South Downs Baronial Business Meeting
6 May 2015
Notes submitted by Raven Helmsplitter (mka Helena Bretherton Hay), South Downs Chronicler
Lord Mathias Blackett, Seneschal, called the meeting to order.
Officer reports
o Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
- Nothing to report
o Chatelaine (Lady Wilhemina)
- Needs volunteers to help sew gold key garb; has fabric and supplies organized into bags, just needs help sewing simple tunics
- Has compiled a Newcomers’ folder, with all sorts of information about the SCA, Meridies, and South Downs, and has begun to distribute it at events.
- Tryggva will make color copies of the materials for future distribution
- Goal is to have 20 folders available at all times
- Wants to do more demos
- Lady Allesandra has a potential site for demos at child’s new school in Buford
- We’ve been invited back to ConjurationCON (Halloween weekend); Wilhemina is working on getting us set up in a larger space where we can do more
- DragonCon – His Excellency has been contacted about doing an SCA/LARP fighting track
o Exchequer (Lady Maire Dhocair Inghean Chiarain)
- Quarterly reports went out
- We have $8000 in the bank, but we have a lot of expenses to take care of in the near future (site deposits, etc), and things are getting more and more expensive. Would like us to consider doing fundraisers at events (lunches, etc)
o Seneschal (Lord Mathias)
- At the last baronial meeting, Master Ximon officially stepped down as seneschal and Lord Mathias officially became our new seneschal.
o A&S Minister (Lady Maren Andersdatter)
- Her tenure is coming to an end, and transferred her office to Lady Tryggva
- Their Excellencies presented Lady Maren with salt and pepper mills in gratitude to all the work she had done for the Barony.
o Group Rapier Marshal (Master Ximon de Córdoba)
- Master Ximon is stepping down as GRM, and has named Lord Brendan de Hay as his replacement
- Shameless plug: Lady Raven Helmsplitter is co-hosting the next Regional Rapier Practice, here in South Downs
- Sunday, June 7, at 12:30pm
- Blackburn Park
- Hope to have fencers from all over the kingdom for the practice; the last regional practice in Vulpine Reach had 27 fencers from all over northern Meridies
- Morgan Griffin will be organizing an SCA/geek garage sale – please contact her if you’d like to participate
o Webminister (Lord Wistric Oftun)
- Updating databases?
- Is setting up places to host A+S and other relevant info on the baronial website (need more info from Wistric)
o Knight Marshal (Lord Bram Halfdannarson)
- Had nothing to report for himself
- Lady Alessandra is interested in getting a target archery practice going; please contact her directly if you’re interested
Other Baronial Business – events, etc.
o Meridian Scribal and Heraldic Symposium, June 5–7, 2015
- Will be held in conjunction with Black Axe (http://ironmountain.meridies.org/conc/index.php/events/events/black-axe-2015/)
o RUM, July 18, 2015
- Will be hosted by the Shire of Flintmarsh, and held at Troy University, Dothan campus (http://flintmarsh.meridies.org/wp/?page_id=149)
o Red Tower, September 18–20, 2015
- Amaris secured a site – Little Tallapoosa Park, Carrollton, where Lusty Month of May will be held (http://talmere.org/pages/lmom-xiv/)
- Tenting only
- Feast will be limited to 80 (Mariana will be feastcrat)
- Viking theme
- 3 heavy tourneys, 2 rapier tourneys
- There will be a need for heralds – plans for having a skaldic herald(s) to announce each fighter (a la A Knight’s Tale) are in the works
- If you are interested in helping with the event, contact Amaris and you’ll get an invite for the staff group list
o Castle Wars, November 19–22, 2015
- Autocrat will be Isabelle Nugent
- Have budget numbers to hold event at McIntosh Reserve Park, Whitesburg, GA (same site as last year)
- Theme will be the Trojan War (various and sundry references to Trojans were made by the populace)
- Once the numbers are finalized, Isabelle wants to get moving along with planning asap
- Other bids are still welcome for the event – deadline will be next business meeting (June 3)
o Kingdom-level Event TBD
- We still need to put in a bid for a kingdom-level event as part of our baronial duties. Options are:
- Fighters Collegium (September 11–13)
- MGT (September 25–27)
- Fall Coronation (October 9–11)
- Fall Crown List (November 13–15)
- Suggestions were made to possibly contact Depedale to co-host either Fighters Collegium or Fall Coronation
- Given how busy the fall will be, Fighters Collegium would be a good option – simple event, weekend before Red Tower
- Coronation is a very complex event, with balls, meetings, feast, etc.
- Fall Crown is the weekend before Castle Wars
- Perhaps Fighters Collegium at Little Tallapoosa Park?
- Twelfth Night
- Bam asked if there were any reason we couldn’t host a kingdom-level Twelfth Night, as other kingdoms do – perhaps we could make it a thing
- Debate was held as to whether it should be a kingdom-level event at all, or just make ours a bigger event, or leave Bryn Madoc’s event as the big regional Twelfth Night
- Mathias suggested that we start thinking now about kingdom-level event bids for next year
- Spring Coronation?
- RUM? Iazzie and Mariana are interested in doing RUM
o His Excellency was pleased that we already have Castle Wars and Red Tower bids in
o His Excellency also asked everyone what they thought of the 5th Wednesday in-garb social that we held last week. Everyone enjoyed it and agreed we should do it the next 5th Wednesday
o Duke John asked about the possibility of finding another place for our meetings, as parking at the rec center is difficult
- Options
- Friends Meeting House in Decatur (where Midwinter A+S was held)
- The church where this year’s South Downs Twelfth Night was held
- Primary problem is that we have paid for the rec center site thru the rest of the year – and that payment is non-refundable. It was agreed that we should revisit this issue in September
Non-SCA Business
o Lady Andreva mentioned that the Festival Singers of Atlanta (with which she sings) will hold a concert on May 17. The theme is “the many languages of love,” and many of the pieces are period. Please contact her if interested.
o Lord Bam announced that he will be participating in a live steel fighting demo at the GA Renaissance Festival, May 16 at 1:30 and 3:00pm. Please let him know if interested in attending.
o Living Social (among several places) is offering 50% tickets to the GA Renaissance Festival
o May 16 is also the date of the Spring Sale at Museum Replicas in Conyers.
At this point, the last piece of business for the meeting was determining where everyone wanted to go to dinner. Meeting came to a close, and the next business meeting date was announced for June 3, 2015.
Thanks!
Raven