Ildhafn Council Meeting Minutes November 2012
In Attendance: Angela Wells (Seneschal), Shannon Wanty (Reeve), Nicola Haliday (Marshal), David Robb (Webwright), Wendy Rowsell (Chatelaine), Patrick Bowman (Herald), Katherine Davies (St Cath's Steward), Roger Win (Baron), Liz Brodie (Baroness)
Apologies: Chantelle Gerrard (A&S)
Absent:
Meeting Opened: 7.45pm
Reports Received Online:
Reeve:
Just a quick update from me - nothing much to report really.
The bank account stands at $10277.37 - but it is currently swollen by payments coming in for St Cath's, and we have yet to see any major outgoings for this event. The $112 bond money (which will be deducted from overall site cost after the event) has been paid.
A&S:
Arts and Sciences are still happening on a regular Sunday basis
Singing led by Mistress Katherina Weyssin von Regenspurk Sundays has now been made
official starting at four (if someone says can we sing please…)
We decided if a and s Sunday wasn’t broke…don’t fix it – and we are looking at just
running a workshop or class advertised on the first Sunday each month.
The hall that was going to host a and s first Sunday fell through due to many reasons – the
main ones was lack of getting back to me (I sent many messages and rang a few times)
and after being told no charge there was a $100 dollar fee asked. We were also promised
one of the dates, which they then reneged on….that was all discussed in council.
Marshal:
Heavy combat: No current heavy activity.
Rapier Combat: Rapier is still being fairly regular, over September we had a break from classes due to everyone having a combination of injuries and attack of something called of ‘real life’.
We are currently being taught Destreza by Don Emrys and have 4-6 regular attendees.
We had two new authorisations at St Johns.
Herald:
The Barony of Ildhafn, jewel in Their Majesties' Crown, in its fair canton Cluain, held one event in
honour of St John of Jerusalem, at which Their Excellencies generously rewarded Their loyal
people in divers ways, including Baronial Awards. Blue Lymphad was ably assisted in his
ceremonial shouting duties by Lady Christine Bess Duvant. He was also kept busy acting as
Master of Ceremonies during the feast.
With the approach of summer, Blue Lymphad's mind is now turned to the upcoming feast
of St Catherine of Alexandria, and the consequent planning of Royal Courts and one Laurel
Ceremony.
Blue Lymphad has had a number of inquiries on matters of names and devices, and has lent out
the Baronial Textas, but has yet to receive any paperwork.
Webwright:
Ildhafn's website continues to be well used by both existing and prospective members. Updates are made to the site by various members of the group, including officers, stewards and generally interested members of the populace. The calendar, photo gallery and new music section are currently the standout popular items. The site now also includes customisable booking form capabilities, which are being used by the upcoming St Catherine's Faire, and are proving to be a boon for all involved in running the event, as information is automatically sent out to those who require it (e.g. cooks, billeting, marshals)
Reports Received in Person:
Chatelaine: Report was not submitted.
Past Events:
None to report on
Upcoming Events:
St Cath's: Numbers are looking good – last minute flurry of bookings has been followed by last minute flurry of cancellations. Total bookings including children is 63. Two under 5's, 10 school age and some teenagers. Cooks have final numbers and budgets. Nicola asked the Baron what kind of tournament he wanted. It looks like there will be four heavy fighters. Roger suggested a Round Robin tourney.
Compilation in honour of St Benedict Biscop: Katherine asked what the plan was for picking up feast gear and food prep etc. Shannon said that she'd collect the gear from Wendy well ahead, and have everything plated and ready to go on Friday night. She also wasn't worried about petrol costs or laundry etc and thought that this could come out of the food budget. Patrick was concerned that having the rain day option be on Sunday might inconvenience people who have commitments on Sunday. The group discussed this and talked about whether it would be better to have the rain option on a Saturday to take this into account – however, this may mean that Al & Mel's place would be an option since they'd have A&S on Sunday anyway. In the end it was decided that with sufficient advertising about what the rain option was then that would be fine – as long as people are aware when they book. Ange volunteered to be Deputy Steward. Everyone said yes to the bid.
