fairly small, but with the new, more central event site, turnout may be stronger.

Upcoming Events

  • Red Tower (6-8 October 2017)
    • Fundraiser lunch – already discussed
    • Event will be held at Booker T. Washington Park in Chattanooga
    • If anyone wants to volunteer on staff, please contact Beteena; Mara will be marshaling armored fighting
    • Beteena wants to go on a walkthrough to make sure there’s adequate land for camping before we pay the extra to allow camping
    • Wistric is going to make arrangements for insurance
  • Castle Wars (16-19 November 2017)
    • Site needs to be changed b/c site is not available. Possible alternatives – McIntosh? Piers reviewed how pricing/profits might change
    • A Dates can’t really change because of new kingdom laws
    • Master Ximon mentioned pricing issues with McIntosh he ran into when he autocratted Castle Wars there – costs need to be clarified, because his numbers were different than what Piers had been told
    • If we go with McIntosh, there will be no feast because there is no kitchen on site
    • Iazzie asked if anyone’s looked into Gwinnett County Fairgrounds? Could be worthwhile – no idea of availability/pricing
    • We should reserve the Shriner site now for future event years so we don’t run into this problem again, especially since we have a contract? agreement? with the site. Wistric will look into it.
    • A+S theme is Disney! Not too early to start planning your A+S project!

Event Bids

  • Fall Crown (10-12 November 2017)
    • THL Mathias is working with Depedale and Bryn Madoc on a joint bid, likely at Little Tallapoosa Park
    • Budget should be ready Monday
  • Artsy Crown 2018 (25-27 May 2018)
    • Iazzie will submit a bid with him as autocrat, and Lady Toki Ima as co-autocrat
      • Marianna will do Saturday night feast
      • Lochlann will do Sunday feast (bbq)
      • Duchess Sabine will do a breakfast
      • Matilda will do another breakfast
      • Adela/Mara offered to distribute danishes
  • Midwinter Arts + Sciences (2-4 February 2018)
    • Lady Alisandre is working on a bid

Other Events

  • DragonCon
    • Stella signed us up for parade – 40 wristbands
    • Ximon will start working on it, and has started putting the word out
    • Per last month’s meeting – we won’t do a table at DragonCon; too much effort
  • Atlanta Maker Faire (22 October 2017)
    • Is there interest? Sunneva is willing to volunteer
    • Event conflicts with Silver Hammer
    • New site this year – Georgia Freight Depot
    • Website for Atlanta Maker Faire
  • The Modern Maker weekend seminar (2-4, 9-11 June 2017)
    • Matthew Gnagy will be teaching two consecutive weekends on pattern making and a doublet workshop
    • For more information, please visit his http://themodernmaker.net/new-events/ (and drool at the project files!)

Non-SCA Business

  • Sunneva brought a soap making kit and some fabric – free to a good home!
  • Museum Replicas sale is coming up – 20 May! Sale starts at 8am, but there will be a line, so get there early!
    • “under duct tape, nobody knows it’s oak”
  • QOTD: Happy SCA birthday! Anno LII – How do you say that in Latin? LEEEEEEE!

All the business issues having been addressed, the business meeting was closed.

Next South Downs business meeting will be held Wednesday, 7 June 2017, at the Atlanta Friends Meeting House.

–Raven

Announcements

People of South Downs

From Pietro di Conti, deputy webminister:

I’ve been working on updating/merging the online Order of Precedence and Artisans Database for South Downs; please check out the new “People of South Downs” page under the “About Us” menu (or you can go directly there from this link).

If you’re a South Downs person, please take a look and let me know if I’m missing your name, and/or if the info I have for you is wrong or incomplete (I’m sure it will be for a lot of people). You can message me, tell me in person, or (probably easiest) submit the online form on that web page.

Announcements, Society ANNOUNCEMENTS

Call for Contributions for Baronial Newsletter “The Read Tower”

Unto the populace of the Barony of South Downs does Lady Raven Helmsplitter, Baronial Chronicler, send greetings!

Are you a writer? an artist? a fighter? Do you have knowledge to share with your Barony? You are invited to share your skills and talent with your Barony by contributing to our NEW quarterly newsletter (working title: The Read Tower)…

I’d like to use this newsletter to focus on the talents of South Downs and use reprinted articles or stock images or clip art sparingly if at all. All work will be properly credited and be accompanied by appropriate Society release forms, which can be found in the Files section on the Facebook Barony of South Downs group, or here: http://kingdom.meridies.org/index.php/offices/chronicler

What sort of content am I looking for?

