Meeting Minutes

February 2021 Baronial Business Meeting

03 February 2021, Time: 1932

Notes submitted by Lady Raven and Captain Brendan, South Downs Backup Chroniclers.

THL Lucien d’Artois called the February meeting to order. Our Seneschal, THL Juliane de Vivonne, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Juliane read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.

Officers Reports

Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Not much to report – no awards or submissions in the past month
  • He is stepping down after 4 years, Bu is replacing him and he will be her deputy until she finds someone
  • He’ll still help with submissions etc as he is still heralding on the kingdom level

Knight Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)

  • Reiterated Master Edward of Yarbrorough, Kingdom Earl Marshal’s message of the week: 
    • Check your gear, check your auth cards. 
    • Master Edward will be stepping down soon, and needs a replacement. 
    • Applicants should send a resume to him and Crown.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Nothing new to report.

Live Weapons (Mistress Mara Palmer)

  • Nothing new to report

Reeve (Mistress Alessandra Giovanna Fioravanti)

  • Nothing new to report

Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Haven’t seen any of our stuff for 6 months, but he’s assuming we still have our stuff
  • Clarifies – he reached his pun quota for his herald’s office, but he still has a lot available for his quartermaster’s quota
  • One of the storage locker doors won’t open. it was damaged when we rented the unit, but it’s gotten worse. Lucien will investigate it.

Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz)

  • No report – we probably have people

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • Nothing new, but has been considering getting a table at this year’s Atlanta Pride. However, it is currently scheduled for the closing weekend of Gulf Wars, so perhaps next year? check FB group to see what interest might be. It’s possible that there may be enough interest if we don’t have as many people heading to GW as usual. Suggested FB poll to gauge interest.

Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)

  • We have arts and sciences!
  • We have lots of fun classes for MWAS.  Check out 100 Days of Meridies, HRMs challenge to see lots of cool projects being worked on!

Provost (Daegam Soong Myeong-Su)

  • (She has a Korean class at the same on Wednesdays now, so submitted report electronically) The class meeting will be a live cooking show from Ogata (Charlie). If anyone would like to take a class for the barony, please get in contact!

Chronicler (Signora Aelia Bassina)

  • We have words, a chronicler, and double backup chroniclers tonight (Lady Raven and Captain Brendan)

Social Media Minister (HE Emelina le Nourreys)

  • We have social media 
  • Society social media is doing something for February – why you love the SCA #lovemySCA
  • Look for it on the FB group

Webminister (Lady Zhelana Vovkivna)

  • Site is down for the moment.  Kingdom is in control until further notice.  Should be coming back slowly over the next couple days.
  • Our website is having some temporary difficulties. This is above my paygrade and I have temporarily given up control to the kingdom webminister who has cut everybody’s access to the website both as a viewer and an admin. By tomorrow Wistric, Piers, and I should have access. Other people will come up slowly after that, as we can institute new security protocols. Aelia, you’re our priority. Once you regain access, please change your password to something difficult to guess that you haven’t used on other sites. 
  • It is now mandatory that we only use the official kingdom email addresses on our website. As soon as I regain control, I will be changing all email addresses to the @meridies.org addresses. If you don’t have one but need one, please contact me. Please check these emails. I am sorry; I was not given a choice. 
  • In more positive news, Piers Simmons has stepped up as my deputy. For now, he is responsible for the DP. You should make sure your DP page is up to date, and give him things to do. We have also recently put a pronouns section on DP pages, so if you are comfortable doing so, you should give us your pronouns on the DP form. This is strictly opt-in. 
  • Since last month I have added awards to Cellach and Aelia’s pages, changed the webminister page so that it lists myself and Piers as the webmin, fixed the sidebar so that all Wednesday activities are listed instead of just the 4th Wednesday, and changed the link on the A&S page to the 2021 A&S spreadsheet. Some of these changes did not stay on the site because of the aforementioned problems, but they will be back as soon as I regain control.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai)

  • We have a class coming up this month – DEI spotlight. this month will be taught by Lady Majda on orientalism

Their Excellencies, Master Wistric Oftun & Mistress Sunneva de Cleia

  • Hello Loveliest of Baronies.  Reminder about Baronial Shop on RedBubble.  Helps pay storage fees.  Aelia & Margavati have made some cute designs. Will share link.
  • MWAS.  Baronial and Kingdom court will be on the same FB livestream, Sunday at 5pm.  If you need court time, let B&B know tonight or tomorrow morning.  No last-minute stuff.
  • Will contact others privately.

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • Nothing to report

Seneschal, (THL Juliane de Vivonne)

  • Two things:
  1. A reminder that all official activity should exclude modern politics. This includes postings to Baronial FB groups.
  2. Red Tower – we still don’t know about dates, but in thinking it over, we still don’t know where we’re going to be at that time. For those considering submitting a bid, please think about doing it as a day trip, as it will be a simpler event and will have less to adjust. Can we consider combining RT and CW again? maybe RT on Friday?

