Category Archives: Red Tower

Castle Wars, Meeting Minutes, Red Tower

March 2024 Baronial Business Meeting

6 March 2024, Time: 7:33 PM EST

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.

Officers’ Reports

Seneschal, (Lady Raven Helmsplitter) (Covered by La Magnifica Justina)

  • Schedule for this month:
    • Mar. 13th: online project night
    • Mar. 20th: in-person dance practice
    • Mar. 27th: in-person meeting – RT 50 planning discussion
  •  

Herald (Magister Lorenzo Petrucci)     

  • No activity for name or device submissions, please email me if you have something if you want to submit.
  • Awards:
    • MCA
      • Lady Ogata – Meridian Order of the Blade
      • Majster Nikoslav Mikolaevich – Order of the Pelican
      • Mistress Alessandra Giovanna Fioravanti – Meridian Majesty
      • Baroness Rhiannon verch Madyn – Order of the Bough
      • Baron Ximon Martillo De Cordoba – Order of Defense

Knight Marshal (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • April will have no heavy practices due to events.  Gulf Wars will take up next 2 weekends we will have practice on the 24th if weather allows.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Big shout-out to folks recently giving rapier a try.  Looking forward to seeing more folks having fun!
  5. 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!
  6. HYDRATE!

Live Weapons (Master Mathias Blackett)

  • We had held practice at Mistress Peryn’s farm, she is happy to have us there to share when the Meridian Equestrian calvary happens
  • Practice may not happen this month due to events

Exchequer (Lord Salim) (covering for La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri)

  • Here are the march stats:
    • We have $5,522.22 in the bank.
  • March storage is paid
  • Go over MWAS numbers
    • total attendance tally: 112
    • Profit: 1228.14
  • 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.

Quartermaster (Maestra Isabetta de San Marco) 

  • We have stuff, the new storage unit looks like it’s working out pretty well
  • Still needs to be organized, but will need to set some time aside to do so
  • Still looking for a deputy

Chatelaine (Lady Ogata Mitsuko)

  • Nothing reported

Demo Deputy (VACANT)

  • Nothing reported

Arts & Sciences (Lady Maryam)

  • Not a long to report this month
  • Had a great 2-in-1 class month in February, Research Basics and Research Basics: The Paper
  • Shout-out to everyone who volunteers to teach, thank you!

Provost (Lord Ælfric Hort)

  • 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.

Chronicler (Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong)

  • Nothing new to report.
  • 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.

Social Media Minister  (THLady Agnes Halydaye) 

  • 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!

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer (DEIB), (Lady Lily of South Downs)

  • Thank you for bearing with me while we work through the DEIB office and classes
  • Hoping to pick up with DEIB Classes next month

Webminister (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • Nothing significant to report.  
  • For future events and needed updates please email me those to the web.southdowns@meridies.org email or use the request update link on the webpage.

Minister of Children (VACANT)

  • Position is still open, if you are interested, please contact Lady Raven.

Their Excellencies, (Maestro Ximon Cordoba de Martillo & HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)

  • Ximon and Rhi
    • Good luck if you’re currently packing for Gulf Wars!
    • Thank you to the barony for being so hospitable to our visitors during MCA and for Baron Ximon’s vigil
    • Meeting on March 27th will be a brainstorming session on RT50, please come to share some ideas
      • RT50 will be the first weekend in October at McIntosh Reserve.
      • Bring some snacks so we can share while we brainstorm!
      • If you have any questions or ideas for RT50 and can’t make it to the meeting, please message us on FB or email us 

SCA Business

  • Meridian Challenge of Arms
      • Baron Ximon
        • Had a fabulous event, thanks to THLady Alisandre for setting up the hospitality table
        • Lady Raven took some photos and will post them soon
  • 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
      • Event Steward still TBD
      • Please come to the meeting at the end of the month so we can discuss planning!
  • Castle Wars
      • Lady Raven
        • Looking for bids, please contact me if you’re interested
        • Reserved Bert Adams for Castle Wars
      • Baron Ximon
        • I may not be there for all of Castle Wars due to not getting vacation off at work, but Baroness Rhi will be there, so please take care of her!
  • Comic Con Demo
      • Lady Mairghread
        • 100 names gathered from the demo, will be passed along to TRM to invite to Fool’s War
        • Had one newcomer come to MCA from the demo
  • Gulf Wars
    • If you’re going to GW, have fun and be safe!

Non-SCA Business

  • None reported

The business meeting was closed @ 8:03 PM EST

The next business meeting will be held on April 3rd, 2024, 7:00 PM EST via Zoom Meeting.

Castle Wars, Meeting Minutes, Midwinter A&S, Red Tower

February 2024 Baronial Business Meeting

7 February 2024, Time: 7:30 PM EST

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.

Officers’ Reports

Seneschal, (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)

  • Schedule for this month:
    • Feb. 14th: online
    • Feb. 21st: online
    • 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.

Herald (Magister Lorenzo Petrucci)     

  • No activity for name or device submissions, please email me if you have something if you want to submit.
  • Awards:
    • Midwinter
      • Lord Ælfric – Falcon’s Faith
      • Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong – Falcon’s Faith
      • THL Lykania – Court Barony
      • Magister Lorenzo – Meridian Majesty, Order of the Pelican
      • Acharya Mewadi Margavati Bai – Order of the Pelican

Knight Marshal (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • 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.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Big shout-out to folks recently giving rapier a try.  Looking forward to seeing more folks having fun!
  5. Regional practice after MWAS was successful.  Fencing, lessons, a little meleé.  Good fun.
  6. HYDRATE!

