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 Since we have not had an in-person practice in over 6 months… Seriously, much of the information I have is out of date, so if you feel like you should be on our Baronial rapier/C&T roster, please go ahead and send me the info on your authorization card(s).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 1^st.
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

1 April 2020, 7:30pm
Virtual meeting on Zoom

Notes submitted by Lady Raven Helmsplitter, South Downs Zombie Chronicler.

THL Juliane de Vivonne called the meeting to order and sez “Welcome!” As this is our first virtual meeting, she reminded everyone to keep background noise under control by everyone keeping themselves muted until the wished to speak. She also walked everyone through the Zoom meeting features, including the “raise hand” feature which marks that you wish to speak.

THIS IS ALL A GREAT BIG EXPERIMENT – tonight’s meeting will be kept very simple – no votes or anything that requires a lot of interaction.

Officer Reports

• Herald (THL Lucien d’Artois)
  • Nothing to report

• Armored Marshal (Lady Mairghread Wilson)
  • Two pieces of interest:
    • All martial activities are on hold until at least 30 April 2020, then we’ll see how things are
    • Master Edward is holding a pell decoration challenge – send him pictures of your pell by 10 April 2020

• Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan deHay)
  • Reiterated what Mairgrhead said
  • Keep watching the Atlanta SCA fighting FB group for opportunities to study fighting and fighting-related topics while we’re not allowed to actually practice together

• Live Weapons Marshal (Mistress Mara Palmer)
  • Nothing to report

• Exchequer (Mistress Alessandra Fioravanti)
  • We have money, but nothing to spend it on!
  • We also have a puppy! (Mistress Alessandra and her family, not the Barony :-D)

• Quartermaster (THL Lucien d’Artois)
  • We have stuff!

• Chatelaine (Lord Nikon Dawidowicz)
  • Not at the meeting tonight, as he’s not feeling well
  • He has a deputy now, Finbarr

• Minister of Arts & Sciences (THL Alisandre de la Chapelle)
  • Mistress Alessandra will be teaching a class over Zoom this month

• Keeper of the Baronial Memes (Minister of Social Media) (THL Emelina le Nourreys)
  • We have been posting on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
    • 11 new follows on Instagram
    • Two new Society posts shared from us: of Brendan doing footwork, and of HE Mark de Wytteney shopping in armor
    • Send Emelina your pics to share with the Knowne World! Become famous!
  • At Gulf Wars, we were going to have an A&S competition to determine Kingdom A&S champion; it is now being done over social media. They are also hosting an open A&S challenge for anyone in the kingdom – the submission will be 5 photos or a video. Check the Kingdom of Meridies website for further information.
  • Emelina will be deputy to the kingdom social media and communications director

• Webminister (Captain Pietro di Conti)
  • Set up initial web site for Artsy Crown.
    • Added registration and PayPal info
    • Link to Facebook event.
  • Signed up for Zoom Pro, did some test runs then ran a barony meeting via Zoom.
  • Set up a web page on the kingdom web site for Order of Defense at Master Ysabel’s request.
  • Linked Sir Kytte’s page to her profile on the Greate Book of Fighters

• Minister of Children (Lady Una Ulfrdottir)
  • Saw posts about how other groups are doing activities such as going to kids’ houses, etc. She believes this is a bad idea in the current public health crisis
  • There have been no children’s activities over the past couple of weeks because events have been canceled – not to mention, she’s been working all day, and it’s a really bad idea.

