Ildhafn Council Minutes
January 23 2011
Present: Angela Wells (incoming Seneschal), Katherine Davies (outgoing Seneschal), Shannon Wanty (A&S Officer), David Robb (Chronicler), Patrick Bowman (Herald), Phil Mason (Constable), Vanessa Atkins (Reeve), Nicola Haliday (Rapier Marshall)
Apologies: Matt Mole (Baron)
Absent: Everybody Else
Meeting Opened: 7.45pm
Reports received by email:
A&S - Caterine de Vantier
I've been advertising for my successor and to date have received two
tentative expressions of interest but no actual applications. I will
advertise again this week. If there are no applications I am looking
at extending my term by one year, as I think that there will be a
number of people who will be keen and able to take on the role then.
If this is the case I will email Ange as local seneschal and also the
Kingdom A&S Officer to check that they are okay with this.
Apart from this, there's not too much to report. A lot of people are
making all sorts of garb at the moment, which is always good to see,
and there's been a few other bits and pieces that people have been
working on too.
It was really nice to attend Twelfth Night in Politarchopolis and see
all the Kingdom competition entries, especially some really nice
entries in the Bestiary competition, including several group entries.
A number of scrolls that had been completed by the College of Scribes
were also given out and these were really nice to see. I have asked
Svartr about maybe running a scribal workshop sometime in the first
half of the year.
LOTS was excellent and really worth attending. I've taken lots of
notes that I'll write up, we also were given a bunch of documents to
read, and further notes will be sent out to attendees soon. I expect
that Ange and I will work with Roger and Trent to sort out a workshop
in the near future.
Chatelaine - Anna de Wilde
Not much to report. I have been advertising the position of Chatelaine. I have had one tentative, "if no one else wants to do it, I will" expression of help, but no one really coming forward for the position.
12th Night was a lovely event, and there were many newcomers. Having garb and feast gear available was easy, since most of it is at my home. I would like to thank all those that helped with the newcomers, it was wonderful.
Seneschal - Katherina Weyssin
Everyday Stuff:
Things have been somewhat quiet since St Caths, as expected. Some
practices have continued irregularly (fencing, sewing), some with even
more intensity, but in a different form (dancing), some we've had a
break from (shed, council meetings). It seems to have worked well.
12th Night was very pleasant, though perhaps not quite the event the
steward had in mind, thanks to some welcome but unexpected advertising
in the Sunday papers. Well done to everyone who helped make newcomers
and visitors feel welcome, well-dressed, informed and interested.
Important Stuff:
Angela Wells will be taking over from me as Seneschal from this
evening's meeting; we will have a ceremonial change-over in court at
Their Excellencies' leisure. I will pass on the paper files and
important emails this evening, along with the spare cheque-book. I'll
assist her with her first quarterly report, as that will cover
material from my tenure, but otherwise I'll be keeping out of the way
unless asked. II'll be retiring from this list soon too. Thanks very
much, Angela - I'm sure you will do a brilliant job.
Really Important Stuff:
I've enjoyed being Ildhafn seneschal, mostly because you have been so
very pleasant, so easy, and so much fun to work with. Officers who are
competent, do their jobs well (and then some), report on time without
nagging, run good events, work well together without drama, and above
all have fun doing medieval stuff together and making the group thrive
result in a happy Seneschal who finds the office both easy and very
rewarding. THANK YOU!!!!!
Reeve - Maria Lamont
Account balances as at 17 January statement:
Current account: $3965.87
Savings Account: $1003.40
Outstanding Cheques: (that I'm aware of there'll be a couple more for LOTS though may not have been issued yet)
100272 -$29.52 2010 MIDWINTER Katherine Davies Canola oil
100315 -$25.00 2010 MIDWINTER Breadmaking Patrick
Chronicler - William de Cameron
The site continues to be occasionally visited, with the gallery being a common attraction - said gallery has recently benefitted from additions from the collection of Helen Chessum who had photos going back to Yule 2006 (hurrah!). Many thanks to Helen for taking and making available these photos.
Officers are requested to think about things that could be done with the respective sections of the website to make it both clearer to newcomers, but also to expand on the content there to keep it both fresh and useful for all.
It has come to my notice that the office of Webminister is no longer a deputy of the Chronicler insofar as the Society and Kingdom rules pertain and is now an office in its own right. As such, the question is probably worth asking as to whether Ildhafn wishes to have a Chronicler at all any more. Personally, I prefer the label of Chronicler to Webminister and would have preferred that the Webminister remain as a technical deputy of the Chronicler, but I don't know the best way to fit this into the new structure. I also don't believe Ildhafn presently has need of a Chronicler as defined by the rules, but do wonder if we want to consider (assuming we think we'd be allowed to) to have the two positions somehow continue to be combined. Whatever happens, I'm willing to continue in this role.
