Category Archives: Fighter Practices

Castle Wars, Dragoncon, Events, Fighter Practices, Meeting Minutes, Midwinter A&S, Red Tower

July 2018 Baronial Business Meeting Minutes

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

11 July 2018, 7:30pm

Little Tree Studios

Notes submitted by Lady Raven Helmsplitter, South Downs Chronicler.

Herald (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)
    • Events – Legends
      • Lord Lucien D’Artois – Grant of Arms
      • Lady Mairghread Wilson – Argent Shield
      • Sable of South Downs – Award of Arms
    • Submissions registered at LOAR
      • Lady Juliane de Vivonne – badge
      • Master Mathias Blackett and Mistress Mara Palmer – joint badge; household name was returned
      • Ruqayah al-Zarqa – device change
    • Submissions in Society Commentary
      • Jurgen der Vielfrass – new name and device
      • Quintus Valerius Gracchus – new name and device
      • Lady Alisandre de la Chapelle – new device
      • Lady Myndee of of South Downs – new name and device
      • Nikon Davidowicz – new name and device
      • Lord Mark de Wyttenye – new alternate name and device
      • Lady Stella di Silvestri – new alternate name; badge was returned at Kingdom
    • Submissions in Kingdom Commentary
      • THL Andreva Rigaldi – new name
      • Margot de Saint Denis – device resubmission
    • Submitted to Kingdom
      • Tryggvi Tryggsson – new name
  • Armored and Youth Marshal (Lady Mairghread)
    • Armored
      • Sir Gelleys has offered up an armored practice for unit/melee training, to be held the second Sunday of the month, in order to make ready for fall events (including Foxes and Castle Wars)
      • Project night, focusing on armor workshops and repairing loaner gear, will take place next week at Baronial Project Night.
      • The Kingdom Marshallate will count the Tuesday evening armored practice held at Swift Cantrell as an Owl’s Nest practice, since the location is within the shire and many of the participants are members of the shire
      • Jaden Baron has agreed to be the new deputy armored marshal (yay!)
    • Owl’s Nest (Lady Mairghread is serving as their knight marshal until they have one established)
      • Received the rest of the loaner gear from Crispin
      • Owl’s Nest has finally got their own knight marshal again (yay!), so Mairghread no longer has to be responsible for that anymore. The joint Owl’s Nest/South Downs’ Tuesday evening armored practice at Swift Cantrell will continue as before.
    • Youth
      • Nothing to report
  • Live Weapons Marshal (Mistress Mara Palmer)
    • Our practices are averaging about 10 people per practice, with 5-8 people on a line at a time
    • We’ve also been getting a lot of kids attending practice (or wanting to), so we will be looking at acquiring more youth loaner gear; we still have funds available from our initial budget request, so we will just move forward with the purchases
    • This Sunday (15 July), their Excellencies will host the Live Weapons Baronial Championship, so come on out! We will have a celebrity guest marshal to marshal the event
    • Mara is looking for volunteers to become live weapons marshals-in-training; if interested, please contact her directly
    • Please check the Facebook group, South Downs/Owl’s Nest Live Weapons Practice to track upcoming practices.
  • Rapier Marshal (Lord Brendan de Hay)
    • Practices. We are still having them (even without Brendan) Sunday afternoons, concurrent with armored. Tuesday evening practices at 7pm, at Liane Levetan / Brook Run Park in Dunwoody. We’re averaging 2-12 people. For updates regarding rapier practices, go to the Atlanta SCA Fighting Facebook group.
    • Brendan thanked Master Ximon for his help in getting loaner gear to practices when he (Brendan) had work conflicts with practices.
    • We have plenty of rapier marshals-at-large, so even when Brendan can’t attend practice, there has been no problem with having marshal coverage at practices
    • Reminder: Lord Konrad will be hosting a regional rapier practice at his home in Jasper. Facebook link to the event is here.
  • Chatelaine (Lady Justina di Silvestri)
    • Justina has a carful of gold key that was donated by a former SCAdian that she will need help processing/repairing.
    • Justina would like to hold another Baronial swap meet before? after? DragonCon, since she may not have use for all the donated items.
    • If you have borrowed any Gold Key, please return to Justina as soon as possible. Thanks!
    • Gold Key database is now available
  • Arts & Sciences (Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)
    • We have arts *and* sciences, and that is good
    • Lady Justina taught last month’s class on poisons and the macabre and was well received
    • Katerina will teach this month’s class, on the new PayPal system for reservations. If you are interested in volunteering with troll at an SCA event, please come out for this class. She will teach both parts, covering reservations, troll, etc. THL Andreva encouraged everyone to consider taking the class, because the more people who are approved to handle the new Paypal registration/payment system, the easier it will be for those running troll at events.