Live Weapons (Master Mathias Blackett)

  • Supposed to have target archery practice at the regional fighter practice after midwinter, but the weather had other plans
  • Target archery practice will be Feb. 24th, which is the same weekend as MCA
    • Combining target archery practice with equestrian and Meridian Calvary practice
    • Will be at Mistress Peryn’s farm

Exchequer (La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri)

  • We have $4,708.22 in the bank
  • 2023 Q4 has been submitted to Kingdom
  • Complete numbers for MWAS will be ready for the March report
  • Please get all event receipts to me by February 17th. You can email them to me at excheq.southdowns@meridies.org.
  • As many are aware, the NMR fee for events will increase to $10 starting this April

Quartermaster (Maestra Isabetta de San Marco) 

  • We have stuff, the new storage unit looks like it’s working out pretty well
  • Still needs to be organized, but will need to set some time aside to do so
  • Still looking for a deputy

Chatelaine (Lady Ogata Mitsuko)

  • Nothing reported

Demo Deputy (VACANT)

  • 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!
  • Thank y’all for being great!

Provost (Lord Ælfric Hort)

  • 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.

Chronicler (Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong)

  • Nothing new to report.
  • 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.

Social Media Minister  (THLady Agnes Halydaye) 

  • We have media, we’re social, we’re doing just the most-ial!!

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer (DEIB), (Lady Lily of South Downs)

  • No DEIB class for this month, but we can work on one for next month
  • Please contact me if you want teach something, we can have the sessions in many formats, whether it’s a roundtable, a lecture, or more
  • The DEIB office for South Downs is still going forward as of right now

Webminister (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • Nothing significant to report.  
  • For future events and needed updates please email me those to the web.southdowns@meridies.org email or use the request update link on the webpage.

Minister of Children (VACANT)

  • Position is still open, if you are interested, please contact Lady Raven.

Their Excellencies, (Maestro Ximon Cordoba de Martillo & HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)

  • Ximon and Rhi
    • 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.

Fighter Practices, Meeting Minutes, Midwinter A&S, Red Tower

January 2024 Baronial Business Meeting

3 January 2024, Time: 7:30 PM EST

Notes submitted by Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong, South Downs Chronicler.

Magister Lorenzo called the January 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.

Officers’ Reports

Seneschal, (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)

  • Schedule for this month:
    • January in-person dates are 1/17 and 1/31 (5th Wednesday potluck)
    • Project online, class on third wednesday
  • His Excellency and I went to Bert Adams for a site visit to scout out the site for RedTower 2024 (RT 50!). Looking for a new site since it’s booked for the weekend that we wanted.
  • 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
    • Another group may be doing RUM this year
  • Midwinter A+S is coming (3 February 2024)! 
  • 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.

Herald (Magister Lorenzo Petrucci)     

  • Nothing to report
  • Write in award recommendations!

Knight Marshal (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • Got a practice last weekend
  • Jan. 7th – next weekend will not have a practice here, but up at Laurel Grove for an interkingdom fighter practice.
  • Jan. 14th – no loaner gear for heavy available, but practice will happen
  • Jan. 28th – no practice

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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 Ldy. Ogata, Master Ximón, Master Nikoslav, et. al.
  4. 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!
  5. 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).
  6. A couple of rapier-centric event announcements:  Bryn Madoc’s 12th Night celebration this weekend (https://brynmadoc.meridies.org/events/12th-night/) and Nantyderwiddon’s InterKingdom Fighter Practice (https://fb.me/e/78hCoX9RX) are bothe this Saturday.
  7. HYDRATE!

Live Weapons (Master Mathias Blackett)

  • At Twelfth Night this weekend, there will be a thrown weapons range but no archery.
  • Archery practice this month, working with Mistress Peryn in Villa Rica for mounted archery
    • Jan. 13th – Calvary practice as well as archery on the ground to start out
    • Might check to see if archery practice is viable in Villa Rica
    • Details will be on the Meridian Calvary Page
    • If you’re interested in learning how to be an archery marshal, let Master Mathias know!

Exchequer (La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri)

  • Our current bank balance is $2127.15
  • Did get a check in the mail, so it should be deposited soon
  • Expenses
    • Meeting space paid through June
    • Practice space for after Midwinter is reserved
  • Email made for the deputy Exchequer!
  • Paypal is up for Midwinter
  • Paperwork for the bank account will be updated soon

Quartermaster (Maestra Isabetta de San Marco) 

  • Nothing to report
  • Looking for a deputy

Chatelaine (Lady Ogata Mitsuko)

  • His Highness and Baron Engelbrecht have put together a demo at Atlanta Comic Con Feb. 9-11th.
  • If you want to get involved, contact His Highness Sebastianos or Baron Engelbrecht

Demo Deputy (VACANT)

  • Demos covered by Lady Ogata

Arts & Sciences (Lady Maryam)

 I hope everyone had a good holiday season and a great start to the new year.