• Their Excellencies South Downs (Master Wistric Oftun and Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)
  • First of all, its so good to see everyone’s faces! and to talk to everyone!
  • Sunneva has noticed in the past that some people are missing posts on the baronial Facebook page – if anyone has any ideas how to optimize the Facebook algorithm to make sure that those who need to see news get to see it.
    • Juliane said that it might be that there’s so much going on in peoples’ feeds that maybe the posts get lost?
    • Charlie said that based on the music industry, Facebook seems to prefer images over text?
  • Also, A+S challenges – the local ones that Her Excellency has been working on with Emelina. They got this idea from a barony in Midrealm. Due to a mundane connection Sunneva found with someone from that barony, there is now an inter kingdom incident brewing between the two baronies.
  • THis week’s challenge was to make a cardboard and tinfoil helm – this challenge has been extended
  • Last week’s A+S class was Eri’s silkworm raising class – it was super fun! we are not restricted by time or place to do classes. Also, if you are interested in silkworms, she’d love to talk to you about silkworms.
  • If you have ideas about continuing engagement online – particularly the Facebook page (especially with Emelina’s work as Minister) please reach out, as this is really how we are going to communicate for the near future.
  • Finally – if you know anyone who needs help, from communicating to food to whatever please contact Their Excellencies.
  • Finally finally – Wistric says that since technically we don’t have dance (or project) nights right now, please feel free to fill the Wednesdays with classes or whatever. We want to have an excuse to hang out every week.
  • Juliane suggested maybe a themed hangout.

• Seneschal (THL Juliane de Vivonne)
  • Artsy Crown – as of right now, we don’t know what’s going on. SCA has canceled everything up through 11 May, but we still need to go forward with plan just in case.
  • Red Tower has a bid from Mariana and Farouq; finance committee has approved the bid, and we’ll vote on it in May
  • Does project night seem to be working out down at the Makerspace? or would it be better to bring it back to our regular Doraville meeting space?
    • Wistric mentioned that there are projects we are working on that requires the resources the Makerspace provides.
    • Emelina asked if we even know where the new Makerspace is going to be?
    • Juliane mentioned that there are other projects that don’t play well in the Makerspace (scribal, for example), but she is open to whatever the Barony decides.
    • There is a cost issue ($50 for 2 extra hours per month), but she believes that we need to be there regularly to keep the space.
    • Emelina suggested that until we know what the new space will be like, we won’t really be able to decide. It might be that the new site may have space for both small and larger projects.
    • Gwyn mentioned that there is a significant value in maintaining access to the Makerspace, so we should make that a priority however we need to do that.

SCA Business

• Justina was going to do a Roman spa event at GW, and since that fell through she is considering hosting a Roman Home meeting/event via a Zoom meeting, inviting people to an online salon to discuss Roman-themed topics and dressed in Roman clothing, etc.
  • Everyone liked her idea 🙂 She will go ahead and post info about her event once she’s got the info together.
  • Juliane said that it would be fabulous if Justina offered period hairstyling demos on Zoom.
  • Margavati announced that she is interested in doing an Indian/South Asian salon, similar to what Justina was describing with her Roman Home event.
• Mairghread reminded everyone that the Earl Marshal said that backyard practices are ON YOUR OWN – no connection to the SCA or liability, etc.
• Regarding face/plague masks: Gwyn is going to head up a PPE mask tutorial – there are tons of mask patterns that are downloadable online. She is working on developing an adjustable mask (drawstrings to the sides that aren’t elastic) that ties with ribbon or bias tape etc, She will be meeting about this on Friday to show how to make these masks.
  • Lillie thanked Gwyn for helping her with her own mask project.
  • There was discussion about mask details.
  • Rhi said that if anyone needs a place to send masks to, send them to her or Ximon – Kaiser will gladly take them.
  • Alessandra reminded everyone that not everyone can sew masks, so DBAD. She also has an extra sewing machine available for anyone who wants it.
  • Agnes asked about whether handsewing masks are a thing or not – can they meet the requirements medical staff need?
  • Ximon offered to pick up any masks that people want to donate.
  • Lillie asked about where everyone gets their mask fabric. Juliane said it needs to be tight woven and washable. Gwyn added that it should be breathable. Rhi suggested ordering online from places like Fine Fabrics or quilting cotton from amazon, and eBay and etsy!
  • Justina thought that perhaps her mom might have some quilting cotton available.
• Alessandra added that we are a group that care about history, we could be a part of creating history and keep journals about our experiences now. Sunneva said the librarian in her salutes the historian in Alessandra.
• In closing, Juliane said she could not be prouder of our Barony – the talent, the compassion, taking part in the zoom meetings, etc.this is why we are her chosen family.

Meeting ended at 8:30pm. No group dinner plans, as everyone was already at home.

Next business meeting: Wednesday, 6 May 2020. It will like still be online via Zoom, but stay tuned!