    • Reminder: Sunneva has made a schedule for all of 2018 as a Google Docs spreadsheet so you (yes, you!) can sign up to teach a class at one of our monthly A&S nights. She is pleased to report we have classes scheduled through most of the rest of the year; there is also a list in development for alternate/back up classes, so even if there are no specific dates available, please sign up!
  • Reeve (THL Andreva Rigaldi)
    • Quarterly report was due yesterday (10 July), and was submitted on time
    • Our current accounts show that we had $10,621 in the bank at the beginning of the quarter, and we are now at approximately $8,000. This is due to having just made payments such as the storage unit rental, site fees, etc., and is rather average for us at this time of the year. Our two big events in the fall will take care of our finances.
    • Mistress Allesandra will be the new deputy (yay!)
  • Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)
    • We have stuff! Yay!
    • Lucien planning to have another storage unit inventory update after Pennsic; he had planned to do this before Pennsic, but he has been asked by Sol Haven’s quartermaster to help them get set up.
  • Webminister (Lord Pietro di Conti)
    • We have a website!
    • Updates
      • Disk cleanup to get under the web site’s disk quota
      • Added Castle Wars 2018 banners and “Your Fate in the War of Roses” random image generator game – sharable to Facebook. Several members of the populace commented on how much fun the game is!
      • Updated Red Tower 2018 site with initial blurb, event site, link to Facebook page, link from toolbar
      • Updated website to WordPress 4.9.6
      • Added ability to share to social media from AtlantaSCA and tinkered with which images are used as thumbnails on facebook
      • Swapped Lucien and Ximon as Quartermaster and Deputy Quartermaster
      • Updated Alisandre to be Deputy A&S Minister
      • Updated honors and titles for Lucien, Sable, and Mairghread from Legends event
  • Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
    • Raven mentioned that recently, a couple of people had shown interest in becoming the deputy Chronicler, and asked if anyone is interested, please contact her directly.
    • Justina mentioned she is interested in serving as deputy, and has ideas about expanding social media opportunities, perhaps in conjunction with the Chatelaine?
  • Seneschal (Master Wistric Oftun)
    • After the recent “Find All The Sites” session, approximately 80 potential sites have been identified for further research. Anyone interested in helping research these potential sites, please contact Wistric.
    • A Future Farmers of America (FFA) site in Conyers was suggested by a member of the populace who had attended an event there recently. This has been added to the list.
    • It’s great that so many officers have gotten deputies lined up. All officers should consider finding a deputy for their position
    • September brings DragonCon!
      • Lady Stella is coordinating our presence at the parade. For those planning to attend, please check out the SCA at DragonCon page.
      • Owl’s Nest will be managing the table this year.
      • Ximon commented that he will again offer a six-pack (or equivalent) adult beverage of their choice to anyone who helps pull the chariot in the parade this year
    • Castle Wars!
      • Sir Iazzie is still waiting on getting the additional walls built – the funds are standing by.
      • Questions were raised about who owns the walls – Iazzie says we (South Downs) do, but things aren’t clear about the ownership of the towers
      • Things need to be determined about ownership and deputy ownership (in case the point person for the walls/towers is no longer available)
    • Do we still want to create a demo box? What would we want to include in it?
    • StreetsAlive will take place 30 September along Peachtree Street. Sawyer won’t be able to organize it, but Mistress Margavati can get info to Wistric to get things going. (note: this is the same weekend as MGT)
    • A high school teacher from Coweta County who attended the History Bee is interested in having us come do a demo at their school
  • Their Excellencies
    • Adela has re-authorized as an armored fighter! To celebrate, the baronial armored champion tournament will feature all combatants to fight her to sort out the fighters into brackets
    • Lorenzo is hoping to authorize in rapier by Red Tower
    • Their Excellencies reminded the populace that the baronial live weapons champion tournament will be held this Sunday during the live weapons practice, so come on out!
    • For those wanting to go to the live weapons practice and need arrows, they are available locally – just make sure you specify wood shaft, feather fletching, how much your bow draws (pounds) and the length of your draw
    • Upcoming events!
      • Royal University of Meridies (RUM) / Fighters’ Collegium (20-22 July)
        • Will be held in Murfreesboro – come on out!
      • Tournament of the Foxes (21-23 September)
        • We have sponsored Baronial teams for rapier and archery; we would love to also have an all-South Downs armored combat team as well! Represent!

