South Downs Baronial Business Meeting
1 July 2015
Notes submitted by Raven Helmsplitter (mka Helena Bretherton Hay), South Downs Chronicler
Lord Mathias Blackett, Seneschal, called the meeting to order.
Officer reports
o Chatelaine (Lady Wilhemina)
- Nothing to report
o Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
- Nothing to report
- Mathias thanked Raven for the copy of the June meeting minutes needed to facilitate the access changes to the baronial accounts.
o Herald (Lord Bjorn Gullharr)
- Two new name submission sent to Kingdom
o Reeve (Lady Maire Dhocair Inghean Chiarain)
- No financial report
o Their Excellencies (Baron Lorenzo and Baroness Adela)
- Brought an adorable black sheep example made for Red Tower
- Baroness Adela mentioned that she has a sewing project (still under development) for the baronial rapier melee units. Adela’s Guilded Company (2 teams of 5!). She is looking to outfit her melee teams with capelets, tabards, baldrics, or other similar item in the baronial (or her) colors, in time for Foxes. Please contact her if you’d like to help make them.
o A&S Minister (Lady Tryggva Ingvarsdóttir)
- ?
o Group Rapier Marshal (Lord Brendan de Hay)
- Practices are going well – we have had from 2-8 people regularly attending Tuesday evenings and/or Sunday afternoons at Blackburn Park, even though Brendan has been out of town a lot lately
- Raven reported on the regional rapier practice held at Blackburn Park on 7 June. 24 fencers from as far away as Drakenmere and Vulpine Reach attended. Morgan Griffin coordinated a baronial yard sale that was held during the practice. A great time was had by all!
o Seneschal (Lord Mathias)
- Nothing to report
o Knight Marshal (Lord Bram Halfdannarson)
- Maire reported on Bram’s behalf – Bram is looking for ways to get more fighters out to practice; different days? Times? He is interested in feedback about this.
o Webminister (Lord Wistric Oftun)
- Red Tower website is about to go live
Other Baronial Business – events, etc.
o RUM, July 18, 2015
- Will be hosted by the Shire of Flintmarsh, and held at Troy University, Dothan campus (http://flintmarsh.meridies.org/wp/?page_id=149)
- As we are looking at submitting a bid for RUM 2016, anyone interested in putting together a bid for RUM should try to attend and see how it’s organized.
- Bid for RUM 2016 should be submitted to the seneschal by the December business meeting (2 December 2015)
o Fighters’ Collegium, 11-13 September, 2015
- We’ve submitted a bid and are waiting to hear back from the kingdom seneschal about the status. Iron Mountain may have resurrected their bid with a new site (where coronation was held?) – if that’s the case, then they will have preference.
o Red Tower, September 18–20, 2015
- Event website is about to go live
- Flyer turned in before the due date (yay!)
- So far, 120 RSVPs yes and 70 maybe from the facebook event page
- We are getting volunteers for the event, but we still need more – please contact Amaris or Bam if interested
- Landcrat team
- Breakfast
- Lyst
- Travelers’ fare
- Setting up tents for kitchens, lyst fields, etc.
- Event schedule is in development
- Reminder: this is a camping-only site (no cabins)
- Feast will be headed up by Marianne/Mathilda. There will be two sections – Above the salt (70 max) and Below the salt (everyone else), so get your reservations in!
- Above the salt – Marianne read a tentative menu; three courses reflecting the Viking quest for conquest theme of the event. Course 1 – on the ship; course 2 – Invasion of England; course 3 – Invasion of France/Paris
- Tourneys
- 3 heavy tourneys
- 3 rapier tourneys
- Stella needs help making sheep. She has patterns available, please contact her directly.
- Duke John will be celebrating 40 years of being in the SCA/squiring/becoming a knight. To commemorate this, he will set up a pavilion on the field and fight the first 40 people to request fights (take first 40 comers)
- There will not be any equestrian activities (as it’s mostly a one-day event, the logistics were too complex)
- Archery – need ideas for scenarios
- Live weapons
- Hound coursing
- Peachtree Weavers Guild will be doing a demo during the event, presenting viking-era looms and weaving examples
- Viking revel after feast
- Viking sewing solar showing items made from the Viking garb class
- Bardic competition
- Poetry competition – theme: Viking and baronial saga, original work
- Skaldic (voice heralding) competition
- Mead competition
- Dirty half dozen largess contest
- To enter, make 6 items to be added to the largess basket
- Winner gets one item from each set entered, the Crown gets the rest
o Castle Wars, November 19–22, 2015
- Reported by Ximon, on behalf of Isabelle
- There will be a Trojan something built for the event
- A “Real Helen of Troy” will be built into the fighting scenarios – each side will represent one of the two “real Helens of Troy,” with the winning side claiming the Real Helen. (Justina and Stella)
- Event will be held at McIntosh Reserve, site of last year’s Castle Wars. Ximon has promised it won’t be as cold this year…
- We have access to the park beginning Wednesday of event week, and have it through Sunday.
