Notes submitted by Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong, South Downs Chronicler.
Magister Lorenzo called the May meeting to order. The Seneschal Lady Raven Helmsplitter, started recording the meeting and greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Lady Raven read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.
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 we’re trying to get better about including Discord. Loaner gear is usually available, but it doesn’t hurt to check the “Atlanta SCA Fighting” group or message us in advance. Sometimes when I’m not available, the “stunt marshal” might not be able to bring it.
If you have any trouble at all finding practice announcements, feel free to reach out directly to me or Ld. Eirikr. If you are using Discord, please @ us, otherwise your post will probably be lost in the chatter.
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. In the meantime, my continued thanks to our celebrity stunt marshal team, particularly Ldy. Ogata, Master Ximón, Master Nikoslav, et. al.
Big shout-out to folks recently giving rapier a try. Congratulations to a slew of new authorizees.
If you helped out transport and load the castle walls to Fool’s War, thank you so much!
We had 6 students in attendance at this past month’s class on basic concepts and language in Archery. I think it went really well – if a little long for the format.
This month’s class will be on May 22 at 7pm. It will be a virtual class night on Zoom and our teacher will be Master Rhydderch discussing Sacred Geometry. Come out to learn about the invention of geometry and its use in medieval construction and architecture, all without having to do any math.
I am currently looking for teachers for July, August, September, and October. I will not know if those will be in person or virtual until in-person nights are officially scheduled for the later half of the year, but if you specifically need one or the other, we can be flexible and shift months around if possible. If you have something you would like to teach or otherwise share with the Barony, please get in touch with either myself or Sumarliþi.
Aiming to have the May issue of The Read Tower Newsletter released this Friday.
Always looking to interview 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.
We’ve begun to get the word out about RUM; please keep an eye out for the Paypal registration, schedule, etc to become available. I’m pleased and thankful to report that Baroness Emelina will be the Social Media Officer deputy! Thank you!
Planning on having a DEIB class on May 15 this month
DEIB Officer Q&A and Suggestions from the Barony about DEIB classes in the future
Come and ask questions about the DEIB Office and bring suggestions on what kinds of classes you’d like to see in the future
If you can’t come to the meeting, please feel free to send questions and suggestions to my email beforehand so your questions can be answered: dei.southdowns@meridies.org
Rough graphic is up gate token, please take a look or submit other designs to get some more ideas in
Site is Little Tallapoosa
Thinking about giving young heralds a chance to get some practice and have a chance to herald in combatants at the tourneys at RT50
Major kudos to everyone who’s been active at events, in and off the field and supporting and helping the barony shine at events. Thank you for making this group the best group!
Baron Ximon
Progress:
Golden Lily – May 11 – Daytrip
Artsy Crown – Memorial Day Weekend – Arriving mid. afternoon on Sat
Will need to go to storage to pick up the baronial pavilion, will need help on Friday to help set up the pavilion and help tearing it down at the end of the event
June
Warden’s Challenge – hoping to go
If you’re into archery and thrown weapons, come out!
RUM
Fighter practice after RUM – will discuss with financial committee about funding for that and securing the pavilion
You guys rock! Please write in recommendations so we can get people recognized!
SCA Business
Royal University of Meridies
Lord Sumarlidi and Capt. Brendan
Flyer has been made, will send it to the Exchequer and Deputy Exchequer to get Paypal set up for the event
FB Event is set up, thanks to THL Agnes for handling that
Sign-up sheets for staff positions will be coming soon
Red Tower 50
Little Tallapoosa Park in Carrollton
Did confirm site policies regarding fire pits, archery, and equestrian. The same rules as MacIntosh. Raised fire pits are okay, we can have archery and equestrian as long as things are set up correctly.
If you have any questions, please email Their Excellencies or Lady Raven
Looking at hosting various salons at RT
Castle Wars
We currently have Camp Bert Adams reserved for Castle Wars in Covington GA
Please contact us if you are interested in running the event!
Bardic Event in Trimaris
Jacksonville, FL
May 4th 2024, hosted by Barony of Castlemere
Please contact Mathias if you have any questions
Dance and Gaming Event in Trimaris
June 15th
Daytrip
St. John’s Lutheran Church, 1950 Silver St., Jacksonville FL
Artsy Crown
Baronial encampment in the works
Lady Maren has moved out of the area to Chicago, and she donated some things to the Barony. Baron Ximon will be bringing some of the items to the potluck at the end of the month so come by and feel free to peruse and grab some things.
Maestra Isabetta – Looking for a deputy for quartermaster for Gulf Wars. If you’re interested, please contact me. Will just need a copy of your resume.
Job: You would be the person that department heads could come to for checking-out inventory and check back in at the end of war.
Non-SCA Business
None reported
The business meeting was closed @ 8:22 PM EST
The next business meeting will be held on June 5th, 2024, 7:00 PM EST via Zoom Meeting.
Notes submitted by Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong, South Downs Chronicler.
Magister Lorenzo called the March meeting to order. La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri, covering for our Seneschal, Lady Raven Helmsplitter, started recording the meeting and greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. La Magnifica Justina read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.
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.
BTW, “Atlanta SCA Fighting” is still visible publicly and searchable, but is now “Private” to keep the bots out. If you have any trouble at all finding practice announcements, feel free to reach out directly to me or Ld. Eirikr. It should be readable to anyone, but you’ll need to join in order to post.
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. In the meantime, my continued thanks to our celebrity stunt marshal team, particularly Ldy. Ogata, Master Ximón, Master Nikoslav, et. al.
Big shout-out to folks recently giving rapier a try. Looking forward to seeing more folks having fun!
Meridian Challenge of Arms was successful. Congratulations to Master Ximón on his elevation to the Order of Defense and Ldy Ogata on her induction to the Meridian Order of the Blade. Barons Mark de Wytteney and Piers Simmons were the Royal Family’s choices to be included in the MCA Championship. Well done everyone!
If you sent Reeve a receipt, look for your reimbursement check coming to you in the mail- if you want me to hold sending it till after Gulf Wars, please let me know.
We had 6 students in attendance at the February Class Night for Baroness Rhonwyn’s Research Basics class. We also got a bonus class on Research Papers.
There will be no Class Scheduled for March, as the normal Class Night (3/27) is going to be used for the In Person Red Tower 50-year planning meeting.
I am still looking for classes and teachers for most of the rest of the year – April, June, August, September and October. Please reach out to me if you have something you would like to teach or if you have any suggestions for class topics that I might be able to request teachers to provide for us.
I am still looking for a Deputy. The job is not difficult, just requires a little bit of organization and scheduling ability. If you are interested, or know anyone who might be, please get in touch with me so that we can start getting someone trained to be able to help with the upcoming Fall Event Season and to take over when I step down following Midwinter 2025.
Always looking to interview 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.
We’ve got socials! Note about Discord and meeting schedules: Discord is currently reporting the baronial meeting schedule based on an automated link to the barony Google Calendar. Thanks to Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong for setting that up!
