In Attendance: Patrick (Seneschal), Nora (Reeve), Shannon (Herald), Nicola, David, Katherine (Web)
Apologies: Rob (Marshal), Wendy (Chatelaine/Quartermaster), Chantelle (A&S)
Opened: 7:43
Reports
Reeve (Nora): Quarterly report
Herald (Shannon): Nothing to report
Marshal (Rob): No report received
A&S (Chantelle): I am still waiting to hear from the stewards of St John's about what they want for the A and S. [This seems to have been addressed - P.]
I take posession of my new studio on the 17th of august, so we will have an alternative for A and S Sunday if people are keen
We were talking about doing rapier on wed nights as well at my studio if people were keen.
Webwright (Katherine):
Winter months roll by
I helped people with stuff
Little new on the site
Nothing substantial added to the list. Booking forms to be done. David investigating gallery options. When and how to change to drupal 7. Cluain website has not progressed, waiting to prod Alessandra and Svartr. And need to work out who is going to look after it. Working on FTP access. Research into hosting Reeve information, receipts etc. There is a webwright to do list.
Chatelaine (Wendy): Nothing to report.
Quartermaster (Wendy): First Aid kit needs new items as below
Waterproof plasters
Plastic plasters
Fabric dressing strip
2 x single use ice packs
Aspirin
Sunscreen
Discussion: Agreed to purchase what Wendy has listed, with up to $100. Nicola has said that she will go and buy them.
Further discussion: Tea towels, oven mitts, and feast utensils are currently needed. Our current plating utensils are not useful for the sizing and serving that we are currently using.
We need to plan and augment our feast kit over time. Get the list and pricing and what is our priority and what do we need to purchase.
Katherine said that we should also look at what is available now, at a good price. Plain quality stainless steel platters is high on the list. Paying between $500-$800 on feast gear is about the average.
Shannon has agreed to price items.
Seneschal: I plan to go through the last several years of events, to produce a list of how many people were there and what profit we made. Our accounts are healthy, but we are investmenting in equipment and taking some (appropriate) financial risks with some of our events. We usually rely on one event a year to make a reasonable profit, and we need to see that profitable events continue to be part of our cycle.
Past Events
Bloth (David) - has given receipts to Nora at council. Shannon has received an advance and been reimbursed, and so has Nora. However David has requested that it is the Stewards responsibility to request and ok the reimbursement.
[Seneschal: The correct proceedure for reimbursement is for the Steward to request the payments, once s/he has received the necessary receipts etc.]
Chantelle has lost her receipts, and so has Nicola. Patrick has said that he would like Chantelle and Nicola to provide a receipt for the goods they have provided. Council is okay with this procedure this time. Nicola has said that she is happy to accept $210 for her meal. Which is $50 under her budget.
Refunds - Shannon - refund $20 for the feast. Agreed.
Heather - David would like to give her a full refund. Council is ok with this. [Note in explanation: Heather was unable to attend due to bad weather preventing her flight. A last minute booking took her place.]
Wendy - partial refund for accomodation, however the result of this $25 still needs to be paid for food.
Matt, Julia and Bea did not pay the late fee. The Council has agreed that Matt needs to be asked to pay this.
Gate processes in future to log who paid what, who took the money, how much cash was given, and at what time, and what the money was for.
The event was fun, we made a profit, and people enjoyed themselves.
Pub Night (Patrick): Sat 27th DePost Mount Eden.
was David's idea. Patrick organised it, it was well attended, not just by SCA people, but also by Argent Lords and Romans. Total attendance was around 15 people at once, 20 over the evening.
Upcoming Events
Pub Night (Patrick): talking about holding another pub night in August. Settled on the 31st of August, at 6pm at Galbraiths.
NAAMA (Patrick): There will be a bunch of people from Cluain coming up for the event. Patrick would like to encourage those that will be attending to book. Please would you let Patrick know if you are attending and what space (tents) are required. The metal weapons organisers have already expressed that they are happy to allow SCA combat on site. There is an to do catered or self-catered, so the group who are attending might want to talk about self-catering. Shannon has advised that she is happy for the group to borrow her gas burner.
If people who would like to do teaching, merchanting and any other things to forward that to Patrick so that he can liase with the NAAMA organisers.
Crescent Fence (Nicola): Nicola has not received confirmation that Paul Wagner is attending or not. [Update: He is not. This makes much of the following discussion now irrelevant - P.]
Break-even - 20 people or 10 night or 10 day trippers would make it close
Katherine thinks that there is a chance that this event may lose money. Some of the budget needs to be broken down and itemised again and that the website needs to be updated.
Shannon has brought up the point that the money that the rapier fighters got for the museum demo and that some of the money from that to be used if there is a loss.
Patrick is putting forward that the event needs to be voted on to go forward for advertising and the motion was passed.
[Note added: a significant amount of discussion occurred on the Council List. The proposal on the website has been out-of-date for a long time, which has caused confusion. - P]
Patrick thanks Katherine for her attention in looking over the bid, and that he is sorry that things have not progressed as far as it needed to be. However the council is comfortable to go forward with this event.
St Caths (Shannon): Shannon has created a webpage. Shannon will talk to Katherine about setting up a booking form.
November Crown (Katherine and David): The proposal is on the website. Katherine will announce to the list when it is 100% ready to discuss, so that Council is ready to accept/reject it at the August meeting, with the aim of sending it through to Kingdom Seneschal thereafter. The expectation for attendance is around the mid 70s. The event is currently intended to be more expensive than The Bloth, so $110 for a weekend adult event cost. The baskets and napkins that will be used for the lunches are included in the price of the event. This is because the stewards believe that there will be an attrition rate, of loss of baskets from breakage and napkins disappearing.
Katherine is asking that the Council take a risk and we buy the baskets and napkins before we know the numbers. If the bid is accepted by Kingdom Seneschal, then the stewards have permission to buy 100 of the baskets and napkins at the expected price requested in the budget.
Adults and children pricing (5-12yo), and then a youth pricing (12-17yo) and under 5's will be free. Costs have been stripped back to the minimum that the stewards can for children. The break-even cost is low. At 70 people we are looking at a $300 profit, as there is an expectation to make a profit for the Kingdom.
Plan is to open the bookings in May, after Crown [This will also avoid the tentatively planned website upgrade - P.]. One price increase happens in October. Nicola suggested that you could register your interest and the stewards said that there may be an event mailing list.
The stewards suggest would people on the list to please have a look at the bid. Patrick would appreciate if everyone go and look and send comments to the stewards.
Calendar: A&S/Singing: cancel for 15th of September (St Johns).
Council meeting in October clashes with NAAMA: new date needs to be discussed.
Next council meeting: 25th August.
Closed: 22.09pm