Meeting Minutes - March 2008

Present:  Maewyn, Kudrun, Brilliana, Brighid, Ahlwin, Valgarth, Ariella, and guests

The meeting was caled to order at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, 16 March 2008 at the La Crosse Public Library - Main Branch.s

Officer Reports

Arts & Sciences

• The A & S list was passed around.
• Brilliana would like to get teachers, if she knew what folks would be interested in. If someone would be willing to travel to Rokeclif to teach, we could volunteer to reimburse travel expenses.
• Question about whether or not there is a budget for A ∓ S. (Yes there is.)

Exchequer

• Domesday was received on time, and the numbers added up.
• Maewyn is now officially the Shire Exchequer. (Huzzah!)
• Kudrun picked up the box of paperwork from Vettoria, and will transfer it to Maewyn after the meeting.
• Maewyn has received checks from the bank, so that expenses can be reimbursed.
• Kudrun and Ariella need to transfer the balance of the group's funds from the old bank to the new one.

Marshal of Fence

• Ahlwin is now officially a full Rapier Marshal (Huzzah!)
• He is building a shop for himself anyway, so he figures he might as well enable it for a practice site. That won't be finished before the end of winter, however.
• He has not made it to a Jaravellir practice, but that's always a possibility.
• Upcoming practices will depend on weather and the bogginess of the ground.
• He is not able to submit his report online due to difficulties with the Kingdom website.

Minister of Youth

• Brighid has passed the background check (paid for by the Kingdom), so she can be a full warranted Youth Minister (for which she has submitted the paperwork).
• She is currently in the process of building a portable puppet stage. She would like to have parents make puppets and children write the plays for the involvement. [Some side discussion of period puppet shows and stage designs.]
• A mouse (or mice) took up residence in the Youth Minister's box overwinter, but she's cleaned that out.

Seneschal

• The group by Brainerd, MN is requesting assistance for a demo scheduled for the the weekend of July 6th, which is (alack) the weekend before Warlords and Warriors Day.
• A non-SCA group by Viroqua is requesting artisans and musicians for a Viking themed event ("Woden Thor Medieval Festival and Joust") to be held Memorial Day weekend. The consensus was that our members' personae/interests are not particularly compatible with what they're seeking, so we likely will not attend.
• The Northwatch is short on funds, and one of the fundraisers they've mooted is to have groups sponsor pages at $200 per issue, or $10 per page.
• [Synopsis of the discussion subsequent to Ahlwin asking whether we could be guaranteed sponsorship of the centerfold has been omitted as not suitable for a family publication...]
• Price was deemed too steep for our budget, particularly as we made a substantial donation to Kingdom fairly recently. Donations in any amount can still be made, and Coille Stormeil is in fact donating the proceeds of the silent auction of their next event.
• The possibility of challenging other groups or using penny-jars at AR was discussed, but nothing was decided.

Webminister

• Her quarterly report was filed on time, and filed online, now that the Kingdom Website's Privacy Policy has been changed to something much less intrusive than before.

New Business

Event:  Autumn Rose

• Brilliana has not contacted the Equestrians, but needs to do that soon, as the insurance paperwork takes a long time.
• T-Bones is pretty much a lock, and we will talk to The Milkshake Ladies at the Fair in July.
• We will talk to the Lions about renting the kitchen when we're at the Fair.
• Brilliana needs to talk to Bronislava about how to contact the Middle Eastern dancers.
• Maewyn has started to look at recipes; he will test them on himself first, then have the group try them. The June meeting would be a little too late for that, but one of the Thrown Weapons practices in early June is a possibility. Ideally, he'd like to have about ten people--the equivalent of a table.
• Maewyn doesn't think that buffet style will work out, simply because people's tastes are too unpredictable, and the portion sizes are nearly impossible to control.
• Alhwin volunteered to be Royalty Liason.
• The question of whether to recycle last year's site tokens or make new ones will be picked up the Yahoo listserve, possibly tabled until the next meeting b/c Ariella forgot to remind Valgarth to check the number left over from 2007.
• Maewyn would like Byle's help for Feast. Ahlwin will contact Byle to have Byle contact Maewyn.
• Brighid will be Information Officer; she and Brilliana will work on the flier, after Kudrun supplies Brilliana with a flier from previous years as a guideline.
• Ahlwin will Marshal the Rapier, but Maewyn will have to find a replacement, because of course he's Feast Steward. [Insert jokes about combining Thown Weapons with chopping/slicing for Feast.]
• Ariella will supply Brilliana with the usual list of questions that have to be answered if the event is to have a website.

Other New Business

• Introductions for the returning SCAer (and husband) who dropped by to meet the Shire.
• The April Populace Meeting will be held at the Library in the basement on Sunday, April 20th at 2:00 pm.
• The May Populace Meeting will likewise be held at the Library on Sunday, May 18th.
• Ahlwin mooted the idea of having the group host the Rapier Academy event. The Taylor site would be appropriate, but its big defect is that the nearest hotels are in Black River Falls or Osseo. Brilliana pointed out that people have camped indoors on the gym floor.
• The Rapier Academy events are typically held in November, with this years' even probably already spoken-for. 2009's event would be a possibility, though.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:39 p.m.

Quote of the Meeting:  "Hey baby, let's get hitched: I can get a hundred more gallons." - Maewyn   (For context:   Legally, an individual can brew/vint 200 gallons of beer/wine per year. For families, the limit is 300 gallons.)

Page last updated:  20 April 2008