Something for the barony to think about is figuring out how to get everyone, or at least the appropriate leadership and officers, access to add and edit meetings and other activities to that Google Calendar to take full advantage of this functionality. There is a google sheet that also has meeting information on it, but it isn’t linked to Discord and not sure it can be. Your humble Agnes does not know if the website could also be configured to be linked to the Google Calendar, but that would be cool to explore. Thank you!
Notes submitted by Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong, South Downs Chronicler.
Magister Lorenzo called the February 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.
Feb. 28th: in person meeting – Research Basics with Baroness Rhonwyn
Thanks to all who came out to Midwinter and the Fighter Practice!
We got the bid for RUM at UWG
Event stewards: Sumarlidi and Captain Brendan
If you have a website as an officer, please check the website and submit any changes to keep the information up to date
For the populace, we have a page for interests and information to be listed, so please contact the westminster if you need to update the page
The Baron and Baroness want to meet with the officers sometime soon to discuss plans for 2024
Officers, please email me if you haven’t already to update warrants and paperwork for the officers
We are going to start collecting items from South Downs’ history to display at Red Tower 50, so if you have anything you’d like to be displayed as well, please let me know.
We have been having practices that have been relatively well attended. Completed a few authorizations at last weeks regional practice. Regional practice was fairly well attended even with the horrible weather. There were 5 youth fighters. And also 2 brand new fighters in loaner gear. Performed multiple authorizations and reauthorizations. My squire brother Ajax got authorized for youth sparring.
There will be no practice on 11 February due to Knights Gambit and the Comicon demo and 25 February there will also be no practice, this is the week of MCA and I intend to be there to see his Excellency be recognized as a MoD. As always I will post any changes to practices on the Atlanta SCA Fighting Facebook page.
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.
BTW, “Atlanta SCA Fighting” is still visible publicly and searchable, but is now “Private” to keep the bots out. If you have any trouble at all finding practice announcements, feel free to reach out directly to me or Ld. Eirikr. It should be readable to anyone, but you’ll need to join in order to post.
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. In the meantime, my continued thanks to our celebrity stunt marshal team, particularly Ldy. Ogata, Master Ximón, Master Nikoslav, et. al.
Big shout-out to folks recently giving rapier a try. Looking forward to seeing more folks having fun!
Regional practice after MWAS was successful. Fencing, lessons, a little meleé. Good fun.
Demo at Comic Con coming up this weekend, come hang out and help out at the demo!
Arts & Sciences (Lady Maryam)
We had a wonderful Midwinter A&S this weekend. Thank you to the autocrats, Her Grace Thorkatla, and Baroness Rhiannon for your help and guidance in making this happen.
A shout out to Mathias Blackett who received a score of 20 on his Shakespearean soliloquy entry!
I’m looking forward to Red Tower 50 right now – I definitely want to make sure we can show off all the prowess of our barony’s artisans!
Last month’s class night – Medieval Nicknames with Wenyeva – had 5 students in attendance.
This past weekend was Midwinter A&S. We had 80 total students take 26 different classes over the course of the day.
This month’s A&S Class night will be February 28th – in person at Doraville Civic Center. Baroness Rhonwyn will be teaching a class on Research Basics. If you’ve ever wanted a bit more help or information on how to get started with researching that A&S project you want to start, don’t miss this class.
Finally, I am still looking for a deputy Provost. February of 2025 will be the end of my term in office and I would like to start training a replacement before we get deep into the planning season for Red Tower.
As always if you have anything you would like to teach, please reach out. I have openings most of the rest of this year through October.
Always looking to interview 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.
We’d like to say thank you for all the work for Midwinter and congratulations to all those who received awards this weekend
Looking forward to basically having a repeat of the same thing at RUM in July
In March, we’re hoping to host a kick-off meeting to plan for Red Tower 50
SCA Business
Midwinter A&S
Baron Piers and Lord Eirikr
Event went smoothly, thank you to all volunteered to help make it happen
Magister Lorenzo
Shout out to Ælfric for taking advantage of the tools to schedule classes for Midwinter
Maybe work scheduling out with meetings and classes next time so that meetings line up with classes so people don’t have to miss two classes for one meeting
Baron Ximon
Shout out to Ysabel who did the Royal Luncheon, it was a fantastic lunch
As far as we know, no complaints!
South Downs rocks and pulled it off again!
Lady Maryam
Her Grace Thorkatla helped make the A&S go smoothly, as she always does
Meridian Challenge of Arms
Baron Ximon
If you’re planning on going to MCA on Friday, we could use some help setting up the pavilions
We’ll have a hospitality table set up
Royal University of Meridies
Sumarlidi
In the planning stages, be on the lookout for for more information as it comes it coming weeks and months
Red Tower 50
Lady Raven
No bid yet, looking to do it at McIntosh
Baron Ximon
Looking to showcase the history of South Downs
Looking to host a panel/roundtable on the history of South Downs
Want to see if we can create tshirts for it and host special tournaments
Want to put together a website specifically for the event, not just a FB page
Master Rhydderch wants to build a full size trebuchet for the site
Bring your ideas to brainstorm on what we can do for Red Tower 50
Castle Wars
Lady Raven
Looking for bids, please contact me if you’re interested
Looking to use Bert Adams for Castle Wars
Lady Lily
Wondering if we have a Baronial Historian when we’re discussing showcasing South Downs’ history
Baron Ximon
If you’re interested in becoming a Baronial Historian to help shape that office and start keeping track and recording our history
Will post a link to his virtual vigil
Discussion on display at Red Tower 50, possible tshirts, and other ideas
Non-SCA Business
None reported
The business meeting was closed @ 8:36 PM EST
The next business meeting will be held on March 6th, 2024, 7:00 PM EST via Zoom Meeting.
Notes submitted by Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong, South Downs Chronicler.
Magister Lorenzo called the December 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.
Stay tuned for January 2024, still TBD. January in-person dates are 1/17 and 1/31 (5th Wednesday potluck)
Baronial calendar has been updated for 2024 with the in-person dates through June 2024.
Castle Wars was a huge success! Thanks for everyone who came out, and everyone who helped make CW happen 🙂
We will have our post-mortem later on in the meeting
Many, many thanks to Isabetta for securing our new storage unit, and for everyone who helped move our stuff there.
His Excellency and I went to Bert Adams for a site visit to scout out the site for RedTower 2024 (RT 50!). Waiting to hear that our requested reservation date is approved.
We need to start thinking about what KLE we might put in a bid for, as every barony is required to submit a bid for a KLE
Midwinter A+S is coming (3 February 2024)! Piers and Eirikr will present their bid later on in the meeting.
Officers:
Please check your officer page on our website to make sure your info is correct – especially links to external websites (kingdom, for example). If there are any updates needed, please get your updates to Eirikr (I believe he has a form to use).
Populace – please also check your listing in Dramatis Personae > People of South Downs. If you have updates (or are not listed), please let Eirikr know and he’ll update your listing.
Their Excellencies would like to meet with all the officers (and deputies) sometime soon (possibly in January, after the holidays), to discuss what we want to do in 2024.
