September Council Minutes
September 24th, 2007 / A.S. XLII
Northwood Christian Church
2425 Harvest Lane, Springfield, Oregon
Room 15
Council began at 7:12 pm with opening words from Her Excellency. She had attended Coronet, which was very cool, and had featured a very deep list with lots of different fighting styles. The Consorts' Tea continues to see a rise in attendance, and even some who were not Consorts chose to attend and were made to feel welcome. Karis got a Jambe, and Tadhg got to fight. The event had a very large attendance and sounds like it was a success all-around.
The latest word on the state of Constabulary is that they are reworking the position entirely. A new manual and set of guidelines should be available by October 15th, and the office as a whole will be relaunched at this year's 12th Night.
The Summits Exchequer has not been receiving reports from Tymberhavene, and apparently they would like us to help nudge them to start sending those in. As far as reporting goes, sponsored branches are to report directly to Principality, but their sponsors should still be receiving a courtesy copy of the reports as well. We like to know what's going on, too! Adiantum Officers' quarterly reports are due to the Baronial Seneschal by October 10th, and to Principality by October 15th. And of course no one is going to frown if they are sent in earlier than that.
A request was recently made on the e-list asking for information about past Egils Ithrotir winners and prizes. Her Excellency saw this as a great opportunity to educate/remind everyone about the existence of the An Tir Culture Wiki. Located at wiki [DOT] antir [DOT] sca [DOT] org , it is an online compendium of all aspects of history and culture for our kingdom. Anyone may create a profile there and update pages on themselves, their friends, households, events...anything one can think of that applies to life in the SCA. In the future, this could prove to be a valuable resource for anyone seeking information about events and contests that have happened in the past. Plus it is just really darned cool. Go check it out!
Lady Mauera did not have too much to add to this, other than there are several positions now open and accepting applications: A & S Minister, Constabulary, Pied Piper, and Rapier Marshal. If you are interested in filling those positions, get in touch with the Seneschal. Applications for Constabulary will be accepted starting in January 2008; all other positions may be applied for now.
Anyanka was then called forward to apprise everyone of what may be a change in venue for Council Meetings. Northwood will start charging $25 per use for the use of Room 15 and $10 per use for the room that the A & S workshops have been held in. In addition to this, a $40 waiver deposit will be required, and there will be a refundable $100 deposit for keys and cleaning. All told, this would add up to a cost of $460 per year. We will not be charged for this month, but we will need to decide if this expense is something that we want to pay for in the future.
Fearga offered an alternative venue in case we do not wish to pay so much for a meeting place. There is a restaurant called The Office in downtown Springfield that will let us use one of their rooms on the
condition that some of the attendees order something from their menu. There will be no minimum
amount required for an order. The room will hold up to 40 people. She is also looking into whether we might be able to use the costume shop where she works for A & S meetings.
Anyanka reminded us that while an answer will be needed soon, it was not needed tonight, and that we will still be able to meet at Northwood for Council next month.
Ariana gave an update on Midwinter's. The forms for date reservation have been turned in, info has been submitted for the webpage, and the reservation for the site has been confirmed. Food and entertainment are being planned and are still in the preliminary stages. The Autocrats (and Feastocrat) will be bravely making the huge sacrifice of taste-testing some of the feast recipes in the coming months.
An update on Amergin’s Revenge/Tymberhavene Birthday Bash was given, though it was mostly one-sided as Brendan could not be present. Ariana reported that she is working on the grand prize – a cloak – for the bardic contest. There will be 8 prizes for the various categories, and the rest are being worked on in Tymberhavene. Contests are scheduled in poetry, music, storytelling, and miscellaneous entertainment; to win the overall prize, one will have to enter at least 2 of these categories. She requested a $20 addition to her budget for finishing materials for the cloak and for printing judge forms. At this, many people sprang to offer materials from their various stashes for finishing and embellishing the cloak. Mauera stated that there are enough of us that work around copiers that printing the judging forms should not be too much of an additional task or expense. Ariana said that she would post to the e-list soon regarding cloak materials; overall, it looks as if her needs will be met without having to stretch the event's budget any further.
