Meeting Minutes - November 2005

Present: Maewyn, Giles, Brighid, Brilliana, Valgarth, Kudrun, Vettoria, Shane, Ariella

Meeting called to order at 3:14 p.m.

Officer Reports

Arts and Sciences

• List was passed around.

Exchequer

• We currently have $4,259.93, although some bills for Autumn Rose have yet to be paid.

Group Marshall of Fence (by proxy)

• Ahlwin is currently attempting to find an indoor practice site, either through the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse or the Community Center on the south side of La Crosse. Stay tuned for details.

Herald

• "Same old, same old...nothing new has happened recently."

Knight Marshall

• "It's cold," quoth Giles the Weatherman.
• Giles will be visiting his parents in Atenveldt from December 15 through the first part of February, which means that he will likely attend the Estrella War.
• After Giles returns to our fair Shire, he would like to attend fighting practices for Silfren Mere and Jararvellir. Silfren Mere now has an indoor practice site near Wabasha, which makes it closer even than Rochester. Jararvellir's practice is on Wednesday nights. Maewyn expressed interest in going if he has the opportunity to doze on the way home. Giles is willing to drive if someone else is willing to navigate so that he doesn't get lost again in Madison.

Thrown Weapons Marshall

• The weather did not cooperate with the previous three scheduled practices.

Webminister

• Never received minutes from the October Populace meeting. They were taken, but never made it to the Webminister's hands.

  Correction:  Lady Kudrun posted her notes from the meeting whilst your faithful Webminister was en route to Caid for business.

• Need to work with Giles and others on the website for Tournament of Champions.

New Business

Tournament of Champions

• We need to decide whether the Shire will commit to hosting the Tournament of Champions in lieu of Pie Snit II on Saturday, April 1st, 2005. Their Highnesses have been approached and seem quite receptive, but require an answer soon.
• Arnora has volunteered for an encore performance as Feastocrat. Fortunately, the Taylor site's kitchen has far more amenities than the one at Autumn Rose.
• The question of whether the fighting will be outdoors or indoors will ultimately be decided by the weather. If the weather does not cooperate, we will need to stick tightly to the event schedule to have the right people using the right space at the right times.
• The site cost to us is $50, so this is likely to be a money-maker, regardless of how many people show up or (more accurately) don't.
• We are not making the site available for indoor camping, which should help clear it out sooner than Pie Snit I or Buffalo Snit, etc.
• (His Majesty) Kitedate-Denka may attend, but there is no Court currently planned.
• The point was made that this is the first time that Northshield is choosing its Royal Champions via competition.
• Kudrun is co-Autocrat.
• As the Taylor site is technically in the Shire of Shattered Oak, we will hopefully have some help from their Populace.
• There will be no Youth activities planned for this event.
• The non-member surcharce will likely be a minimal issue at this event, as many of the Champion contestants will likely be members already.
• There will be a set fee, rather than the "donation only" funding that we've done for events like the Snits and Newbie Madness. The Kingdom fund surcharge of $1 will apply.
• Maewyn was hoping to try his hand at Feastocratting, as he has cooked for large groups professionally. He will talk to Arnora to see whether she would prefer having someone else take on the job so soon after being Feastocrat for Autumn Rose XI.
• Feast is currently limited to 50 seats because the lack of camping/hotel space will likely mean that our guests will want to leave for home earlier. In consideration of that, would we want to serve a more substantial lunch, perhaps a groaning board?
• Some discussion of the layout of the classrooms and other rooms.
• The library will be the Arts and Sciences area.
• The two largest concerns for the Autocrat are:  1.) The weather, and 2.) How many people attend the event. One limitation is the bathroom facilities; the other the dimensions of the gym.
• Ariella strongly recommended that we ask Their Highnesses to require pre-registration for all contestants to at least give us a heads-up for roughly how many people to expect.
• Valgarth raised the question of whether the Shire actually has enough workforce to run the event.
• Shane noted that he had worked in event planning and that the two most crucial considerations were whether any event has enough space and sufficient staff to host an event, and that these are the things that the Shire needs to focus most closely on.
• If we decide to serve Feast buffet-style to minimize the need for servers, we should clear that with Their Highnesses so that they know what to expect.
• Maewyn and Shane noted that for a 50-person Feast, only a couple of extra staff members are needed, versus the number needed to make sure that a buffet line runs smoothly.
• It was also noted that if fighting has to be held indoors, we need to budget time for change-out and we need to stick to the schedule pretty faithfully.
• General discussion that people who make suggestions for how events are run should show up to help at events.
• Those present voted to change Pie Snit II to Tournament of Champions with eight votes in favor, one against.

Meeting adjourned at approximately 4:40 p.m. for potluck dinner

Page last updated:  19 December 2005