Our pause during the pandemic made our usual processes, well, weird. I want to get back on track with our normal terms of office, and am looking into what the usual/expected terms of office should be. In the meantime, I’d like to have all the officers let me know when they started their terms.
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.
BTW, “Atlanta SCA Fighting” is still visible publicly and searchable, but is now “Private” to keep the bots out. If you have any trouble at all finding practice announcements, feel free to reach out directly to me or Ld. Eirikr. It should be readable to anyone, but you’ll need to join in order to post.
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! Just before Castle Wars, we had several new authorizations, and a couple of new auths at CW. The field is getting bigger!
The castle is now as functional as it’s ever been. It still needs paint. It’s really nice to see it stored indoors again, but let’s please keep in mind that it really does need a work day sometime for a sprucing up (new paint will also help protect the wood from bugs and weather).
Castle Wars: The Meridian Order of the Blade Invitational tournament Saturday morning went well (Congratulations to Lady Ogata on her victory!), and the new meleé scenario from Ldy. Ogata was well-received.
Castle Wars was a very big day on the live weapons range, over 50 people show up on the range
Lots of tournaments and busy time on the range!
13 people completed at least one royal round, including a little six year old girl who really enjoyed herself and didn’t want to leave.
Will need to get more target butts soon, will put together a proposal to purchase new targets, probably around $150 each.
Had a conversation about the new potential practice location, will go check out the site to see if it’ll work. If it is, we’ll have archery practice Dec. 17th!
Firstly, I am very excited to announce I have a deputy reeve! Lord Salim will be training with me over the next year and has already helped so much with paperwork. He is very skilled in all things reevery and the barony’s financial matters are going to be in such capable hands. We have submitted his request to be warranted and I will include him in the majority of correspondence from my office moving forward.
As previously discussed, the Honorable Lady Majda is also joining the reeve team as fundraising special deputy
The biggest thing to cover tonight is getting the 2024 annual budget discussed and approved.
I uploaded a pdf to our facebook group files page and will also add to the Zoom chat
THL Mairghread made a motion to move it to vote, M. Isabetta seconded. 22 for, 1 opposed, vote passed.
Second approval needed is an overage from castle wars, the only overage. Original approved budget was $1150, the financial committee approved an urgent addition of $400 due to the expected attendance, and the bathrooms needed mid event cleaning. The final total was $1635, putting it $85 over budget. we need the barony to vote to approve this overage
THL Mairghead made a motion to move to vote, Baron Ximon seconded. 22 for, 1 opposed, vote passed.
Another overage to note for your records, the FC approved $42.20 to reimburse Red Tower Travelers fare, no additional vote is needed
Salim and I are going to get the ball rolling again on completing the Financial policy update- stay tuned.
Castle Wars saw a lot of classes and Salons being offered for the enjoyment of the attending populace. 26 individual people took 8 different classes with 31 RUM credits received overall.
There will be no Baronial A&S Class night for the month of December. January Baronial Class Night should be Wednesday, Jan. 24th – and I am still looking for a teacher for that month and all of the rest of 2024 as well.
Also be thinking about classes you might want to teach for Midwinter A&S. I will be putting out a call for teachers soon.
And finally, on that note, I am looking for a deputy Provost to begin helping me organize and promote A&S Class activities for the coming year, as well as help with coordinating classes for Midwinter Arts and Sciences in February. Please get in touch with me on Facebook or Discord if you are interested in the position.
Thank you to all who got your reports sent in early!
Behind on October and November’s newsletters, but will post them as soon as I get them done
Updating the baronial calendar with the in-person/virtual meetings, should update and in turn update the baronial calendar as well.
Always looking to interview 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.
Not much to say, but if you think people should be recognized, please give us award recommendations!
SCA Business
Castle Wars Post-Mortem
Lady Ysabel and Lady Hessa
Thank you to EVERYONE who came out and helped out with the event, it was incredible seeing our vision for the event come to life and become a reality.
Lots of happy people and vendors who were pleased with the setup of the event. We had the chance to try some new things with vendor services and an info point to help out and check in on people.
Spoke with the park, they are building showers and toilets permanently on the site in the cinderblock building. They were pleased with how the group handled our parking passes and they appreciated how we handled it.
We were having trouble with the gate codes, but moving forward they may add in multiple codes to help keep the gate from malfunctioning again.
We may need to find a way to tell the general population that it’s a closed and private event to help prevent random people from walking through the event.
Lost and found is still posted on the FB group, please check to see if you’re missing anything.
Please send in names for the volunteer drawing so that people can get a chance to get something after all of the help with Castle Wars.
Campsites have stone/rock markers with numbers and numbers on trees, and may want to use them going forward to help organize camps next time.
Baron Piers Simmons
Only complaint is that the last camp had to walk past parking for the closest porta potty, but the event was fabulous in general.
Lady Lily
Loved seeing the event stewards in one place and easy to find, and thank you for the food and snacks and general hospitality
La Magnifica Justina
So many thanks to Dorian for all of his help at check-in, you were a rockstar!
Thank you to the event stewards for letting us try new things with the location of check-in, and many thanks to Lady Ysabel for getting more signs to help inform people where to go.
Still some things that we can learn and improve on.
Going forward if we use this site again for bids since they use a flat fee, $625, but they also charge per person overnight per night. The total fee ended up being $1806, so it may be hard to calculate this bid in the future.
Total attendance: 455 people
Profit: $2758.40
We didn’t have the infrastructure to support late check-in. If we want to have support late check-in, we will need to plan ahead to make sure we have lights and staff to help cover shifts.
Midwinter Bid
Baron Piers and Lord Eirikr
Bid for Feb. 3 2024 at Pafford Hall at UWG.
Proposed $15 prereg and $20 at the gate for site fee
Myeong Su made a motion to bring the bid to vote, Dorian seconded. Motion passes and the bid is approved.
Popchiv and Kingdom Chronicler will be contacted to get the flyer in.
DEIB Directive
Acharya Mewadi Margavati Bai
There’s been a directive from higher up to restructure the DEIB office and local offices may be reworked or eliminated structurally. The work will not stop being done and we will still have resources, but we’re not sure how it will work going forward.
Things will be shared more as we know more going forward.
Many, many thanks to Lady Lily for all of your work!
Majster Nikoslav
DEIB stuff for the Kingdom is not going away, but will be restructured. The system will be more regional instead of local to help deal with issues as they arise.
Many thanks to Lady Lily and Acharya Mewadi Margavati for all of your work in both local and Kingdom offices.
Non-SCA Business
None reported.
The business meeting was closed @ 9:12 PM EST
The next business meeting will be held on January 3rd, 2024, 7:00 PM EST via Zoom Meeting.
Notes submitted by Baronessa Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.
Master Mathias called the January meeting to order. Our Seneschal, Lady Raven Helmsplitter, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Lady Raven read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.
In-person meeting space through the end of June 2023 has been set up at Doraville Civic Center.
