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

October Mini-Business Meeting

South Downs Baronial Business Mini-Meeting

17 October 2018, 7:30pm

Celebrity Guest Meeting Space – Cathedral of St. Philip

Notes submitted by Lady Raven Helmsplitter, South Downs Chronicler.

Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois) called the meeting to order. Master Wistric sez “Welcome! If you did not sign in, please sign in!”

Red Tower Post-Mortem

  • Lady Veronica da Lucca and Lord Mark de Wytteney, co-autocrats thanked everyone who worked on Red Tower – the event was awesome!
  • Veronica especially thanked all the staff and volunteers who rocked even in the brutal heat
  • We’ve already booked the site for next year
  • Comments and Observations
    • The people who had said they were going to do Friday night traveler’s fare couldn’t make it at the last minute, and it didn’t get covered in time. We will come up with alternate plans for future events, to make sure such offerings are covered
    • Several people mentioned that we could use more signs for that site (Camp Rutledge at Hard Labor Creek State Park), as they thought they had gotten lost (especially once they got to the unpaved section). “Is that a banjo? No, a hurdy-gurdy. Burma shave.”
    • Having trash cans on the field would be great, but everyone took great care of the lyst field – it was left crazy clean! The park rangers complimented us on how clean we left the site
    • The bathroom staff should be on site as early as possible to double-check the bathrooms and showers, to make sure they are suitably clean and stocked (especially with hand soap and paper towels)
    • Wistric asked if the two portapotties on the lyst field were sufficient – everyone seemed to think they were; perhaps add a hand wash station on the field?
    • Having a checklist for baronial supplies for each bin would make packing up a lot easier. Lucien said he’s already working on it, and the checklists should be ready by Castle Wars
    • It was suggested that Pietro should post the inventory on the baronial website so everyone knows what we have
    • We should make sure we have plenty of propane included
    • Sunday morning – the site closes at 10:00am, so we should have more voice heralds to nudge attendees; we should also announce the closing time more frequently throughout the day and at court
    • An additional checklist should be created for closing up cabins – perhaps posted in each cabin at the beginning of the event
    • Landcrat/crittercrat
      • Wasp spray would be helpful
      • The site should be checked for fire ants (again) before the site opens – there were some problems on the lyst field with them
    • Lots of praise for the live weapons set up – they felt part of the overall fighting, as opposed to isolated from the rest of the action
    • Lots of praise for lots of fighting – fighting all day long, even in the heat
    • Water on the field was handled pretty well, but others mentioned that we should have 3 water barrels per marshal space and one in the hall, as water started to run out on the field
    • Need to work the parking pass situation out – the site balked at the request for 100 parking pass Friday morning, and only gave 50 to the troll on Friday. Perhaps try to acquire them a few days in advance
    • Should we get golf carts for the site?
    • This had been investigated previously for Castle Wars, and the price they got was $1000 to rent a couple of golf carts
    • Ximon suggested that if we paid him $100, he’d happily shuttle people back and forth from the field to the hall
    • The idea of a shuttle person as one of the staff could be a really good idea/alternative to golf carts, actually
    • Bloody Ridge was really happy to have the opportunity to do the fundraiser lunch, but the logistics became difficult because the lunch area was back at the hall and therefore far from the field (where most of the people were). Suggestions were made to have a takeaway option or delivery option to the field? However, unless we run the fundraiser lunch ourselves, we can only make recommendations
    • The Gods Quest was a big success, especially for the kids
    • Her Excellency mentioned that she was also pleased with the set up of archery and live weapons, allowing them to feel much more a part of the overall fighting, and the Gods Quest – it would be great to do a similar quest for future events; having the Quest printed on the event flyers was a great idea
    • Her Excellency suggested that we might want to consider:
      • Having trash bags available at Troll for each cabin to pick up at check in
      • Making sure breakfast was provided to TRHs – their entourage is supposed to be in charge of that
      • Extending a special invitation to Master Evan to bring his book collection to a special scriptoria at a future event
      • Thinking about how to better use our baronial banners
      • Include in event staff dedicated people to help set up and take down baronial and kingdom pavilions
      • Encouraging an A+S class schedule for Red Tower – there were people who chose not to attend because there was a lack of classes
        • Veronica mentioned that there had been an executive decision to focus on fighting, but we also need volunteers to teach classes – please don’t wait for others to set up classes
    • Revel – Veronica thought it went really well, but there was some confusion about whether it was “official.” The alternate, family-friendly revel never really happened, but it was a good idea and should be planned earlier and advertised more to get a good turnout.
    • Minister of Children staff – if anyone is interested in volunteering, it would be a great help to the staff, as the kids groups could then be split up with the two credentialed leaders. Lady Melusine will investigate what (if any) background checks will be necessary for secondary volunteers, and how many credentialed people will be needed per number of volunteers.
    • Feastcrats need to make sure that they have their own supply of dish soap for this site, as it is not provided
    • The Barony has acquired a supply of new dishes and other kitchen supplies that need to be labeled. These will be brought to December’s project night so everything can be properly labeled and added to the inventory
    • Storage load out on Friday went really well. Lucien noted that moving forward, there will no longer be vehicle access to the storage facility, so we should look at cart options (perhaps at Costco?) to help get supplies into and out of the storage unit
    • The Barony is also considering moving to another storage facility, priorities being vehicle access and climate-controlled units
    • The event site has terrible coffee makers; we thought we had Baronial coffee makers, but apparently they died at a previous event. A voice vote was taken to replace the coffee makers (because coffee!)
    • In response to the issues surrounding the 10:00am site closing on Sunday, it was explained that this is because of the ranger schedule
    • Exchequer report:
      • Assuming all numbers are correct, our income was $4,217.98; with expenses totaling $3,166.63, our net profit was $1,051.35.

