Great Council Minutes May AS LVII (2022) 7:30 PM

Great Council Minutes May AS LVII (2022) 7:30 PM

Baronage Nobildonna Fiore Leonetta Bardi and Lord Frithuric Ulman:

Social/Hangout events coming in the next week.  
There are currently 4 championships that need to turn over. Please consider new events where these might turn over, and discuss them with their excellencies.
Performing Arts

Arts and Sciences

I Sebastiani currently fills this role, but are looking for a replacement

Rapier

Heavy Combat

At least one proposal for this may exist.

As the society comes back to life, their excellencies will need more retainers for various events. If you are interested, please contact Katla of Vyborg.  
Her excellency will have to spend the month of June in NYC for work purposes. Shenanigans during this time will only be opposed by his excellency. 

Officers:

Seneschal Lady Aaradyn Gyoot

Simple events are sufficient for championships. Please consider.
Voting members of Council received their ballots earlier today (~2pm). Please return them by 8pm EST 

July Council will be on the 11th.

Seneschal of the Canton of the Towers: Lord Thorvald Olafsson Kveld-Hrútssonar

No Report.

Secretary Lord Donato Favro

No Report

Chancellor of the Exchequer Kara Irini bin Todori

No Report

Chancellor Minor Theo of Carolingia 
No Report

Chatelaine Lady Patience Faircloth 
Newcomers Night: Monday, 5/9 @ 7pm

  • Newcomer’s night has been moved to the second Monday of the month at 7:30. Individuals with a member e-mail will be able to join early.
  • If you are interested in Demo in a box, Patience is still intrested in putting this together, but the mundane world as temporarily interfered with planning.
  • Patience is looking for a Deputy Chatelaine, please consider it.

Golden Gryphon Pursuivant Richard Heyworth:

Office Hours are tomorrow, 5:30-8:30pm

  • Please see Calendar entry for details

Gold Key Lady Ysabel da Costa

No Report

Knight Marshal Valerian of Somerset

​​Framingham practices continue Wednesday nights. 1st North Reading practice will be on May 15.  Weekend practices will be on the same type of rotating schedule as last summer, moving around the state to keep one large practice running, rather than multiple small ones. Practice schedule will be announced as far in advance as possible on the Baronial FB page, the Fighters Email list, and the relevant fighting FB pages (e.g. Complete Northern Army).

Minister of Arts & Sciences Meisterin Cathain Ritter

Otter’s is coming up, and there will be an A&S display. People should contact Cathain to submit things. I’ll be posting a Google form today or tomorrow. 

Web Minister Magister Symon of Barnesdale

No Report

Chronicler Master Gunðormr Dengir:

No Report

Dance Lady Aelia Fortunata

What: Dance Practice, through the end of this month with bonus live music courtesy of the Waytes! The most dancers present recently has been 7, one short for many period dances, so please show up, no experience is necessary.

  • Where: 640 Washington Street, Brighton, MA (Aka the Presentation School Foundation Community Center,) in the Little Sprouts Room
  • When: Thursday, 7:30-9:30 PM
  • How (do you get there): Take the 57 or 64 bus. There is also free onsite parking

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

Arlyana: Archery continues on Sunday, or call for appointment. There are plenty of bows. Archery at Otters will use five arrows, because we are short of sets of 6.

Marshal Thrown Weapons Lady Dierdre Greenwode

No Report

Minister of the Lists Lord Trentus Nubianus

No Report

Steward Lord Zohane Faber

No Report

Clerk of the Stable Etain ingen Ut Neill

No Report

Social Media Officer Lady Caterina Genevra Beltrami

No Report

Principals of Baronial Orders 

Order of the Daystar Lord Guinemar d’Anglade

If you see people doing martial activities and they are not a member of the order, please recommend them to Pandaulf or other members. 

Order of the Moon Lady Eleanor Catling:

The current poll was just completed.   Information from the poll will be shared with their Excellencies shortly with hopes of scheduling inductions at Otter’s Welcome, Pennsic, and/or Falling Leaves.    If you think you are a member of the Moon (Baronial Arts Award) and have not been receiving information, please contact Eleanor at moon@carolingia.eastkingdom.org.

Order of Perseus Lord Pandaulf:

The order had a discussion last week, an e-mail is going out polling those who might receive an award at Otters.