1/18
2/22
3/22, 3/29 (5th Wednesday!)
4/19, 4/26
5/3 (in-person business meeting with a test for streaming), 5/17, 5/31 (5th Wednesday!)
6/21, 6/28
The Barony is expecting to submit a bid for RUM to fulfill our obligations to the kingdom; we will have a second business meeting (virtual) on 1/25 to discuss and vote on the bid. Bids for RUM are due by 1/31.
I’ve uploaded a PDF of the photos and notes I took during Ximon’s and my site visit to Indian Springs State Park (where Red Tower 2023 will be held) to the Barony’s FB group.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Seems like the holiday season took a bite out of our practice routine. Probably a healthy thing…
Work is a bit more manageable for me right now, but I will continue to need help making sure that a marshal is present for practices. Anxious to be getting back in the swing of things myself. Thanks to all of our Barony’s rapier marshals for stepping in as needed.
Current plan is to have our January practice this coming Sunday, 1/8.
Weather may be a factor. If we are rained out, I will push it to the next week.
Society has started coming down with score sheets for thrown weapons. They are still working out a couple of the kinks, but I will see if we can get some interkingdom challenges going at practice.
If you’re interested in sharp, metal things flying through the air, please come to practice.
Not much new this time! Our current bank account has $7,581.89, but considering checks pending deposit, the balance in our ledger is $7,010.02 as of the end of December.
With the new year comes a new annual budget, which we discussed last meeting, so if you have any questions or if you are an officer that has approved expenditures, please reach out. SCA-rs is now officially retired, we are back to PayPal for pre-Registration, which will be available shortly for Midwinter.
The 2022 “Doomsday” report (Q4 fiscal year-end report) is due at the end of this month. If you have any outstanding business with SD, it will pool over into the 2023 report.
Again, please let me know if you have any questions about this process.
I want to draw attention to just one major item of interest – Atlanta Comic-Con is happening on the weekend of February 24th at the Georgia World Congress Center.
In between holiday madness, I’ve been talking to the organizer, Croix Provence. She is offering us an exhibition hall at 3.5k sq ft for demos and panels, as many tables and chairs as we need, a breakout room for our volunteers, and space on the con’s promotional material.
I cannot understate that she is VERY interested in drawing Scadians and making this as frictionless as possible.
This really feels like the holy grail of face-to-face interaction with engaged nerds in the metro Atlanta area
However, what sucks is that many of us in the fencing community will not be in town to help make that happen because that weekend is also MCA.
So, I’ve reached out to a couple of other officers in the barony as well as some of our neighbors in Tir Briste and Depedale to see who’s available to participate and, most importantly, who’s interested in leading a demo.
From where I’m sitting and what I’m looking at, Atlanta Comic-con is looking like a very large, very accessible, and very visible empty box that we can fill with any tournaments, classes, panels, and demonstrations that we want.
As far as I understand, Atlanta Comic-con draws a more local crowd than DragonCon. So the vibe seems to be like Conjuration Con or Anachro Con, both of which have been historically key demo opportunities for us. This would be on an even bigger scale.
If you are interested in taking the reins on this demo or otherwise helping out, please do reach out to me ASAP
Just as a reminder, Atlanta Comic-con is the weekend of February 24th.
Our Midwinter A&S event is just around the corner.
The Facebook Event page has been updated with a link to pre-register A&S entries. I highly encourage folks to do this as it will help with the setup of the room.
As usual we will have tokens, probably large beads, that will be available so the attendees can vote for their favorite entry.
There will be sheets/booklets available for each of the entries so that the populace can leave remarks. I’m really hoping that the attendees will take a moment to let the artisans know what they liked about each entry. Positive feedback can be so important for artisans who have put time and energy into a piece.
The newsletter, The Read Tower, will be published this month. I’m just waiting on one particular article.
That being said, if you have an idea for an article, please email it to the chronicler email address.
Tonight is my last night as your Baronial Chronicler. I have resigned to our wonderful seneschal. If you have an interest in what it takes to be the Chronicler, please reach out to Lady Raven.
Not a lot from our end. We are looking forward to Midwinter.
Wistric shared the Procedure for Succession of the Baronial Seat. The document is available on the baronial FB page.
Vote was approved to adopt. Forwarded to Kingdom Seneschal.
SCA Business
Midwinter A&S status
Thank you to everyone for your patience.
We’ve started taking class submissions for Midwinter, contact me or use the Google Form posted to the Barony’s FB page or the Midwinter Event page if you’d like to teach!
Justina is looking to get a Paypal link for pre-reg.
Piers has agreed to be our set up and tear down guy.
I have a bunch of positions already filled, thank you, everyone.
Rhi is running the faire. Please go sign up.
I’ll post positions that need to be filled on the FB page.
Please consider signing up for a troll shift.
So far we’ve got a track of Commedia classes with an Iron Commedia session with Master Mathias and a Leather Carving and Tooling class from our own Thedomir (TJ) but are looking for more!
There will be no food vendors on site due to restrictions. I have posted information on how to get food.
Schedules will be posted as soon as we finalize them.
RUM Business
I’m currently working to put together a bid for RUM this year July 15th at the University of West Georgia, hoping to have a bid ready later this month to present to the Barony so that we can meet the bid submission deadline.
Please let me know if you’d be willing to help in any way for the event!
Post-mortem of Castle Wars
Thank you to everyone who helped with CW. We’ve heard so many people say it felt like we’ve finally gotten back to SCA wars.
All positions were filled. It was amazing.
We did have one incident, it was an aggressive dog. The dog was removed by the owner. No one was harmed.
There was a snafu with the High Table silverware. We need to do a better job of keeping track of that. We need to do inventory.
Who is responsible for setting up the High Table? Unknown who set it up.
It was suggested that the royal liaison be responsible for taking things out of and putting things back into the totes.
An event quartermaster?
There is an inventory list on each tote when it’s taken out of storage.
Justina: One thing I strongly suggest is to have an info point near troll, but not at troll. When troll is busy, it can be too hectic if people are coming up and asking questions about things going on at the event.
Maybe have a board for posting updates near troll.
Brendan: There are also a lot of people who turn off their phones at events (If I weren’t marshaling, I’d be one of them). Paper and voice heralds are still a thing.
Pocket Herald may be an option as long as there is signal at the event.
Myeong Su: If you took classes and want them registered for RUM, just let me know and I can check your entry and add it to the system!
This was the first time we used the Boy Scout camp. Their rates have increased from a flat rate to a per person/per day rate. We did not make as much money this time at CW because the cost for the site was about $1k more than it had been in the past.
Non-SCA Business
The business meeting was closed @ 2058.
The next business meeting will be held on 01 February 2023, 1930, via Zoom Meeting.
Notes submitted by Baronessa Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.
Master Mathias Blackett called the October meeting to order. Our Seneschal, Lady Raven Helmsplitter, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Raven read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.
