In Attendance: Angela Wells (Seneschal), Shannon Wanty (Reeve), David Robb (Webwright), Patrick Bowman (Herald), Nicola Haliday (Marshal), Phil Mason (Constable), Al Muckart (SCANZ), Katherine Davies, Liz Brodie (via Skype), Roger Win (via Skype)
Absent: Chantelle Gerrard
Meeting Open: 7.39pm
Reports given:
Constable:
Overall, as is typical for this Office, there has been nothing of
consequence to report. There is only a very small pile of Lost Property, as
most of the old stock (held >2 yrs) was auctioned and bartered away to the
populace at the Festival of St John, hosted in Cluain.
As has been my intention for a while now, I must report however that I have
resigned my position as Baronial Constable as of the Twelfth Night festival.
I had received an expression of interest from Lady Aesa Hrolfsdottir (Wendy
Rowsell) to pick up the role, but she has now accepted the Office of Ildhafn
Chateleine.
That said though, I am not too concerned as the Constable duties are
negligible in New Zealand, and can certainly be handled by the populace at
large, and shared with the Quartermaster, Seneschal or Event Steward if a
situation really demands it.
At present therefore, I believe, Ildhafn is likely to let the position fall
into abeyance until one of the newer members can be cajoled into picking up
the role as an introduction to Officer service. I would of course be willing
to assist them with introductions, training and general assistance until
they felt themselves comfortable in the position.
This then I confirm as my true, accurate and final, report for the Third
Herald
At this past Canterbury Faire, Blue Lymphad was pleased to conduct the Laurel ceremony of William de Wyke. He also had Ceremonial Shouting duties at the Friday night ball.
Lady Christine Bess Duvant has indicated to Blue Lymphad that she would like to be involved in voice heraldry. He will therefore be looking for training opportunities in Court.
Blue Lymphad now has actual heraldic paperwork to do, as he is consulting on a name, a badge and a device, each for a different client.
Their Excellencies Ildhafn have asked Blue Lymphad to re-open the thorny issue of Ildhafn's augmentation of arms, granted by Their Majesties Caid, at the time of the political union of Terra Rossa and the Crescent Isles. In response, he has commenced consultations with learned members of the populace.
Marshal:
Everything has been a little slow since the last report as we slowed down over christmas.
For a while there was rapier happening on Wednesday evenings at Don William's which was getting about 4 fencers.
We recently did a display at the auckland Museum as part of their Summer Nights interactive programme, this was well received and allowed us to interact a little with the public and get a little more information out about what we do.
Rapier starts up this week again ,we have had outside interest so hopefully we will get more people this year.
Lord Ludwig played his Journeyman Prize at Canterbury Faire and now has a spiffy green sash to show for it.
No injuries, no authorisations for the past quarter
Webwright
The Barony of Ildhafn's website continues to be a Drupal based community effort, which generally requires me to do little except a few software upgrades, and assisting people with the occasional question about how to update certain aspects of the website. I cannot speak enthusiastically enough of having the site set up this way, and how easy it has made it for the content to be current, accurate and maintained by the relevant people.
Of particular success has been the section on Personal Projects, where members of the Baronial populace are encouraged to write short articles about their ongoing projects, which will in time build a library of information about how to do all manner of things. Additionally, the website is being used now to coordinate event proposals, feast plans, and other activities, as it's proving to be substantially easier than emailing documents around to each other.
Reeve
Accounts are still as there were in December. No activity as there have been no events since December.
A and S
Arts and Sciences are still happening and A and S Sundays are ready to take off again this Sunday 19th at William and Catalina's house
We turned out in force at Canterbury Faire and managed to run a number of varied A and S workshops including confit making, bookbinding, bobbin lace making, dance classes, doublet patterning and fitting etc
A few of us took part in the A and S display
Loner Gambersons were successfully made to the point of just short of completion (ie hand stitching) as a part of the 'squires challenge' with the help of people throughout Lochac and under the direction of myself.
Dancers and Musicians from Ildhafn took part in The Ball.
Anna de Wilde was Ball Mistress this year and ran a wonderful Ball to great acclaim as well as teaching dance classes towards it.
Ildhafn ran a very impressive Feast (with help from outside barony friends to serve/prepare etc) complete with fanfares, dancing servers and many months of food trials and preparation by Catherine de Vantier and others.
The Napkin Folding Subtly at the feast was completed by Alan the Just (Darton) under the request of Catherine de Vantier.
Singing performances for the invest of Isabella and Oswyn new baron and baroness were offered at half circle theatre by myself and Katherina Weyssin
many people contributed to too many areas of a and s over the Canterbury Faire week, but we all felt privileged to be amongst so many talented and sharing people.
William De Wyck was elevated to Laurel for his many talents in, and knowledge of Shoe making, which was a highlight for many of us at Faire.
