South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

6 December 2017, 7:30pm

Atlanta Friends Meeting House

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

Herald (Lord Lucien d’Artois) called the meeting to order.

Officer Reports

• Herald (Lord Lucien d’Artois)
  • Submissions
    • Lady Stella’s device registered at Laurel
    • Lady Juliane’s badge rejected and resubmitted to Laurel
    • Mistress Margavati is next
  • Awards – Castle Wars
    • Peryn Rose Whitehorse – King’s Lancer
    • Pietro di Conti – Companion of the Argent Rapier
    • Piers Simmons – Falcon’s Faith
    • Mairghread Wilson – Falcon’s Faith
    • Justina di Silvestri – Phoenix’s Spark
    • Stella di Silvestri – Swan’s Grace

• Armored and Youth Marshal (Lady Mairghread)
  • Practices are going well, especially Sundays at Liane Levetan Park. Recently,
    turnout has been hit-or-miss because it’s now event season
  • Tuesdays have been hit and miss, Owl’s Nest fighters don’t come out consistently
  • We have two more youth fighters! yay!
  • Definitely getting a strong response with youth fighters

• Rapier Marshal (Lord Brendan de Hay)
  • Practices. We are still having them, Sunday afternoons, concurrent with armored. Tuesday evening practices at 7pm, temporarily moved to Blackburn Park due to the lighting situation at Liane Levetan. We’re averaging 2-12 people.
  • We are still waiting for updates from Liane Levetan Park about the lighting situation and work order
  • Thanks to all who’ve helped cover marshaling practices while Ben is working!
  • For updates regarding rapier practices, go to the Atlanta SCA Fighting Facebook group.

• Live Weapons Marshal (Mistress Mara Palmer – THL Mathias reporting)
  • Practices are still going strong! We’ve been averaging 10 shooters at practice
  • We now have both 10- and 20-yard target ranges
  • We have youth archery!
  • Our next practice is Sunday, 17 December – for more info, check out our website
  • Still waiting to hear about practice dates for 2018 –
    our hosts are trying to coordinate their scout calendar. Stay tuned!

• Chatelaine (Lady Stella di Silvestri – His Excellency reporting)
  • If you haven’t joined the South Downs Facebook group, do so! It’s the best place to keep up with what’s happening in the Barony
  • We’ve had some new people show up to the Barony 🙂
    Be nice and welcome them!

• Arts & Sciences (Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)
  • Welcome to Mistress Sunneva, our new A+S Officer!
  • There is now a Google Docs spreadsheet posted on the Baronial Facebook group where you can sign up to teach a class in 2018
  • Midwinter A+S is the next event on the Baronial calendar. Sunneva will post a signup sheet to teach at Midwinter on the Baronial Facebook group soon – stay tuned!

• Reeve (THL Mathias Blackett)
  • We have money! Not sure exactly how much (so soon after Castle Wars), so no more spending until he figures it out
  • We had a small profit from Crown List – everything was budgeted and spent well, but expenses were higher because of the site, and attendance was less than usual for this type of event
  • After Kingdom took their split, and the rest of the profits were split among the three hosting groups, we made ~$166
  • Lady Juliane suggested that perhaps we don’t go outside of Georgia for our event sites
  • We also had a lower turnout than usual for Castle Wars (adults, 479??) but a lot of kids (brought total number up to 529). However, kids aren’t counted for event purposes, per Kingdom law. Usually we’re at 700.
  • Expenses were also higher – even though the SCA doesn’t charge for kids, kids are charged a park fee (which we ultimately cover).
  • For the next two years, Castle Wars will be held at the Al Sihah Shrine Temple in Macon, which will cost us less
  • Spending was also careful and well done. Expenses totaled $7124, and we made a profit of $2808. This is lower than in the past but we still came out ahead.

• Webminister (Lord Pietro di Conti)
  • We have a website!
  • Updated:
    • Have continued to update the populace pages
    • Updated several titles
    • Updated Castle Wars map and photos
    • Updated event calendar
    • Setup Midwinter A+S pre-registration page

• Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
  • The Baronial Newsletter (“The Read Tower”) has been published! Yay! Thanks to all who contributed to the issue, and for everyone’s patience as I got this inaugural issue done
  • (Please note: this part is more detailed than the original officer report 🙂 ) Will begin working on the Winter issue after the holidays. I’m looking for the following content; I want to highlight what we, the populace of the Barony do, and what we find fun about the SCA:
    • Officers’ column: each Baronial officer has a column where they can describe what they do, what’s cool about what you do as that officer, and anything (events, practices, etc) you want to publicize. Roughly 500 words (a page or two?)
    • Guild reps: again, you have a space where you can let the populace know what you do, why you find it cool, and what your Guild has going on. And again, roughly 500 words would be great
    • Articles I’d like to have written, 500-750 words (ish); if you’d like to write an article, please let me know and we’ll chat:
      • Reveling at Castle Wars: one of the things that makes Castle Wars special, the camping and reveling; article and photos
      • Presentation (?) Herald at Crown: what it’s like to process with a combatant at Crown and announce them at the beginning of the tournament?
      • Rapier activity beyond the world of the SCA (SERFO/HEMA) (thanks, Brendan de Hay!)
      • Class handouts, recipes, etc. – please include images (I can scan if necessary), and a writeup introducing the material
      • Artwork and photos – again, I can scan artwork if necessary
  • Thank you all! I hope you enjoyed the issue

• Seneschal (Master Wistric Oftun)
  • We need to develop an event site database; look for sites for different kinds and sizes of events
  • Updated Con database
  • We need to start looking for a new meeting site – good parking, decent meeting room. Perhaps a pub? Coffeehouse?

• Their Excellencies
  • Christmas party at Their Excellencies! You all should come! 16 December. Please carpool if you can, as parking may be somewhat limited. Please check out the Baronial FB group or the event site for more details.
    • Dirty Santa ($20 limit)
  • Thanks to everyone for Castle Wars! Everyone helped through the weather, much appreciated
  • Please write more award recommendations – specific person, specific reasons. All awards! Kingdom *and* baronial!

Upcoming Events

• Midwinter Arts + Sciences (2-4 February 2018)
  • We have a site! University of West Georgia (not Little Tallapoosa, Mathias!)
    • University of West Georgia changed their scheduling – classes don’t get scheduled there until the very end of the semester, so getting the site confirmed was tough. It might be a good idea to find another site
  • The Meridian Order of the Blade will sponsor a fundraiser lunch of a variety of chilis and stews. Will need crockpots.
  • Mistress Sunneva is in charge of classes -if you want to teach, talk to her
  • THL Andreva and Lord Farouk will do the royal luncheon.
  • Lord Piers will head up troll, with help from Lords Lucien and Pietro
  • Juliane is co-autocrat
  • Need merchantcrat
  • Katerina from Owls Nest has offered to do PayPal for pre-reg, but we have some fees that need to be taken care of from Castle Wars and Crown before we can get PayPal cleared
  • Library again? wasn’t utilized much last year, although the idea was cool.
  • There will not be a heraldic consultation at MWA+S unless someone volunteers, but there will be one at 40year

• Cub Scout Demo (25 January 2018)
  • At the University Heights Methodist Church, at 7:00pm
  • We’ve been invited by special request of the Cubmaster (again!) 🙂 The Cubmaster is a big DragonCon and photography aficionado
  • Each den provides a speaker for one meeting each year, this den has a theme of knights in shining armor, etc., and they’ve loved having us over in past years

• Artsy Crown (26-29 May 2018)
  • Sir Iazzie is submitting a bid
  • Would be held at the Al Sihah Shrine in Macon

• Red Tower (5-7 October 2018)
  • Do we have a site?
  • Andreva is putting together a bid

SCA Business

• Castle Wars Post-Mortem
  • It went really well – everyone helped so much
  • What could have gone better:
    • Made a mistake with rapier marshal, had tournaments instead of melee
    • Parking can be moved to the other side
    • Portapotties can be moved to better places
    • Troll – receipts need to be given to every single person; this is a rule that changes depending on kingdom seneschal
    • Merchants complained about where they were placed
    • Merchants should be closer to artisans row
    • Bigger bottles of hand sanitizers at portapotties that aren’t soap
    • If we have an event at Mackintosh again we need to keep in mind “Lake Mackintosh” from past years (rain) and how that may impact site layout
    • Shrine – keep on top of fire ants
    • Mairghread commented on calibration issues in the fighting, recommends that MiC brief fighters ahead of time on Meridian calibration standards.
    • Make sure your rapier and armored marshals get along
    • we need to figure out how to deal with the castle walls. Ximon suggests a 25ft Uhaul truck to carry all the things.
  • What went well (yay!):
    • The revel space was a great idea, even beyond the weather issues – where can the revel take place at the shrine?
    • Yay Stella for running camp! And keeping everyone caffeinated!
    • Camp kitchen rocked!
    • Ximon mentioned how much he likes Mackintosh
    • Thanks to Wistric for making sure all the things got done; he pointed out that Lucien is the man for everything he took care of
    • heater and pavilion for troll was awesome

  Non-SCA Business

  • Margavati brought a bunch of stuff she’s clearing out from her house

  Next South Downs business meeting will be held Wednesday, 3 January 2017, at the Atlanta Friends Meeting House.

  –Raven