Tentative meeting schedule for October – please keep an eye out on our FB group for the final schedule:
October 5 – Business meeting (virtual)
October 12 – Theodosia Colloquia, hosted by La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri (virtual)
October 19 – Scribal night (in person)
October 26 – either a Halloween potluck or A&S class on period gems (in-person)
Still looking for bids for Midwinter A&S, scheduled for February 3-6, 2023. If interested, please contact Raven or Their Excellencies
Reminder – As a barony, we are required to submit one KLE (kingdom-level event) bid per year, so we should start looking at something to bid on for 2023. Available bids for 2023 are the following – if you are interested in submitting a bid on any of these, please contact Raven or Their Excellencies:
Less than 6 months out, so bids are encouraged ASAP:
Meridian Challenge of Arms (24-26 February 2023)
Events 6-12 months out:
Spring Coronation (31 March – 2 April 2023)
Spring Crown/A&S (“Artsy Crown,” 26-29 May 2023, Memorial Day weekend)
Plans are underway for a Friday night fundraiser tourney and melee games on Saturday
The re-boot of our castle is underway.
Practices continue, Sunday afternoons and Tuesday evenings. This leads to…
My work is increasing again for the fall season. I’ll need help making sure that our official SCA practices have adequate marshaling and gear management. Please contact me if you are willing and able to help cover when my slack butt can’t be there.
I am currently expecting to be traveling almost constantly from this coming Monday until Castle War.
We have moved to a new storage location… literally a few units down from our old one, but the cost is $407 instead of $583, so we will be saving a substantial amount. Thanks so much to His Excellency Wistric for securing that for us, and to everyone who was able to help move everything. Thanks to Mark Baron for allowing us to have the previous unit- the old unit is closed and everything is transferred.
The financial planning committee will be meeting on November 6th to discuss the 2023 budget and there will be a baronial vote on December 7th. Officers, please submit your 2023 budget before then, and also everyone who may have suggestions or requests for baronial purchases, let me or any of the officers know and we will be sure to discuss it in the November meeting.
I want to look into adding a cash advance request form to our current baronial financial paperwork to keep things tidy
Next barony meeting, I would like to have a quick review with everyone about budgets and how they function in correspondence with bids and the reimbursement process.
Castle Wars SCArs application is in- thanks for your patience as these applications go through for preregistration, they go through a lot of hands to help make things smooth, and you will be able to pre-register soon. If you don’t want to wait, you can mail a check to the barony PO box listed on the event flyer with your reservation names and contact information as well as membership numbers and expirations.
At Red Tower, I met Claire Metzler who had previously contacted us over email. Although I had to run back to the kitchen, I left Claire and her boyfriend in the hands of Duchess Gwen. I caught up with them again recently and (good news!) they both had such a blast that they’ve got Castle Wars on their calendar.
Potentially, we’ll see more of Claire and her boyfriend at our weekly meetings once she’s finished up her midterm exams.
Additionally, our newcomers are taking on some pretty exciting roles in our community!
First, I want to tell you about Lola Eichler’s interest in archery and in teaching. These are two things I’ve always seen her closely associated with, so it was really cool to see her sign up to teach about Mongolian-style archery at Red Tower! Unfortunately, I was in the kitchen all day and Lola had to leave before I could catch up with her. From what I understand, the class went really well and she’s absolutely interested in doing it again sometime!
Also, Maryam al-Jawhariyya (MKA Katie Earles) stepped in at the 11th hour to serve up breakfast at Red Tower featuring a stellar bread pudding. And then she was insanely helpful for the rest of the day while I stumbled through my first feast. I can only keep so many plates spinning in the kitchen at once, but she was right there ready for anything I threw at her. Also, she gave me a preview of her historic gemology class on the drive to Red Tower, so y’all are in for a treat when that rolls around.
I think Lex technically lives in Bryn Madoc, but we can take credit for her as long as she continues gracing us with her awesomeness! As Lady Una pointed out, Lex put together a program on Chinese culture for the children’s track at Red Tower. Also, she was behind the Chinese Lion Dance performance at Coronation. She and Brecht performed as the Lion with Tryggvi accompanying on percussion.
Currently not a huge amount going on in my area. Many thanks to Tami and anyone else who helps schedule classes! Y’all ROCK!
Gearing up for the first Baroness’s Challenge A&S competition that will be held at Castle Wars. I’ll be reposting my original FB posts about it as well as schilling it up in other posts. I’m really hoping some folks from the Barony will enter.
As always please remember to post your A&S work on our Baronial spreadsheet. Those entries help show how talented our Barony populace really is.
Exciting news! The Read Tower will be back for the 4th quarter of this year. Please consider writing an article, even if it’s only a paragraph. Your contributions really do help. If If you have something longer, I would love that as well. It can be as simple as your most recent event experience, or your favorite memory.
Red Tower went great and a shoutout to Lex for putting it all together even though she couldn’t be there. She’s a newcomer and didn’t have to jump in this hard, but she has and it has been wonderful to have her help.
We now have 1500 baronial business cards printed and ready for you to distribute to members of the unsuspecting public! Come get some at in-person activities and spread them far and wide
Thank you to everyone who made Red Tower awesome. We heard “It’s like the good old days” and “it’s like the SCA is finally back” from so many people and that is a result of the deeds of the people in the barony. Congratulations to our new champions! Heavy – Mairghread Wilson; Rapier – Piers Simmons; Archery – AElfric Hort
We were thrilled to see the new populace award given out at feast at Red Tower. Thank you to everybody who participated in the nomination and voting process. Thank you to Raven, Iazzie, and Mairghread for deciphering the vote results. Thank you to Sabine and Red for making the beautiful regalia. Thank you to everybody who participated in the ceremony at feast – it was magical.
We’ll be going to Danelaw in style – day shades, banners, and all, to celebrate their Nextellencies of Bryn Madoc. We welcome you all to join us under the day shade and on a retainer shift throughout the day.
The baronial succession policy is 11 years out of date and no longer reflects the actual polling process. A draft updated baronial succession policy will be posted to FB and the website for feedback from the populace – please take a minute to review and point out any issues you notice.
We are planning to host a baronial holiday party Saturday, December 17th at our house in Clarkston. Stay tuned for more details.
Send in award recommendations!
SCA Business
Red Tower
Thank you to everyone that helped out. Thank you for being a fabulous team. We are back and solid. It was heartwarming to me when I was told it felt like the good ole days
Do you have any comments? What worked? What didn’t?
Tables and chairs for scribal. Cushions for troll would be greatly appreciated.
If more people could help with set-up it would be greatly appreciated.
The porta-potty company we had canceled on us two weeks before the event. One of the bathrooms was out of service, so the site covered 2 of the 4 were covered and didn’t have to come out of budget.
We would need new walkie-talkies because the ones we had didn’t reach from the hall to the field.
Maybe set up a paige program for the older youths to help with running things around the site (messages and such), and then another site runner for someone that could go off-site if needed.
Moving more things to the field will help with folks who have a difficult time physically (or time constraints) for the walk back and forth.
Having a quiet space in the hall was a good thing. The quiet space was awesome. I didn’t think I’d want it until I wanted it, and it was much appreciated!
