South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

7 June 2017, 7:30pm

Atlanta Friends Meeting House

Notes submitted by Lord Brendan de Hay (mka Benjamin Hay), South Downs Stunt Chronicler.

Lord Lucien d’Artois called the meeting to order. Master Wistric chaired the meeting and offered fresh baked banana bread in honor of his and Mistress Sunneva’s wedding anniversary (huzzah!).

Officer Reports

• Herald (Lord Lucien d’Artois)
  • Submissions
    • Anneliese Wolf had name and device submission pass kingdom and forwarded to Laurel
    • Stella di Silvestri resubmitted device to kingdom via heraldic consultation table at Crown List
    • Two badges and one name submitted for next month
  • This year’s Knowne Worlde Heraldic and Scribal Symposium will be coming to fair Meridies! The shire of Nant-y-Derwyddon has the honor of hosting it, and will be held in Knoxville the weekend of 23-25 June, 2017. For more information, please visit the symposium website
  • Wistric, encouraging the populace to register devices in time for Meridian 40 Year (because banners with devices make for a spiffier event!), asked the populace who still needs to register devices, etc. to get a sense of who may need assistance in doing so.
  • Wistric also asked Lucien how many devices one can register (alternate heraldry) – Lucien replied that one can register as many as six names, devices, etc.

• Rapier Marshal (Lord Brendan de Hay)
  • Everyone continues to be happy with the Liane Levetan / Brook Run Park practice site in Dunwoody
  • Rapier practices continue to be held Tuesday evenings and Sunday afternoons (Sundays with our armored brethren), weather- and conflicting-event-permitting

• Youth Armored Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)
  • There will be a regional youth practice on 7/9/17 (Jon Montgomery in charge), location TBD

• Armored Marshal (Lord Robert Throckmorton)
  • Meridian Fight Club will take place Sunday, 30 July, location TBD. His Grace Sir Bart will be in charge.
  • Mistress Mara was elected Baronial Archery Marshal by general acclaim

• Chatelaine (Lady Stella di Silvestri)
  • Stella is looking for a deputy Chatelaine (still has 8 months left in term)
  • Regarding the Chatelaine office, Stella wants to split office into newcomers and demo coordinator
  • Speaking of demos, we will host a demo (again) this Sunday, 11 June, after fighter practice, at ATL Streets Alive. This Streets Alive will be on Marietta Street, on the Westsite. Want to volunteer? Fighters, artisans, dancers, etc welcome and needed! See Mistress Margavati or His Excellency Master Lorenzo for more information, or check out the FB event posted on Atlanta SCA Fighting
  • We have a giant box of postcards available for distribution at demos

• Webminister (Lord Pietro di Conti)
  • Placeholder pages now exist for Red Tower and Castle Wars event sites
  • Email issues are being worked on — spamblocker is really aggressive
  • Link set up to Lorenzo’s Artisan website
  • Please submit updates for personal profiles section on our website

• Arts & Sciences (Lady Veronica da Lucca)
  • The May A+S class on gnocchi making taught by THL Mariana had a great turnout – and the gnocchi were delicious!
  • This month’s class night will be on Commedia del Arte, taught by THL Mathias
  • July’s class night may feature an autocratting roundtable, possibly hosted by Mistress Jadi

• Chronicler (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)
  • Nothing to report, but thanks to Lord Brendan for serving as stunt Chronicler!

• Reeve (THL Maire)
  • Not present at meeting, but Their Excellencies confirmed that we have money! huzzah!

• Their Excellencies
  • Knowne Worlde Heraldic and Scribal Symposium is coming!
    • 23-25 June 2017, in Knoxville, TN; hosted by Nant-y-Derwyddon. For more information, go to their: website
    • Come on out and support Meridies!
  • The weekend before the Knowne Worlde Heraldic and Scribal Symposium in Knoxville, the Knowne Worlde Dance Symposium will be held in Baltimore, MD (the lands of Fair Atlantia), 15-18 June, 2017. Interested? check out the website for more information.
  • Their Excellencies encouraged everyone to attend RUM (Royal University of Meridies), which will be hosted by the Shire of Crimson River in Clarksville, TN on 15 July
  • Tournament of Foxes (25-27 August) – Her Excellency is already beginning to recruit for Foxes teams! She has tokens, and she wants to show her support for ALL the teams – armored, rapier, and live weapons/archery! Event info here: Tourney of the Foxes
  • His Excellency is interested in revamping Baronial award structure.
    • Proposed new structure/orders
    • Entry to order once, as opposed to awards which can be given over an over. (sheet attached, received with general acclaim and mirthful commentary)
    • Discussion on merits of orders vs. awards.
    • Possibly adding a “Baron/Baroness’ Pleasure award for multiple recognitions
    • Lorenzo will post this for discussion outside the meeting (FB and website). Would like to have comments set up for vote by next month’s business meeting? Think about who you want to recommend…
  • Her Excellency reminded everyone to make Kingdom-level recommendations, and that she and Lorenzo would love to hand out awards at Red Tower
  • Some discussion of how award recommendations work, particularly for polling orders
  • If you’re having issues with OP spellings and accuracy, contact Mathias or Lucien