SCA Business

  • MWAS (Raven).  Event coming up this Saturday.  A&S judging is in progress NOW.  2 full tracks of classes.  Judging for populace faire is on the event page right now, go vote.
  • We will have online activities on Saturday night, graciously hosted by Mistress Ellen and the monthly Homecoming Social. MW will be adding a bardic circle, hosted by Master William Brewer, to Homecoming, and we hope to also host a revel – still looking for someone to host it, so please contact Raven if interested.
  • Margavati tells us that for zoom security, a private group within public event online for Soong’s vigil.

The business meeting was closed @ 2001.

The next business meeting will be held on 03 March 2021, 1930, Zoom Meeting.

 

Meeting Minutes

January 2021 Baronial Business Meeting

13 January 2021, Time: 1931

 

Notice: Due to the events that occurred at the Capitol Building on 06 January 2021, the normal Baronial Business Meeting was rescheduled to 13 January 2021.

 

Notes submitted by Signora Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.

 

THL Lucien d’Artois called the January meeting to order. Our Seneschal, THL Juliane de Vivonne, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Juliane read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.

Officers Reports

Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Not a whole lot this month

  • We did have two award recipients.

  • Last month, we got a new laurel, Mistress Veronica!

Knight Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)

  • On the armor side of the house. There was a request to borrow armor for a photoshoot. We officially declined due to COVID. However, unofficially, if someone wanted to loan their armor and take care of cleaning, that would be on them.

  • Penfeathers is looking for submissions. If any of our youth would like to submit something. That would be artwork or an article. The contact for that would be Jennifer Harrington.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Nothing new to report.

Live Weapons (Mistress Mara Palmer)

  • Nothing new to report

Reeve (Mistress Alessandra Giovanna Fioravanti)

  • We have money. We finally got paid for Midwinter. There was a problem with the mail. We have $8,443.00. We will have enough money to pay for the storage unit to pay for the rest of the year.

  • The Red Tower event is already paid for.

Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • We have stuff. It’s in the storage unit.

Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz)

  • Not a whole lot to report.

  • I started a Tik Toc account for personal use. I created a secondary account for SCA. I will see what comes of it. It will be informational/entertainment.

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • No demos currently scheduled. 

  • I am working out where I can schedule things.

Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)

  • It is the beginning of Q1.

  • Please fill out the A&S sheet!

  • I would like to introduce my deputy!

Provost

  • Nothing to report

Chronicler (Signora Aelia Bassina)

  • I am behind on the Quarterly Newsletter due to real life. However, I plan to have it ready by the end of this weekend. If anyone has any last-minute articles, I would gladly accept them.

Social Media Minister (HE Emelina le Nourreys)

  • The Kingdom has been getting a lot more zoom bombers.

    • I believe that the Barony is protected

    • Please do not post anything in public places and use the waiting rooms.

    • We’ve got some new followers.

Webminister (Zhelana Vovkivna)

  • Webminister report – I stepped up on the first. 

  • Since then we have given the kingdom admin access to the site but I still don’t have admin access myself. 

  • Added Laurel to Veronica’s DP page

  • Updated to 2021

  • Added a note that all events are on hold.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai)

  • I have been working hard to get some DEI classes lined up.

    • I’ve created a Google Calendar as they get scheduled.

    • We have the first two months already set up.

      • The first month is really just informational and resources.

      • The first one is on inauguration day, so keep in mind things may be a bit tumultuous. 

      • Majda will be teaching in February.

      • We are going to try and bring in one of the silent heralds. 

      • I would like to include a young person in the SCA

      • We would like to have a class on SCA on a budget.

      • I’ve asked Justina to teach a class on behalf of the Courtesans’ Guild.

Their Excellencies, Master Wistric Oftun & Mistress Sunneva de Cleia

  • We don’t have anything particular

  • We are looking forward to MidWinter.

  • Y’all are the best barony in the whole world!

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • Nothing to report

Seneschal, (THL Juliane de Vivonne)

  • Thank you for being flexible. It has been a stressful week. It’s okay to not be okay. 

  • I want to emphasize that we don’t do outside political stuff during official SCA stuff

  • I want to talk about Red Tower.

    • We all know that Gulf Wars has been moved to out weekend

    • Don’t despair!

    • There are a few things being considered. 

      • Not official! We have had an offer to combine with another group.

        • There are pros and cons. The biggest being that it would be two weeks before Castle Wars

        • Because they are a small group, we would do most of the heavy lifting

        • That means we would have two events without any money coming in right away since it takes a couple of weeks from PayPal

      • We may be able to do it on our old weekend in September.

        • It may not end up being a physical event

        • It will be decided this month.

        • This is our best-case scenarios

        • The downside is that it is very hot that weekend.

      • We can also roll Red Town and Castle Wars into one event

        • Not a good choice as one is a melee event and the other is a tournament

  • The kingdom is making some changes to the website structures

    • Pietro is no longer our Webminister

      • He is amazing!

SCA Business

  • Raven

    • Yes, we are doing MidWinter this year. It will be on  Feb 6th. 

