Thescorre Business Meeting minutes, 4/19/05

Location: Their Excellencies Cedric & Peregrine's home (Adams St was closed)

20 Thescorreans present

Katja, emergency backup seneschale, running the meeting on Steffan's behalf

1. Baron & Baroness:
Peregrine explained that she and Cedric will not be able to attend Coronation this weekend; they plan to swear fealty at War Practice.

She reminded everyone that Pennsic pre-registration is due by the end of May. Even if you are daytripping, she said, you must put down a camp space and you can use the Barony.

Third, she and Cedric would like to open nominations for Ravens Feathers for possible inductions at Pax. Katja asked if Their Excellencies were accepting nominations for the other barony orders; Peregrine said not at this point.

2. Officer Reports

Herald: Matilda won’t be at War Practice and asked if anyone is willing to do her court duties for the day? Please contact her and she'll lend the Ravens Tongue tabard for the event.

She added that she attended Heralds & Scribes Collegium last weekend - she got a list of top-recommended reference books on heraldry and plans to hit up the barony for money soon.

Rapier Marshal: "Speaking of hitting up the Barony for money," Yasmina began...

Several student fencers have joined us. Practice will likely move outside in late May and will probably be in Genesee Valley Park on Thursday nights. After consulting the kingdom calendar and noticing that the Bog Pearl Tourney is the weekend *before* Pax, she asked that we move our baronial fencing championship from its traditional date of Pax to the July social meeting or a practice. (No one had any objections, but no date was set.)

The Barony is in dire desperate need of new loaner gear, Yasmina stated, explaining that the gear hasn’t been replenished since Alessandro was marshal several years ago. Specifically, we need more blades and tips ("buttons"). She checked the prices at Triplette (the standard rapier supplier for the SCA) and will need $113 for two 10-packs of tips, two foil blades, and two epee blades.

In addition, Yasmina asked for $245 for tunics, doublets, or something to replace the fraying loaner"ghost jackets" (collegiate fencing jackets). "We had several ghost jackets that were Devon-size. Now, they're Katja-size." (Editorial note: Grendel explained after the meeting that the jackets continually shrink after washing.) Cedric strongly recommended upgrading the loaner gear since it attracts new fencers and is a good way of recruiting people.

Those present discussed the possibility of buying denim and one of Triplette's SCA fencing tunics (to use as a pattern) and then making a bunch of fencing tunics. Yasmina offered as an alternative buying Triplette's cheaper short-sleeved plastron; Phillipe urged buying long-sleeved armor for safety reasons.

After checking with Alina that the Barony checking account had over $3,500, Spyke moved that we buy the blades. Katrina offered a friendly amendment to pay for Yasmina's whole request – $358 for the blades, tips, two medium/large tunics, and one extra-large tunic. The motion passed 13-1-0. Alina was not able to write a check that night (she was the only signatory present), but will get a check to Yasmina soon.

Chirurgeon: Phillipe is the new Barony chi! He volunteered to be chirurgeon at the last Hael event (there was one injury). Also speaking of money... he has not gotten the chi kit from Astrid yet, but is under the impression that it is "shot" and needs to be replaced. He will inventory it when he gets it, and if it is unusable he will ask for $150 for a replacement kit.

Knight Marshal: We're still holding practices at Adams Street on Mondays, Spyke said. We're getting a LOT of new people, and some of it is because we have youth fighting now and their youth fighters bring in their parents. Several new young people are ready to authorize, he said proudly.

He, also, recently inventoried the barony loaner gear. One of the new fighters is a welder and has offered to replace or fix the shields. The loaner gear is mainly short on knee and leg protection, with some elbow protection replacement needed. Vettius has agreed to be Spyke's deputy.

Exchequer: Since Lavena is moving out of Barony, Alina needs a new deputy. She does not plan to drop dead. (Editorial Note: However, she *sounded* like she was, due to a bad cold!)

Alina will retrieve Lavena's financial records from Steffan's house, as well as other records in
preparation for the kingdom's seven-year audit. She recently completed the quarterly report, and needs Steffan to sign it before submitting it. She mentioned that the kingdom had placed the barony on suspension temporarily because of an error in the last couple of quarterly reports – they were solely that quarter rather than cumulative over the course of the year –
and that she has fixed that.

We have $3,472 in our checking account and $1,054 in savings. She is considering moving some of the money from checking to savings, which led to a discussion of how much money the Barony must keep in checking. Katja consulted the Barony policies Peregrine kindly offered, and read that the lowest checking account limit that allows expenditures was $2,000. No decision was made on transferring the money between the accounts.