Fearga gave an update on 11th Night. The Coronet has now been decided – we'll be having Germans for dinner! Er, German food. Yes. Site copy has already been sent to the Crier, Summits, and the ever-loyal Baronial Chronicler. The site reservation has been confirmed. The Kingdom's new Bardic Champion has offered to come entertain at both 11th Night and Midwinter's. Servers for the feast will be needed, as well as people to help set up and tear down. The cook is coming all the way from Myrtleholt to cook what sounds like a sumptuous feast in two courses, featuring German and Russian cuisine.
In addition to the other positions that had been open, was the position of Archery Marshal. Tonight we had an applicant for this position, and the floor was given to Lady Saethryth Seolferlocc.
Saethryth has been involved in the SCA for 3 years; she originally joined because of her son's interest in archery, which soon became her interest as well. Formerly of the Barony of Ponte Alto in the Kingdom of Atlantia, she moved here in May of 2007. She had some interesting things to say about the archery culture in Atlantia; it is very well-developed, has a huge following, and centers for the most part on novelty shooting and a variety of challenges rather than traditional royal rounds. As Marshal, she wanted to work on increasing the level of challenge to competition targets, simplifying the scoring system, and introducing or working on both novice and team tourneys. Regardless of whether she got the position or not, she plans on continuing to marshal weekly practices and constructing a variety of targets, including moving targets, and just generally pursuing her love of the sport of archery.
After this brief introduction, Lady Saethryth was booted from the room so we could talk about her behind her back. It was mainly commented that, though she arrived a breathtakingly short time ahead
of Egils, she was instrumental in helping Lady Katherine Killegrew set up and organize the archery
competition and was just a huge help in general. She has also assisted the former Archery Marshal with
archery practices. It was agreed that she is very, very cool, and Council unanimously voted to give her the position. All hail the new Archery Marshal!
Lady Mauera then announced that we were to be treated to a bid for Egils...whereupon a third of the room got up and went to the front of the room!
Alysaundre, Ariana, Brother Al, Fearga, Karis, and Marian introduced themselves to us in turn, and proceeded to pitch the bid. Alysaundre explained that this year, they have decided to try to do things a little differently, and instead of having just a pair of Autocrats fielding all aspects of preparation, have a committee of volunteers to each take a portion of that prep work and run with it. (June Faire, a very large event held up in Dragon's Laire, is organized in a similar way.) The committee includes several members in addition to the gentles mentioned above, who could not make it to Council tonight. Alysaundre and Karis will be filling the traditional Autocrat-duo role, as the figureheads for the whole affair. Marian and Raven Q'ara Ton will be in charge of the Ithrotir, Fearga is undertaking public relations and the Artisan's Village, Ariana is coordinating activities on the Sunday of the event, and Brother Al is overseeing the financial aspects of things. Each person stepped forward in turn to explain how they intended to go about things.
Marian proposed that, in an attempt to revitalize the A & S competitions which have seen less and less participation, to re-organize the various classes under three main categories, which she calls the Three Pillars. These reflect the three cardinal values that define the SCA itself: Arts and Sciences, Martial Combat, and Service. None of the classes from the traditional Ithrotir would be done away with, but they would definitely be split up a bit and organized differently, and additional classes would be added. To wit:
The A & S Pillar tier would include the traditional categories of Bardic, Brewing, Costuming, Decorated Useful Object, and Games.
The Martial Pillar tier would include the traditional activities of Archery, Axe-Throwing, Spear-Throwing, the Double-Elimination tournament, the Holmgang, and Wrestling.
The Service Pillar tier would contain new categories: Donation of Goods and Services (there will probably be a dollar cap on the value that can be donated), Period Encampment (hospitality in a period environment is service for both tending to the needs of visitors and educating them on one's particular focus in the Society), Service Hours Worked Prior to the Event, Service Hours Worked At the Event, and Trash Collection (which could be tallied by the bag, at gate).
To win the overall competition, one would have to enter at least one category from every Pillar.