• Seneschal (Master Wistric)
  • Margavati mentioned an old office, that of site deputy (within the senschal office), that focuses on researching and databasing potential event sites). Would anyone be interested in volunteering for this office? Contact Peryn and/or Lorenzo for help, as they had both done some work previously collecting information on potential sites.
  • Wistric and Maire discussed developing more event infrastructure. Recommend potential investments…
    • Kitchen stuff
    • Golf cart? (or include in event budgets?)
    • Pop ups?

Upcoming Events

• Red Tower (6-8 October 2017)
  • Bathrooms too far away at Booker T, so we will be looking to add portapotties to the site.
    • We expect to make it work in current budget.
    • Checking with park staff for approval.
  • Need volunteers – if interested, please get in touch with Beteena.

• Castle Wars (16-19 November 2017)
  • New site is confirmed – the event will be held at McIntosh Reserve in Whitesburg. This will require new budgets (with and without extra water for horses, since we can have equestrian activities. Adding extra water for horses, adds $2 for day trip, $1 for weekend.
  • Because the new site doesn’t have a kitchen or other feast capabilities, there will not be a feast offered this year.
  • Castle Wars Theme: William Wallace
  • Expecting MOB invitational tourney to add some people

Event Bids

• Fall Crown (10-12 November 2017)
  • Bid has been submitted, waiting to hear from Crown.

• Midwinter Arts + Sciences 2018 (2-4 February 2018)
  • Bid is in. No confirmation on hall until late September (College won’t confirm scheduling)
  • Looking for crazy cooking type volunteer to coordinate—could we manage a day board of Moroccan food (specific university in Morocco)? Day board included in admission fee.

Other SCA Business

• DragonCon
  • Nothing to report

• Archery!
  • Looking for a site for regular practice. Probable joint practice with Owls’ Nest at Viking Alchemist property (alternates include Portia & John’s in NE Atlanta or Mairghread & Piers in Cobb Co.)
  • 8 June for first practice? First one starts at noon, then future practices will begin at 10:00am.
  • Sundays, probably 1 per month.
  • Budget proposal for archery/thrown weapons stuff—attached. Note that all numbers in budget are high estimates, actual cost will probably be less.
    • Will probably store equipment at Their Excellencies’ house
    • We anticipate having this ready in time for Red Tower
    • Recommended that we purchase 3-target system
    • We can use any budget overhead for loaner gear (Mara is pricing gear)
    • Ximon wants to donate a prize—break-down banner pole for first competitive shoot, Mara recommends waiting until July practice
    • Discussion on website/fb to encourage donations
    • Financial committee passes proposal (except for exchequer, not here tonight)
    • Barony passes proposal
    • Please note: Budget and information documentation will be made linkable once I have the PDFs –Chronicler

• Lucien suggests that with all the events in the works over the next couple of months, we should have additional mini business meetings during other Baronial meeting nights (possibly project nights?) to facilitate updating the populace on event planning

• THL Andreva and Mistress Jadi will be starting project nights again, on the 2nd & 4th Thursdays of each month at their home. Please contact them for address/directions.

Non-SCA Business

• 24 June 24: the Festival Singers of ATL will be presenting a Fundraiser cabaret, $20 tickets, “Ease on Down the Road;” Andreva & Katie will be singing duets.
• 18 June – Margavati mentioned that a Makers Market will take place at Stove Works on Krog Street

All the business issues having been addressed, the business meeting was closed.

Next South Downs business meeting will be held Wednesday, 5 July 2017, at the Atlanta Friends Meeting House.

–Raven