Alina added that she needs a new receipt book and a binder for the new year's financial reports. Juliana offered to donate a receipt book, and Peregrine & Cedric said they could donate a binder.

A&S: Dubheasa's term is over in July; she handed Katja an officer application bid from Katherine of Cheshire for the position. She added that Mairghread is also considering bidding. Bronwyn's term as Chatelaine was up in January, but she is staying on until her office is filled. Dubheasa noted that she and Sigvaldi plan to apply to be co-Chatelaines.

There will be a Boy Scout demo on Monday night, April 25. Dubheasa said the demo needed fighters and non-fighters as "window dressing."

The May social meeting will be potluck; please come in garb.

Katja asked Dubheasa if the Barony would consider offering to do a Tinseltown demo for the upcoming Crusader flick, Kingdom of Heaven. Dubheasa agreed to call Tinseltown, and get the name of the manager from Yasmina (who organized the last movie demo).

Carlo noted that the movie takes place in the Holy Land and suggested having the Middle Eastern drummers and dancers perform at the demo; a discussion ensued over the likely possibility of an anti-Arabic audience being abusive to dancers in Middle Eastern garb. Although Katja herself has never faced such post-9/11 prejudice within the SCA, she agreed it could happen at a public event and instead recommended that just the drummers perform since the music will probably be a really nice addition to the demo.

Peregrine said she'd gotten a request to do a demo for the upcoming Rose Festival; Dubheasa will follow up on this. Peregrine added that we are not doing the WXXI gala demo, but WXXI had asked to borrow some of our garb. Several folks objected to this, with Katrina noting that our garb is personal clothing, not costumes. She recommended telling WXXI to borrow costumes from Geva or buy them from a costume shop.

Archery Captain: Cedric reported that almost a dozen folks showed up at RIT last Sunday for archery practice. He has loaner gear; doesn't need to ask for money. He said he was bummed about the weather report for this weekend; if the weather is too cold for outdoor shooting, he'll move it back to Jim's Pro Shop and post the announcement on the Barony list.

3. Guilds

Western Dance: Dance will happen next week, said Peregrine. Come dance and have fun. She thanked
Eldjarn for running the last practice for her.

Middle Eastern Drumming & Dance: meets tomorrow, here! (Again, since Adams Street was closed, Peregrine and Cedric kindly offered their home for the practice.) Carlo urged new drummers and dancers to come join the one to three dancers and four drummers. We danced and drummed at Ice Dragon and College of Three Ravens -- it was fun!

Juggling: Carlo hasn't done this lately due to lack of interest, but can do so. He maintains all the loaner gear (made all the bags), so he didn't need to ask for money.

Coffee Marshal (???) – "Tonight’s flavor is blueberry cobbler with heavy cream," Carlo added.

Threadworkers: We will meet on Monday, May 16 at Pleasance and Mateo’s house, Matilda said, and the topic is pre-Pennsic sewing. The meeting is a sewing circle, and all are welcome to bring fabric and get help with their sewing projects.

The June meeting will be at Sorcha’s; Otelia will talk about period dying. The July meeting has not yet been scheduled, but the topic will be finishing up Pennsic projects. Also, the guild will meet at Pennsic to go shopping!

Cauldron Bleu Cooks Guild: Katja spoke for Bryn, noting that the Guild met last Tuesday at Devon & Daedra's and reviewed research and cooking entries from Ice Dragon; the guild also discussed period brewing, since Thomas brought some homebrew. Bryn plans to have future guild meetings focus on food research and recipe redacting... although we *do* need to make some vigil cookies for the new reign!

Scriptorium: If you need any scribal help, Matilda noted, please post a message to the Barony list.

4. Miscellaneous

C3R Lost and Found: Dubheasa has this in her car; contact her if you lost something.

Gold Key: Carlo asked if the Barony could provide some loaner garb and an extra set of plates & bowls at all Barony events, to lend to newcomers? (Maybe a one-size-fits-all tabard?) Dubheasa will talk to Sigvaldi and Bronwyn about having the chatelaine do this.

The Brut Squad... is looking for new members…

Pennsic Mass Transport: Katrina heads this department at Pennsic, which provides transportation for gentles who can't get around very well. Her main deputy is going to Scotland instead of Pennsic, so she is in desperate need of drivers who can do a few morning shifts. Please, please talk to her about volunteering. "You get to meet a lot of people and you get to know Pennsic really well."

Roman Route March: Titus handed out flyers about a planned march, in garb, along the Eric Canal from Pittford to Bushnell's Basin. He invited all Thescorreans to join his group. He also modeled an accurate woolen tunic for those present, and talked about Roman clothing.

Phillipe has new contact information and email; he will post them to the list.