The main body of the competitions would occur all day on Saturday, and on part of Sunday. Emphasis would be put on hand-made prizes, to increase the quality of whatever rewards the various winners would receive. To keep track of everyone's points and progress, she has proposed that each contestant be given a 'passport' in which they can have all their points tallied, and which would be turned in at the end of the competition.
Fearga then took the floor to elaborate on the idea of the Artisan's Village.
Inspired by the displays that are put on by artisans at Pennsic, Fearga and others have thought it would be really cool to attempt to do the same thing here at Egils, if on a smaller scale. It would also be
a continuation of the meet-and-greet that occurred with various artistic types at Midwinter's...only with the bonus of being able to do messy things, too, like blacksmithing and pottery throwing and dyeing. This area would be set up on Merchant's Row, so that the artisans will be visible and accessible to everyone. She would also like to see areas set up for classes to be held every hour or half-hour, in addition to Rhiannon's class schedules, to give people hands-on experience with crafts that they might have been interested in but never had the equipment or education to try. She stated that she already has permission for a bake-oven to be constructed on site, so that people can bake their own bread in a period oven. She also intends to set up a period tailor's shop, with the goal of constructing an entire outfit over the course of the event to be modeled in court on Sunday. Overall, this is intended to be an experience to connect new people with experienced artisans in various areas of interest.
It was then Ariana's turn to talk about what all would happen on Sunday.
Ariana will basically be in charge of the more light-hearted activities to occur on the last day of the event, which she is dubbing 'All Fools Day', or the 'Sunday Sillies'. Many have requested it, and they shall finally receive: the much-coveted Adult Pillow Jousting. The Croquet Tournament would also be making a return appearance, with participants being required to bring their own mallet (and the definition of the word 'mallet' is deliberately being left very, very vague). The Fashion Show would be returning, as well as Mongolian Football and the Novelty Archery Shoot. A new activity, the Norse Raid, would allow people to plunder booty in 'ships' that they would construct on-site. She hasn't quite hashed out all the details of that particular activity, but it has been whispered that knitted kittens could possibly be involved.
Then Brother Al stepped up to say a few words about what he would be doing with overseeing attendance and finances. He will be overseeing Pre-Reg, Gate, and event accounting...but he made it very clear that he will not actually be doing all of these things! The fees for Pre-Reg would remain the same, at $18 for non-members and $15 for adult members. The most notable change would be that the fee would be raised by $2 for those who did not choose to pre-register.
Alysaundre then finished up with some last words and proposals before opening the floor to questions.
A soft cap of 1000 people would be put on the site. The site can hold more, but they would like to have the cap in place so they can plan on services for a set amount of people, and allow more people to trickle into the event if the demand exists and if the services can still support them. Financially, if the event had the same level of attendance with the same ratio of pre-registered people, the event would make a $100 profit.
One main issue, which he felt would affect the profitability of the event, was that of radios. Instead of renting radios, he proposed that the Barony buy radios outright. He would like to see the Barony purchase 6 non-FRS radios and 10 FRS radios. The radios could be used at events other than Egils, but even if Egils were the only event that they were used at, they would pay for themselves within four years from the savings on rental fees. For example, it cost $34 per radio last year to rent FRS radios...these same radios can be purchased outright for around $30 each. Also, the cost to replace a
missing piece from a rental is a lot more than it would cost to replace something that we had bought ourselves. Lastly, the purchase of these radios could be considered as a capital expense as they would
be purchased by the Barony for the fulfilling of needs at various events, and not just at Egils, therefore taking that expense away from the Egils budget.
Alysaundre also offered to bring an inverter that could be hooked up in his truck to charge the radios and other necessities, thus eliminating the expense of renting a generator.
Diel had a couple of questions once the floor was opened for that. Firstly, he asked about the difference between FRS and non-FRS radios. An FRS radio is basically the little two-way, walkie-talkie type of radio that is readily available and has many public channels that any number of parties can tune into. They are acceptable for most communication; however, for certain offices such as Gate, Parking, Chiurgeonate and any security issues, a less-public channel is needed, and therefore the need for non-FRS radios as well.