  • Midwinter A&S pre-registration is open, and the regional faire is open for all kinds of entries (except brewing due to site restrictions)! To register in the faire, find the link on the Facebook event page, the event’s Discord channel, or you can message me. 
  • Even if you don’t have anything to enter, there will be an opportunity to show your appreciation for our artists by voting for your favorite entry at the faire and sharing your input. 
  • Additionally, if maybe you have been researching a topic or fixated on something you’d like to share – please consider teaching or sharing your knowledge at a class night!

Provost (Lord Ælfric Hort)

Getting back into the A&S Class Swing for the new year.  

  • Midwinter class signups are in full swing.  Still have approximately a week and a half remaining before the signup deadline Jan. 14.
  • Wenyeva will be teaching about Middle English Nicknames online on Jan. 24th.
  • I still have most of the year open for teaching slots, as well.  Please get with me if you have things you would like to share with the barony.  Our class nights are a great way to test out or dry run a class that you might be interested in offering for larger events as well.
  • I am still looking for a Deputy.

Chronicler (Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong)

  • Thank you to all who got your reports sent in early!
  • Behind on 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.

Social Media Minister  (THLady Agnes Halydaye) 

  • Our social media is full of interesting things and beautiful people!
  • The preregistration link for Midwinter should be posted on the various channels, go preregister!

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer (DEIB), (Lady Lily of South Downs)

  • Nothing to report.
  • Waiting to hear back on the reorganization of the office on the society level

Webminister (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • Send in requests if you need your information updated on the website
  • Link to form to update you information on the SD website: https://forms.gle/omZbL4QcaDFbHQV78
  • Midwinter event page and Paypal info are up and running.

Minister of Children (VACANT)

  • Position is still open, if you are interested, please contact Lady Raven.

Their Excellencies, (Maestro Ximon Cordoba de Martillo & HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)

  • Ximon 
    • Happy Holidays to everyone!
    • Thanks to everyone who are working on getting Midwinter and the Regional Fighter Practice together
      • If someone wants to teach an outdoor class under the pavilion, please know that there’s plenty of space
    • After Midwinter, we’re going to start planning for RT 50th Year
    • You guys are an awesome barony and we’re really proud to be a part of South Downs!

SCA Business

  • Midwinter A&S
      • Baron Piers and Lord Eirikr
        • Looking for runners and people to help with parking
        • All the other positions are already filled
        • We’ve got about 15-16 classes already
        • There’s a couple classes at a Salon as well
        • Always looking for volunteers for Troll and Teacher check-in
        • Master Mathias
          • Commedia performance planned for an half hour right before court
        • Midwinter may be filmed for a documentary, going to look into what rules may apply for filming from the Society and from the University
        • May schedule a couple more order meetings, will check with the contacts to make sure
  • Twelfth Night
      • Master Mathias
        • Come support the regional faire at Twelfth Night!
  • Castle Wars
      • Lady Ysabel
        • Winners from the raffle have been contacted and the prizes will be brought to the Jan. pot luck meeting at the end of the month.
  • Commedia dell’Arte
    • Master Mathias
      • If you have any connections at universities that would be interested in hosting a lecture or two from Master Anton about Commedia

Non-SCA Business

  • None reported.

The business meeting was closed @ 8:17 PM EST

The next business meeting will be held on February 7th, 2024, 7:00 PM EST via Zoom Meeting.

Castle Wars, Meeting Minutes, Red Tower

October Baronial Business Meeting

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

05 October 2022, Time: 1931

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.

Officers Reports

Seneschal, (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)

  • 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)
    • RUM (14-16 July)

Herald (Lady Bú Feiyan)     

  • Still looking for a deputy. If you’d like to try out Heraldic stuff Castle Wars is coming. We will need lots of voices!

Knight Marshal (Lord Erikr Palsson)

  • Red tower was good, we had three tournaments.
  • Two new fighters got authorized at Red Tower
  • This weekend there will be heavy practice
  • The next weekend we will need someone to step in as I will be at War of the Wings
  • I appreciate all the help people gave at Red Tower.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Castle Wars!
    • 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.

Live Weapons (Master Mathias Blackett)

  • No official practice was held due to Red Tower
  • The new Baronial Archery Champion is Lord Ælfric Hort
  • The next official practice will be held on Sunday 10/23.

Reeve (La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri)

  • Our Current bank balance is $9,617.52
  • 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.
  • Red Tower #s
    • Profit: 620.97
    • 172 in attendance
    • Including 28 newcomers and 18 children

Quartermaster (Mistress Isabetta de San Marco) 

  • We have stuff and it moved!
  • We have new inventory sheets printed and ready for Castle Wars.
  • The measuring wheel is missing from the inventory. If anyone knows where it may be, please let me know. We may need to think about replacement.

Chatelaine (Lord Ogata Tarō Hiroyuki)

  • So we have newcomers!
  • 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.

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • Nothing is currently scheduled. Still waiting for a few groups to get back to me. Will update the Barony when that happens.

Arts & Sciences (HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)

  • 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.

Provost (Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong)

  • This month’s schedule looks like:
    • Tonight (10/5): virtual business meeting
    • 10/12: virtual – Theodosia Colloquia
    • 10/19: in-person: Scribal Night
    • 10/26: In-person Halloween potluck?
  • We are looking for classes for Castle Wars. Please look for the sign up.

Chronicler (Baronessa Aelia Bassina)

  • 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.

