Coronets Nobildonna Fiore Leonetta Bardi and Lord Frithuric Ulman:
We’re moving back into the city. Which means it’s been a busy month, and we haven’t done quite as much as we’d like. We were briefly at kingdom A&S, congrats to those who were recognized. Maestra Isabella Oakes, Katla of Vyborg, and Allana of Skye
Baronial trim has arrived, so we are distributing.
Officers:
Seneschal Lady Aaradyn Gyoot
Pandaulf Also received the Silver Crescent, and Avtal is the newest Tygers Cub, and Leonette and Red got ciphers, Sugiwara was named artisan to the crown.
We are solidly in the policy review period. Changes discussed during council are due by March 6th. The vote will be at April council. The ballots will be mailed at noon on the day of council, and ballots are due by 8pm that evening.
The first Curia of their Majesties reign will be at their Coronation. I cannot be there, so I will be sending my feedback to the crown.
Seneschal of the Canton of the Towers: Sir Eirikr Lambson
No Report
Secretary Lord Donato Favro
No Report
Chancellor of the Exchequer Kara Irini bin Todori
I had never given a proper final reconciliation of 2023. We ended the year with $23k in the bank. Of that $7727 was net income. This is higher than usual, but put us in a good position for things such as storage. Our non-event budget will be presented in April. If you have questions please reach out to me at the exchequer e-mail.
Chancellor Minor Cristoff Gockerhan von Loch and Stephanie Leatherfoot L’Huissier
No Report
Chatelaine Master Justin de Coeur
No Report
Golden Gryphon Pursuivant Lord Richard Heyworth:
No Report
Gold Key Lord Orlando dei Medici
No Report
Knight Marshal Master Valerian of Somerset
No Report
Minister of Arts & Sciences Meisterin Cathain Ritter
As his excellency mentioned, we had Crown A&S this past weekend. Mistress Sharis is the Consort’s Champion. Nathan ? Was declared sovereign’s champion.
Web Minister Lady Elspeth of Ruthven
No Report
Chronicler Lady Ysabel da Costa
No Report
Dance Lady Aelia Fortunata
No Report
Historian Mistress Eowyn Eilownwy of Alewife Brook
No Report
Liber Editor Lord Orlando dei Medici
No Report
Marshal Fence Lord Zohane Faber
No Report
Marshal Archery Master Peter the Red
Archery is taking place as usual. There is some foul weather that has interrupted, but you can shoot other times than Sunday, let me know. This Tuesday and future weeks, there will be work on quivers. If it rains it will be in the garage. There will be additional archery related activities in the future.
Marshal Thrown Weapons Lady Dierdre Greenwode
The season is coming up, get ready. The exact date will depend on when things dry out.
Minister of the Lists Lord Trentus Nubianus
No Report
Steward Lady Gudrun Thorvaldsdottir
No Report
Clerk of the Stable Lady Etain ingen Ut Neill
No Report
Social Media Officer Baron Ludovic of Carolingia
I have to step down as social media officer, as I take up the role of the unbelt champion. If anyone is interested in step in, please contact me or the Seneschal. The role combines marketing the Barony and communications online.
Astrid: As KSMO please feel free to contact me as well. And thank you to Ludwig for your service.
Principals of Baronial Orders
Order of the Daystar Lady Ysabel da Costa
The Order of the Daystar is the Baronial Service Award.
If you know someone you would like to nominate for the Daystar please let Their Excellencies or me know! The current list of Daystars is on the Baronial website.
Order of the Moon Lady Eleanor Catling:
The Order of the Moon is the Baronial Arts and Science Award.
If you know someone you would like to nominate for the Moon please let Their Excellencies or me know! The current list of Moons is on the Baronial website.
We have a meeting coming up on the 18th at 7:30pm.
A reminder as well that I am in my 3rd year. If no one else is interested in stepping up, I will be asking the order to affirm me in the role.
Order of Perseus Magister Symon of Barnesdale
The Order of the Perseus is the Baronial Martial Award.
If you know someone you would like to nominate for the Perseus please let Their Excellencies or me know! The current list of Perseids is on the Baronial website.
Order of the Comet Cristoff Gockerhan von Loch and Stephanie Leatherfoot L’Huissier
The Order of the Comet is the Baronial Award for youth in any of the above categories.
If you know someone you would like to nominate for the Comet please let Their Excellencies or me know!
Guilds:
Low Company Master Justin du Coeur
Meeting coming up on March 8th. I expect there will be dinner, although it’s not comfirmed. His highness is a fan of Elizabethan card games, so that’s what we will be focused on. Dinner at 6, games after.