    • It will also be lasting over to Feb 7th for the elevation and court.

    • We are looking at doing some evening activities. We are working with the HomeComing crew as their event is on the same night. They will be adding some rooms for us. Keep your eyes open for that information.

    • On Saturday, there will be classes. If you are interested in teaching a class, please talk to Lady Alisandre. There is a google form on the event page.

    • Master Lorenzo is running our regional faire.

    • There will be a subtlety showcase for cooks who can show their food in disguise. 

    • Juliane and Lucien are sponsoring a prize. They are focusing on extra-European. The prize is a set of teacups.

    • There is no theme this year.

    • Emelina will be handling the advertising.

  • Bu

    • At demos, I normally have a banner for the Barony. Would it be okay if I flew something like that for Meriedies?

      • We would need to get permission.

      • We also have banners that have the badges for the Barony.

  • Margavati

    • Tammy’s vigil will be having her vigil on the first day of MidWinter. 

    • I have created a FB group for updates.

The business meeting was closed @ 2016.

The next business meeting will be held on 03 February 2021, 1930, Zoom Meeting.

 

Meeting Minutes

December 2020 Baronial Business Meeting

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

02 December 2020, Time: 1931

Notes submitted by Signora Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.

Lady Bú Feiyan called the December meeting to order. Our Seneschal, THL Juliane de Vivonne, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Juliane read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.

Welcome and it’s nice to see everyone still here!

Officers Reports

Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Nothing new to report.

Knight Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)

  • Nothing new to report.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Roughly nothing new to report.
    • We had an online event recently. 
    • It was well received, but lacking in participation.
    • This format may be used in the future.

Live Weapons (Mistress Mara Palmer)

  • Nothing new to report

Reeve (Mistress Alessandra Giovanna Fioravanti)

  • No new updates

Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • We have stuff.

Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz)

  • No new updates to new people stuff.

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • No demos

Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)

  • We have A&S
  • There is a virtual colegium of scent, perfume, and cosmetics that will be happening this weekend. I will post it on the barony page.
  • There’s a Virtual Islamic Arts this weekend. It’s on the KoM page.
  • There are free virtual classes in Islamic and Indian miniature painting.
  • Welcome to Tammy, she is taking on the role of Provost. She will be handling RUM registration and class sign-ups.

Chronicler (Signora Aelia Bassina)

  • It’s almost the end of the quarter. If you have an article that you would like to see in the Baronial Newsletter, please submit it to me ASAP.

Social Media Minister (HE Emelina le Nourreys)

  • All is well.
  • We have 4 new followers on FaceBook, IG has a total of 319 followers.

Webminister (Captain Pietro di Conti)

  • Submitted quarterly report to Kingdom Webminister.
  • Updated baronial awards for Lucien, Isabetta, Kál-Bárðr, Cellach, and Zoe.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai)

  • Class this month is a Holiday Social. We just want to talk about different traditions for personas.
  • I have a deputy now, it’s Lady Lily!
  • I am working on ways to add subtitles to things for people that can’t hear well. I am working with Kingdom and Society for a solution. We have some options that we are going to try out. It’s an ongoing process.

Their Excellencies, Master Wistric Oftun & Mistress Sunneva de Cleia

  • This year has been … just.
  • I want to reiterate that at the very least, I am so grateful for you all. This is my one normal time during the week. I get to see people’s faces. 
  • South Downs has been a steady rock during all this. 
  • This is the best Barony, if i do say so myself.
  • Thank you for making Virtual Castle Wars.
    • I personally didn’t hear any complaints
    • It was nice and low key.
    • I enjoyed it.
  • I want to talk to Midwinter.
    • I’ve already been getting questions about Midwinter.
    • An in-person Midwinter isn’t going to be possible, but a virtual Midwinter can happen.
    • Someone reached out to me about being in charge of Midwinter. (Raven) It does not have to be an all out thing. It can just be classes and faire. It is an important event for the Kingdom A&S calendar. So, we should have a presence. 
    • It will be at the same time of year as we normally do. So, we are about 2 months out. That is a good amount of time to pull together a list of classes and get a faire. 
  • Contracts to everyone that made a good showing at Castle Wars.

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • Nothing to report

Seneschal, (THL Juliane de Vivonne)

  • I don’t have anything that HE isn’t going to talk about.
  • I hope everyone is doing well. 
  • If you have any need whatsoever, please reach out to who you feel comfortable with. 

