1. Officer Reports

• Archery: Cedric apologized for writing the following in just the few minutes before the meeting:

Archers have too many things to do
And too little time
Having too much time on your plate
In the SCA, is a common crime
We had archery on Sundays
But this schedule has been amended
From now until April,
Practice is suspended
April is coming fast
Soon warmer it will be
Outside we will go
To shoot amongst the trees.

• Chronicler: We have a total of 45 issues each month, Mairghread said, 34 of which are paid subscriptions.
• Eldjarn plans to have a rough draft of the new Domesday Saturday at College of Three Ravens so that gentles can double-check their entries and he can reshoot their photos if they wish. He expects to print the results in the near future.
• They want to ask the Barony for funds to buy a copy of MS Publisher for creating the Fewmet.
• Other plans include an occasional color cover for the newsletter, plus an all-children’s artwork issue in the fall or at Yule time.
• They expect to collect the next year’s worth of cover art from the Scriptorium at C3R.
• Exchequer: Alina reported $2,952 in checking, $1,108 in savings. She submitted the quarterly report on time to the kingdom exchequer. She reminded everyone that she still needs a deputy.
• Herald: Matilda will have a consultation table at C3R, and fellow heralds Alheydis & Christopher have agreed to help. Collette announced that her name and device passed the Laurel College. Vivat!
• Thrown Weapons: Speaking for Timothy, Alison said that practice was on hiatus for the winter.
• Youth Fighting: We’ve had an average of five fighters each week, Mairghread, with 13 one week! We’ve had three new fighters, one new marshal, and Julian is kingdom youth fighting champion. Vivat! We’ll have youth fighter classes at C3R. Youth fighters also participated in the recent demo in the Hael.
• MOL: Bronwyn said she had nothing to report.
• Webministers: Sorcha & Donal announced that the C3R classes are online, both with class descriptions and without. Sorcha thanked Orianna for putting the idea to do so in her head. <smile> Alison noted that Timothy was very impressed with the new webpage functionality that allowed you to get directions to the event from your home address.
• In other web news, the Barony webpage also now has photos of Julian as the Æ champ. Two new members joined the Barony Yahoo group, and one unsubscribed.
• Cooks Guild: We’ll be meeting in the future to bake egg-free vigil cookies for Ice Dragon, Bryn said. She also plans to start having meetings on sugar and other sweets in period.
• Speaking of cooking and food… there’s an event this weekend! If you plan to help in the kitchen with either cooking or cleanup, please let Bryn know ASAP so that she knows she has help and so that she can add your name to her feast booklet. She very much needs kitchen help, especially with clean up, so please consider volunteering. Alison noted that clean up is really important, adding that she and Bryn were in the kitchen at Twelfth Night until after **1 a.m.**
• The planned menu for C3R is roasted chicken with stuffing, garlic sauce, another sauce, mushrooms & leeks, custard, apple juice, Saracen beef stew, peas with onions, carrot salad, pomegranate drink, apple fritters or puffs, and cantucci (a kind of biscuit-like sweet).
• Grendel noted that we have 75 on board as of the meeting. The limit is 94 gentles.
• Middle Eastern Drum & Dance: We have one new dancer/drummer, Carlo noted. Otherwise, nothing is new. We expect to bring our drums to C3R.
• Western Dance: Dance will be relocated to UR tomorrow since Adams Street is closed, Peregrine said. If you expect to attend, please make sure you’re there before 7:30; if no one shows up by that time, she’s leaving.
• Threadworkers: The most recent meeting was last Sunday, Matilda said, but she did not attend since she was coming home from a wonderful scribal event. The meeting was at Sorcha & Donal’s, and the topic was documentation. The next meeting will be at Cedric & Peregrine’ on March 12, and the topic will be purses and pouches. Next up will be quilting at Matilda’s on April 2. The May meeting is scheduled to be at Orianna’s, with a topic TBA.
• Fencing: We have five to eight people on average, Yasmina said, now that Collette is trying it out and Roberta is returning to fencing after several years. No one’s gotten hurt, there hasn’t been any paperwork. We didn’t have practice on week in January due to Martin Luther King Day, and it was cancelled for the past two weeks due to the Center being closed. There are a variety of great fencing classes planned for C3R. She remarked that she thought one of the three new Barony loaner tunics had gone walkabout, but it was found stuffed inside a loaner mask.
• Scriptorium: We have our regular practice on the first Wednesday of each month at Pleasance’s, Collette said, and a second one on the fourth Tuesday at the Center.
• The scribes have been playing around making ink, including black walnut (which she was using to finish an AOA scroll during the meeting!) and oak gall. However, the scribes discovered that if you don’t crack the oak galls and leave an airspace, the container will explode upon opening. “Sadira once told that you need to run over them a few times with your car,” Sorcha said. “Was she talking about oak galls? Or the walnuts?”
• Baron & Baroness: No news on Pennsic or anything else really baronial, Peregrine said. She added that she & Cedric had agreed to offer Newbridge the inside plot of land on the block, if they wished to switch from the one nearer the road.

2. College of Three Ravens

• Eldjarn has strep, so he wasn’t present at the meeting to report on the event.
• Set up is Friday night from 5 to 7 at McQuaid. Volunteers will be GREATLY appreciated!
• The cooks will not be allowed to use the refrigerator in the kitchen. <frowny face> Bryn might need to borrow some coolers

3. Policy

• There weren’t any proposals for Baronial Curia.

4. Drop-Dead Seneschale

• Katja had raised a question earlier in the day on the Yahoo list. She’s the drop-dead seneschale, but she’s also now one of the Baronial heirs. Kingdom law specifically forbids local seneschals from being territorial baron/baronesses. It doesn’t specifically prohibit drop-dead deputies from the same, but she thought some people would be concerned so had raised it to see what the will of the Barony was on the matter. Should she step down now – which would leave Steffan without a deputy—or was it okay to stay on as deputy until the baronial investiture in July? Peregrine has a bid in to succeed Steffan as seneschal, but if she stepped in as drop-dead now, it would be the same issue. Katja asked what folks would prefer her to do.
• Several folks felt that it wasn’t a conflict of interest or a problem, and felt Katja should keep being the deputy until July. Some others expressed concern and discomfort with the situation, noting that if something happened to Steffan, the point of the drop-dead is to step fully into the job, which would then be a violation of kingdom law.
• Caradawc called Marguerite, the kingdom seneschale, who said she didn’t think it was a problem for Katja to remain the drop-dead. However, Katja was concerned that some folks were not comfortable with the idea. She asked if anyone else would be willing to be the drop-dead through July. After some more discussion, Matilda agreed to be the interim drop-dead four-months-lease seneschale to step in for Steffan should the need arise. Vivat Matilda! <grin>

5. Upcoming Events

• We need bids for Pax! Orianna has offered to autocrat if no one else speaks up, but she has a work conflict and would appreciate someone else doing it.