Upcoming Events

  • Red Tower (5-7 October 2018), co-Autocrat Lady Veronica reporting
    • We have all volunteer positions covered; Veronica read through the list to confirm
    • Veronica will get together with Andreva and Mathias to work through herald logistics and duties
    • Mara requested donations of large pieces of cardboard for live weapons targets
    • Lorenzo asked about site tokens – Veronica has a bagful of tokens from past events that she will be using
  • Castle Wars (15-18 November 2018)
    • Juliane needs volunteers! We already have 378 (via the Facebook event page) planning on attending.
    • If we don’t offer a GTFO breakfast Sunday morning, we should at least make sure there’s coffee “so people don’t die”
    • There was discussion about offering a volunteer war point, perhaps a York vs Lancaster competition
    • Need donations for the volunteer raffle
    • Ximon asked about a truck rental to haul supplies from the storage unit (and walls?) – Juliane confirmed the truck rental is included in the approved budget
    • Andreva reminded everyone that per Kingdom law, any receipts submitted for reimbursement can not include any personal items on the receipt, regardless of how minor the cost.
  • Midwinter A+S (9 February 2019)
    • We have a theme! The Gutenburg Printing Press!
    • That’s pretty much all that’s ready to mention now

Other SCA Business

  • The Knowne Worlde Courtesans Guild podcast is live, baby! Justina is one of the podcast’s field reporters. She said they are looking for interviews, stories, poetry and other cultural aspects of SCA life. The podcast will be a digital salon hosted by the courtesans of the Knowne World Courtesans Guild and featuring artisans of historical arts from across the world. Tune in for intelligent discussion of history, re-enacting the pre-1600s world, and news of the Society. If you are interested in talking about your art, please contact Justina and she will be happy to chat with you!
  • In local courtesan news, the Courtesans of Meridies are sponsoring an adult-themed scribal challenge at Meridies Fall Coronation 2018! They want to see your naughty scribal side…
    • Prize: Replica Roman brothel coins (spintriae) and more!
    • Rules: Teams allowed, tracing allowed, incomplete allowed, documentation encouraged but not required.
    • Due to the nature of the subject, ONLY AGES 18+ may enter this challenge.
  • Justina is also sponsoring a category in the Meridies Scribal Challenge for Fall Coronation!
    • Best use of Poisonous Pigment in a Scroll
    • Prize: Historic poisonous plant seeds for the garden
    • Teams allowed, tracing allowed, documentation encouraged. Please include a description of materials used. Have fun!!!
  • Ca d’Oro has teamed up with the Sable and Gules Theater at Gulf Wars 2019. Lady Þýri’s fashion show was incredibly inspiring, so they are going to host a fashion show Monday of Gulf and will process to the Ca d’Oro department for a salon to discuss what each of them are wearing. They are looking for models – show off your garb of all eras and inspire newcomers! If you are interested, please contact Justina, or Sable and Gules directly
  • Iazzie mentioned that we need to start thinking about kingdom-level bids for 2019 – perhaps RUM/Fighters’ Collegium?

Non-SCA Business

  • None

Next South Downs business meeting will be held Wednesday, 1 August 2018, at Little Tree Art Studios.

