Thescorre Business meeting, 9/20/05
Adams Street Center
38 (!) Thescorreans present

Steffan, presiding

1. Happy news!

Congrats to Siggy and Kadlin on the newest Thescorrean, Robyn! Welcome home from the hospital, Mommy. J
Congrats to *Sir* Khalek!
Hi and welcome to Pete, who just discovered our group and wants to fence, and Elizabeth, Spyke's wife, who is attending her second meeting.

2. Officer polling on group status

Their Excellencies Peregrine and Cedric's announcement that they do not seek a second term was published in the last Fewmet, so the "clock has started" on the baronage election.

Steffan noted that our current policies require a polling of the Barony officers present at the meeting to determine whether we maintain our current status or change to a shire (or, more accurately, a province). This conflicts with the kingdom policy, which now requires that this vote be on the election ballots, but until we update our policies we must follow our current rules.

The vote to remain a Barony was unanimous… with some entertaining comments:

Spyke: "If we go down a level, I don't need to be knight marshal anymore, right?"

Yasmina: "I think we should go kingdom..."

Eldjarn: "Yay, status quo!"

3. Election Timetable

Steffan will open the nominations for Baron and Baroness at the next business meeting, Oct. 18. The nominations will remain open for the next two meetings: the social meeting on Nov. 1 and the business meeting on Nov. 15.

He reminded everyone that if you want to vote in the election, please ensure you are a paid member by the beginning of November, or the mailing labels Milpitas sends him for the ballots will not include your address.

Grendel and Katja offered Steffan a calendar so that he could calculate when to mail the ballots. Katja explained that, as the two seneschals who ran the last two baronage elections, they'd learned it was most effective (and kinder to the candidates, the seneschal, and the populace) to time the election so that the last day of the election (the 30th) was on the business meeting. That way, the seneschal can gather the last ballots from the Barony mailbox, go straight to the meeting and count the ballots with the exchequer, and then announce the winner to everyone at the same time (rather than know the secret result several days ahead of the meeting).

Steffan initially timed it so that he would count the ballots and announce the winner at the Dec. 20 meeting. However, Peregrine suggested adjusting the schedule so as to avoid the holiday mailing season. Steffan agreed, saying it would allow him to cancel the December business meeting as well, even though he'll be in town during the holidays.

"No more vacation time for me this year," he complained.

"That rigorous three-week cruise through Alaska was just hell, right?" Grendel asked.

"Yeah, plus drinking beer for two weeks at Pennsic," Steffan replied.

…Returning to the topic, Steffan moved the schedule back so he will mail the ballots on Dec. 16 and the announcement will be at the Jan. 17 business meeting.

Grendel reminded Steffan that he needed to request some money for the cost of paper and postage for the ballots. After some discussion and amending the initial request for $75, those present approved 36-0-2 to giving Steffan $100 or more as needed for ballot costs.

4. Proposed Policies / Baronial Curia is Nov. 15

The Barony policies online does not include several updates since September 2002 (elevating the webminister to an officer, the 14-day expense reimbursement requirement, and the addition of two new Barony awards), nor are there any paper copies of these changes.

Steffan had taken meeting notes and Fewmet announcements of these changes and added them to the existing policies, copies of which he handed out to those present. These are the *current* approved policies, he said, unless there are questions about his wording.

Several portions of our policies are not in compliance with kingdom law:

we need to change the age restriction on the paid members eligible to vote in a Baronial election from 14 to 16;
we need to delete the line about officer voting on the group status at a meeting and add a line about the group status polling being included in the candidate ballot; and
we need to change the tie-breaker decision from the hands of the baronage & candidates to the Crown.

Orianna suggested some wording for incorporating these into our policies. Steffan said that we will present her policy proposals at the next meeting and vote on them at the November Curia. Katja offered some grammar and typographical corrections.

Steffan noted that the policies also need to include the heraldic descriptions of the two new Barony Orders, as they do with the ORF. Matilda agreed to provide this for the proposals.

There was some discussion about Steffan’s wording of the webminister’s office: is the webminister really was a deputy of the chronicler, the same way it is at the kingdom level, or does the one just report to the other? Fridrikr said he felt we should parallel the kingdom model and have the webminister be a deputy.. Elizabeth said she felt it was most important to maintain communication between the two offices, due to the complexity of the web and the duties of the webminister. Grendel noted that we’ve had a webminister for years, but it wasn’t an official office until the kingdom changed things on the kingdom level. After some more discussion, Siggy asked that the discussion be taken online, so other business could occur at the meeting.

