Ildhafn Monthly Council Meeting
March 27 2011
In Attendance: Angela Wells (Seneschal), Shannon Wanty (A&S, Chatelaine), Nicola Haliday (Acting Marshal), David Robb (Webwright), Vanessa Atkins (Reeve), Patrick Bowman (Herald)
Late: Phil Mason (Constable)
Absent: Everyone Else
Meeting Opened: 7.31pm
Reports received online: A&S, Marshal, Reeve
Reports received in person:
Constable: Phil went and picked up a set of armour going free, pretty rusty currently. There’s also a bag of children’s clothes, and some patterns. Otherwise nothing to report.
Herald: Nothing to report.
Harbour Master: There is a report but it doesn’t have any impact on the meeting, so Patrick is going send it through later.
Webwright: Nothing much to report. David is going to alter parts of the website this week and change the web address slightly to meet Kingdom Seneschal’s requirements. He would like to get rid of the Yahoo group mailing list and swap it out for another one. Everyone is quite happy to migrate the list over. David will set it up to cross post and so that people get told how to join the group. Patrick commented that the front page looks good, and stuff keeps changing, which is good.
Chatelaine: Said it would be nice to have been let know that she’s now officially Chatelaine. There’s two newcomers to rapier, who also came along to sewing today. They’re already paid members and seem quite enthusiastic.
Past Events
St Sebastian’s: Half a dozen of us went to this and had fun, it was a good event.
Upcoming events
Royal Visit: Shannon said that 32 adults have booked for the event. Shannon asked if Vanessa can email through the payments, she’ll do this when she’s received the paper statement or set up internet banking. The booking price goes up $10 to $60 as of Friday 1st April. Nicola will update this on the website. Nicola said that seven people are interested in fighting heavy (excluding the King), and three interested in rapier so far. Nicola would like a cheque for the $100 bond for Camp Sladdin. Nicola will confirm details, and a cheque will be arranged on Thursday.
Costuming Collegium: Chantelle is interested in organising a weekend-long costuming collegium with a feast on the Saturday evening. Shannon has forwarded her information about how to put together a bid, and suggestions for a deputy or head steward (depending on Chantelle’s membership status). Chantelle is keen to get other groups along to this as well.
Bloth: This is usually held around June 21st. Ange is considering putting a bid together. Phil suggested moving it to early July so we can get some of the other groups along when it doesn’t happen. Ange thought maybe early-mid July, with an early feast to make it easier for families to come along. Phil thinks an evening event would also potentially be nice, but if there’s other events that are doing this, then an afternoon one would be a nice change. David likes the idea of an afternoon thing as then it finishes early and everyone’s home at a reasonable time. Starting about 4pm would help get the best of both worlds. Vanessa is interested in helping organise this. Ange will forward a bid through to Council list for consideration. David suggested getting in touch with the new B&B to see if/when they’re available.
Dance Workshop: Patrick is having trouble with the venue, but he is hoping to sort that out this week and will forward a bid through then. He’s looking at August for this.
Gambling Event: Ange was trying to organise this to fit in with Berenger coming over, but as he’s just taken over as Seneschal of Rowany this may not work. Phil suggested seeing if he might be available in early June to add something to the calendar then.
LOTS workshop in Cluain and in Ildhafn: Ange has emailed Rudiger about this and hasn’t heard back. Tentatively scheduled for the weekend of the 14th (check date), but Vanessa is away. She’s back in early June. Shannon isn’t keen to push it out that far. Ange thinks that this might work better for Rudiger and Svartr, but she isn’t sure. David suggested that we just do one for the Ildhafn group to get it done, Shannon suggested leaving it open for Cluain to come along if they want to. David suggested that if we just do the Ildhafn group, then we could do it in an evening. Nicola’s not good for Monday nights, but Tuesdays might work – Phil can’t do Monday, but can do Tuesday. The plan is to only take a few hours for it, so this could work better and not screw up people’s weekends too much. Phil said to go with Tuesday. Shannon suggested Tuesday the 12th of April at 7pm-9pm at her place. Shannon will email everyone with her new address and ask re pizza hates, then organise for pizza and beer to be there when people get there. People to arrive from 6.30pm so we can actually get going at 7pm.