I seem to remember we had an event once where there was a volunteer lottery at the end, where volunteer time earned you tickets to the lottery, and the prizes were donated by the populace. Something like that might avoid drama about comping some people and not others, paying out of SCA funds, etc.
Castle Wars
Eirikr found bronze Roman Coins. We could give each person one when they troll in. That way as people move through time, they start in Rome.
Our feast is built that way as well. https://www.facebook.com/events/832349081259578/permalink/847750956386057
We are looking for a few people to volunteer as well.
Nasty-crat
We need someone to do a fundraiser lunch. If you know anyone willing, please send them to Piers.
Piers did talk to SCARs deputy. We are just waiting on the Kingdom to approve it.
We can actually be on site the Wednesday before (the 16th). I would like to do the set-up as early as possible on Thursday.
More than likely, we will be getting things out of storage on Wednesday.
Zimon
I had asked about doing a silent auction fundraiser. It would be for the MoB for tournament prizes and to put money back in our coffers. We wanted to have a memorial shield tree for fighters that are no longer with us. I’m gathering stuff for the auction so if you have anything you would like to donate, please let me know. I’m going to start in the next week or so to put something together.
Raven
I will post the screenshot about Gulf Wars and post it on the baronial site. The great news is that we will have Gulf Wars at the site in the years coming!
Non-SCA Business
Ælfric
There is a medieval faire in Brazelton this weekend. I will post a link on the Baronial page.
Ogata
Recently, Lola had some surgeries lately. She is strapped for cash. If you are able to help, please do so.
The business meeting was closed @ 2107
The next business meeting will be held on 02 November 2022, 1930, Zoom Meeting.
Notes submitted by Baronessa Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.
Master Mathias Blackett called the September meeting to order. Our Seneschal, Lady Raven Helmsplitter, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Raven read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.
Nikoslav has received the refunded deposit for our meeting site and is working on getting the check to Justina to deposit into the baronial account
I am still working on getting info about the art space site as a potential alternate A&S or project night site
The September meeting schedule has been posted to our FB group:
Tonight – Baronial Business meeting (virtual)
9/14 – Project night (virtual)
9/21 – A&S night Building scrolls (virtual)
9/28 – Dance night (in person – yay!)
We are looking for bids for Midwinter A&S (Saturday, 2/4/2023). Please contact Their Excellencies or the seneschal if interested or if you have questions
As a Barony, we are required to submit a bid for one KLE each year. As of now, the following 2023 KLEs have not had any bids submitted:
We won’t be having practice the weekend of Red Tower.
Not planning on bringing loaner gear, but I will be bringing authorization paperwork.
I will be looking to see if there is interest in a substitute marshal the weekend of MGT, I know our 2 regular knights aren’t attending so one of them may fill in for me.
Red Tower! Thanks to Baron Piers for taking on the Rapier Marshal position for RT, and thanks to Master Ximon for helping him out (I understand they are collaborating so both can participate.).
Castle Wars! Plans are underway for a Friday night fundraiser tourney as well as Saturday melee activities. WooHoo!
Practices continue, Sunday afternoons and Tuesday evenings, which leads to…
My work is increasing again for the fall season. I’ll need help making sure that practices have adequate marshaling and gear management. Please contact me if you would like to help cover when my slack butt can’t be there.
Storage has been paid for September but they are raising the price again so next month it is a $583 payment, which is $117 more than last month, making our cost difference from the beginning of the year up by $234 per month.
We now have a PO Box:
P.O. Box 681863
Marietta, GA 30068
So moving forward, mailed-in reservations or necessary public addresses can go through there. I’ll be checking it on Fridays
I would like to give a shout-out to our lovely scribes and calligraphers who helped make the August scribal night happen. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there in person, but I’m really happy that our newcomers had a chance to deepen their connection to the scribal arts
So, thank you immensely to…Sunneva, Aelia, Myeong Su Daegam, Lorenzo, and Emelina
I wanted to thank everyone for filling in the Baronial A&S tracking spreadsheet or sending me the info when the sheet does not behave.
We’re finishing up the details for the first Baroness’s Challenge to be announced at Red Tower and run for the first time at Castle Wars. After it’s announced in Court, I’ll post all the details to the FB page.
Class this month will be virtual on September 21st at 8:00 PM. It will be Building Scrolls with Hlāford Bran Mydwynter from Atlantia.
Class for October will be a Theodosia Colloquia (Ted Talk) hosted by La Magnifica Justina Di Silvestri. Come out and share your knowledge!
Red Tower Notes:
The overall schedule is being finalized and will be published soon. We’ve got a lot of great classes, so I hope everyone is excited! Thanks to Lord Aelfric for organizing the classes for Red Tower.
Still looking for some spots to fill for various jobs for Red Tower, so if you’re interested, please let me or Isabella know!
Nothing to report for this month except in that in a month or two when the kingdom office changes over, he will not be able to continue his role. I will be stepping into his role. This means that Lily will be stepping up as the Baronial DEI officer. We’ll make an official announcement when the change happens.
I don’t have a huge amount of stuff to report. We’ve been busy preparing for Red Tower.
Wistric will be joining later, he’s catching up on work.
The Order of the Swift’s Heart. Please fill out your ballot. Remember this is a work in progress. We appreciate the enthusiasm.
The very first medallion is being worked, it will be very beautiful!
Veronica is our new Baronial Scroll Boss. YAY! I know she’s going to do an amazing job!
We are so excited about Red Tower. We’re working hard to keep up with all of you planning this. We need retainers, a link will go out soon.
We might need a helping hand with Carver during court. We would be willing to pay for a camp sitter!
The person doing the class this class is my apprentice brother! The most recent scroll he created was a bronze age mirror for someone with that persona and a bass scroll. It was quite cool.
Keep on being awesome!
SCA Business
Master Mathias
For those who remember Wulfstan and Thorkatla’s reign, there were two scoundrels that acted up during their reign. We are looking for people. Please let me know if you are interested in helping out.
Lord Ogata Tarō Hiroyuki
Vices & Virtue
Mistress Veronica was inducted into the Order of the Bough.
Lola authorized for rapier
Captian Pietro won the Patience & Wrath sword and dagger tournament.
Red Tower Notes:
Daegam Soong Myeong-Su
The overall schedule is being finalized and will be published soon. We’ve got a lot of great classes, so I hope everyone is excited! Thanks to Lord Aelfric for organizing the classes for Red Tower.
Still looking for some spots to fill for various jobs for Red Tower, so if you’re interested, please let me or Isabella know!
Feastcrat is looking for servers
We are still looking for help with Royal Lunch.
We need help with setting up and tear down.
I will talk to Margavati about the quiet space
If you pre-reg you get a cabin! It’s cabins only, no camping.
We have a port-a-potty company
Shout out to Mirghred for the traveler’s fare. Shout out to Ogata for the feast. Owl’s Nest will be doing a fundraiser lunch.