Regular A&S meetings:
- Dancing, Thursday evenings, split between beginner's and by invitation.
- Sewing, Sunday afternoons, also room for "Shed"-type projects.
Past Events:
Summer Nights at the Museum: Patrick said there were a lot of people who were very interested in what we did. A bit of promo material was handed out, and some email addresses were collected – Patrick isn’t sure who has these, possibly Nicola. The demonstration went well. Angela received two contracts to sign which have Nicola’s name on, and send one back with a copy of the cover letter. Nicola has also signed a contract that she also received. Katherine mentioned that their standard contract says we can’t use their photography etc, Nicola verbally got permission to do this, but we will double check before sending back contract. Shannon and Nicola still to sort out payment.
Upcoming Events:
William and Katherina’s Birthday Ball: Still no confirmation on the site. This will be done in late February/early March. Patrick has advertised through Pegasus & Announce, Katherine has advertised via the Ruritanians, advertising on the website is to be updated.
Event Bids:
Bloth: Wendy is looking at Saturday 23rd June at St George’s in Takapuna, she knows the venue and it has a good kitchen. They are asking for a bond of $200 to confirm booking – this is refundable. Kitchen available from 3pm, hall from 4.30pm. Wendy would like to bring it back to what she remembers the Bloth being, with a fun feast, with a fun competition of performance arts – to be judged by the B&B with assistance of people attending and some prizes available. Liz & Roger think they can find suitable items in the largesse for this. Proposed break even set at 25 people. Cost of $30 per head for members, $32 for non-members. David asked what the intended pricing is for children. Wendy says 1-12 at $1 per year of age, 13+ at adult rate. We can pay the bond via internet banking, we can normally expect to receive this within two weeks after the event. Wendy thinks they will be able to do this electronically, but she will confirm this. 6pm opening with 6.30pm first course, flexible leaving time. Wendy will advertise on the list for a deputy steward, Shannon will sort out the payment for the bond and a deputy cook. David asked what the situation is re getting someone to sign the contract for the hall. Ange as Seneschal and the rest of the Council approved the bid. Wendy will sign the contract for this event as Steward, with Ange’s approval.
[Ange please paste in table of costs here]
St Catherine’s Faire: Katherine’s proposal is on the website, she’d like to know if people find this easy to access – generally people found this good. Camp Sladdin has been pencil booked for Friday 30th November to Sunday 2nd December. Nicola’s volunteered as Deputy Steward & Marshal Wrangler, she’s also going to fight her prize. Chantelle will do A&S, Ludwig heralding, Geoffrey archery, Antonia from Southron Gaard is running the feast, and there are other cooks for the rest of the event. Antonia and Margaret McGonagle may want a food buyer as they are coming from out of town – Katherine will work with them to coordinate this and find a person as necessary. Katherine intends to invite the Crown to the event, potentially even the new heirs. She checked with Roger & Liz and they are happy for her to do the asking and sorting this out. Katherine is looking at a break even figure of 30 people. Food budgets are reasonably generous - $50 for seven meals for the weekend. Total cost per person would be $80 for the weekend all up. Phil asked if this will be rounded down to $70 for the event for early bookings – Katherine said no, because of the closeness of the fixed costs. She’s planning on doing a $10 price hike a week before the event as these are the most stressful bookings since they’re so close to the event. The incentive for booking early is that she plans to give people the opportunity to sign up for chores in order of booking.
The bunking was a problem last time as some of the bunks are quite high, and some are quite short and designed for children. The plan is to encourage people to tent, and reserve bunks for out of towners first. Al asked about whether a power line can be run to a tent, Katherine/Nicola will check this. Katherine has checked re motel availability for people that want decent beds, and has provided links to several on the website.
Wendy mentioned that there is the market at Clevedon Village on the Sunday morning, so fresh bread etc could potentially be bought from there.
Patrick mentioned that there will probably be a request to fit the SCANZ AGM into the schedule – Katherine is happy to fit this in at a convenient time.
Katherine is going to be flexible re the event, booking for meals and staying nights people can just deduct as they need to – this is the easiest way for her to deal with this. Wendy asked whether this will be done via a booking form – Katherine says it will be, she hasn’t worked out exactly how yet but will do this in the near future. Shannon mentioned that this may make the financial report at the end of the event somewhat more complicated, but Katherine would rather do this than deal with all the emails about non-standard bookings.
Katherine wants to consider whether bookings need to be capped. The hall only adequately seats about 50 adults – however, she thinks we may end up with more people coming to the event, as there is interest from Southron Gaard, so may be about 70-80 people. Options are to cap the feast, cap the event, or have flow-over into the other hall. Phil asked whether having the kids fed first would be an option. Wendy mentioned that the kids often aren’t sitting at the entirety of the feast, so may not need seats. Someone suggested having B&B heading up the table next door. Ange asked whether we have enough tables & chairs to seat everyone in both rooms. If we do have a cap on the feast only, how are the extra people going to get fed? Katherine is going to check how many tables & chairs there are, and how many people we can fit in the halls. She will then look at capping the event based on this since we can only feed as many people at any meal as we can seat. Patrick asked what the numbers were for the Invest – Shannon will check this. Liz suggested checking what the limit on capacity is that is set by the fire brigade. David says that it’s usually 50 people per exit. Katherine will only look at capping though when it becomes relevant.
