Meeting Minutes

September 2023 Baronial Business Meeting

06 September 2023, Time: 7:32 PM EST

Notes submitted by Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong, South Downs Chronicler.

Magister Lorenzo called the September meeting to order. Our Seneschal, Lady Raven Helmsplitter started recording the meeting and greeted the populace joining the Zoom meeting. Lady Raven read the Kingdom Anti-Bullying statement.

Officers’ Reports

Seneschal, (Lady Raven Helmsplitter)

  • Thanks to everyone who came out to last week’s 5th Wednesday social!
  • Schedule for this month:
    • Next week (9/13) virtual TBD
    • 9/20 in-person DEIB Tourette Syndrome with Xander
    • 9/27 in person: Roman Workouts with Sumarliði
  • Still looking for a new storage unit
  • I will need to get the meeting site reservations set up in the next month or so. # of in-person meetings will depend on 1) interest and 2) budget. Would like to discuss further next month.
  • Anyone going to MGT later this month, I would really appreciate getting photos as well as opinions of the event site. I am planning to go for a site visit in the next month or so to get a sense of suitability for which events we might host in the future.
  • We need to start thinking about what KLE we might put in a bid for, as every barony is required to submit a bid for a KLE
  • Midwinter A+S is coming, and we need bids! It is traditionally the first Saturday in February, but it’s currently not on the kingdom schedule.
  • Red Tower is this weekend! More info later on in the meeting.
  • Castle Wars is coming! More info later on in the meeting.

Herald (Lady Bú Feiyan)     

  • Nothing reported from Bu
  • From Lorenzo
    •  working on name submissions and armory submissions
    • Awards at Pennsic: Majda got an Argent Slipper and Arnora got her Court Barony
    • If you want to help out with site or heraldry, please let Master Mathias know!

Knight Marshal (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • We have been having practices that have been relatively well attended.  
  • Completed a few authorizations at last week’s practice.  I will have authorization forms at Red Tower for those in need of authorization. I will not have loaner gear with me.
  • There will be no practice on 10 September due to Red Tower and unless there is a marshall available on 1 October there will be no practice, this is the week of MGT and both my deputy and I will be fighting at MGT.  
  • I also completed my youth sparring authorization so if THL Mairghread or another youth marshal is there we have multiple people that can fight with youth.

Rapier Marshal (Captain Brendan de Hay)

  • Practices have been proceeding, weather and other events permitting.  Sundays starting around noon (concurrent with armored practice).  Schedule changes, cancellations, and any other relevant information is shared on the FaceBook group “Atlanta SCA Fighting,” and sometimes other locations depending on circumstances.  Loaner gear is usually available, but it doesn’t hurt to check the “Atlanta SCA Fighting” group in advance.  Sometimes when I’m not available, the “stunt marshal” might not be able to bring it.
  • This Sunday (9/10) we’ll still be cleaning up and returning from Red Tower.  Sorry, no rapier practice.
  • As my mundane schedule gets even crazier, we’ve started a chat including every rapier marshal who might step in to fill those gaps.  Thanks to everyone for working together to keep practices happening.  I wouldn’t mind having a deputy step up who could take over from me in the not-too-distant future.
  • Big shout-out to folks recently giving rapier a try.  Looking forward to seeing more folks having fun!
  • This weekend, Red Tower!
  • Castle Wars is coming up faster than you think.  Castle Wars requires a castle, which we happen to have.  However, it needs work.  If you are interested in helping beautify the castle, please contact me.  Some of the pieces are heavy, some of them need some minor carpentry, and all of them need some paint.  I’d like to arrange a couple of work days/weekends in my front yard.  Available times for me are Monday, 9/18-Friday, 9/29 or Saturday 10/7-17.
  • Castle Wars schedule is currently expected to include the Meridian Order of the Blade Invitational tournament, as well as all the meleé we can pack in around it.  Stay tuned.
  • HYDRATE!

Live Weapons (Master Mathias Blackett)

  • The search for a new archery place continues, may start looking at schools or parks until we can find a new place
  • Thrown weapons are still at Master Mathias’ house.
  • Didn’t have practice last month, hoping to have one for September
  • Around 17th of 24th for Sept. for live weapons practice
  • Equipment is good, want to practice with more atlatls
  • Live Weapons will be at Red Tower, Mara will be marshal at RT
  • Teaching a Marshal class at 8 AM for setting up the range to get RUM credit

Exchequer (La Magnifica Justina di Silvestri)