Upcoming Events

  • 05 December 2020 – 1900 to 2300 – Meridies Homecoming (it’s a hangout to see your friends)

SCA Business

  • Post-mortem for Castle Wars
    • Juliane (personal observations)
      • I knew that I would not have the bandwidth to autocrat.
      • I have an idea to rule by committee, but I don’t think it was successful at all. I think it’s important to have one person in charge of everything. Because of that, I don’t think the communication was as good as it could have been.
      • I think it was a small event, but I think it was a quality event. If I have to choose, I would choose quality of quantity.
    • Sunneva
      • I wanted to bring up something I heard. 
      • At the beginning when we were all trying to plan this. I was very much against a 3-4 day Castle Wars. If we could do a week-long event, like a class a night, that might be a better use of time.
        • Juliane – I think that’s a good idea because we are all Zoom exhausted. One hour a night is better than all day.
      • I think we could think outside the box more.
    • Aelia
      • I just want to say that I think that the way that Kal did the Baronial court was very smooth and seamless.
    • Juliane 
      • Asked Kal about teaching a class on how to do Zoom streaming.
        • Kal – Absolutely. We can go over what you would like in the class. We can find out if you want to do the technical side or the show production side.
    • Pietro
      • I think it would be good to have an autocrat.
      • When Brenden was doing the tournaments, he put in the effort to make it feel like a real event.
        • Juliane – I’ve heard a lot of good things about that.
  • Juliane 
    • I’m going to brag on South Downs
      • We are trend setters, we are innovators.
      • I think we set the standards a lot of the time.
      • I couldn’t be prouder of everyone.
  • Piers
    • Do we have an updated financial policy?
      • Juliane – No, it’s gone by the wayside. We will take care of it.,

Business meeting was closed @ 2011.

Next business meeting will be held 06 January 2021, 1930, Zoom Meeting.

Castle Wars, Meeting Minutes, Red Tower

November 2020 Baronial Business Meeting

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

04 November 2020, Time: 1931

Notes submitted by Lady Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.

THL Lucien d’Artois called the November meeting to order. Our Seneschal, THL Juliane de Vivonne, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Juliane read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.

Welcome and it’s nice to see everyone still here!

Officers Reports

Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Nothing to report.

Knight Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)

  • Nothing to report as normal.
  • Crown List will probably be in early February. 

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Nothing to report.

Live Weapons (Mistress Mara Palmer)

  • Nothing to report.

Reeve (Mistress Alessandra Giovanna Fioravanti)

  • We have money still.   
  • Storage unit is paid up through the end of the year.

Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Repeat info about the storage unit.

Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz), Finnvarr mac Branain reporting

  • Not a lot to report.
  • We have two new people!

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • Nothing new.

Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)

  • No class this month because of Thanksgiving. 

Chronicler (Lady Aelia Bassina)

  • Nothing new to report
  • I will be getting with the Reeve to arrange a time to drop off a check from the fund raiser. So far, we are up to $200!

Social Media Minister (HE Emelina le Nourreys)

  • We have 8 more followers on Instagram, 7 on FB, and there are interesting things happening in the Kingdom with the Burial Effigies.

Webminister (Captain Pietro di Conti)

  • Update to WordPress v5.5.3.  An earlier WordPress update locked out some logins; if you have a login that doesn’t work, a password recovery should fix it.
  • Eastern Regional Webminister has asked us to provide an admin account to be used by the “Kingdom Web Team”.  I have pushed back on this request as it is contrary to good security practice.
  • Eastern Regional Webminister has asked for officers to make sure they set up their kingdom email account (most have, only a few haven’t).  They would like to make the kingdom email accounts the only “official” officer email accounts.  I mentioned to him we thought the email addresses were too cryptic.  He talked about it with the Kingdom Webminister and they aren’t willing to change them.
  • He also would like us to migrate to the kingdom web server, but I don’t have the energy to start a project like that now.  He did offer advice and help on doing it.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai)

  • We’ve had a lot of classes. Thank you to everyone that enjoyed it. 
  • This month we will be doing a class on accessibility. I’ll post information about it when I have it. 

Her Excellency, Mistress Sunneva de Cleia

  • I don’t have much, I’m tired like everyone else!
  • Thank you for being the best barony. Talking to you all for the past months has been amazing.
  • Keep remembering to reach out and take time out if you need it.
  • I want to remind people to write letters. Write about things that are good. It helps when you are an officer and you get something good into your inbox. With November and Thanksgiving it’s the perfect opportunity.
  • There are some awards that are traditional awards for this Barony. We have had a committee going all summer to work on those awards to see if we need any changes. The process is taking a little longer than expected. We will get there when we get there.
  • Baronial Largess Challenge: 

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • Nothing to report

Seneschal, (THL Juliane de Vivonne)

  • First thing, we are still looking for a Provost. It’s a great entry level position. Kal has helped out a lot. If you’re interested, please contact me. 
  • If you have not logged into your kingdom email, they know and they send me emails. Please log in. I know who you are. Let me know if you lost your password.
  • I clarified to see if we needed to move to the kingdom web server. It is required. But, it will get done when it gets done.