Constable - DCI Benedict
Another quiet month – nobody misbehaved, no public floggings, not invited to any private floggings...
Not aware of any lost property from 12th Night
After the flood of officer changes of late, my tenure is nominally up as well. Constable is a very low maintenance job, ideal for a newcomer keen to be more involved in the group. However, to keep a degree of stability in the Council, I’m happy to stay on for the foreseeable while.
Herald - Ludwig von Regensburg
For the edification of those several interested parties here beginneth the Blue Lymphad's report for January 2011.
Herald acted as MC during the Ball at St Catherine's.
There was a Court, during which a number of AoA scrolls were distributed and Baronial awards given.
Heraldring at the Fencing Tourney was provided by Mistress Katherina (ta!).
The record of those who have received Baronial awards is almost up to date (Fina alerted me to a couple
of possible omissions). The new webpage looks good (thanks William).
No business was conducted at Twelfth Night.
Her Magnificence, Tamsyn Northover, by Grace of God and Spot of Bad Luck Crux Australis Herald, has flagged the possibility of a Combat Heralds team to take the field at Rowany Festival.
Report endeth.
Long live me, Huzzah!
Rapier Marshall - Eleanor Hall
Rapier in Ildhafn has slowed down over Christmas as expected but we
are looking forward to kicking off again after CF.
Although practice has been less then regular we have managed to get
together periodically over the holidays.
I have been asked by Asbiorn inn eyverski, who was visiting from the
Shire of Harpelstane in Drachenwald to pass on his thanks to those who
came along last Sunday, it was a good experience for him to get some
tips in the Italian schools of fence and to fight against different
styles and he thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity.
I am unsure if I will attend the council meeting this evening, I will
try and get there, in case I am unable to make it I will extend my
appologies now.
Harbourmaster - Ludwig von Regensburg
Alternating Calm and Storm has made this a difficult time for Ildhafn's mariners, however some promising new trade-routes with Western Terra Rossa have recently opened up. There's gold in them thar hills.
Quatermaster - Katherine
I'm stepping down as seneschal, but not as quartermaster. However,
I'll take this opportunity to let you about a few changes:
1. I won't be on this email list, and will be a little less engaged in
the running of Ildhafn's events for the next couple of years (I'll be
busy being Lochac's seneschal), so I will need stewards to be
scrupulous about contacting me when they want stuff.
What I would like is for stewards to email or call me when an event is
approved, so I can put the date in my calendar (and let you know if,
for instance, I'll be out of town); then contact me again a fortnight
or so before the event, to arrange a time to pick up and return stuff.
I expect I will still attend almost all Ildhafn events (I'm not going
to be *that* out of touch) but I won't be available to transport gear
to and from events.
Ideally, I would like stewards to arrive with a fairly clear idea of
what they want to take - I can provide inventories in advance if it
helps.
I will continue to expect stewards to assist me in returning
everything to its proper place after an event, even if this means
coming round a week or so later to sort boxes that have become
disorganised. I will continue provide cooks with a pre-event inventory
of the food-stocks, and expect them to provide me with an updated
inventory after the event.
So far, of course, I have dealt only with the most courteous,
considerate and helpful of stewards and cooks - thank you!
2. I would like to pass on the role of quartermaster by St Caths 2012.
If someone would like to take everything after St Caths this year that
will be great. If not, I'm happy to keep it until St Caths next year .
. . but it won't be coming home with me after St Caths 2012. (I will
then have been quartermaster for 4 years). Consider this advance
warning! (I'll remind the seneschal again in a year or so ;-)
Anyone want ~1 m3 of Baronial Gear with which to decorate some spare
garage-space?
As always, I'm open to ideas about how we could store/sort/label stuff
to make it easier to use and to pack.
Reports received in person:
Past Events:
Twelfth Night: David passed the list of people who signed in to the event to the Reeve. Vanessa asked what she was supposed to do with it. There were some very helpful suggestions. In this case no Kingdom levies apply as it was a free event. David estimates that there were about 10 newcomers, 10 current people, and about 10 people who used to play more actively, which made a good and busy event. There was some advertising that we were unaware of, that posted the advertisement we had had on the website directly that it would have been handy to know about and have more accurate information listed, but it seems to have worked in our favour anyway. David and Vanessa are happy to run similar events at the horse paddocks in future. The archery butts are now located there permanently.