Storytellers
Calligraphers Lady Aaradyn Ghyoot:
Waytes Lady Ysabel da Costa
Foresters: Next meeting Sunday 24th in Rochester. Hike, dying fiber, outdoor fire skills. Baron Nest’s home.
Events:
Peregrine: Winter Nights was wonderful, well received. 49 attendees, 43 adults, 4 students. People had fun. 14 people performed, 12 continued after round 1, 4 competing for court performer. Many different. Peforming arts Champion: Winter Nights Champion Solveig.
Thank you to everyone who helped out.
The event did not break even. $1121 out, 986 in. We overbought paper goods for dayboard, so it was a bit high, and the site cost went up, resulting in the loss. I have some suggestions involving better advertising, or renting only part of the site in order to increase income or reduce costs.
Otters Welcome: Astrid and Ytaine: We have been distributing flyers in the local areas, I do still have the PDF for people to use. Please reach out to me, and I’ll send it your way. We have been in contact with key staff and are moving forward. There will be another site walkthrough coming up. If you would like to Merchant, please contact me. We are not charging any fees, so please come sell. Volunteers to serve as newcomer ambassadors are welcome. A volunteer sign up sheet will be up soon.
Carolingia Rapier Champs: Eon Broc: The budget is small, and will be sent to the financial committee soon. I have been discussing the pros and cons of having events being donation only events, and wanted to discuss that here.
Aaradyn: Do you have a total cost estimate?
Eon: Under $500 total, the site is about $350.
Justin: I am strongly in favor of making low budget events like this donation only.
Aaradyn calls for the vote.
Approved.
Eon: We are starting to plan things. I’ve sent out a couple of emails about having other activities, but haven’t gotten responses, so it may be rapier only. We are also looking for volunteers for gate and other such roles. Please contact me with questions.
Policy Amendments:
Proposed Amendment #1:
Change “autocrat” to “event steward” in all instances, to achieve consistency with the recent
overall change in EK Law and with the Barony’s Financial Policy.
Proposed Amendment #2
Financial Policy should be capitalized throughout the Policies document, as referring to a
specific named policy document.
Proposed Amendment #3
Section IV.C.
“Prospective autocrats event stewards shall submit or present a “proposal” for the event to the
Great Council and a budget to the Finance Committee for consideration. A site contract for the
event may not be signed until the proposal has been approved by the Great Council and at least
a preliminary the budget reviewed and accepted approved by the Finance Committee.”
The Financial Policy, section 15.a., specifies that the Finance Committee must *approve* the
event budget for the proposed event to become official, so the Policies wording should not imply
otherwise.
Eadgyth: The language we have in 4c right now allows an event proposal to be signed off by great council and put on the east kingdom calendar without a budget having been approved by the finance committee. This is not permitted by the financial policy. This amendment is intended to bring these two in line.
Proposed Amendment #4
Option 1: Add to Section VI. Policies Amendments
1a – “I. Carolingia has a Financial Policy. Non-administrative changes to the Financial Policy
require approval of the Finance Committee.”
*OR*
1b – “I. Carolingia has a Financial Policy. Non-administrative changes to the Financial Policy
require approval of the Great Council.”
*OR*
1c – “I. Carolingia has a Financial Policy. Non-administrative changes to the Financial Policy
require approval of the Great Council and the Finance Committee.”
Option 2: Make no changes; don’t add any wording in the Policies to address Financial Policy
revisions.
Eadgyth: There’s a bunch of stuff here. I’ve been the one doing the revisions to the policies document for 8-9 years. Last year there were a couple of changes that were approved at council, but were apparently mutually exclusive, so this was not added to the policies. We can ignore this, or we can pick one of “Approval by the great council”, “Approval by the Finance Committee”, or “Approval by both”.
Pandaulf: I am looking for clarification on the hierarchy of Baronial policies versus financial policies.
Eadgyth: At society level, financial policy now trumps all other Society rules. That language was included in the Baronial policies.
Irini: The financial policies were largely cribbed from higher. These policies cannot be overridden by Baronial policies. You can add additions that aren’t required by higher, but Kingdom has to sign off on financial policies. Baronial policies don’t have this oversite.
Frithuric: Should we do ranked choice voting?
Aaradyn: I was planning on vote for 1 of 4, but we could do ranked choice.
Frithuric: Ranked choice would avoid additional confusion.
Aaradyn: Okay, we will do this as ranked choice voting.