Upcoming Events

  • Virtual Castle Wars: The Red Tower – 20-22 November 2020

SCA Business

  • Castle Wars
    • It’s been a challenge because people are tired. We are organized by a committee. We are looking for graphics. We are two weeks out now. I’ve announced a couple of competitions. We are trying to find alternative things instead of sitting in zoom meetings all day. If you know of any heavy fighters that might be interested in doing something, let me know. I have ideas.
    • We need zoom classes.
    • Question was posed about live zooming in a kitchen.
    • We will have a scriptorium
    • There will be a social (Justina). I like the unofficial Meridian Revel format. One thing that we have done in the past is historically accurate cosplay. I’ve been wanting to do something with the children, like tea with Disney Princesses.
    • Onesie party?
    • If anyone is interested in doing a daytime social, Her Excellency does a brunch. 
  • Midwinter (Online)
    • Do we want to have it and who wants to organize it?
    • Please think about it and let me know.
    • We need to check with TRM and the Kingdom A&S.
    • We will table this idea and think about it.
  • Next Wednesday is project night! Starts around 7-7:30.
  • There are a lot of A&S classes out there. I’ll gather information so let me (Ximon) know if you are interested.

Business meeting was closed at 2015.

Next business meeting will be held 02 December 2020, 1900, Zoom Meeting.

Meeting Minutes

October 2020 Baronial Business Meeting Minutes

Baronial business meeting 7 October 2020

Lucien opened the meeting at 7:32pm

Our seneschal, Juliane, read the bullying statement into the meeting

Herald THL Lucien
Get report

Armored – Lady Mairghread
Marshal activities are still on hold, pending reevaluation in January
Set up/logged into official email
Passed along her updated membership for other marshals – her membership now expires 31 Oct 2021

Rapier – Captain Brendan
Yesterday, I submitted my quarterly report to the Kingdom Rapier Marshallate. One function of Group Rapier Marshals is the maintenance of a roster of authorized and not-yet authorized rapier and cut-and-thrust fighters in our Barony. I don’t have direct access to the Kingdom authorization database, so that report is generated by who I’ve actually seen at practices and the information people share with me. The official instruction is that when someone has not been at practice for 6 months, we drop them from the roster. Since we have not had an in-person practice in over 6 months… Seriously, much of the information I have is out of date, so if you feel like you should be on our Baronial rapier/C&T roster, please go ahead and send me the info on your authorization card(s). If you are not yet authorized but may be interested in rapier or cut-and-thrust combat after the Glorious Day When We All Get Back Together (GDWWAGBT), drop me a line. By the way, this includes potential youth rapier combatants, theoretically as young as six years old. Also, my very rough draft of guidelines for holding practices in the first phases of our return have been sent to the Kingdom Rapier Marshal (aka Deputy Earl Marshal, Rapier) for some review and (I hope) integration with suggestions from other sources in preparation for GDWWAGBT. In case you wondered what a Group Rapier Marshal obsesses over during quarantine, you are invited to view my very rough draft here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RN5G1eBodJEUxzbTKn0EgL18e95veZH9iIc9f6smqmY/edit?usp=sharing
Feel free to send me your commentary. Possibly the best on-line resource for SCA Rapier is the Facebook group “Virtual Academy of the Rapier.” Round-table discussions and classes (including some actual lessons) abound via Zoom, Google Meeting, and Facebook Live. Event notices and recordings of those events already passed are posted there.
email: rapier@southdowns.meridies.org or rm.southdowns@meridies.org facebook: Benjamin Hay
Peace, love, and chocolate.

Live Weapons – Mistress Mara
No report

Reeve – Mistress Alessandra
No report
We probably have money 🙂

Quartermaster – THL Lucien
Haven’t seen any of our stuff for 6 months, but he’s assuming we still have our stuff

Chatelaine – Lord Nikon
No report – we probably have people
Bú – we had some new people come in and get garb from Gold Key, even though we still can’t meet in person
Raven – mentioned that Brendan picked up a bunch of garb being donated to Gold Key, is working on getting it to Nikon. Master Ximon offered to help get it to Nikon, as he works near him.

Arts and Sciences – THL Alisandre
We have arts and sciences! Q4 has just begun, so it’s time to put together the 3Q report for Kingdom. Please add your projects to the online form by Midnight on 11 October. Alisandre reminded everyone that you can add any project you’ve been working on – not just the big projects – everything counts
Baronial largesse challenge – 6 items, for more info, go to the events page in the baronial FB group
Baron/Baroness challenge with prizes!
If you are interested in sponsoring a category for the largesse challenge, please let Alisandre know asap so she can advertise it.
Since no one is going anywhere for the holidays, do we want to have a class in Nov and Dec?
Virtual holiday party? Will post on FB group to get feedback
Pondering doing a secular secret Santa event – the idea was well received by the populace. Alisandre will put a poll up on the baronial FB group to get feedback and ideas.

Chronicler – Signora Aelia Bassina
The quarterly newsletter was sent out on October 1st.
The fundraiser for the barony is going well. Once the money is transferred (they only do it once a month), I will get with Mistress Alessandra to get some money going into the Barony’s accounts.

Social Media
We have social media
Not much going on, a few more people following us on our social media accounts
Scribal guild is doing scribetober, check it out!