Social Media Minister (Lady Isabella Parr & Lady Agnes Halydaye) 

  • Made castle war event page and we still got social media!

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai & Lily of South Downs)

Webminister (Lady Zhelana Vovkivna)

  • Updated seneschal to Raven
  • Updated km to Eirikr
  • Updated chatelaine to Ogata
  • Updated RT page
  • Updated Castle Wars Page

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • 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.

Their Excellencies, (Master Wistric Oftun & Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)

  • Send in award recommendations!
  • 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.

Castle Wars, Meeting Minutes, Midwinter A&S, Red Tower

September Baronial Business Meeting

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

07 September2022, Time: 1931

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.

Officers Reports

Seneschal, (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)

  • 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:
    • War College (1/27-29/2023)
    • MCA (2/24-26/2023)
    • Spring Coronation (3/31 – 4/2/2023)
    • Artsy Crown (5/26-29/2023 – Memorial Day weekend)

Herald (Lady Bú Feiyan)     

  • Nothing to report.

Knight Marshal (Lord Erikr Palsson)

  • 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.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • 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.

Live Weapons (Master Mathias Blackett)

  • August practice changed locations due to the site hosts needing to prep for Dragon*con.
  • We held practice at my house in Lawrenceville; we held 2 archery classes, practiced with an atlatl, and recorded 2 TWICs.
  • Additionally, Roís O’Shannon completed the Reaper Challenge, shooting 100 arrows every day for 100 days.
  • Archery at Red Tower is looking like it’s a go.
  • Practice for this month may not happen, stay tuned!

Reeve (La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri)

  • Our bank account as of Sept is $6,761.64
  • 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

Quartermaster (Mistress Isabetta de San Marco) 

  • Nothing to report.

Chatelaine (Lord Ogata Tarō Hiroyuki)

  • 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
  • Y’all rock!

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • Nothing new currently.  
  • Waiting on a response from AWA to confirm our table still.

Arts & Sciences (HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)

  • Not much to report this month. 
  • 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.

Provost (Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong)

  • 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!

Chronicler (Baronessa Aelia Bassina)

  • May have a new deputy, woohoo!
  • Nothing else to report.

Social Media Minister (Lady Isabella Parr & Lady Agnes Halydaye) 

  • Business as usual with Social Media. We have social media, we gain a few friends and got some engagement on posts!
  • For those who love the numbers:
    • Facebook page reached 831 people and 503 engagements. 12 new followers
    • The Facebook group got 2 new members
    • Instagram gained 27 new followers. A lovely boost from our demo at the lag and shout-out on their IG.
    • Twitter remains the same.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai & Lily of South Downs)

  • 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.
  • Will be looking into quiet space for Red Tower.
  • Lord Red is teaching a DEI class at Red Tower.

Webminister (Lady Zhelana Vovkivna)

  • Nothing to report.

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • The schedule for Red Tower 2022 has been decided. Myndee (Deputy MoC) and Lex (our guest teacher) are going to be helping me all day. 
  • The classes are going to be:
    • Morning: The Story of the Moon Festival and Intro to Chinese Characters and Basic Paper Lanterns – Pretty and Practical
    • Afternoon: Lion Dance Intro: The Magic of Luck, Lore, and Noise and Knot So Lucky – Intro to Chinese knots
  • We’ve already started purchasing supplies and will send receipts to Justina as soon as we have them all.

Their Excellencies, (Master Wistric Oftun & Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)

  • 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.

Castle Wars, Meeting Minutes, Midwinter A&S, Red Tower

August Baronial Business Meeting

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

03 August 2022, Time: 19

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.

Officers Reports

Seneschal, (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)

  • 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
    • War College (Jan 27 – 29)
    • MCA (Feb 24-26)
    • Spring Coronation (March 31 – April 2)
    • Artsy Crown (Memorial Day Weekend)

Herald (Lady Bú Feiyan)     

  • 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!

Knight Marshal (Lord Erikr Palsson)

  • There will be practice this weekend.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • 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 (Master Mathias Blackett)

  • 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!

Reeve (La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri)

  • Our bank account balance as of July 31, is $9,002.64
  • Expenses in July: $1,503.43
    • Printing for RUM $37.43
    • Deposit for Castle Wars $250
    • Meeting space August-November $750
    • August storage $466.00
  • RUM
    • 101 Preregistrations (not counting 9 comped)
    • 87 at the door
    • 197 total (including comped)
    • We still need to do the final paperwork with expenses, but my math is we have a total income of $1,874.84, and our share is $937.42
  • Requesting motion to baronial vote on a PO Box maintained by the exchequer for the Barony: est  cost $212/yr
    • Passed
  • Red Tower:
    • Online reservation is in the works
    • To secure a weekend spot, an online reservation is strongly encouraged

Quartermaster (Mistress Isabetta de San Marco) 

  • Nothing to report.

Chatelaine (Lord Ogata Tarō Hiroyuki)

  • 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

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • We had a great demo at LAG ATL. Looking forward to future demos at their events. 
  • Currently looking for someone to take part in a demo at a school in January or February. More updates on upcoming demos soon!
    • May be during the week (school day)

Arts & Sciences (HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)

  • 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.
  • Link to Baronial A&S Spreadsheet

Provost (Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong)

  • Virtual class night on August 24 will be on Honor with Baron Wistric.
  • Next month, the class will also be virtual on Thursday, Sept. 22 – Building Scrolls by Hlāford Bran Mydwynter from Atlantia.
  • Also, we’re currently seeking classes for Red Tower this year and will soon put out a call for classes at Castle Wars too. Come teach us cool things!