Diel also asked where the youth would fit into the scheme of various competitions. Alysaundre answered that there is so much up in the air right now regarding youth combat, Pied Piper, and youth activities in general, that nothing has been decided yet. Marian stated that youth activities in the Ithrotir have been decreasing, and as far as she is concerned she is fine with allowing youth to compete with adults in most areas. Judges will take their age into consideration.
Lastly, a Work Party Coordinator for this event would definitely be needed. Pumpkin has put in many many hours for prior Egils and simply cannot do any more.
The would-be-committee of autocrats was then cast into the outer darkness while we voted.
Mauera proposed that the bid be accepted, contingent on the ability to buy the radios that we need for a reasonable amount – between $800 and $1000. To do this, the purchase would have to be approved by the financial committee. On this particular night, the vote was only to accept the bid with that condition attached.
The contingent bid was unanimously accepted by Council. The committee returned from the outer darkness seeming notably un-traumatized, as evidenced by the conga line they formed coming back into Council.
Her Excellency then gave a very brief word on Regalia. There is a separate mailing list for Regalia, which is why word has not been spreading about it on the main Yahoo group for Adiantum. If you would like to be added to this list, you may contact Her Excellency to be added to it. She is ready to price the work it would take to make a box for the incipient coronets. Other projects include regalia for the A & S and gaming champions, and new baronial banners.
Alysaundre reminded all of us that the A & S Social will be held on Saturday, September 29th, from 10:00 AM to 9 PM. The social is at the same location as Scribal Night and archery practice.
At this time, Her Excellency regretfully had to bail, as she was ill and feeling the waning effects of her cold medicine.
With Council now in the home stretch, it was time for Branch and Officer Reports.
Nordholt: One of the visitors from Nordholt passed on a query by Her Highness as to whether we had any charters that we could pass on for folks up there to paint. Unfortunately Lady Angharad was not present and Alysaundre did not have any charters at hand. There is a bid pending for Stinky War; Lady Mauera reminded them that a copy of that bid should also be sent to us so we can see what all's going on with it.
Tymberhavene: The minutes from their council were passed on to Her Excellency. They have been reviewing the feedback from both the Summits and Adiantum Seneschals on what all they need to be doing to become a full-fledged branch on their own. Their name is being reviewed by Laurel. They have had five new members join in the last couple of months, and they are sending $21 from craft sales and donations to the Adiantum Exchequer. Their Equestrian Officer is looking at sites for a potential event in May. Lady Katla has been inquiring with some of Adiantum's finest minds for plans on making pavilions for the branch. And of course they are working hard on prepping for Amerbash and are very excited about it.
Archery: In case you missed it, Friedrich unfortunately had to step down, but he has a very wonderful replacement in Saethryth.
A & S (Valdis): In an attempt to streamline the process of keeping paperwork for that particular position, Lady Valdis is stepping down a bit early. This position is now vacant! If you are interested in filling it, please contact the Seneschal. Morrghan will be teaching a class on T-tunics in October. Lady Valdis expressed that it has been a pleasure and honor to serve the Barony and that she is willing to lend aid to her successor.
Chamberlain (Drake): He could not be present, and did not send in a report.
Chatelaine (Rhiannon): She hasn't had any newbies this month, and hasn't spent any money from her budget. She is in the process of moving, and therefore has sent her supplies for the office to Her Excellency for storage in the meantime.
Chiurgeon(Ieuen): He could not be present, but sent in his report. He has attended no events and has nothing of note to report.
Chronicler (Aesa): I had two people send me articles, and another gentle sent me something that I
plan to use next month. I made 25 copies of the Bear this time, with the distribution being thus:
4 to Kingdom peeps
3 to Principality peeps
12 to local peeps who requested a copy
3 set aside for the Library, Seneschal, and a person who wanted to
pick one up at Council
I brought the remainder to Council tonight, and they were all promptly adopted. As usual...must...make... MORE.
I spent $16.75 on copies.
Constabulary (Fezzic): He is resigning, as his term of office would be up in January, anyway. He expressed that it has been a rewarding tenure and that he has been honored to serve the Barony. This
position is open, and if you are interested in filling it you may contact the Seneschal. Due to changes being done to the office itself, however, any applications will not be pursued until after 12th Night.