  • We have $4292.28 in our account
  • PO Box is up for renewal by the end of this month. Expense is $226, previously approved in the annual budget meeting. I will renew next week. 
  • We are going to need to update the signatories on our account so I will discuss that process with the financial committee.
  • Just made a deposit today of $155 for pre-reg checks for RT
  • Paypal Use Request for CW is complete and should be available after RT. 
  • Reminder that for the time being, all troll registration must be either pre-preg via Paypal or check, or with cash or check at the gate. We can’t accept cards at this time.
  • It is a requirement that if you want to purchase a member discounted ticket, then you must present a current membership card. Even if you pre-register!! If you are not able to show proof of membership, then you will need to pay the $5 non member cost.
  • Reminder for all event expenses, absolutely NO personal purchases may be on a receipt that you turn in for reimbursement. 
  • Please check your budgets. If you are able, please consider separating purchases onto different categories. For example, if you are buying food and general supplies for the event, making those be on separate receipts is very very helpful and helps make paperwork easier.
  • If you have any purchase or money questions or any questions in general about the Barony’s funds please reach out to me any time. 
  • Please be patient at troll with the volunteers, sometimes the paperwork takes time on site.
  • You can show a screenshot of your membership card or even the email as proof of purchase of your membership.
  • If you haven’t received a card from Corporate and you don’t have one, email them and they will send you one for free.

Quartermaster (Maestra Isabetta de San Marco) 

  • We still have stuff.
  • We still need a new storage space.
  • She still needs a deputy.

Chatelaine (Lady Ogata Mitsuko)

  • Will be writing up an article about the recent High Museum visit with some newbies and possible recruitment
  • Next up is the Viking exhibit at Fernbank Museum.
  • Master Mathias will be there with mead for the Fernback After Dark, Friday Nov. 10th!
  • Lady Ogata will be tied up with reservations and troll for Red Tower.
  • We’ve got some newcomers preregistered over Discord and garb for people!
  • Full report will be coming soon.

Demo Deputy (Lady Bú Feiyan)

  • Nothing reported

Arts & Sciences (HE Rhiannon verch Madyn)

  • We’ve seen an explosion of A&S on our Discord server recently and it makes me super excited to see everything being shared. Lots of textile projects and garb, wood working, jewelry making and bone carving too. And Sara is even learning to write Hebrew! You all ROCK!!!
  • And as a bonus, you’ve all been sharing your knowledge, research and resources. The sharing of knowledge is super important. You never know, someone may see something you’re doing or read a resource you post and become interested in a new thing. Keep sharing your work and your knowledge South Downs!!
  • I’m also happy to announce that Maryam has accepted the position as our A&S Officer. I’ll be working with her over the next few months to bring her up to speed on all things A&S. Thank you Maryam!!

Provost (Lord Ælfric Hort)

  • This past month we had 13 people show up for our monthly class night – Medieval Flavors with Mistress Christianna MacGrain.  
  • September’s class night will be September 27 in person at the Doraville Civic Center.  Sumarliði will be teaching us about Roman Workouts.
  • We also have 4 classes coming up at Red Tower this weekend.
  • I currently have all Teaching spots filled for the remainder of the 2023 calendar year.  Now is a great time to be thinking ahead to Castle Wars, Midwinter A&S, as well as monthly classes for 2024.
  • And on that note, I am going to start looking for a deputy Provost to begin helping me organize and promote A&S Class activities for the coming year.  Please get in touch with me on Facebook or Discord if you are interested in the position.

Chronicler (Seong Myeong Su Daesaseong)

  • Working on September’s issue of The Read Tower right now, will add in the officer’s reports and business from this meeting to add in the newsletter and will hopefully have it posted by Friday this week.
  • Goal is to get new bots for the Baronial and Kingdom calendars connected on the Discord and Baronial website before Castle Wars, won’t have time until after Red Tower this weekend.
  • Looking into Mailchimp to see if we can use it to send out the newsletters via email to those who want to subscribe and stay updated.
  • If you want to add events like Supper Club or gatherings to the South Downs Calendar, please feel free to reach out to me and we can get them added!
  • Always looking to interview the populace for each issue, so please fill out this form to get included! Eventually I’d like to collect these into one PDF so we have a good collection of information about our members: https://forms.gle/MNxww3KUQJo2VsEG9
  • Please submit photos, art, articles, shout-outs, or anything that you’ve found interesting and want to share! I’ll always be collecting stuff for the newsletters going forward. You can submit either through this form: https://forms.gle/8SyEF9D7c8rMCnZP6 or email me at chron.southdowns@meridies.org.