Chronicler (Baronessa Aelia Bassina)

  • Still in need of a deputy. If you know anyone who may be interested, please direct them to me.

Social Media Minister (Lady Isabella Parr & Lady Agnes Halydaye) 

  • We have social media.
  • Created a couple of official events from our page: one for DEI meeting and one for the demo at the LAG.
  • We’ve gained 3 Instagram followers, and 7 new FB group members. We are started to inch our way to 1,000 in that group!

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai & Lily of South Downs)

  • No DEI this month due to being booked up and Pennsic.
  • Next month will be about Feast accessibility or Middle Eastern Calligraphy

Webminister (Lady Zhelana Vovkivna)

  • Created Castle Wars Website

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • Nothing to report

Their Excellencies, (Master Wistric Oftun & Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)

  • 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. 
    • There’s a post on the baronial Facebook group which I bumped (link is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/baronyofsouthdowns/posts/5114757841891368/ ) where you should go comment how many yards you’d like.
    • 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.
  • Swift’s Heart announcement: 

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.

Castle Wars, Meeting Minutes, Red Tower

November 2020 Baronial Business Meeting

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

04 November 2020, Time: 1931

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.

Welcome and it’s nice to see everyone still here!

Officers Reports

Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Nothing to report.

Knight Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)

  • Nothing to report as normal.
  • Crown List will probably be in early February. 

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Nothing to report.

Live Weapons (Mistress Mara Palmer)

  • Nothing to report.

Reeve (Mistress Alessandra Giovanna Fioravanti)

  • We have money still.   
  • Storage unit is paid up through the end of the year.

Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Repeat info about the storage unit.

Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz), Finnvarr mac Branain reporting

  • Not a lot to report.
  • We have two new people!

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • Nothing new.

Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)

  • No class this month because of Thanksgiving. 

Chronicler (Lady Aelia Bassina)

  • Nothing new to report
  • I will be getting with the Reeve to arrange a time to drop off a check from the fund raiser. So far, we are up to $200!

Social Media Minister (HE Emelina le Nourreys)

  • We have 8 more followers on Instagram, 7 on FB, and there are interesting things happening in the Kingdom with the Burial Effigies.

Webminister (Captain Pietro di Conti)

  • 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.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai)

  • We’ve had a lot of classes. Thank you to everyone that enjoyed it. 
  • This month we will be doing a class on accessibility. I’ll post information about it when I have it. 

Her Excellency, Mistress Sunneva de Cleia

  • I don’t have much, I’m tired like everyone else!
  • 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.
  • Baronial Largess Challenge: 

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • Nothing to report

Seneschal, (THL Juliane de Vivonne)

  • 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.

Announcements, Castle Wars, Meeting Minutes, Red Tower, Society ANNOUNCEMENTS

JUNE 2020 Baronial Business MEeting MInutes

3 June 2020, 7:30pm
Virtual meeting on Zoom

Notes submitted by Lady Raven Helmsplitter, South Downs Zombie Chronicler.

As our Herald, THL Lucien, was unable to attend tonight’s meeting, Lady Mairghread stepped in and called the meeting to order. THL Juliane, our Seneschal sez “Welcome!” and reminded everyone that the meeting was being recorded, per Kingdom law. She then read the Bullying and Harrassment statement from the SCA. She also offered that she (and Their Excellencies and the Baronial Officers) understands how everyone is under a lot of stress, and to please reach out if you need anything.

Our Social Media officer, THL Emelina, read out a disclaimer for everyone to be aware of and agree to, that our business meetings are being recorded and that by participating in this meeting, we have given our consent to have footage containing our faces and/or comments used by the Barony and the Kingdom as necessary.