Diversity
We have a couple of things going on
Next Wednesday the corporate DEI is hosting a roundtable with kingdom officers discussing what each kingdom is up to. Margavati will post a link
Classes every Wednesday – the following week she’ll be hosting a class on extra-European research (Ouyang, Stella, and a few others)

Webminister
Changed Michael Stagge’s page to Ælfric Hort’s page and added his award.
Updated Brendan’s page with pronouns, classes, and interests.
Changed marshal, rapier, baron emails to forward to kingdom officer email address.
On the evening of 9/29, the web site started being reported by browsers as a potentially malicious web site. Having several officers report the web site as being good seemed to remedy the problem by the morning of 9/30.
Deleted an intruder account reported by Kingdom Webminister as having appeared on multiple WordPress sites.  Cleaned up unused plugins, updated the 5 remaining plugins.
Added Nikoslav as deputy seneschal, Wistric as baron

Minister of Children
No report

Their Excellencies
Y’all are awesome and continue to be awesome
The pandemic has been awful, but you have been fab
HerE held a brunch at the pageantry event, it went so well she’s doing it again on the 25th
HisE – the populace award committee has been working on updating the Heart of SD and Chivalry awards, figuring out a single award, what will we call it, what the description will be, how will we select the recipients, etc. Welcomes feedback

Seneschal
Still looking for a provost – liaison schedule classes, etc., reports to A+S minister and organize classes, fill out sheet for RUM so everyone can get credit
Castle wars – Juliane has been really busy so she hasn’t been able to work on it as much as she’s wanted to. She wants it to be innovative and different, its own event not just an online version of a regular event.
Getting a team together: Juliane is heading up competitions, Alisandre is doing A+S, Kal is handling classes, ??? is doing social media, Andreva is doing auctions, (get list from Juliane). Demos! More active than just Zoom classes and Zoom presentations.
Duct tape armor contest?
Competitions that will require some lead time… She will post tomorrow a call for volunteers
Date: same dates as Castle Wars
Auction will be held as a fundraiser during the event – contact THL Andreva for more info

SCA Business
None

Non-SCA Business
Margavati mentioned she got a great spiced soap at Target, Acorn Spice by Mrs Myers

After Nik’s and Pietro’s kitties joined the meeting, Their Excellencies decreed that everyone should show their kitties

Izzy (Juliane and Lucien’s pup) says the meeting is now over. 8:10pm

A&S, Announcements, Classes, Dragoncon, Meeting Minutes

September 2020 BARONIAL BUSINESS MEETING MINUTES

02 September 2020, 1931

Notes submitted by Signora Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.

THL Lucien d’Artois called the July meeting to order. Our Seneschal, THL Juliane de Vivonne, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Juliane read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.

Officers Reports

Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Two new award recipients at the last court, Lilly and Aelfric.. 

Knight Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)

  • Quarterly reports have been done.
  • Zero practices. And we will continue to not have practices until the end of January.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Nothing new.

Live Weapons (Mistress Mara Palmer)

  • Nothing new to report

Reeve (Mistress Alessandra Giovanna Fioravanti)

  • Nothing new to report

Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • We have stuff.

Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz), Finnvarr mac Branain reporting

  • One person has expressed interest. I will be reaching out to the MoC because she has a small child. 

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • Nothing new to report.

Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)

  • We have A&S
  • We had people that entered into the largess challenge for Foxes.
  • There will be a barony Largess challenge coming up
  • There are classes coming up this month, 
    • We have a DEI class this month
    • Our monthly class is Magic and Superstition.

Chronicler (Signora Aelia Bassina)

  • First issue of the newsletter will be 1 October.
  • I am still looking for articles to be included. 
  • Barony decals are still available. Please support the barony, they are only $5 each!

Social Media Minister (HE Emelina le Nourreys)

  • We have interest in Social Media.
    • We are going to change the approval process for FB.

Webminister (Captain Pietro di Conti)

  • Received request from Lord Freybjorn (a Kingdom Webminister Deputy) for officer information to set up email addresses on a new kingdom email server; he has asked for Seneschal to be single point-of-contact.  Kingdom Webminister’s office has indicated they will eventually want all officer emails to be on their server.  Freybjorn has followed up by sending meridies.org login information to seneschal.  He is providing email accounts for officers but not deputies.  These will be email accounts, not email forwarders to personal accounts.
    • All officers will have a new email address that they will need to check as the emails will not be forwarded to personal emails.
    • This is to keep the historical documents available for officers that follow the current officers.
  • Sent quarterly report to kingdom webminister.
  • Added a new profile page and award for Lily of South Downs.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai)

  • Not much to report
  • We did a class last month with the corporate DEI officer. It went well.
  • We would like to see new people come in.

Her Excellency, (Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)

  • Wistric is back as the Baron of South Downs!
  • We want to thank everyone for their support and patience.
  • We are committed in moving forward with the SCA Core Values.
  • Passions are high online, but the barony has been amazing at conducting themselves.
  • Please remember these de-escalation techniques:
    • As questions
    • Practice radical acceptance of other people’s feelings
    • Think about separating the action from the person.
  • Keep up with the radical accountability!