  • Visual artists:
    • Cover illustrations (scalable to 8.5 x 11”)
    • Banners or page borders;
    • Illustrations or photographs to contribute to articles, etc.;
    • marginalia or a set of initial letters to add to an article…
  • Writers:
    • Baronial officers and guilds – there is space available for a column of your choosing; potential topics could include:
      • Highlight a project your group is working on
      • Discuss news the Barony will find useful
      • Share some history of the barony or your guild.
    • General populace – potential topics could include:
      • Articles on improving your garb, or camping or fighting kits;
      • Research you may be working on for a particular A+S topic;
      • Writeup (and illustrations) of a class you may have taught – we can include links to handouts;
      • Recipes (is the South Downs Supper Club still active?);
      • Recent baronial events, from an attendee’s point of view
      • An interview with a member of the Barony – “Ten Questions with…?” (currently working on compiling a list of questions)
    • Article length should be approx. 250-500 words to keep everything accessible. If you have something that is longer, we can work something out – perhaps split up the article into chapters to be published over multiple issues?

I’d like to develop a library of artwork and non-event-specific articles to draw from for future issues, and perhaps even form the base for specific theme issues.

Please don’t hesitate to ask questions – I’m looking forward to working with all of you to get this newsletter going! Please send your contributions to me at mawrtyr88@gmail.com

First deadline for contributions: Friday, March 10, 2017 (before everyone leaves for Gulf Wars), for the First Quarter 2017 issue.

Thanks!
Raven

Announcements

Practice A&S Faire!

From Mistress Alessandra Fioravanti:

On the 5th Wednesday in November (11/30/16) the Laurels of South Downs will be offering a Practice A&S Faire in conjunction with Garb and Potluck night.

If you have considered entering A&S this is your chance to get feedback in a format similar to entering A&S Faire, but no pressure! Bring your finished or in-progress entries, with documentation, and a panel of Judges will give you feedback on how to improve your entry for an actual A&S Faire. Complete with judging forms to help you get a feel for the process. Conveniently, this is just before Magna Faire!

This is 6 weeks from today, so you have plenty of time to start something if you haven’t begun an entry already.

In addition to practice entering, you can also shadow judge or take a shot at judging an entry yourself! Get a feel for what it’s like to be a judge by giving a critique on a provided finished A&S project.

If you plan on bringing an entry it would be helpful if you could send me a PM.

Announcements

Wednesday project night

From Stella di Silvestri:

The meeting this week [ed. note: 12 October] is a group project meeting! Yay!

This month, we’re going to paint pennants with your personal arms (if you have them) or the Baronial arms so that we can proudly display our populace at Castle Wars and future events!

Fabric and paints will be included, and the pennants will be sewn at home.

We are in the small room in the back. If there’s not enough table space, we may move this project to next month.

Announcements, Events, Red Tower

Red Tower update

Alisandre, the camp mistress for South Downs, asks that people planning to camp with South Downs at Red Tower report in on the barony Facebook page.

Mathias, the event steward, has announced the feast menu for Red Tower:

The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570) Master Cook

Prepared by Grand Chef Mariana Cristina Tirado de Aragon

Course I
Italian Cheeses
Beef Croquettes-vinegar, pepper, salt, fennel, beef, eggs, cinnamon, parsley, garlic
Fruits- pears, grapes, and plums
Bread-flour, salt, butter, rosewater, eggs

Course II
Mushroom Soup-mushrooms, olive oil, onions, pepper, raisins, verjuice, cinnamon, saffron, herbs (parsley, thyme, sage) almonds
Parsnips- parsnips, butter, garlic, walnuts, almonds, parsley, garlic, ginger
Lamb- pork fat, onions, verjuice, common spices (galingale, ginger, cardamom), prunes, cherries
Flaky Pastry-flour, almond milk, sugar, rosewater, salt, olive oil, cinnamon, wine cooked raisins, pine nuts

Course III
Roasted Chicken-chicken, pork fat, orange juice
Broccoli- broccoli, slat, orange juice, pepper, garlic
Herb Tortellini- spinach, butter, herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary), parmesan cheese, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, saffron, raisins, eggs
Apple Crostata-apples, butter, sugar, white wine, cinnamon, provatura cheese, raisins