Officer Reports

  • Armored Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)
    • We are still in a holding pattern regarding practices.
    • Her quarterly report has been sent in. There were very slim numbers for the quarter, and she is expecting even slimmer numbers for the coming quarter, due to the adjusted schedule posted by the Crown.
    • Discussed Baron Mark’s thoughts about what fighter practice might look like once we *do* get back, as he had posted on Facebook recently.
      • Sir Iastreb commented that we will likely have to revisit where we hold Sunday practice, at the Meadery in Smyrna – it will be difficult to manage crowds and safety issues
      • Juliane commented that the owners of the Meadery have not been really hip on wearing masks, for performance reasons, which conflicts with SCA safety rules.
  • Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan deHay)
    • Due to the current cancellation of practices and events, we are also in a holding pattern until things get going again
    • In the meantime, stay tuned – we are working on getting some online rapier activity going soon – discussions, classes, etc. Will post about these events on the Atlanta SCA fighting Facebook group.
  • Live Weapons Marshal (Mistress Mara Palmer)
    • Nothing to report
  • Reeve (Mistress Alessandra Fioravanti)
    • We have money!
    • She reminded everyone that she is looking for a deputy – her job is not that difficult, and she is willing to show anyone who’s interested what the job is like. Please contact her if you would like more information.
  • Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz)
    • So far, the only new person who’s actually come to a meeting and interacted and stuff is Jay, who we all know now is awesome. I’ve had a couple other nibbles but no bites yet.
    • Nikon and Majda Anwar have talked about doing maybe a rolling mini-class for newcomers that just covers handy entry-level information – perhaps a 30 minute class once a week for 4 weeks that starts over every month, covers basic newcomer info like what all the titles mean, first event essentials list, getting started with a persona, things like that. Just very surface level, 101 stuff.
      However, we haven’t really started working on it yet because *gestures at everything*.
  • Minister of Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)
    • We have art! (and some science as well)
    • Alisandre has posted some virtual A&S opportunities in the Baronial Facebook group; and asked the populace to please let her know if they learn of any additional online opportunities (classes, events, etc) so she can share it with the Barony
    • Check out the classes being offered at Virtual RUM (Royal Academy of Meridies) this July, and ongoing classes at the Honorable Clover on Facebook.
    • Working cool projects? New projects? while everyone’s staying at home? Post your work on the Baronial Facebook page so we can all ooh and ahh and ask questions!
  • Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
    • We have words!
    • Lady Aelia Bassina of Veii will step up at the July meeting! Yay!
    • Aelia addressed the populace – as the incoming Chronicler, she would like to (re)start our newsletter and asked for suggestions:
      • For the title – everyone still likes the old title, “The Read Tower,” so it was decided that would remain.
      • With the development of our social media team, everything that has been posted on our Instagram page already has release forms, so that material will be available.
      • She is interested in showing the progression of the newsletter through the ages.
  • Keeper of the Baronial Memes (Minister of Social Media) (THL Emelina le Nourreys)
    • We have been posting on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
      • We now have more than 250 follows on Instagram
      • Emelina is encouraging the populace to share the the cool projects they’re working on at home – please take pictures of your project work and send them to her so they can share on our Instagram page
    • Our smash-up video (a fighter’s version of the glow-up video idea) got over a million views! It was awesome, and Emelina and Isabelle thanked Ogata (Charlie) for editing the video.
    • Ogata confirmed that his friends wrote the music for the video, and everyone asked to have our thanks passed along to them.
    • There was a lot of discussion about what everyone’s favorite parts of the video were – there were many!
    • HRM has asked us to write up more award recommendations.
  • Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)
    • Nothing to report
    • Magistra Alessandra mentioned that her daughter, Katie, would like there to be more members of the Sparrow’s Wing (the Baronial children’s award) so she can hold order meetings. Currently, she is the only member and attendee, but more cupcakes are required.
    • Alessandra suggested that a blog could be set up on the Baronial website where parents could brag about their kids’ art and projects.
  • Their Excellencies South Downs (Master Wistric Oftun and Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)
    • Sunneva wanted to discuss the new diversity statement posted by the Board of Directors. If you haven’t read it, please make sure you do.
    • In-person events have been canceled up through 31 August 2020, but in the meantime, she loves seeing everyone virtually.
    • Wistric thanked everyone who participated in the smash-up video – it was awesome!
    • Also – taking part in activities such as the video, online classes, and other online activities is a good way to help keep our energy up as both a Barony and as individuals.
    • He reiterated the importance of writing recommendations for people who have shown themselves deserving of recognition, and mentioned that TRH are planning to have a virtual Court sometime in the next couple of weeks and would love the opportunity to recognize people.
    • There are a couple of months left where we are going to be limited to online activities, and there is a lot of space to fill on our virtual calendar. If you’re considering teaching a class sometime, practicing teaching via Zoom on the local level is a great way to work through your class before Virtual RUM.
    • Their Excellencies thanked everyone for being amazing during these trying times.
    • Recently, Emelina posted a “Draw the Faces of Their Excellencies” on Facebook; our cousins in the Midrealm saw this and put a challenge out to their Barony to one-up us!
  • Seneschal (THL Juliane de Vivonne)
    • She mentioned recent news from the Crown – Coronation will be held online on Saturday, 27 July, and will be set up just like the online courts
    • Events are canceled through the end of August
    • Red Tower – There are concerns about planning, given the current situation – will it happen? can it happen? in what format? These are still being worked through and the answers will likely change as the pandemic continues, so we’ll need to stay flexible.
    • The Kingdom Exchequer notified us that our financial policy is not aligned with that of the Kingdom; Juliane and Alessandra are working through this to fix the discrepancies.
    • Juliane asked and will continue to ask on Facebook for any topics the populace would like to add to the meeting agendas.
    • She also thanked Their Excellencies for their imaginative approach to keeping interest and energy up in the Barony (the Draw the Faces game was great!)

SCA Business

  • Red Tower (2-4 October 2020)
    • Site: Hard Labor Creek State Park, Rutledge, GA
    • Mistress Mariana confirmed that event planning is proceeding as normal until told otherwise. A request for event volunteers will be posted soon.
  • Castle Wars (19-22 November 2020)
    • Site: Camp Benjamin Hawkins, Byron, GA
    • Juliane had mentioned that Isabetta is going to take the lead on Castle Wars autocratting because of Juliane’s conflicts of interest as seneschal. Juliane is holding off submitting the bid for the time being until she can see how the next couple of months are going to look like.
    • Sunneva mentioned contingency planning will be key; and as Sunneva happened to have written a book on contingency planning, is more than happy to help brainstorm.
    • Sunneva also asked about the timeframe for submitting the event bid – it is her understanding that if we don’t get a bid in soon, we’ll have to cancel?
    • Juliane asked Alessandra about the Baronial budget – if we don’t have Castle Wars, how will the Barony stand financially? What will the impact be? Alessandra said we should still be in good shape as most of our other expenses (other than the storage unit at $860 per quarter and the Zoom fees at $14.99 per month) have also gone away.
  • Midwinter Arts & Sciences (6 February 2021)
    • Site: TBD
    • We should start thinking about this event – we need an autocrat.