Castle Wars
Baron Piers Simmons
We need a pottycrat
Our pre-reg will be open soon
The roses have contacted me and they would like to do a fundraiser Friday Night Fight. It’s a single-elimination event. With your donation for Breast Cancer, you get a second life.
If you have questions, let me know.
Seong Myeong Su – Will there be encampments?
Yes. We are trying to use a similar map as we did last time.
Seong Myeong Su – I made Their Majesties Trimeris coronation garb.
Non-SCA Business
None
The business meeting was closed @ 2011
The next business meeting will be held on 05 October 2022, 1930, Zoom Meeting.
Notes submitted by Baronessa Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.
Lady Bú called the August meeting to order. Our Seneschal, Lady Raven Helmsplitter, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Raven read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.
In-person meeting space has been secured through the end of November (available dates in December run up against the end-of-year holidays, so we didn’t reserve any dates in December (yet). Stay tuned as we announce the upcoming monthly schedules.
The original security deposit for our meeting space is being returned to Nik as he is no longer seneschal. We should have that back in the next 2-4 weeks. We paid a new security deposit when I set myself up as the new contact with Parks & Recreation.
Looking into using the art space next door for potential project night or A&S classes, in addition to our regular meeting space
We are looking for bids for Midwinter A&S (Saturday, 4 February 2023). Note: kingdom calendar has the entire weekend reserved for Midwinter, in case a bid wanted to propose a weekend event.
Outstanding Kingdom Level Events in 2023 that need bids
It’s that time to tell me any heraldry stuff you’ve been up to. May, June, and July are covered in this report! Thank you to everyone who has been in touch so far!
His Excellency & I have discussed making Tuesday evening practices “official” again starting in August. The website still shows it on the practice schedule, so all that would be left is to start posting about it and making sure that the appropriate marshals are on hand. We’re pretty much ramped up for it on the rapier side of things, and in unofficial get-togethers, we’ve learned some things and developed some questions.
The park added electrical service along the side of the field, and we’ve been able to put our own lighting in for safe visibility. Expanding the light kit is not difficult if we need a bigger space.
The park doesn’t simply close at 9 pm anymore (We always thought it did). We aren’t limited to a 2-hour block.
The plan is to begin (from the rapier side) on August 9 (I’ll be at Pennsic that week, but His Exc will marshal that evening)
Is there interest in a Tuesday evening practice on the armored side? Do we have an available marshal?
Red Tower
Odds are that I will not be available for Red Tower. Master Ximon will be our RMiC. Currently seeking a MoL.
Castle Wars
I am planning to be the RMiC for CW. Plans are underway to hold a Rose Tourney on Friday evening (Rapier & Heavy). Further details to follow.
Live weapons report (because I’m at Pennsic): practice was able to happen thanks to Ælfric and Roís. We had lots of people at practice. The next LW practice is scheduled for August 28th.
While wandering the merchants at Pennsic, I found a used atlatl set for a steal. So we will be able to add atlatl to Live Weapons practice!
New wardrobes in Gold Key courtesy of Ælfric Hort and Sabine de Seint Clear
Unisex medium Japanese
Girls’ small tunics
Women’s medium bodices
Our demo at the LAG in Underground Atlanta went beautifully! I can let Bu take point on her Demo Deputy report, and I want to drive home how much of an MVP she was through the whole thing
As always I want to remind everyone to please record A&S activities on our Baronial A&S Spreadsheet. You can find it by clicking the A&S tab (not the dropdowns, just the tab itself). This takes you to the A&S site for the Barony and has a couple of spots to click for the spreadsheet. I will be sending over an edit soon to the Webminister to update the page.
Now for the fun! Her Excellency and I are creating a new A&S competition to be held at Baronial events. It will be called “The Baroness’s Challenge”. We will be coming up with ideas for categories that tie into the theme of the event. I’m hoping it will spark some creative fun and of course, there will be prizes. The official announcement for the competitions will be announced at Red Tower with the first competition to be held at Castle Wars. I’m looking forward to seeing the different kinds of A&S projects the populace of Meridies brings to the competition.
Thank you to everybody who helped make RUM a huge success! We’re looking forward to Red Tower next month and if you can contribute with setup or takedown for the event or a troll shift, please do so.
Drix, of Calontir Trim, has designed some custom trim for South Downs and is soliciting pre-orders. It is verrrrrah nice. (see pictures)
He needs pre-orders of at least 300 yards to make it happen, and we are currently up to 225 yards of pre-orders. The price is $3/yd – or $2.50 if we get to 500 yards worth of pre-orders.
Her Excellency and I have pre-ordered some for use as favors and/or to mark loaner garb (including belts), but the barony may want to order some as well.
We’re in need of new business cards to hand out at demos, fighter practices, and wherever else we may encounter potential recruits. I posted the designs for the new cards in the baronial fb group.
The idea is to print 1,000 of general use, and 500 for officers.
The current design is ready to go in VistaPrint, and will cost approximately $125 with shipping, handling, and taxes. I may be able to get the cards printed by Office Depot or Staples for as little as $80, I’m still looking into how good I can get them looking from those services. I’m requesting baronial approval to spend up to $130.
Passed
We have been gifted his collection of books from 30+ years. I will be bringing them to the in-person meeting on the 17th. They are free to a good home.
Previous winners of either the Heart of South Downs or the Chivalry award are not eligible
You will receive a ballot is you fill out the form. Please do not share this ballot with anyone else.
The committee that will be assigned to this is purely to count the ballots and make the list.
SCA Business
Red Tower – Isabella & Myeong Su
SCARs and Pre-reg should be up by the end of the week. If you want a cabin with your friends, everyone should pre-reg together so you can be grouped together.
No tent camping on site
We are still looking for people to do foodstuff: breakfast, travelers fare, and royal luncheon.
We need another List Master. If you are interested, please let me know.
We will also need a field steward.
We are still accepting prizes for the gift baskets. At court, you will have a chance to will cool prizes.
We will also be having a silent auction. Please donate so we can raise funds for the baronial storage unit.
We need more merchants for Red Tower.
Castle Wars – Piers
We have a couple of jobs open: Dep Merchantcrat (great opportunity to learn something new) and we also need a Pottycrat.
It will be called “Castle Wars: Battle Across Time”
No breakfast or traveler’s fare, only feast
Scroll Boss – Aelia
The baronial scroll cases are getting rather thin. If you would like to contribute, we would love to have you. If you have any questions, please let me know.
The in-person event for the barony on August 17th will be a scriptorium. So please come out and play with paints!
Non-SCA Business
None
The business meeting was closed @ 2042
The next business meeting will be held on 08 September 2022, 1930, Zoom Meeting.
Notes submitted by Lady Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.
THL Lucien d’Artois called the November meeting to order. Our Seneschal, THL Juliane de Vivonne, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Juliane read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.
Update to WordPress v5.5.3. An earlier WordPress update locked out some logins; if you have a login that doesn’t work, a password recovery should fix it.
Eastern Regional Webminister has asked us to provide an admin account to be used by the “Kingdom Web Team”. I have pushed back on this request as it is contrary to good security practice.
