Meeting Minutes - September 2006

Present:  Kudrun, Gavin, Bronislava, Brilliana, Alhwin, Arnora, Maewyn, Valgarth, Brighid, Vettoria, Vitaliano, Ariella

The meeting was called to order at approximately 3 p.m. on 17 September 2006

Officer Reports

Arts and Sciences

• The list was passed around.
• The quarterly report was sent in on time.
• A brief recap of the "research" done while on vacation in D.C., including the National Gallery of Art and seeing a 13th Century re-issue of the Magna Carta (used to keep the financially and militarily over-extended Edward Longshanks in line--much the original issue had done with his grandfather King John).

Chatelaine

• Discovered that she had been misinformed regarding who she was supposed to talk to about setting up the SCA as a student group. After talking with Aine, she has that straightened out now.
• Has washed and sorted through the loaner garb and determine what can be salvaged. Proposed making the garb necessary (e.g. pants to match a man's tunic) so that we have one set of decent loaner garb in each size. A combination of A & S Nights as well as a moot for garb-making would break up the amount of work needed. If anyone has any cloth that they wish to donate to the cause, this would also help immensely.
• Is making posters for the UW-La Crosse boards--will post ideas to the Yahoo! group.

Chiurgeon

• Straightened out the communication misfire with Margalit Medicus regarding Gavin having to back out--with very short notice--of being her Deputy for Warlords and Warriors.
• Sent out report from Autumn Rose. We only had one "minorish" incident, and Gavin handed out some band-aids during the event.

Chronicler

• The September Birch went out on time; the October one is on track.
• Brilliana volunteered to contribute her submission to the Bard of Rokeclif contest. Bronislava noted that we really should be archiving the winning entries for each year.

Exchequer

• Amounts below are from 08/31/2006.
• We had 234 attendees at Autumn Rose, according to the paperwork. We did make a profit.
• The lower-than-normal totals reflect the pre-paid expenses of Autumn Rose, which did not end until Sept. 3rd, and thus do not include the event's receipts minus the attendance-based donation of $500.00 pledged to the Kingdom.

Herald/Pursuivant

• Nothing much going on.
• Kudrun said that she's past the date that she can re-submit her badge, and may just use her (already passed) device instead.

Rapier Marshal

• Practices are being held on Tuesday nights, although no one fought at the one this past Tuesday, because the other fighter forgot his gear.

Thrown Weapons Marshal

• Practice was held this past Thurday with four people throwing and one watching. An A & S moot was also available, although there were no takers this time.
• The next practice (also doubling as an A & S moot) will be held on Thursday, September 28th, starting at 6:00 p.m. If Maewyn has a change of plans, this will be posted to the Yahoo! group.
• Maewyn will be the Thrown Weapons Marshal in Charge for Shattered Oak's Siege the Day event on September 29th - 31st. Those not planning to attend Officer's Day in South Dakota on the same weekend are encouraged to come and throw.