The Bloth 2013: Probably June 21-23. David is to be steward. The bid is on the website. Katherine mentioned the benefit of putting together a proposal on the website is that you can clone a previous event proposal and use this as a starting point for a new proposal. 10th anniversary of the Barony, 20th of the Auckland group. David has yet to check if the sites are available and the pricing. This is kind of similar to St Cath's: a big feast with accommodation. Friday night fairly relaxed opening. Saturday, a ball, and maybe some stuff in the morning. A feast in the evening with possible entertainments. The site for the feast will be the Clevedon Hall which is bigger and only two minutes up the road. This site hasn't been visited yet but can hold about 300. David's considering different break even figures for the site and for the feast. 35 at Camp Sladdin and 50 for the feast. Katherine has analysed what happens financially if figures are low, and at most it looks like we'll only lose a few hundred dollars. Two major pricing options: one for the whole weekend, and another for Saturday only. No suggestion so far of this being a Royal Visit, but it could be nice to get past B&Bs to come along, or perhaps write out a message that can be read out if they can't attend. On Sunday there will be two tournaments. Roger asked if it would be a Tournament of the Roses. David said that the both heavy and fencing tournaments will follow similar formats. Patrick had suggested that perhaps these could be held inside since it's likely to be wet – but with the heavy fighters they would not be able to fall over. Patrick's quite keen to try out an authentic period system for points scoring so that this is taken into account. David also suggested that fighting over a barrier would be another way of taking care of this. Shannon asked whether it would mostly be out-of-towners staying – David thought that it would probably be mixed. The idea of the Saturday-only option may appeal to a lot of Aucklanders who only come sometimes. Accommodation is a plus for attracting people travelling from out of town. Liz brought up that on the Saturday evening Sladdin is noted as being locked and empty – she wondered if there would be at least one person on site to keep an eye on tents etc. Wendy mentioned that if there are people at the event with children, they may either not go to the feast or do a part evening – so perhaps some of these would be interested in doing this for part of the evening for a discounted seat. Everyone was happy with this pending financial figures and site availability being confirmed.
General Business:
Latches for the Cupboards: Nicola asked if we could purchase new latches for the cupboards as someone broke into one of them. The cupboards have now been moved to a locked room but new latches are required. Matt's going to do a bit more repair on them also. Council is fine with the cost of new latches being covered. The padlocks are still fine. They didn't take any gear, just money from the kitty (only $15).
Quartermaster: Katherine's done. Wendy's willing to take it over. They're doing hand over after St Cath's. Thank you very much Katherine (and Patrick) for the last four years!
Next Council Meeting: Angela suggested that the next Council meeting be on Sunday January 20th, with no meeting in December. Any urgent stuff to be discussed online before then. Back to normal in February.
Event Proposals: Katherine would like to suggest that we put these online, so that we can have the proposal, the event information/booking form etc, and report online to build up data around typical events. Everyone thought this sounded like a reasonable idea. Ange asked if there would be plenty of storage space – David said never to worry about this. Katherine and David are both happy to help people with putting forms together.
Opening Council List to the group: Patrick suggested letting anyone who would normally be a voting member of the group be on the list if they wish to. This would mean anyone who is a member of the populace who is resident here. Roger queried whether this was the financial committee and this was clarified as no, this is for Council decisions generally – the financial committee is separate and required by SCANZ. Katherine explained that the purpose of the financial committee was meant to be a smaller subportion of the Council so that emergency decisions could be reached on expenditure. Angela was of two minds about it because she doesn't know why anyone who would want to have access to it who doesn't need to – Katherine commented that as a steward and Quartermaster that we make reference to stuff that was discussed online via the Council list so things are harder to follow. David pointed out that an advantage of it is that absolutely all the administrivia can be shifted to the Council list and all the “fun” stuff and the event ads can happen via the Ildhafn one. Everyone says yes to this.
The Group Guidelines: Katherine suggested amending the guidelines to include something about how only people who live within the group are able to vote on decisions via the email list, since we're opening it up to more people. Patrick commented that defining “populace” may be useful. Patrick also commented that we either needed to specify a regular meeting time, or have an option for forcing a meeting. People liked the current phrasing that Patrick had included for this. Quorum is normally four people and should always include the Seneschal. David commented that it should probably also be Reeve, or a designated deputy. The guideline about when Minutes should be published online was amended to a fortnight of time. To change the guidelines it was decided that a simple majority at two meetings: one meeting approves them, they're published to the populace, the second meeting they're discussed and confirmed. Patrick's going to send this around as another draft with the amendments, and Ange will present it to the Kingdom Seneschal for discussion. Ange mentioned that we need to present it to the populace – Patrick commented that this would be most worthwhile after we've confirmed with the Kingdom Seneschal whether it looks alright. However, Katherine pointed out that if a draft was made available this week it would give people the opportunity to discuss it at St Cath's. Everyone decided that presenting a draft online this week would be a good idea.
B&B's End of Year BBQ: This is the weekend after St Cath's. Please RSVP. They'll publish a reminder.
B&B at Canterbury Faire: They are currently finding out whether they will have leave available to attend CF.
Council Meeting closed: 9.08pm