His Excellency, (Master Wistric Oftun)

  • I have always thought of the barony as my people.
  • You all have made us proud these last few months.
  • THank you to everyone that has been participating in the virtual activities.
  • It’s good to be back!

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • Nothing to report.

Seneschal, (THL Juliane de Vivonne)

  • There are still things going on, even in these unprecedented times
  • I have a deputy! His name is Nikolslov!
  • I still don’t have a provost. It’s a great way to dip your toe into becoming an officer. Please contact me if you’re interested.
  • There are two things I want to run. I want to start making announcements within the next week and a half.
  • South Downs is the innovative barony. 
  • Start thinking about Midwinter and if we want to do it online. I want this event to stand out.
  • I am really proud of everyone!

Recent Events

  • 15 August 2020 – Virtual Meridies Kingdom A&S
  • 22 August 2020 – Foxes 2020: Plague-Con

Upcoming Events

SCA Business

  • Raven: Back on the 15th of August, we had Artsy Crown. Several people from South Downs assisted. It went really well. We had 6 or 7 classes. Everything was zoom meetings. We had a really good turnout. Stella earned a perfect score and was recognized in Court.
  • Lily: I was wondering about the DEI office. Is it structured like the other offices? Is there a future plan?
    • Margavati: Right now, there isn’t. My thinking is that there would be some kind of change over the office. There are a lot of enthusiastic people in the barony that I think would do well in the position. If you’re interested, please message me.
    • Juliane: The way it works is there’s usually a two year tenure. Except in extenuating circumstances. Generally speaking, it’s a two year gig. When you sign up as a deputy, please remember that you are making that commitment for two years.
    • Margavati: Regardless, I could still use functionally deputies. I welcome the assistance. This is a new thing for local groups. I welcome all ideas. I’m really here to help educate people and advise the barony as a group.
    • Juliane: there was a misunderstanding on what the kingdom DEI office does. Please come to me if you have any questions.
  • Kalbardr: We are in week one of the mystery box phase. If you have one, please take a photo of your box and send it to me. 
  • Lyk: I would like to see event tokens for Castle Wars. Juliane agreed.
  • Margavati: I am purely tech support for a Grave finds video thing. If you want to, it’s basically you would have everything around you that would be taking with you to the afterlife. The deadline is September 18.
    • There was the suggestion for putting a trigger warning on the video since some people have lost loved ones during this pandemic.

Business meeting was closed at 2033.

Next business meeting will be held 07 October 2020, 1930, Zoom Meeting.

A&S, Announcements, Castle Wars, Events, Meeting Minutes, Midwinter A&S, Society ANNOUNCEMENTS

AUGUST 2020 Baronial Business Meeting Minutes

South Downs Baronial Business Meeting

05 August 2020, 1931

Notes submitted by Lady Aelia Bassina, South Downs Chronicler.

THL Lucien d’Artois called the August meeting to order. Our Seneschal, THL Juliane de Vivonne, greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Juliane read the SCA Anti-Bullying statement and stated the meeting is being recorded.

Officers Reports

Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • We only had one award recipient this month, that would be Piers(Queen’s Rapier Champion).
  • We’ve had one name registrations.

Knight Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)

  • Our Earl Marshal had put a notice on the kingdom page stating that there’s no in person events until the end of January 2021.
  • He also addressed unofficial fighter practice. Please be aware the SCA does not cover that so it would be on your own insurance.
  • Masks: just be prepared for when we come back together that we may have a mask mandate. It would be recommended to start practicing with a mask on.
  • New armored combat rules have been posted. No determinations have been made and probably will not be made for a while.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Nothing new to add.
  • Echo what the Knight marshal said.
  • There is a virtual fighter practice Facebook group. Virtual academy of the rapier is another Facebook group that is available.

Live Weapons (Mistress Mara Palmer)

  • No report.

Reeve (Mistress Alessandra Giovanna Fioravanti)

  • We have money, we spent it on the storage unit.
    • We spend about 287 a month on the storage unit, paid through October.
    • If Midwinter doesn’t happen, we may need to think about alternatives. If it doesn’t, we run into the situation where we don’t have money for events.
    • We are not at panic level yet.
    • Red Tower is completely paid for.
    • I need a deputy!

Lady Mairghread suggested that we have a budget to see where all the money needs to be spent.

Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)

  • Fortunately, we have stuff!
  • Nothing else to add

Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz)

  • There hasn’t been any movement as far as new members. I haven’t heard from anyone that someone approached them.

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • No report

Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)

  • We have A&S!
    • There is an A&S exchange that was suggested.
    • Kingdom A&S coming up this month.
    • We have a couple of classes coming up this month.
    • Think about ideas for largess, it will be a competition with a prize.

Chronicler (Lady Aelia Bassina)

  • First issue of the newsletter will be 1 October.
    • I am still looking for articles to be included. 

Social Media Minister (HE Emelina le Nourreys)

  • Our numbers are up.

