Society ANNOUNCEMENTS

January 2022 BARONIAL BUSINESS MEETING

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

05 January 2022, Time: 1930

Notes submitted by Signora Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.

Lady Mairghread Wilson called the January meeting to order. Our Seneschal, Master Nikoslav Mikolaevich, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Nikoslav read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.

Officers Reports

Seneschal, (Master Nikoslav Mikolaevich)

  • Posted call for Dep Sen Applications
  • Midwinter changed to digital, Autocrats in planning for how will go
    • Marshals will go over Sunday practice after Midwinter
    • Ximon brought up the potential of Baronial paid Zoom account.
  • Pro Zoom paid account is $149.90 /year/license. Up to 9 licenses
    • A single license would likely need to be attached to Sen Gmail for handover.
    • Before having a financial committee or barony vote on spending anything need to check with KSen about the procedure for Barony owning software.  Have contacted KSen and Kingdom Webmin.

Herald (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • Still in need of a deputy.

Knight Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)

  • Positive COVID case at the last Regional practice.  The upcoming Regional practice proposed location is at the covered pavilion in Carrollton.  Requesting $300 for a marshal budget to cover the cost to reserve for Sunday following MWAS.
  • Upcoming practice considerations:
    • This time of year practice is weather permitting; be aware last-minute cancellations may happen.  Vaccination cards or negative COVID tests, and contact tracing info is still required.  Masks outdoors are no longer required, but please be respectful of others and maintain social distance.
  • 1/9/2022 – Practice
  • 1/16/2022 – Practice depends on Marshal coverage (Panhandle weekend)
  • 1/23/2022 – Practice
  • 1/30/2022 – Practice
  • 2/6/2022 – Regional Practice tentatively at the pavilion in Carrollton (back up is Liane Levetan)
  • 2/13/2022 – Practice
  • 2/20/2022 – Practice
  • 2/27/2022 – Practice depends on Marshal coverage (MCA weekend)
  • 3/6/2022 – Practice
  • 3/13/2022 – Practice depends on Marshal coverage (Gulf Wars)
  • 3/20/2022 – Practice depends on Marshal coverage (Gulf Wars)
  • 3/27/2022 – Practice

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • The Barony held two practices in December.  Attendance was low, but there we were.
  • Thanks to TRMs and Mistress Sibella, a regional practice was held on 12/18 at the Oak Mountain Pavilion in Carrollton.  The practice was a success, and the venue has a great deal of potential.
  • Please note the updates from Kingdom about COVID policy.  
    • Masks are no longer required for outdoor events (including practices).  
    • In Georgia, we CAN and DO require proof of full vaccination or proof of negative Covid test for EVERY event. We also CAN and DO require masks indoors in accordance with Kingdom policy.
  • Post-MWAS Regional Practice
    • Admittedly, my survey didn’t get out as early as I had planned, so small sample size.  As of this meeting, one day’s responses indicated that >90% of those responding would attend a regional fighter practice if we held it in the retaining pond behind the Baronial storage unit.  Of the positive responses, only one suggested that they would not leave a donation to defray costs.
  • For reference, we’ve been discussing possible venues:
    • Oak Mountain Pavilion, Carrollton, GA (where the 12/18 regional practice was held).  $300 flat rate for the day.
    • Liane Levetan Park at Brook Run, Dunwoody, GA (where our regular weekly practices are held).
    • If we use the fields we normally use, there is no charge, but no control over things like parking, and rain would make it difficult
    • The covered pavilion and amphitheater must be rented together, driving up the cost ($500 for up to 4 hours, $1000 for >4 hours).
    • Raven and I looked at some City of Dunwoody Parks.  Park at Pernoshal Court is a pretty good-looking site, $300/day
  • I am looking for a deputy!

Live Weapons (Mistress Mara Palmer)

  • Looking at getting practice up and running soon-ish. Mathias is running point on that if you have questions. 
  • He’s looking at changing locations bc our hosts can’t currently vaccinate and we don’t want them to feel unwelcome at practice on their own property; also them not being vaccinated means a place to go to the restroom isn’t easy to access; new location would still be in that general area though since Owl’s Nest uses us as a practice a lot and east side seems superfluous with the Madoc & Sol Haven practices already on the east & northeast sides of town.
  • We’ll need more loaner arrows eventually. They’re getting kinda sparse, but still manageable for now.
  • Looking at handing over LW to Mathias; Conner wants to stay deputy; QCC? (Also I’ll make a note to tell people that if they aren’t comfortable talking to me about this since Mathias is my husband, they can talk to Nik & Sunneva/Wistric).