Wine & History Evening: Patrick would like to do another one of these sometime, when there’s a gap. May is currently open. Patrick will find a date in May, and Patrick & Shannon will talk about something.
General Business
Report from the Reeve about the accounts: Everyone commented that it looked fairly stable, with an annual oscillation around our larger events. Phil commented that it was rather like the ice ages really. Ange thanked Vanessa for sending through the information as it was good to see what was happening long term with the accounts.
Paying for excess baggage for their Majesties to allow them to bring over His Majesties armour: Ange wanted to discuss the possibility of paying excess baggage so that Gabriel can bring his armour over. Patrick asked what the cost would be. Phil commented that it’s likely to be one 20kg bag extra. Ange said that a lot of the airlines are charging differently now, not by weight but by item. David suggested just offering them a fixed amount to go towards it, say $100. Everyone is happy with offering them $100 towards the cost of travel.
Payment for Banners to katherine kerr: Shannon brought up that katherine hasn’t been paid for the banners. She quoted us $5 per banner for paints & dyes, and $6 a metre for fabric. There were 12 banners so $60 for the paints etc, and Shannon thinks it was about 1m per banner (as they’re about 2m long and she could fit two per fabric width). She has emailed katherine to confirm this and is waiting to hear back. She will also ask for an invoice for it. A cheque can be written on Thursday then. Ange said thanks to Shannon & Katherine for making the dress. katherine kerr will be wearing the dress at the Royal Visit.
Increasing membership numbers/growing the group: Patrick suggested printing more fliers and placing them strategically. All our newcomers have come through the website over the last two years. Google updates with our website daily for the listing. Ange asked Shannon to contact Kelsie about getting more business cards printed. Shannon will also email the Council libraries and see if they would be okay with us putting bookmarks into appropriate books or on the counters. David pointed out that we don’t want to get inundated with newcomers or we just won’t have the resources to keep them. Phil said it sounded like we’re doing pretty well with the artisans, but less with heavy. Rapier is doing well as there is a good solid group, but no heavy because there are no people doing heavy currently. Nicola is trying to encourage some of the old, currently inactive heavy fighters to become active again. Patrick pointed out that it can be a handy recruitment tool because it’s loud and visible, but it actually needs a few people to be interested in it and willing to start. Phil noted that Hastilude worked well to have combined arms training outside and other stuff inside. Phil thought that not doing it on Sundays in the park but doing it at someone’s place might be more convivial to people. Nicola is attempting to do the organisation side of things so that something can start happening again. Nicola will put it in her report if she finds that there’s an interest in it and she can get something happening.
Focusing on the uni students is a good way of recruiting as we get enthusiastic young people joining in for at least a few years – and they might bring their friends. Phil suggested seeing if the university medieval faculty is still in existence and whether they would be interested in some of our stuff – e.g. advertising the history night, sewing, shoemaking etc, and avoiding mentioning the fighting side of things. Patrick commented that the SCA has a mixed reputation with the academic world depending on their experience with it. David thought it would be a good way of playing to our strengths. Patrick will have a look at their website to see what’s around. Phil suggested that maybe the history night could be held at the University of Auckland, but Patrick doesn’t have any contacts there, but David commented that it might be just a good thing to let them know about.
Cheques: Vanessa commented that there are outstanding cheques that have actually expired and need to be reissued. Patrick asked Vanessa what the easiest thing to do. Vanessa said the options are either to have a new cheque or to write it off. Patrick said to just write it off. Vanessa asked what happened to the last lot of cheques to SCANZ. No-one can remember what happened to them. David suggested Vanessa email Helen and ask about this. If it hasn’t gone through, may need to issue a new cheque and post this. Patrick identified Katherine’s handwriting on the cheque butt and is going to ask her about this in case they’re in her purse still.