–Raven

Castle Wars, Dragoncon, Events, Fighter Practices, Meeting Minutes, Red Tower, Society ANNOUNCEMENTS

August Baronial Business Minutes

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

2 August 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.

Officer Reports

  • Herald (Lord Lucien d’Artois)
    • Submissions
      • Annaliese Wolf – name/device at Laurel (3nd month – post-commentary)
      • Stella di Silvestri – device at Laurel (2nd month of commentary)
      • Juliane de Vivonne – badge at Laurel (1st month in commentary)
      • Porcia Secunda – name at Laurel (1st month in commentary)
      • Lucien d’Artois – badge x2 at Kingdom
      • Konrad Windhorn – name at Kingdom
    • Court Report
      • RUM:
        • Mara Palmer – Broken Bow
        • Stella di Silvestri – Guiding Hand
      • Arabian Nights:
        • Mathias Blackett – Kingdom Bard
  • Armored and Youth Marshal (Lady Mairghread)
    • 6-8 armored fighters at Sunday practices
    • Joint fighters practice with Owls Nest continues to go well
    • We have one new youth fighter (yay!)
    • Mairghread has requested $200 for additional loaner gear
  • Live Weapons Marshal (Mistress Mara Palmer – THL Mathias reporting)
    • July practice hosted ~22 archers
    • Royal round was held at practice
    • Update on acquiring loaner and baronial gear: we’ve only had to buy 3 bows
    • We have two new marshals in training
    • If interested in shooting archery at foxes, please contact Mistress Mara; if you are taking part in other tournaments during the event, please be aware there’s a lot of waiting around between archery rounds
    • For more information about archery in Meridies, please check out their website
  • Chatelaine (Lady Stella di Silvestri – His Excellency reporting)
    • Everyone is encouraged to sign up for DragonCon and take part in the parade!
    • Stella made up some baronial business cards for distribution at demos, etc., which should arrive Monday
    • We’ve had several new people come to events and practices recently
    • Stella is still looking for a deputy chatelaine, in charge of demos – if interested, please contact her
  • Reeve (THL Maire)
    • We have some money! yay!
    • We are spending a lot of money so we have to be careful, especially with the event season and our several events coming up this fall
    • Everything is paid up till the end of the year. With the site location changing for Castle Wars, we need to be extra careful with funds until we know more about how the change will impact the budget
    • Mara mentioned that she’s still running way below budget with archery needs.
  • Arts & Sciences (Lady Veronica da Lucca)
    • The July A+S class night was on making viking aprons, and taught by Lady Juliana
    • This month’s class, on how to event steward, will be presented by Mistress Jadi. She plans to set up the class as a roundtable featuring participants who have extensive experience in event stewarding from both inside and outside the barony, who can provide a variety of viewpoints and experiences on event stewarding. Ximon volunteered. This is would normally be held on the 4th Wednesday, but there are schedule conflicts, so please stay tuned.
    • This month will be our 5th Wednesday in-garb potluck – everyone is welcome!
  • Webminister (Lord Pietro di Conti)
    • Updated the Knight Marshal page
    • We need to add a Live Weapons Marshal page, now that we have a live weapons program
    • New profiles for Aidan MacKay, Konrad, Mairghread, and Piers have been added
    • His Excellency added the new baronial awards page to the website
    • Red Tower event page was updated
    • Castle Wars event page updated – the Castle Wars page includes a downloadable pre-registration form; it was agreed that the Red Tower page should also have a pre-reg form
    • Fighter practice page/schedule has been updated and expanded
  • Seneschal (Master Wistric Oftun)
    • We have a barony (huzzah!)
    • Do we want to sponsor something at Meridian 40 Year? We should discuss and let Countess Thorkatla know.
  • Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
    • Nothing to report
  • Their Excellencies
    • Their Excellencies have received several recommendations for the new baronial awards! The populace is encouraged to write more!
    • They also encourage the populace to write more recommendations for deserving gentles for all sorts of awards for upcoming events! Check the OP if you aren’t sure if someone has a particular award
    • Their Majesties are already putting the list together for Castle Wars
    • Foxes!
      • Her Excellency would love to sponsor several teams for the tournaments at Foxes – rapier, armored, and archery (team names: Adela’s Special Snowflakes? unless there’s only one team in a particular tournament, then they’ll become The Snowflakes?).
      • Her Excellency will be working on new tokens this weekend – everyone is invited to help (silk banner painting practice!)
      • There should be several rapier and armored teams – yay!