New Business

Autumn Rose

• Arnora reported that the kitchen cleanup was done so well on Saturday night that Sunday morning work was negligible.
• Post-mortem and Ahlwin's wish-list for next year:
  • The event website should be up sooner, particularly the online volunteer sign-up forms.
  • Sign-ups should be more specialized so that folks know where and when they will be needed, rather than a generic "Feast preparers are needed." kind of announcement."
  • Let's start brainstorming themes for next year. The sooner that decision is reached, the sooner we can start working on signs, etc. to deck out the site in that theme.
  • The folks providing "intermission" events for Feast should coordinate with the Feastocrat so that food is not cold or overcooked b/c of overlong intermissions. To that end, perhaps the Bard of Rokeclif contest should be broken up between removes, based on how many entrants there are.
  • We need to make use of the radios we have. Six were just left sitting on the shelf.
  • Kudrun suggested that we always have three types of Autocrats on hand: The "Emeritus" who has autocrated a number of events (and could step in, in the event of disaster), the actual event Autocrat, and the Autocrat-in-Training.
  • Brilliana volunteered to be the Autocrat-in-Training for A.R. next year, with the aim of stepping into the full Autocrat role for A.R. XIV in 2008.
  • Because Brilliana would not then have time for both the deputy-Autocrat work and her normal Heralding job, we will need another person to step in as Herald for A.R. XIII. Perhaps we can "borrow" a Herald from another group or one at-large. Brilliana will put out the word that she needs a stunt double.
  • Vitaliano volunteered to be Feastocrat at A.R. XIII. Maewyn also offered his services to that end.
  • Should we power-wash the weekend before? Or even at the Populace meeting immediately before Autumn Rose. (Of course, that assumes that we can get into the buildings during the Populace meeting, which we were not able to do this year, due to the fact that the Fair Board representative did not arrive.) Finding manure in the Feast Hall (which usually doesn't house animals during the Fair) was an unpleasant surprise, and a walk-through would have alerted us to that ahead of time, and we could have planned accordingly.
  • Brilliana pointed out that if we can take care of the cleanup sooner, that would give us more time to add to the ambience of the site with signs, etc. Bronislava pointed out that this means that more people will have to commit to taking Friday off from work, which may not be feasible. That's always been a limiting factor.
  • Brilliana suggested that schedules be printed for handout and perhaps maps, too. Kudrun noted that this year we had to change the location for one activity on-the-fly, and Bronislava noted that some of the scheduled entertainment didn't show up. So printing that information ahead of time would not be feasible.
  • In lieu of printed schedules, perhaps a whiteboard "master list" could be maintained at the Porter area. Arnora has a whiteboard that she can lend for Autumn Rose.
  • Bronislava suggested an event-planning policy to the effect that anyone who recommends that the group hold a particular activity or provide an extra amenity should be willing to be responsible for that activity/amenity.
  • To help with planning next year, Ahlwin will bring the previous meeting's minutes to use as an informal checklist to make sure that new planned items (or improvements to existing items) don't slip through the proverbial cracks.
  • Ahlwin believes that renting a truck for hauling the garbage-trailer and running errands throughout the weekend would be a good investment. It was suggested that the errand-running be done at scheduled times to make the process more efficient.
  • Maewun noted that if he'd known ahead of time that a truck would come in so handy, he would have lent his. Brighid mentioned that her Dad has a tractor-hauling trailer powered by a very large van. She will talk to him about borrowing that and let the Shire know whether he's willing to let us use it.

Pie Snit II: "Custard's Revenge"

• Site tokens are being made by Shattered Oak.
• We will be eating pie for Feast.
• Trivium Pursuit is ready.
• We still have enough roll-paper for writing on tables (and walls?)
• Kudrun will create a Mad Lib for the event.
• Brilliana was interested in heading up the pie-themed Bardic contest.
• Arnora and Brighid will collaborate on a pie-shaped bog dive.
• The policy for renting the building has changed, and it will cost us another $50 if we want to set up on Friday (i.e. renting the building on Friday as well as Saturday). Renting the building on Sunday for "indoor camping" (which was offered for the first Pie Snit) would also run another $50, so that option was ruled out.
• We will again post the event staff photos on the wall so that people know whom to talk to for what.
• Rooms will again be named.
• Shire members are strongly encouraged to bring savory pies, as we had an overabundance of sweet pies at Pie Snit I.
• Make a point of marking your pie plate, and also bring serving utensils. The event website will stress that point as well, as sharing serving utensils could trigger allergies, depending on the ingredients in question.
• Arnora will coordinate the serving, and deputize accordingly.
• Maewyn will provide lunch if Shattered Oak or another group is not available to do so.
• If His Majesty Siegfried attends, Bronislava promised to make him a coffee cream pie.
• How will pies be judged? Perhaps a Pyxis for period entries? Attending Royalty?
• Brilliana will sponsor a "heraldic" pie-theme, with categories being the best heraldically-correct rendition, and the goofiest entry.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:47 p.m.

Quote of the meeting:

Kudrun:  "Is there anything else pie-ish?"
Bronislava:  "...or im-pie-ish?"

Page last updated:  22 September 2006