Castle Wars Business

  • Her Majesty has requested that the White Rose Ball be held at Castle Wars
    • There is some clarification needed about how this will be funded – from the Roses’ budget, or the Castle Wars event budget?
  • Lady Juliane still needs volunteers:
    • A hall steward
    • Someone to run the regular revel
      • Wistric talked to Duke Sinclair of Atlantia about bringing his tavern again to Castle Wars, and if so, we can do the revel there. We still ahve $355 from the Artsy Crown fundraiser lunch for a booze budget
    • For contributions to the volunteer raffle
  • How many war points will there be? Looking at five war points

Other SCA Business

  • Baronial nominations!
    • Piers Simmons nominated Sir Iastreb and THL Mariana
    • Lord Farouq nominated Master Wistric and Mistress Sunneva
    • Duke John nominated THL Lucien and Lady Juliane
  • Iazzie asked if the Barony had spoken to the Crown about the polling process. His Excellency mentioned that we are working under a compressed timeframe now, so we have talked to TRM to move the polling schedule more quickly than usual. It is important that anyone who wants to vote makes certain they have confirmed their ZIP code is within the Baronial boundaries or have otherwise followed the rules to be included in the voting
  • They are currently deciding whether ballots will be mailed or if polling will be at the meeting – it is important that as many people can be reached/included as possible
  • Current timeline includes having the investiture at Midwinter A+S
  • Polling should be mailed in early November, but it will be up to TRM when the decision will be made
  • TRM will ultimately choose whoever they want – this is a polling (where they take into consideration the views of the Baronial populace), not a vote in the usual sense
  • We will hold a Q+A for the candidates during the November business meeting (7 November)

With no other business, Lucien closed the meeting and dinner plans were discussed.

PLEASE NOTE: Next South Downs business meeting will be held Wednesday, 7 November 2018, at the Doraville Civic Center, 3770 Central Avenue, Doraville, GA. We will meet at the usual time, Wednesday 7-9pm.

–Raven