Webminister (Captain Pietro di Conti) – (Includes work done by both Zhelana and Pietro)

  • Added pronouns for Piers, Mairghread, Alisandre, Aelia, Wistric, Iastreb, Lorenzo, Zhelana, Raven.  Note: we will only add pronouns for people who ask.
  • Updated the picture for Sunneva on the Baroness page and her personal page.
  • Updated Aelia to be official chronicler, gave her access to the chronicler login.  Set up a temp login for Raven to post old minutes.
  • Added device, title, link to blog to Aelia’s page
  • New pages created for Danielle de Lyon, Anna Felice Tavestoche, Michael Stagge, Sara Wandrownyczka
  • Added classes taught to Zhelana’s page
  • Updated Google form to add pronouns to the question list, and to forward email notifications to Zhelana
  • Established succession plans for the Webminister office to hand over the office to Zhelana (the current Deputy) at Midwinter A&S 2021.  Had several discussions on the succession plan with Baroness and Seneschal.
  • Prepared Westminster job description.
  • Added Mark to the order of the Red Raven.
  • Added Finnbarr as deputy chatelaine.
  • Updated device on Mairghread’s page
  • Added Queen’s Rapier Champion to Piers’ page.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officer (DEI), (Vidushi Mewadi Margavati Bai)

  • Class went really well last month. There were a bunch of conversations that happened after. WE are looking forward to the next class. I am trying to give people opportunities to talk as much as I can.
    • The Society DEI officer will be doing a Q&A, I will try to promote it in more places than just the barony. 
    • If you hear of things happening, please let me know.
    • Thank you to everyone that’s been so open and understanding.

Her Excellency, Mistress Sunneva de Cleia

  • Tonight would be midnight madness at Pennsic. Just like with what happened at Gulf Wars, there are merchants that are out there and posted. If you have coin, they have wares.
  • Earlier this week was SCA Social Media Appreciation Day. I want to give thanks for both Emelina and Isabella. Thank you to everyone that has been keeping the SCA virtual. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed.
  • Award recommendations. Please send them. I would love to recognize people. There is an award recommendation page on our site. Sending in the recommendations really helps me and the scribes.
  • Discussion Point:
    • The Heart of South Downs and the Chivalry Awards. A couple of people have reached out to me regarding this. There will be a committee. If you would like to be on that committee, please let me or Wistric. All opinions are valid.
    • I like mailing stuff. If you need a care package or a friendly note, please PM me your address.
  • Remember to lean on your SCA family if you need to. Also, if you need to step back, it’s okay. We will see you when you get back. Keep the people impacted by this virus in your thoughts.

Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)

  • No report.

Seneschal, (THL Juliane de Vivonne)

  • We’ve lost two people recently. They passed very suddenly.
  • In the last two days, we have heard of 3 people that have tested positive for COVID, one being our King. Please wear masks and be safe.
  • I had announced at the last meeting that we were reinstating the Provost position. It’s basically organizing classes, making sure registration is sent to RUM. Lord Kal has been wonderful in doing that for us. I would love it if someone would reach out to me in their interest. It’s a great position for someone new to the Barony.
  • The BOD has canceled events until the 31st of January. That is for anything in person. If you do anything outside the SCA, you cannot post it on any official SCA page.
  • For Midwinter, it is close to when they allow in-person again. However, I do not believe that Midwinter will be allowed to happen. It wouldn’t fit with the rollout plan for the Kingdom/Society.
  • The Law Committee. They are accepting new members. It will be a rotating people. They are accepting nominations and self-nominations. One from each peerage and two from the populace. If that’s something that interests you or if you know someone that would do a really good job (get their permission first), please let them know. They have been meeting Tuesday nights. 
    • Iazzie stated that most Kingdom positions are for 2 years.

Recent Events

Upcoming Events

  • 10 August 2020 – LGBTQ+ 101 with Lykania and Cellach
  • 12 August 2020 – Project Night
  • 15 August 2020 – Virtual Meridies Kingdom A&S
  • 19 August 2020 – Intro to DEI with Society DEI Officer Q&A to follow
  • 22 August 2020 – Foxes 2020: Plague-Con
  • 26 August 2020 – Class Night – Maedeup: Korean Knots with Myeong Su

SCA Business

  • Margavati: I taught a class over the weekend for Pennsic for the Courtesans. It was neat because each kingdom has a day. It’s a great way to learn stuff. Justina hosted Meridies for the whole day. They are going all war week. Kal has been provosting. Yay, Barony of South Downs! We rock!
  • Jay: Do we have any more info on Castle Wars?
    • Juliane: Sunneva and I need to get together to sort things out. We will get that rolled out sometime soon.
  • Margavati: My husband had a big bucket of bone black. He has more. If you need bone black for pigment, please let him know.
  • Margavati: Countess Gwen is doing a project. It’s a grave finds recreation thing. It’s a glow up focus on grave finds. I only know what I need to know. If you’re interested, she’s doing that. Information is on the Kingdom page.

Business meeting was closed at 2021.

Next business meeting will be held 02 September 2020, 1900, Zoom Meeting.

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