Social Media Minister  (THLady Agnes Halydaye) 

  • Not much to report from social media presence; however we’ve had reasonably good interactions with Red Tower promotional posts. A notable part of that was that the Society page picked up our photo album for the Red Tower feast and that generated a lot of interest. Thanks to Lady Ysabel for taking the time to get all of those great photos during the feast test run!
  • If you aren’t currently a Discord user, I encourage you to give it a shot because the Barony’s Discord server is lively and full of interesting content and discussion! South Downs server is essentially a collection of ongoing group chats, organized by topics such as A&S, upcoming events, cooking, garb, etc. As a relatively new Discord user myself, I can promise that the learning curve isn’t too bad and the payoff is well worth it.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer (DEIB), (Lady Lily of South Downs)

  • Thanks to Maryam for stepping into A&S and for teaching her class last month on LBGTQ People in the Medieval Middle East.
  • For this month’s DEI class, which will be in person on the 20th of September, Xander will be teaching a class about Understanding Tourette Syndrome.

Webminister (Lord Eiríkr Pálsson)

  • Made updates to a couple of officer pages to reflect current officers/deputies and updated the Deputies needed page.  
  • Made some minor updates for awards I know of for baronial members.  
  • Created and made updates to the Red Tower 2023 webpage.  For future events and needed updates please email me those to the web.southdowns@meridies.org email.  This helps me keep track of what I haven’t done yet and also gives me a historical tracking.  I don’t want to forget about needed changes but if it is just through messenger I have a tendency to forget because it gets marked as read.
  • I don’t think I have seen the flyer for Castle Wars yet to put up on the website.  The sooner it gets approved the sooner I can put it up.

Minister of Children (VACANT)

  • Position is still open, if you are interested, please contact Lady Raven.

Their Excellencies, (Master Wistric Oftun & Mistress Sunneva de Cleia)

  • Still here for the next three days!
  • Thank you all, we look forward to seeing you at Red Tower. Thank you for the wonderful experience, as always.
  • If you haven’t filled out your ballot for the Swift’s Heart nominations, please fill it out and send it back by midnight tonight, Sept. 6th.

SCA Business

  • Red Tower
  • Master Mathias
        • Capt. Brendan posted a list of things in the inventory, if you’re on staff and haven’t requested things from the storage unit, please let Capt. Brendan know
        • Will be driving a minivan to bring Live Weapons equipment
        • Friday, around 6:30PM, we will meeting at the storage unit in Doraville to pack for Red Tower. If you’re able to bring something down to the event, please come to the storage unit to help bring things down so we don’t have to rent a trailer.
        • Message Capt. Brendan on FB or rm.southdowns@meridies.org if you need something from the storage unit so that they can compile a list of things needed from the storage unit
        • Master Mathias is touching base with all of the staff to figure out what things would be needed
        • Still need a herald for Their Majesties for Kingdom Court at Red Tower
        • We don’t know if we’ll have Children’s Activities at RT due to positive COVID tests
        • 1PM is the earliest that the site will let us on, Master Mathias will try to be on site as early as possible
        • Still looking for someone to run the lists for the tournaments
        • For future note, certain positions on staff can get their site fees comped, but not parking or feast fees, so please keep that in mind.
  • Castle Wars
    • Lady Hessa and THLady Ysabel
      • Site tokens have been ordered
      • Still looking for some positions to be filled, please let us know if you’re interested in helping
      • Still in need of a landcrat, which is most important thing so far, people to help with parking and bathroom patrol. Please volunteer even if people have volunteered already, we’re hoping to have teams to help rotate responsibilities
        • Master Mathias will take over for Landcrat for CW
      • Need to look for a merchantcrat
    • Capt. Brendan
      • The castle for Castle Wars needs some work, currently at Capt. Brendan and Lady Raven’s house.
      • Will need some work days/weekends at their house to work on the walls
      • Brendan may be out of town on days that work will need to be done on the walls
        • He is free between Sept. 18-29 and Oct. 7-17
        • Current plan is for Saturday, Oct. 7th.
      • May need to look into purchasing another measuring wheel
    • La Magnifica Justina
      • Need to figure out how teams are going to work with people for the troll team at Castle Wars to make sure she can train people properly
  • Supper Club – Lady Maryam
    • Alisandre is hosting again, late Oct. or early Nov.
    • Please let Lady Maryam know if you have any ideas for a theme
    • Once the date gets finalized, we’ll post it!
  • La Magnifica Justina
    • Start thinking about 2024 budgets
  • Seong Myeong Su
    • Lorenzo and I are going to start opening our house after Red Tower for craft nights on Thursdays
  • Master Mathias
    • Come see the commedia show at Red Tower!

Non-SCA Business

  • None reported

The business meeting was closed @ 8:55 PM EST

The next business meeting will be held on October 4th, 2023, 7:00 PM EST via Zoom Meeting.