Upcoming Events

  • Red Tower (30 September – 2 October 2017)
    • Lady Emmelina created a lovely flyer for the event – look for it in the upcoming kingdom newsletter
    • A pre-registration form and a Google doc for a signup list are in the works
    • Site visit planned for tomorrow (3 August)
    • Volunteers needed:
      • Herald(s)
      • Head troll
      • Pottycrat
      • Royal liaison
      • 2 list mistresses
        • (updates)Rapier covered per wistric
        • Serafina will do armored list
      • Hall steward (Mathias volunteers)
      • Children’s activities?
      • Travelers’ fare
      • Cleanup Royal site Sunday
    • Owl’s Nest is taking care fundraiser lunch; we will do fundraiser lunch @ Crossroads
    • Feast – THL Mariana is working on recipes, menu will be pinned down this weekend
  • Castle Wars (17 – 19 November 2017)
    • Flyer should be ready this weekend for submission to PopChiv
    • Most staff taking care of, just needs landcrat and heralds
    • Site map has been sent to Their Majesties so we can determine where they want their camp to be
    • Need donations for volunteer raffle
    • Lucien needs volunteers for troll
    • Maire said we need heaters and lights for troll
  • Fall Crown List (10-12 November 2017)
    • Co-hosting with the shire of Depedale and the Barony of Bryn Madoc
    • Will take place at Little Tallapoosa Park in Carrollton
    • Portapotties reserved
    • Event flyer about to go out
    • Everything is going smoothly
    • We (South Downs) will be the ones handling insurance
      • Maire mentioned that insurance for a group is taken care of for the first event of the year that group does

SCA Business

  • Mathias said there had been mention of 5th Wednesday in-garb potluck including some SCA dancing or bardic performances. He would be interested in getting some people together to do some commedia?
  • Ximon needs to talk with the reeve to get the check to cover the loaner rapier armor we bought from Tina (and the youth combat helm)
  • Sir Iazzie: The castle walls need repair/replacement (“rapier uses the walls, armored abuses the walls”).
    • Wants to talk to Sebastionnos about repairing/building a new wall and see how much it would cost.
    • We also need a gate of our own; with a second gate and repaired walls, we could do 2 castles for fighting scenarios.
    • Repairs very important, but we really do need *additional* wall pieces.
    • Hopefully we can store the walls and gates at the Shrine – currently they’re at His Highness’.
    • Can we get together with Tir Briste to help out with walls?
    • Fundraising idea – donate X$ to wall, maybe get your device on a wall? 🙂
  • His Excellency is going to test out new rope and stake wall for meridies royal encampment at pennsic
  • Lucien reminded everyone about the 2nd mini business meeting, possibly starting in August to help keep track of upcoming events (thru Midwinter A+S), to take place 3rd Wednesday of each month
  • After tonight’s meeting, we will meet for Baronial Chivarly / Heart of South Downs awards

Non-SCA Business

  • Lady Juliana suggests parking ideas for DragonCon. Parking Panda allows you to buy reserved parking spaces for much cheaper than public parking.
  • Other parking ideas;
    • Parking at the Cathedral for $20/day
    • Buy a monthly pass at the International Center parking garage for $120; pass is good for a full month, so if you need to park downtown at other times during September, it can be a good deal.

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

Next South Downs business meeting will be held Wednesday, 6 September 2017, at the Atlanta Friends Meeting House.

–Raven

Announcements, Fighter Practices

Live Weapons Practices are now a Thing

Through the tireless efforts of our newly appointed Live Weapons Marshal, Mistress Mara Palmer, we are now holding regular Live Weapons/Archery practices jointly with the Shire of Owl’s Nest!

Practices are being held at 10am at 2140 Sugar Creek Dr, Marietta, GA 30064 on the following days:

Sunday, September 17, 2017
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Sunday, December 17, 2017

For more details, please check out the South Downs/Owl’s Nest Live Weapons Practice Facebook group.

Announcements, Fighter Practices

Joint Armored Combat Practice with Owl’s Nest

From Lady Mairghread Wilson, Knight Marshal:

Starting with tomorrow’s (ed. note: 11 July 2017) practice, the South Downs Tues armored combat will be combining with Owl’s Nest. Practice will be at Swift Cantrell Park 3140 Old 41 Hwy NW, Kennesaw, GA 30144 from 7-10 pm.

Note: This does not apply to rapier or Sunday practices. Rapier will still be held at Liane Levetan on Tues. Sunday practices will remain the same for both armored and rapier at Liane Levetan.