5. Demo news

Siggy announced another boy scout demo on Oct. 22 for his scout troupe at a location to be determined soon. The scouts would like us to attend a meeting in early March to learn about siege weapons – specifically on how to build them. They plan to have a shootoff the following weekend. They also would like to have a general demo on March 27. Siggy noted that previous year's demos had focused on fighting and an overview of all things medieval. He welcomes suggestions for different topics. Perhaps a fencing demonstration? Something A&S? He would prefer something hands-on for the scouts.

He recently posted a request to the list for ideas on what items should be included in the new demo box, but he's gotten only one suggestion. Siggy urged folks to give him more suggestions on what would be useful at a demo.

Also, he plans to design a pamphlet on the SCA that he could send to the schools who ask for our demos. (Although he's not going to do it right now… due to the sudden arrival of baby.)

If there are any college students who can work with the Barony on ADEPT demos, please contact him?

Dubheasa mentioned some additional demos:

DePaul would like another us to do another demo for them, since the residents very much enjoyed last year’s fighting and dancing one. The date is Nov. 16. This would be a straight SCA demo, not an ADEPT one.
Webster Library would like one as well with fighting and dancing, sometime in the near future.
Hilton school… no details yet.
Astronomicon, also in November.

Siggy added that they will probably start doing the ADEPT demos later year again when schools get to the medieval part of their history studies. Dubheasa noted that she’d like to hold an ADEPT workshop later this year for Thescorreans who would like to participate. It’s a great opportunity to work on your persona, she said, and a LOT of fun.

6. Coronation

“Everything is going very well!” Pleasance reported with a smile. Mateo noted that we have over 100 reservations, with 90 onboard. (The onboard limit is 120.) He has three volunteers for Tollner, and would appreciate a few more, please. Pleasance added that we can get into the site on Friday night to set things up, starting at 7 p.m. We’re looking for a lot of help with moving tables, unloading cars, etc. etc.

“The Brute Squad will be there,” Phillipe and Lionheart replied.

Pleasance cautioned that one of the site’s rules is no standing on tables or chairs, so please use the stepladder we will have at our disposal when hanging things Friday.

We can be onsite Saturday at 8 a.m., she concluded, and we need some mallets for pounding stakes if anyone can lend a few?

Yasmina asked about how the online reservations went, since this is the first event at which we’ve used the system. Mateo replied that it went pretty well – we got a total of 29 reservations online. (The system had to shut down a week ago so that the credit cards would clear before the event.)

Colette said she needed to find out where the fighters and fencers will be located outside, so she and Dubheasa can serve some lunch outside. Pleasance and Mateo offered a map of the site, which they said they will have in the site booklet.

“Thanks to everyone who offered to help, to bring banners, to move things. You’ve all made things SO much easier!” Pleasance said.

7. College of Three Ravens Bid

Eldjarn offered to autocrat C3R this year, once again at McQuaid (for the same price – $550!). Honnoria will be in charge of classes, Bryn will cook dinner, and Mairghread has agreed to do her first lunch! Grendel is reservation clerk and tollner.

Eldjarn estimated $1,700 in expenses but an income of $2,000. He suggested a site fee of $8 for adults, $4 for kids aged 17 to six, and free for kids five and under. Feast would be $8 for adults, with kids six to 13 eating for half price. Katja asked why the discrepancy in the ages between the site fee and the feast fee? Eldjarn replied that later teenagers eat as much as adults while the site fee is following standard age prices.

He expects 150 people to attend the event, with 100 staying onboard. Those present voted to approve his bid 22-2-2…

…But then there was more discussion.

“I think we should discuss these prices. It’s getting harder to meet them,” Orianna said. Fridrikr added that if 200 people attend, then everyone over the 150 mark “is pure profit and you’ll make $400.”

“Or we could have a huge storm and get 50 people,” Steffan commented.

Fridrikr replied that, yes, that’s always the risk we run with C3R, but he was concerned that we were charging the same for our local university as we were for a kingdom-level event. He strongly requested a family cap.

Otelia suggested reviewing the attendance at C3R for the last couple of years, and Eldjarn said he’s been in contact with Alina to verify that. (Alina said that, yes, she was in the process of getting him those numbers.)

Eldjarn agreed to review the numbers and consider reducing the fees.

Steffan re-presented the bid, stating it was contingent on Eldjarn reconsidering the prices after reviewing the attendance numbers. The bid passed 27-0-3.

8. Miscellaneous

“Coffee season has resumed!” Carlo announced from the corner near the bubbling coffee pot. Tonight’s flavor is Jamaican Me Crazy.

Peregrine displayed some red bandanas, saying they’d been left behind in the Thescorre Pennsic encampment. Do they belong to anyone here?