Other SCA Business

  • Mairghread mentioned virtual RUM/Fighter’s Collegium (17 July 2020) is looking for teachers, not sure what format. If interested in teaching for Fighters Collegium, please contact her or Master Edward.
  • Emelina mentioned that we now have a Baronial YouTube channel, and we can post class videos there.
  • Justina mentioned that this coming weekend is Court, and she is looking forward to hosting another virtual revel afterwards. She’ll post to the Baronial Facebook group once she’s got everything set up.
  • Sir Iastreb announced we have new people in the Barony – Anya from Thor’s Mountain has just moved to South Downs! She can’t make meetings yet because of classes but she is looking forward to getting involved soon. Master Ximon added that we should keep an eye out for new people and reach out to them so they feel welcome.
  • Lily thanked Alessandra for showing her how to be a reeve.

Non-SCA Business

  • None

Next business meeting: Wednesday, 1 July 2020. It will likely still be online via Zoom, but stay tuned!

With my backlog of minutes now done, I am now officially handing over the reins of the Office of the Chronicler to Lady Aelia. Thank you, everyone!
–Lady Raven

Dragoncon, Meeting Minutes, Red Tower, Society ANNOUNCEMENTS

MAY 2020 Baronial Business Meeting Minutes

6 May 2020, 7:30pm
Virtual meeting on Zoom

Notes submitted by Lady Raven Helmsplitter, South Downs Zombie Chronicler.

As our Herald, THL Lucien, was unable to attend tonight’s meeting, Lady Mairghread stepped in and called the meeting to order. THL Juliane, our Seneschal sez “Welcome!” and discussed the new Zoom meeting format – in particular, she would like to have everyone make sure they keep themselves on mute until you have something to say. She also walked everyone through the Zoom meeting features, including the “raise hand” feature which marks that you wish to speak.

Our Social Media officer, THL Emelina, read out a disclaimer for everyone to be aware of and agree to, that our business meetings are being recorded and that by participating in this meeting, we have given our consent to have footage containing our faces and/or comments used by the Barony and the Kingdom as necessary.

Officer Reports

  • Armored Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)
    • We are still in a holding pattern regarding practices
    • The armored marshals report is due on 15 May – it will be a slim report (as there have been few events or practices) but she will get it sent in and forward a copy to the Seneschal late next week.
  • Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan deHay)
    • Due to the current cancellation of practices and events, we are also in a holding pattern until things get going again
    • In the meantime, stay tuned – we are working on getting some online rapier activity going soon – discussions, classes, etc. Will post about these events on the Atlanta SCA fighting Facebook group.
  • Live Weapons Marshal (Mistress Mara Palmer)
    • Nothing to report
  • Reeve (Mistress Alessandra Fioravanti)
    • We have money, but we’re not spending any of it as there’s nothing to spend it on right now (except for the storage unit).
  • Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz)
    • We were going to have a couple of newcomers join the meeting tonight, but they ended up not being able to. We hope they can join us for future meetings.
    • Kingdom chatelaine has requested another Gold Key (loaner garb for new people to borrow at events) inventory; Nikon is planning to pick up some additional garb and will take care of inventory once that’s done.
  • Minister of Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)
    • Alisandre has posted some virtual A&S opportunities in the Baronial Facebook group; and asked the populace to please let her know if they learn of any additional online opportunities (classes, events, etc) so she can share it with the Barony
    • She spoke with Their Excellencies and now would like to ask the populace if there would be any interest in a Porch Fairy exchange (like a Secret Santa in quarantine); everyone thought it would be a great idea!
  • Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
    • We have words!
    • We have a new Chronicler in the works! Lady Aelia Bassina of Veii will step up sometime soon (probably July)
  • Keeper of the Baronial Memes (Minister of Social Media) (THL Emelina le Nourreys)
    • We have been posting on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
      • We now have more than 250 follows on Instagram
      • Emelina is encouraging the populace to share the the cool projects they’re working on at home – please take pictures of your project work and send them to her so they can share on our Instagram page
    • There is a Baronial glow-up video in the works – there will be more info once we have the Baronial YouTube channel set up
      • Glow up videos are videos which start with one person doing some every day activity, then they have a scarf (or something similar) thrown at them from off-screen. Person 1 picks up the scarf, approaches the camera, holds the scarf up to the camera to blot out the scene, then when the scarf is pulled away, Person 1 is dressed up and doing something cool and finally tosses the scarf out of frame. This is then repeated over again with a new scene, and Person 2 catching the scarf, etc.
      • In our video, we would have each person/group start out in modern clothes and relaxing, then be revealed in their SCA garb, and a setting or doing an SCA activity for a couple of moments.
      • All submitted videos will be compiled into a single video which we will post on our YouTube channel.
  • Their Excellencies South Downs (Master Wistric Oftun and Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)
    • Carver misses everyone!
    • Sunneva wanted to discuss how appreciative they are of everyone in the Barony and everything we are doing to support each other. In addition to doing a porch fairy project as Alisandre had described, if you’d like to get a missive from her, she will gladly send you mail – just PM her your mailing address. If you know of someone who’s not online, please consider sending them mail or connecting with them somehow.
    • Finally – if you know anyone who needs help, from communicating to food to whatever please contact Their Excellencies.
  • Seneschal (THL Juliane de Vivonne)
    • She mentioned recent news from the Crown – as Coronation had been canceled, TRM Boru and Fianna have been given permission to extend their reign until the end of May.
    • Red Tower has a bid from Mariana and Farouq; finance committee has approved the bid, and we’ll vote on it in May
    • Zoom meetings – how does everyone feel about meeting via Zoom? It is admittedly a strange format for the structure of our organization as there is a lot we do that is not really Zoom-compatible. What do we want to do with the off-nights?
      • Margavati is willing to host a dance night via Zoom, but she’ll need to figure out how the logistics first
      • Alessandra is willing to send people goldwork supplies and host a gold work class for project night (or A+S class night?)
      • How many classes are Zoom-compatible?
      • Aelia would like to know if a kids’ Zoom event could be set up? Her daughter misses everyone. Una thinks this would be a great idea! Justina wanted to know if this would be an adults’ welcome to support, etc.
        • Alessandra mentioned that after a full day of working with the kids online, she would like to see something done that is low-parental activity – maybe something like a kids’ “happy hour”?
        • It doesn’t need to be on Wednesdays – Allesandra mentioned that Gwinnett County doesn’t have classes on Fridays, so Thursday would allow them to stay up a little later.
      • Charlie suggested that he’s been working on a project that is currently fighter-oriented but could have other applications – a choose your own duel/adventure game he’s been developing
      • Justina mentioned that the online revel she hosted last week was successful, and that we could do similar events for the Barony. She found that conversational games gave everyone an opportunity to participate.
      • Baronial Zoom games night!
      • Improv theatre night?
      • Wistric suggested that there are probably classes that have been taught in the past that would be transferable to a Zoom format