Ange as Seneschal and the rest of the Council approved the bid. Ange approved Katherine as Steward to sign off on anything necessary for the event.
Al volunteered to manage bookings, Wendy volunteered to handle transport & accommodation for out-of-towners.
Katherine will leave the bid on the website for people to check what they’ve offered to do.
[Ange please paste in table of costs here]
General Business:
Positions Vacant: Chatelaine & Constable Ange still needs to forward Wendy’s application for Chatelaine, she has asked her to email her again about this. Al said that Mel is possibly also interested in this.
It’s not clear in Corpora whether we actually need a Constable, Ange has the option of running this past the Kingdom Seneschal to find out whether we can get a waiver on having one, as the role of Constable here is significantly different to what it entails in Australia. Patrick asked why we need to ask, since it’s not actually defined and we’re not short of officers. There are several people who don’t mind taking it on if it’s necessary. Mostly what they do is look after lost property and check that guy ropes have their white ties, checking that people are wearing garb/have modern stuff covered etc.
Discussion of the US Settlement: Al has come to talk to us about this. Shannon asked to minute a comment but wasn’t allowed to. Al asked if anyone doesn’t understand what is happening. He provided a brief outline of the background of the case. There is no obligation for NZ groups to give them any money. Personal donations are being accepted. There is currently a poll about whether NZ & Australia should give any money from the groups. For SCANZ we may need to break a term deposit to make a payment – but this is not very much.
As a group it’s our own decision whether we want to donate any money. Ange is unsure about sending money from the group, although personal donations are fine. Shannon thinks personal donations are fine, but it shouldn’t be going from our group. Katherine thinks it’s okay to support from SCANZ and the Kingdom, but that local money is for the benefit of the local group – Kingdom and SCANZ funds are our contribution to the greater game. Really, everyone needs to fill in the poll to have it speak for us.
Vote from the Council is unanimous that as a Barony we do not want to contribute funds from Ildhafn.
Possible storage of Ildhafn stuff at CF: Katherine thought it might be a convenience to store some equipment at the CF site. She hasn’t yet checked with Southron Gaard whether this would be okay, but she will. She’s thinking of things like feast gear, basic cooking equipment, things for the encampment as we have had an Ildhafn encampment for the last few years. Her proposal is to go and find out costings to have a small amount of stuff there: 6-10 sets of feast gear, basic camp site equipment (frying pan, knife, chopping board, etc), mallets, spare tent pegs, and maybe some benches in the longer term if people are interested in putting in time and finances to this. This would be good for those members that would go, but not all people in the Barony go to CF. Katherine is envisaging spending a couple of hundred dollars. Wendy thinks that Darton also stores some stuff there. Phil asked if Southron Gaard pay for the storage. David said they pay a nominal amount. David & Katherine helped unpack it and it’s only half full, and has a lot of rubbish – so there is actually space in it. Katherine thinks we have a better chance of getting some space if it’s for the group as a whole rather than for individuals. The group is generally keen on this, Katherine can go ahead and look at costs etc.
Possible storage purchasing a container and having it hosted at Vanessa’s paddocks: Roger mentioned this via email. Roger’s comment is that the barony overall is starting to run into issues with storing stuff everywhere. His question is whether it’s worthwhile investing in some storage for all the baronial gear, and what sort of issues there might be with it. David’s comment is that it might be time for us to look around at the available options, he’s willing to look into this. Vanessa is ambivalent but okay with having a container at the paddocks. David thinks we’re looking at about $2000-2500, with a couple of hundred dollars in maintenance each year. Katherine’s concern is the ongoing maintenance cost – we don’t produce enough profit annually to cover this. Wendy mentioned security. Phil asked about a garden shed kind of thing. The comment from several people is that these aren’t as secure and could be loaded onto something. Patrick’s comment is how big a deal is security, if we’re looking at putting things like archery butts & thrones. Storage units seem to be expensive. Wendy mentioned that a trailer was investigated as an option – they cost more, but may be cheaper. They’re fundamentally stealable but portable. Al’s comment is what happens when Vanessa doesn’t have a paddock? It’s hard enough finding someone with a garage big enough. Patrick thinks that a shed may not be such a silly idea as we could then put stuff in it. Wendy said that if we did look at a shed option, then there would be space on their property for it, pending discussion with her husband – but at the moment, their garage is not secure. David will look at a variety of options and come back to the next Council meeting with these.