Dance Minister (Jana): She could not be present, but sent in her report. Dance practices are on hiatus for the moment until the scheduling for it has been figured out. In the meantime, she is assembling music for it. She anticipates being able to get things ironed out soon!
Exchequer (Brother Al): We have approximately $3500 in the bank at this time. We are waiting on money back from the forest service/parks department. He still wants a deputy!
Games (Roderick): He pretty much arrived just in time to give his report, which was: Nothing really to report.
Gold Key (Alys): She could not be present. She vended Adiantum yard sale items at Shrewesbury.
Herald (Juan): The 11th Edition Ordinary & Armorial are here in his hot little hands! Yay!! He has received a list of personas within the Barony (given on the cards that everyone filled out last month) and will be using this as a gauge of what kinds of books he should be stocking up on. He has done consultations with two people regarding name registration.
Librarian(Alysaundre): He hopes to be able to start cataloging the library soon. He planned on having it available for use at the A & S Social on September 29th.
Marshal (Aaron): He could not be present, but sent in a report...there was nothing new to report, though.
Park Liason (Fearga): She's planning on making a list of work party folks and checking it twice, to see if any one of those people wants to be the new work party coordinator.
Pied Piper: Is vacant. Or open. Whichever you prefer. Get in touch with the Seneschal if you would like to fill it!
Rapier Marshal: Is also vacant, open, etc. See above.
Scribe (Angharad): She could not be present, but sent in her report. September was a quiet month for scribal activities, with one attendee at Scribal Night. The next Scribal Night is scheduled for October 2nd. She also planned on having scribal projects available for folks at the A & S Social. She would like to get a deputy with the hopes of having someone to fill her shoes when her term ends next year.
Seneschal (Mauera): She still needs a deputy!
Thingmakers (Unna): She could not be present. It was suggested that the position be made vacant, as Lady Unna has a lot of stuff on her plate right now, life-wise. It is therefore possible that the position will be vacant next month.
Waterbearer (Iurii): He attended Coronet, and coordinated the Waterbearer's station and volunteers. He was greatly aided by the Tymberhavene Waterbearer, Cormacc ua Neill, and had great volunteers as well. He did not spend any money from his budget this month.
Web Minister (Rachael): She could not be present, but sent in her report. She was able to make several updates to the website, and was able to start training Fine, her deputy.
Work Party Coordinator (Maeve): She could not be present, but sent in her report. She is still seeking a deputy. She may have to resign her office early, depending on her job situation and schedule. Work parties are still on hold until further notice. Anyone who is interested in details about the position is invited to contact her at craysepumpkin [AT] yahoo [DOT] com.
Youth Marshal (Diel): He has one youth active in training, with contact info for another potential youth. Sir Ambrose passed on some of his knowledge at the last practice. He is working on the Youth Combat Folder. He did not attend any events. He has still not received word on how warranting for youth events will occur.
Council was adjourned around 9:20.
The following people were present:
Mauera Cethin
Katerine Martel
Alysaundre Welden d’Ath
Ariana Aislinn
Ophelia
Fifi
Juan de Leon
Aylen M'Bain (Brother Al)
Anyanka of PeaceHaven (maybe Zafira Candra, someday)
Valdis Osborne
Finngall McKetterick
Saethryth Seolferlocc
Daniel McCloud Somiats
Isabeau
Iurii Levchenich
Morrghan O' Siodhachain
Roderick
Ceridwen ferch Morgan
Diel of Norwich
Marian Staarveld
Aesa Sigtryggsdottir
These notes were taken, compiled and edited by Aesa Sigtryggsdottir.. If you feel there is an inconsistency between what you remember and what happened, you may contact me at silverwolfadiantum [AT] yahoo [DOT] com. Apologies in advance if I mis-spelled your name. This month that's partly my fault for giving you guys a less-than-useful pen to sign in with. Thanks again to our neighbors from Nordholt for coming down! Council will continue to be held at Northwood until further notice. Dewa mata!