Reeve (La Onesta Signore Justina di Silvestri)

  • Bank statement as of December 2021: $11,248.52
  • Our final CW numbers, for the records: 
    • Event Income: $7,728.00
    • Event Expenses: $4,395.79
    • Net Profit: $3,332.21
  • Would like to start the new year with a (not so new) baronial requisition/ reimbursement check process. This is very common in baronies and it will really help with record-keeping and getting your reimbursements to you sooner.
    • What this means is there will be 2 forms that as soon as I tweak the format a little will get those to our Webminister Zhelana so they can be uploaded to the website for easy download: requisition request and a check reimbursement request.
    • A Requisition request is the first step and will cover the description and budget of the baronial funding you need for whatever baronial supplies. This will be reviewed by the Financial Committee, and as always, if over $50.00 will go to the barony for a vote.
      • This will be the exchequers record for when you are ready to submit your receipts through step 2,  the reimbursement check request.
    • These are easy forms and will help record keeping and give me contact info and a trail to reference since it can be months between a vote and a receipt. If you have any questions about it please feel free to reach out and I’m always happy to help guide you through it. 
  • And I’ll say again- Please please please NEVER have personal purchases on a baronial purchase receipt. We cannot refund comingled purchases. 
  • The financial committee is going to meet later this month to go over a yearly budget and inventory review- will keep y’all updated on that next business meeting.
  • This brings us to  2 expenses that are CW/budget overages that the barony needs to vote on:
    • Field supplies purchased for martial activities overage totaling $177.47
    • Field Supplies purchased total: $327.47
    • The allocation for the martial budget in the bid, minus live weapons was $150 so it’s 177.47 to approve.
  • The supplies included in this were The bird netting and 1×2 strips were to make the field safe for combat archery. Rapier Martial Captain Brendan de Hay is the contact on those purchases and can give more details if needed
  • The second is for the overage of $66.71 for archery supplies. The allocation previously voted on was $200, so this will cover the remainder of the cost of those. Mistress Mara Palmer is the contact on these purchases and can give more details if needed.
  • I am also looking for a deputy.

Quartermaster (THL Isabetta de San Marco) 

  • We have stuff/
  • The three pavilions that were donated have been added to storage and the inventory.

Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz)

  • Sefa reached out to me in November. I’ve been putting her in contact with people with similar interests. 
  • In addition to Sefa being put in touch with people who have common interests, I’ve been meeting up recently with a couple whom I’ve known for a few years.
  • Their names are Viridia and Kayd and they’re really interested in fencing! We’ve been getting together to practice footwork and technique with sport sabers so far.
  • Also, they’ve shown some interest in historic Italian garb, so I pointed them towards Lorenzo’s blog.
  • I’m passing the torch to Ogata next month.

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • I am looking at several possibilities for demos. Will happily take any suggestions.
  • Challenge issued to all Laurels in the Barony. Make a small something to showcase your persona, passion, or you whatever. I’d like to be able to fill our display tables with things we’ve made. 5 x 8 in or smaller preferred.

Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle & HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)

  • We’ll be starting “100 days of A&S” challenge in the next couple of days.  Watch the Baronial Page for the event to go up soon! We want to see what everyone is doing.  It doesn’t have to be fancy and heavily documented. Every day A&S courts!

Provost (Daegam Soong Myeong-Su)

  • Happy New Year! 
  • Looking for classes for the new year to fill out the monthly class schedule. All months are open except November and December for the holidays. Classes will continue to be virtual until further notice. This is a great way to test drive a class to a smaller audience! Contact Seong Myeong Su/Tami King if you’re interested. 
  • Also looking for classes for the upcoming Midwinter on Feb. 5th. The event is now virtual, so classes will be done on Zoom. A link should be posted to the sign-up form on the FB group but you can contact me directly if you’d like! As always, thanks for teaching!
  • Currently still looking for a deputy if you’re interested in organizing classes for the barony and our events.
  • I am looking for a deputy!

Chronicler (Signora Aelia Bassina)

  • Still looking for a deputy!

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

  • Nothing to report at this time.

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

  • This year we have some new stuff we can do.
  • I’ve talked to the Kingdom DEI officer and he’s very excited about what we’ve been doing
  • That being said, I’ve only had 6 people take the survey on DEI. Please take the survey. It’s been posted on the Baronial Facebook page.

Webminister (Lady Zhelana Vovkivna)

  • Updated Midwinter to virtual
  • Changed copyright to 2022

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • I spoke with the Kingdom MoC about virtual kid’s activities, and she says, “There is a prohibition against doing anything virtual with youth. It comes from the BOD & Society Seneschal.” In light of that (and unless there are any objections), I’ll plan on not doing any children’s activities at Midwinter.

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

  • Message us award recommendations, please.
  • Even though we won’t be in person, we would like to acknowledge people. The royals will be holding court so it will be in front of the kingdom.
  • I think more people in the Barony have caught COVID than during the entire pandemic. Please keep yourselves safe. We want to be able to see you in person.

SCA Business

  • Piers
    • I have spoken with Owls Nest and they may be interested in joining us for Artsy Crown.
  • MidWinter
    • Zimon
      • As everyone knows, we are going virtual for MidWinter.
      • It looks like we can get the pavilion for region practice.
        • We spoke about the pros and cons of where to have it a couple of days ago.
      • We could really use some moderators for some of our classes. It’s really easy. We are planning on having a training session for it to help take any scariness away from it.
      • We are going to have several competitions. We aren’t sure when these will be doing on. More will be posted as I know it.
        • Poet Lariet
        • Bardic Champion
      • We still need people to teach classes virtually.
      • We will have a virtual Kingdom A&S competition.
    • Justina
      • If you’ve already paid for MidWinter, please follow the reimbursement procedures for your refund.
    • Wistric
      • Any classes that need to be in person, there has been talk about having at the regional practice.

The business meeting was closed @ 2033.

The next business meeting will be held on 02 February 2022, 1930, Zoom Meeting.