CometTheo of Carolingia

Meeting at otters. Since we can’t do SCA sanctioned youth activities online, this will be the first meeing in a while. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

Guilds:

Needleworkers Etain ingen Ut Neill

I am considering changing the day of the meeting from Thursday late month to Wenesday mid-month. At 7 or 7:30. Announcement by the 15th.

Waytes Lady Ysabel da Costa:

Not meeting this week due to council. They will meet the next two weeks to practice for Otters. They have been rehearsing a dance set list, but also play ensemble music.

Low Company Master Justin du Coeur

Storytellers

No Report

Calligraphers Lady Aaradyn Ghyoot:

Events:

Towers had a succesful project day, and another one is scheduled.

Gathering of FoolsBaron Cristoff Gockerhan von Loch

48 Attendees. 8 Non members. 2 youths. The event made a small loss ($57), but was a good event and people had fun. Keeping the gathering small for safety reasons limited advertising and impacted attendance. Thank you to those who helped.

Karl: Was it hard to run your first event?

Clock: It was confusing and frustrating, but whenever I asked for help, people worked hard to provide it.  

Otters Welcome Ottercrat Astrid Eiriksdottir

We have 30 pre-registered so far, although pre-registration is not required. FB 34 marked as going 42 interested. The FB posting has been boosted in order to increase external exposure. Materials are available for advertising. Please contact Astrid if you are interested in helping distributed materials. Classes, demos, and martial activities are planned.

Theo: We have a box of crafts, and the office’s budget will be used to expand it. We need additional individuals to volunteer for Youth point in order to satisfy the societie’s two adult rule.

Patience: We are doing an ambassodor program where newcomers are paired with an experienced individual to walk them through the event. Please consider signing up on the list when it was posted. There will not be formal youth (under 18) ambassadors this year, for regulatory reasons, but Parent/Child teams are welcome. 

Ysabel: There is a Gold Key banner for chatelaines that will be delivered at otters.

Theo: In order to continue youth activities, we need more youth officers at large. Please considering doing this simple background check by the society.

Astridr: I am currently laying out the event. We need more volunteers for gold key, parking wranglers, and vax checkers. There is a list of volunteers needed, please sign up. The list is on the FB event, and went out on the Carolingian list, as well as being on the event listening.

We have a couple of merchants signed up, but there is space for more. Please contant merchants you know and Please get in touch with A Bationogne if you are interested.

Falling Leaves Lady Patience Faircloth

Dayboard/Boxlunch/Food: Last month we discussed this somewhat. Quite a few individuals have reached out for more information. The information will be going out by the end of this week. The hope is to have a decision on how this might move forward by the end of May. 

50 Year Lady Patience Faircloth

Patience has reached back out to the site (Edwards House in Framingham), and is working through details with them. The price will be sent out once its’ available.  

Autocrat Roundtable Master Justin du Coeur

A good meeting of the Autocrats round table last month. There is a consensus that updated resources are needed. Patience volunteered to proceed with this. She has collected similar resources from multiple kingdoms.

There was a consensus that making the site book public would be useful. Council approval is requrested for this.

Frithuric: Is there are risk of exposing public information?

It is a concern.

Donato: Is it possible to keep reviews secured while exposing basic site information?

Yes this is possible with some extra work.

Council decision: Proceed with this approach.

https://querki.net/u/jducoeur/carolingian-site-book/#!carolingian-site-book

Voting

Policy Amendment 1: Expand the definitions section. This supports more concise text elsewhere in the policies. 

– Baronage 

Any combination of seated coronets be they single or a couple. May also be referred to as the baronial seat or the coronet. 

This triggers a replacement of all the varieties of “baron and/or the baroness” with simply “the baronage.” This also neatly removes all the gender specific B&B references. 

– Official Channels of Communication 

All official announcements and communications must be made through the baronial email list. It is preferred to include these in the newsletter and/or read them into Great Council minutes as the timeline permits. This shall be referred to in the polices as official channels. 

This triggers a replacement of all varieties of “any official means of communication including email lists and newsletters” with simply “official channels”. It extracts the definition such that any future changes in this line can be made in the single place 


Approved 96%

Policy Amendment 2: Make explicit that the baronage does not sit on the Great Council. Insert I.E.2. 

The baronage holds no voting seat on the council but may address the council as members of the populace. 