Eastern Regional Webminister has asked for officers to make sure they set up their kingdom email account (most have, only a few haven’t). They would like to make the kingdom email accounts the only “official” officer email accounts. I mentioned to him we thought the email addresses were too cryptic. He talked about it with the Kingdom Webminister and they aren’t willing to change them.
He also would like us to migrate to the kingdom web server, but I don’t have the energy to start a project like that now. He did offer advice and help on doing it.
Thank you for being the best barony. Talking to you all for the past months has been amazing.
Keep remembering to reach out and take time out if you need it.
I want to remind people to write letters. Write about things that are good. It helps when you are an officer and you get something good into your inbox. With November and Thanksgiving it’s the perfect opportunity.
There are some awards that are traditional awards for this Barony. We have had a committee going all summer to work on those awards to see if we need any changes. The process is taking a little longer than expected. We will get there when we get there.
First thing, we are still looking for a Provost. It’s a great entry level position. Kal has helped out a lot. If you’re interested, please contact me.
If you have not logged into your kingdom email, they know and they send me emails. Please log in. I know who you are. Let me know if you lost your password.
I clarified to see if we needed to move to the kingdom web server. It is required. But, it will get done when it gets done.
Upcoming Events
Virtual Castle Wars: The Red Tower – 20-22 November 2020
SCA Business
Castle Wars
It’s been a challenge because people are tired. We are organized by a committee. We are looking for graphics. We are two weeks out now. I’ve announced a couple of competitions. We are trying to find alternative things instead of sitting in zoom meetings all day. If you know of any heavy fighters that might be interested in doing something, let me know. I have ideas.
We need zoom classes.
Question was posed about live zooming in a kitchen.
We will have a scriptorium
There will be a social (Justina). I like the unofficial Meridian Revel format. One thing that we have done in the past is historically accurate cosplay. I’ve been wanting to do something with the children, like tea with Disney Princesses.
Onesie party?
If anyone is interested in doing a daytime social, Her Excellency does a brunch.
Midwinter (Online)
Do we want to have it and who wants to organize it?
Please think about it and let me know.
We need to check with TRM and the Kingdom A&S.
We will table this idea and think about it.
Next Wednesday is project night! Starts around 7-7:30.
There are a lot of A&S classes out there. I’ll gather information so let me (Ximon) know if you are interested.
Business meeting was closed at 2015.
Next business meeting will be held 02 December 2020, 1900, Zoom Meeting.
Notes submitted by Lady Aelia Bassina, South
Downs Chronicler.
THL Lucien d’Artois called the August meeting
to order. Our Seneschal, THL Juliane de Vivonne, greeted the populace joining
the Zoom meeting. Juliane read the SCA Anti-Bullying statement and stated the
meeting is being recorded.
Added pronouns for Piers, Mairghread, Alisandre, Aelia, Wistric, Iastreb, Lorenzo, Zhelana, Raven. Note: we will only add pronouns for people who ask.
Updated the picture for Sunneva on the Baroness page and her personal page.
Updated Aelia to be official chronicler, gave her access to the chronicler login. Set up a temp login for Raven to post old minutes.
Added device, title, link to blog to Aelia’s page
New pages created for Danielle de Lyon, Anna Felice Tavestoche, Michael Stagge, Sara Wandrownyczka
Added classes taught to Zhelana’s page
Updated Google form to add pronouns to the question list, and to forward email notifications to Zhelana
Established succession plans for the Webminister office to hand over the office to Zhelana (the current Deputy) at Midwinter A&S 2021. Had several discussions on the succession plan with Baroness and Seneschal.
Class went really well
last month. There were a bunch of conversations that happened after. WE are
looking forward to the next class. I am trying to give people opportunities to
talk as much as I can.
The Society DEI
officer will be doing a Q&A, I will try to promote it in more places than
just the barony.
If you hear of things
happening, please let me know.
Thank you to everyone
that’s been so open and understanding.
Tonight would be midnight madness at Pennsic. Just like with what happened at Gulf Wars, there are merchants that are out there and posted. If you have coin, they have wares.
Earlier this week was SCA Social Media Appreciation Day. I want to give thanks for both Emelina and Isabella. Thank you to everyone that has been keeping the SCA virtual. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed.
Award recommendations. Please send them. I would love to recognize people. There is an award recommendation page on our site. Sending in the recommendations really helps me and the scribes.
Discussion Point:
The Heart of South Downs and the Chivalry Awards. A couple of people have reached out to me regarding this. There will be a committee. If you would like to be on that committee, please let me or Wistric. All opinions are valid.
I like mailing stuff. If you need a care package or a friendly note, please PM me your address.
Remember to lean on your SCA family if you need to. Also, if you need to step back, it’s okay. We will see you when you get back. Keep the people impacted by this virus in your thoughts.
We’ve lost two people recently. They passed very suddenly.
In the last two days, we have heard of 3 people that have tested positive for COVID, one being our King. Please wear masks and be safe.
I had announced at the last meeting that we were reinstating the Provost position. It’s basically organizing classes, making sure registration is sent to RUM. Lord Kal has been wonderful in doing that for us. I would love it if someone would reach out to me in their interest. It’s a great position for someone new to the Barony.
The BOD has canceled events until the 31st of January. That is for anything in person. If you do anything outside the SCA, you cannot post it on any official SCA page.
For Midwinter, it is close to when they allow in-person again. However, I do not believe that Midwinter will be allowed to happen. It wouldn’t fit with the rollout plan for the Kingdom/Society.
The Law Committee. They are accepting new members. It will be a rotating people. They are accepting nominations and self-nominations. One from each peerage and two from the populace. If that’s something that interests you or if you know someone that would do a really good job (get their permission first), please let them know. They have been meeting Tuesday nights.
Iazzie stated that most Kingdom positions are for 2 years.
10 August 2020 – LGBTQ+ 101 with Lykania and Cellach
12 August 2020 – Project Night
15 August 2020 – Virtual Meridies Kingdom A&S
19 August 2020 – Intro to DEI with Society DEI Officer Q&A to follow
22 August 2020 – Foxes 2020: Plague-Con
26 August 2020 – Class Night – Maedeup: Korean Knots with Myeong Su
SCA Business
Margavati: I taught a class over the weekend for Pennsic for the Courtesans. It was neat because each kingdom has a day. It’s a great way to learn stuff. Justina hosted Meridies for the whole day. They are going all war week. Kal has been provosting. Yay, Barony of South Downs! We rock!
Jay: Do we have any more info on Castle Wars?
Juliane: Sunneva and I need to get together to sort things out. We will get that rolled out sometime soon.
Margavati: My husband had a big bucket of bone black. He has more. If you need bone black for pigment, please let him know.
Margavati: Countess Gwen is doing a project. It’s a grave finds recreation thing. It’s a glow up focus on grave finds. I only know what I need to know. If you’re interested, she’s doing that. Information is on the Kingdom page.
Business meeting was closed at 2021.
Next business meeting will be held 02 September
2020, 1900, Zoom Meeting.