LOTS/Politarchopolis Twelfth Night: Ange, Shannon and Katherine reported on LOTS and said that it was very worthwhile. There were about 70 people there, with 35 out of the 40-45 groups in Lochac represented. A lot of stuff about communication. Ange has emailed Roger about when and how to organise the workshop following on from this. It is expected that the workshop be good for members of the general populace but highly recommended for those that are looking to take office or be highly active in the group over the next few years. It looks like this will be hosted in Cluain. We need to negotiate dates to best suit everybody, as doing it as a combined council thing would be good. If it’s impossible to manage a meeting that suits everyone, then having two separate workshops with the relevant attendees from the other half of the barony go to the other’s workshops. We’ll look at dates more following CF. Keeping it relatively close in time to LOTS would be better for memory, but there is still information coming through from Isobel following it. Pokeno could be a potentially good midway meeting point, and then everyone could eat ice cream. They have got a hall there that might be available for this.
Twelfth Night was very nice, got all the royalty attending in spite of flooding. Ange got awarded a golden tear. Edmund and Leonore were very disappointed that Ange didn’t cry when she was given this.
Upcoming Events:
CF: Katherine would like bun money. For those that are camping with Ildhafn, she’ll work out where the campsite boundaries are going to be when she arrives on the Saturday, we’ll be camping next door to Northside. She’s going to manage tent set up so there’s a better flow/layout than last year. Council was happy for Katherine to take some of the Quartermaster’s gear including banners etc so that we can make everything look nice and have suitable regalia for court. If Matt & Bea are driving down, they will take their big white pavilion to provide a common space – but this is a bit fluid currently. CF stewards have asked if we can please not steal all the cool people in the evenings. Council response is that we are the cool people, and that we’ve already invited a bunch of the cool people to come and spend time with us, and there’s a bunch of Aussies coming over that we want to make feel welcome. General Ildhafn policy is to find all the cool people at our event and bring them back to our campsite.
Dance movie night: Phil reminded everyone that the City Dance studio movie night is happening tomorrow if people would like to go and support it.
LOTS feedback workshop: As above.
Royal Visit: Gabriel and Constanzia have indicated that they are available for a royal visit on the weekend following Rowany Festival (the final weekend in April). Due to a tight timeframe and expected tiredness, although they would like to visit Cluain they have requested that the event be held in Auckland. Ange will email out to the Ildhafn mailing list tomorrow for event bids. Shannon is going to put together a bid, and will look for a hall tomorrow but finalise bid details and send it to the Council mailing list following CF.
Ange is to contact Gabriel about how much, if any, heavy fighting he would like to do at the royal visit and whether he wants to bring his armour over for it. Potentially for the group having a discussion about fighting generally rather than active armoured training would work quite well.
General Business:
A&S/Chatelaine: Ange has had one response from Wendy to say that if no-one else will do it she will. Shannon hasn’t had any actual applications, just a couple of expressions of potential interest. If she has no actual applications she’ll continue in the role another year as there’s likely to be more candidates then.
Seneschal Handover: Katherine formally handed over the reins to Ange who chaired the meeting.
Ildhafn Council Email List: Ange brought up inviting the other Crescent Isles Seneschals to observe on the Ildhafn list. Rudiger and Bernard currently are on the list, Rudiger as part of the interchange between Cluain and Ildhafn, Bernard hasn’t been removed following his monitoring of a dispute. Council was generally in agreement for them to observe over the next twelve months and then review the situation. The agreement can only be reciprocal with Cluain as they are the only other NZ group that has a separate Council list.
Minutes: Vanessa would like to be able to have read-only internet banking access. This requires the Council to approve it and for two people to sign a copy of the minutes. The Council unanimously approved this. David and Katherine will sign off on it.
More Events: Patrick will put together a dance event for the middle of the year. Ange and Nicola were looking at organising a St Cayetano’s-type event for later in the year. Berenger is still keen to visit and do a training weekend at some point during the year, and liked the St Cayetano’s-type event, so this could be coordinated perhaps for late September or early October. This is during the Rugby World Cup so that may cause a problem. Church halls etc should still be okay to book, or maybe even the Horticultural Hall. David is happy to help out anyone who’s interested in running St Cath’s this year.
Traditional Events: Ange asked what some of these are. There have been May Days, St George’s, the Bloth or midwinter, St Cath’s. Some of these have been irregular but are considered as “traditional” Ildhafn events. Midwinter is quite a popular time for a lot of groups, so best to be booked in early. St Catherine’s Faire is on the 25th of November but tends to be pushed later due to hall bookings and looking for finer weather, and not clashing with November Crown. St Cath’s is the most well-visited event for out of towners to come to. Choosing this date well in advance gives us the most chance of getting outsiders. St George’s is a household-run event, so it depends on an event bid coming through from one of them. Rather than hold the date free, getting a decision on whether they are intending to hold St George’s this year sooner rather than later would be good. This year there is a large number of people from Ildhafn going to Rowany Fesitval which is on the same date, which means that it would be likely to be a less-well-attended event, especially given that there will be a royal visit the weekend after.
Event Proposal Guidelines: Shannon would like to see some guidelines go on the website, Katherine says that Cluain are actively working on this at the moment.