Proposed Amendment #5
Proposed Change to Section VI.B.1
Current Wording:
“If the wording of the amendment changes during the discussion at the Great Council meeting
where the proposed amendments are distributed, the revised wording is due to the Seneschal
no more than 24 hours after that meeting ends.”
Revised Wording:
“If the wording of the amendment changes during the discussion at the Great Council meeting
where the proposed amendments are distributed, the revised wording is due to the Seneschal
no more than 1 week after that meeting ends.”
Eadgyth: I understand the proposed language of the proposed wording, but I think it should be added as a separate clause. Changes at council should go out as quickly as possible after council, but finalized wording should be published as well.
Frithuric: My concern is that if it’s not an immediate textual change it takes time to hammer it out.
Aaradyn: We settled on 24 hours because it was determined that a full month was required for online discussion. So changes at council should be posted as quickly as possible.
Frithuric: During the discussion window the language may be changed, so we don’t have the final wording right away.
Donato: Google doc.
Eadgyth: Who would have editing rights?
Donato: Author and Seneschal
Eadgyth: Multiple authors make this difficult.
Pandulf: I’m not sure that Donato’s suggestion solves the issues.
Eadgyth: Section 6 currently has a “published within 3 days requirements” that Frithuric’s amendment is subordinate to, this creates an inherent conflict.
Frithuric: I agree with this, but I don’t have time to update this within the next 24 hours.
Eadgyth: B has a timeframe, so the week doesn’t work. I propose we leave B1 as is, Add the rewrite, and change B so there is no conflict.
Frithuric: That makes sense. I think enough sense that we can move on with this.
Proposed Amendment #6 Proposed Change to Section VI.G
Add the following text: The seneschal may allow amendments outside of the annual period.
These would follow the same basic timeline of publication, review and voting as per the annual
period.
Justin: This one feels like common sense to me.
Gudrun: As far as I understand it, any policy updates that need to happen for higher reasons can automatically be put in. I’m not sure that being able to change any policy at any time is a good use of time.
Proposed Amendment #7
Section VII: Baronial Orders
Remove the “History” section from each order.
Policies are not a historical document.
Justin: I agree with the proposal. This is not the right place for the history to be located. We should make sure that it is recorded somewhere else, but not in the policies.
Eeowynn: Back when, there were 3 separate statutes that were attached to the charter. Back when the Barony was putting together it’s policies, the text was pulled from the charter including the history.
Proposed Amendment #8
IV. Events
H. Each autocrat shall compose a general report about their event by the second Great Council
meeting after the event takes place. Copies of this report should go to the Seneschal and the
Historian. This report should cover matters of interest to the Council or to future autocrats,
which may include information about the site, planned activities, the schedule, publicity, how it
all worked, and how any problems were dealt with.
Pandaulf: If we are specifying what should be in an event report, the financials should be included.
Justin: This is just codifying standard policy as it exists.
Irini: Right now we are verbally giving information about the event itself, and giving financials to the seneschal and the kingdom. There is nothing being written down except what comes out of council mintues.
In the event the event we approve this, will the autocrat be corrected?
Eeowyn: I proposed this one. It used to be regular practice, possibly codified. A few seneschals back there was a seneschal that actively discouraged formal event reports that included site info and such. I think it is worth codifying that these are encouraged if not required. I tried to word it such that there is a little flexibility on what gets recorded, but it’s important that it should be. Trying to pull this information out of the minutes is not the most efficient method.
Frithuric: What if someone holds an event and doesn’t do this? And do we prevent someone from holding an event if they can’t write a report? I like the intent, but I’m worried about making it a requirement.
Peregrine: I appreciate this guidance very much, as someone who just held an event. I would add a line on who is responsible for the financial report. Whether it is in policy or in an event steward handbook, I think it’s useful.
Eeowyn: When I used to autocrat, I would look at previous autocrat’s reports. It is a useful resource, and it used to be a regular duty. The sitebook only covers the sites, and it isn’t necessarily updated.
Irini: The financial report is the responsibility of the exchequer in the final word, the event steward is expected to do it, but the exchequer has to.
General announcements:
Justin:
I’ve been chatelaine for a year and a half now. I’m not taking a second term, and would be interested in handing off early, so I am looking for a deputy or deputies.
Master John Maguire, a former and much loved Carolingian passed away recently. A memorial service is happening, unfortunately the same day as coronation.
Pandaulf: The BOD is taking comments on the new marshal Omnibus peerage, comments@SCA.org. Comments are welcome from paid and unpaid members.
Eeowyn: Their majesties are holding a forum this month about options for Crown Tourney.
Tomorrow is the presidential primary in MA.