SCA Business

  • Margavati is organizing a baronial Glow up video and would love to have as many people as possible participating. Deadline is Sunday for your video. Instructions are posted on the Baronial Facebook site. Justina mentioned that the Courtesans’ Guild is doing a “Pass the Veil” challenge along the same lines.
  • Red Tower
    • Mistress Mariana and Lord Faruq would be co-autocrats
    • Site will be Hard Labor Creek State Park (our traditional Red Tower site)
    • Theme will be Elizabethan, Sinners and Saints
    • We can use martial budget to pay for things like tourney prizes, etc.
    • Quest during the day to find the seven graces and sins
    • Do we have a contingency if we are still under lockdown?
      • It would likely then be canceled, but Mariana mentioned that the schools are planning to get back in September. Would the park allow for a return of the deposit if it came to that?
      • The seneschal would be the one who handles the deposit and would be the one to negotiate the return if necessary.
      • Andreva suggested that if we contact them early enough, they might be willing to roll over the deposit to the next year.
      • Justina mentioned that even if the government calls for everything to open, that doesn’t mean that people will want to go to an event yet.
      • Should we budget for additional cleaning/sanitizing materials? Alessandra points out that *if* we can get additional sanitizing stuff, as cleaning supplies are hard to find right now.
      • We should proceed with Red Tower assuming it will happen, but be prepared that it might be canceled.
    • Sidebar – financial committee needs to clarify what the current rules are regarding who gets in free at events?
      • Voted and passed
  • Alessandra is looking for a deputy! It’s not hard – you just have to know how to count (sort of)
  • Margavati will host another Indian/South Asian online social in the next couple of weeks. Emelina offered to advertise it on the kingdom page
  • Justina brought up our presence at DragonCon.
    • She said that (assuming it happens) we have the opportunity to host a panel; however, she is not comfortable with attending herself this year, given the current state of the pandemic. Is this something we want to pursue this year? She needs to let the coordinator know asap and preserve the connection for next year.
    • Juliane said she has passes for this year, but already knows she will not be going.
    • Maybe virtual panels? It will be important to keep the door open for next year
    • Given the number of people in our Barony who are already hesitant to attend DragonCon, it doesn’t look like we would even have the staff to cover in-person tables/panels: however, we could easily manage virtual panels.

Non-SCA Business

  • Sir Iastreb’s robotics students put together a video for a competition – please view and vote for them! The winner goes to nationals.
  • Finnbarr – Is there anything we can do as a Barony to help those who can’t get out or can’t find things when they go shopping? Wistric suggested that Finnbarr should post this in the baronial Facebook group. We definitely don’t want to see anyone going without or going hungry. Iazzie said that this sort of outreach is perfectly in keeping with the SCA’s goal of outreach, etc. so he is sure there would be no conflict.
  • Aelia offered that she has a 100lb bag of bread flour – if you want some, just PM her.
  • “New Jay” (as opposed to Captain Pietro) mentioned that stores are hiring extra security to guard some of the more sought-after items.
  • Sawyer made a bunch of 3d printed disks if anyone wants them

Next business meeting: Wednesday, 3 June 2020. It will likely still be online via Zoom, but stay tuned!