- Donations for volunteer raffle prizes are requested
- Iazzie has requested assistance with hauling the trailer that holds the walls, netting, etc. The weight of the trailer severely strained his van’s transmission. Please contact him if you can help with the trailer.
- Need volunteers, especially an assistant landcrat (our landcrat may not be able to make the event).
- Lady Wilhemina is working on event tokens (600?!)
o Midwinter Arts + Sciences, February 12-14, 2016
- Baronial deadline for bids (so bids can be presented at business meeting) Is the October business meeting
- Ballpark budget for site rental is $1000-$1200. Needs to have:
- Large hall (holding 150-250 people
- Several classrooms for tracks of classes
- Kitchen for feast
- Parking
- Ballpark budget for site rental is $1000-$1200. Needs to have:
- The Yaarab Shrine on Ponce was suggested as a possible site
- Questions were asked about Druid Hills Baptist (former site). Most of the church building and parking lot is now being turned into apartments. Site is no longer available.
- It can be a weekend event, doesn’t need to be limited to a day event
- Sunday of that weekend is traditionally a regional fighter practice – heavy and rapier, cookout, socializing, etc.
o Baronial Twelfth Night, Date TBD (near 6 January 2016)
- Informal baronial gathering (in-garb), everyone hangs out, plays board games, contributes to a potluck dinner, etc.
- Need an autocrat – did we mention it’s really low-key?
- We want to schedule it for a Saturday as close to 6 January as possible, but without conflicting with Bryn Madoc’s Twelfth Night (an official event)
Other/Non-SCA Business
o Trebuchet
- Marcellus is building a trebuchet for the barony. It can be completed at any time, and needs to find a place to store it
- Dimensions are 6’ x 8’ x 10-11’ tall
- Fits in the bed of a large pickup truck
- Also needs a crew to set it up and use it: authorized siege weapons fighters/engineers, and a marshal (to authorize people if necessary). Discussion ensued about details of siege weapons authorization requirements (Sean O’Neill is the kingdom Siege Weapons marshal, and http://kingdom.meridies.org/index.php/offices/marshal contains the link to the siege weapons rules)
o DragonCon, 4-7 September, 2015
- We have been able to confirm that the Barony will both be in the parade and have a table at DragonCon
- Duke John asked if we wanted the chariot again; the reply from the populace was a resounding yes!. He recommended that several people volunteer to pull the chariot (teams of two), so no one gets exhausted pulling it the entire length of the increasingly longer parade route
- We need someone to corral the baronial parade participants – the person who volunteered will not be able to attend. Contact Mathias if you are interested.
- DragonCon website: http://www.dragoncon.org/
o Atlanta Streets Alive!, 27 September, 2015
- Mistress Margavati mentioned that her husband Sawyer is interested in coordinating a demo for the festival. Asked the populace and confirmed there was enough interest to move forward
- Very informal, we just need to ask the organizers for an area of greenspace so we can set up our fighting demos
- Atlanta Streets Alive! Highlands website, for more info: http://www.atlantastreetsalive.com/2015-routes/highland-september-27/
o Maker Faire ATL 2015, 3-4 October, 2015
- Mistress Sunneva confirmed that the barony has a 10’x10’ booth at the Maker Faire. Contact her if you have questions or would like to help with the demo (A+S people, especially)
- Maker faire is a event that showcases all sorts of handmade goods, skills, etc.
- Good opportunity for outreach/demo activities
- Maker Faire website, for more info: http://makerfaireatl.com/
o Miscellaneous
- Margavati brought some costume pieces Sawyer was selling – black and white harem pants, and a pair of period shoes.
- Birthdays!
- Lady Andreva has a birthday on 30 June
At this point, the last piece of business for the meeting was determining where everyone wanted to go to dinner. Meeting came to a close, and the next business meeting date was announced for August 5, 2015 (note from Chronicler: that falls in the middle of Pennsic War Week – will likely need to find proxies for several baronial officers who will be at Pennsic)
Thanks!
Raven