Approved 92%

Policy Amendment 3: Empower the seneschal to allow amendments out of schedule. Amend VI.F to include “at least once:” 

The seneschal must ask the populace for suggested amendments to the policies at least once per calendar year. 

Approved 52%

Policy Amendment 4: A change to Section VI. Policies Amendments sub-section F. The original reads: 

The Seneschal must ask the populace of Carolingia for suggested amendments to the policies once per calendar year. 

My proposal reads: 

The Seneschal must ask the populace of Carolingia for suggested amendments to the policies at least once every other calendar year. 

I believe this allows leeway for needed changes (a new award being added, for example), without forcing the issue on years when no one has anything of import to add.

Approved 68%

Policy Amendment 5: Section I. Officers 

G. Removal of Officers 

4. Guilds will be considered to be in abeyance if the guild has not had a meeting at least once in the previous four months. Heads of guilds that are in abeyance do not have a voting seat on the Great Council. 

———- 

I propose to change this to: 

———- 

4. If a guild has not held a meeting at least once in the previous four months, it will be considered to be in abeyance. The head of any guild that is in abeyance does not have a voting seat on the Great Council. Once a guild in abeyance holds a 

publicly-announced meeting, it will be considered to be active again, and will regain its voting seat on the Great Council. 

———- 

This cleans up the grammar of this section, & also includes the requirement for recognizing a re-activated guild. 

Approved 84%

Policy Amendment 6: Policy Amendment Review Procedure 

The current section on Policy Amendments reads as such: 

Section VI. Policies Amendments 

B. The proposed amendment will be published on the website and on any official communications medium such as the newsletter and electronic mail list at least one month prior to vote. 

C. The amendment will be voted upon by Great Council at the first business meeting after the one-month period has elapsed. 

Currently, this process takes many months: (using the current schedule and current dates) – February Council: Announcement of Policy Review and Call for Amendments – March Council: Distribution of Current Policy Amendments 

– April Council: No vote, or change in Council Date to accommodate 1 month from publishing (in the past this was pushed to the next Council instead of moving the date) – May Council: Vote (assuming the April Council Date was not moved) 

This is, to me, far too long. A swifter series of discussions and vote would serve the Barony better. 

Proposed Changes to Section VI, B and C: 

B. The proposed amendment will be published on the website and on any official communications medium such as the newsletter and electronic mail list within 3 calendar days of the Council where the proposed amendments are distributed.

1. If the wording of the Amendments changes during the discussion at the Council where the proposed amendments are distributed, the revised wording is due to the Seneschal no less than 24 hours after Council ends. 

2. Discussion on the Amendments will take place at the Council Meeting where the proposed amendments are distributed and after Council on the Barony email list. 3. There will be time allotted for discussion and final questions before the Vote at the next scheduled Council meeting. 

C. The amendment will be voted upon by Great Council at the next scheduled business meeting. 

Approved 84%

Policy Amendment 7: Fixing the Date of Policy Review 

Addendum to Section VI. Policies Amendments 

F. Policy Review shall take place between February and April.


Approved 68%.

Discussion:

Zohane: Amendments 3 and 4 are mutually exclusive, how do we deal with this?

Aaradyn: We will go over the text and see what can be resolved .

Amendment 3 sets “at least once per calendar year”.

Amendment 4 “at least once every other calendar year”. 

Frithuric: The point of ammendment 3 was to make explicit that the senschal can deal with new amendments as needed. The intent of amendment 4 is to set the minimum requirement to longer than current. I don’t believe there is a conflict between these.

Eadgyth: We may need to submit this to another vote.


General announcements: 

Eowyn of Alewife Brook

Masking rules have been slightly loosened. Masks are not required when actively fighting or fencing even when indoors.

Fortunata: There is a virtual event happening this Saturday, May 7th, by An Tir. Known World Italian Symposium. There is a large roster of classes, Fortunata and other EK members are teaching classes. If you are interested, please look into it. 


Eowyn: Pennsic reservations end at the end of this month. It is not announced on the EK website, but is at Pennsicwar.org.

Clarification: Paid online reservations extend through June.

Frithuric: Duke Lucan stopped by to mention Winnekiniie castle last fall. I drove by the site when it was vacant, and am going to try to stop by while his group is holding events. This is not SCA related, but it is interesting.
Astrid Eiriksdottir: The site is very not handicapped accessible.

Arlyana: The Baroness is teaching a class on Performance event in Stonemarche at a bardic event.