Southron Gaard Council Meeting- Tuesday 8 June 2006 PRESENT: Roland (Peregrine), David (David), Stacey (Rose), William (Thorald), Karen (Emayne), Meredith (Therese, Gavin, Melissa (Catalina), David Marsden (Dauid), Brent (Fraser), Catherine (Veronica), Jennifer (Iuliana). APOLOGIES: Peter (Bartholomew), Vicki (Katherine), Belle (Rohesia), Beth (Ginevra), Colleen (Adele), Al (William). MEETING OPENED: 7.30 LAST MEETINGS MINUTES: Accepted OFFICER REPORTS: SENESCHAL: Meeting with the B&B to discuss the direction of the Barony, St Kessog etc. Also several discussions about expanding Baronial Equipment, particularly armour and boffer equipment. Office of the Exchequer has accepted Thorald's application for SG reeve and he will be stepping up at Yule. CHATELAINE: - Had contact (through Tycho) from Riccarton Cubs. Demo set for Thursday 15th, Tycho and friends will attend. - Had email contact from a lady wondering if we do children's birthday parties. Replied in the negative and sent her links to various websites that have children's activities. The lady was happy to be given these resources. - Had phone contact with a lady who is with the UCMRS wanting to borrow some clothing. Gave her Hera's phone number. - Had email from visitors from Perth seeking accommodation/SCAdians to hang out with in Christchurch. Put notice on SG Discuss list, had a chat with Einar who may be able to give them some house space. Will be putting guests up on 16th and 17th myself and will make sure they know when all meetings such as seamsters /medieval stuff night are. Have also passed on contact details to the seneschal of St Kessog as the visitors plan to travel around the South Island. - Found out member of Alf's Imperial Army will be attending Yule. Passed on 'welcome to the SCA booklet' and contact details for Hera if hiregarb needed via friend making the booking. REEVE: Apology, no report. HERALD: Received correspondence from Benedict who is the new Astolabe Herald. He has compiled the New Zealand OP. I am currently going through it and checking the SG entries. MARSHAL: Nothing to report, wishing to step down, is seeking a replacement. LISTS: Nothing to report, wishing to step down, is seeking a replacement. CAPTAIN OF ARCHERS: Attended weekly archery practice when weather permitted. Have a proposal for purchase of Baronial archery gear. A&S: Special A&S Class this month: Inkle loom weaving. Heather will be teaching an inkle loom class next week at MSE. This class be suitable for everyone from beginners to the more advanced. Bring your inkle loom and yarn if you've got it, but it's not required for attendance. As always, I am looking for instructors for A&S classes. Please contact me if you're willing to teach. In search of A&S Deputy. Interested parties please contact Catalina. CHRONICLER: FTT went out on time, nothing else to report. CONSTABLE: Collected some lost property from event, otherwise nothing to report. WEBWRIGHT: Usual updates and some minor tweaks to OP and Fighting pages. St Kessog's webwright David Cordes is now fully handling their site and Kingdom Web minister is now back handling Lochac site. CHIRURGEON: No apology, no report. QUARTERMASTER: Large spoons missing (probably at CF) and need to be replaced. Meredith has volunteered to organize this purchase. Would like to step down sometime soon. B&B: No events. Briefing meeting with new Seneschal, considering general plans and ideas for 2006/7. Correspondence re: new Reeve, armour/boffer proposal, Riccarton Cubs Demo, Arms & Militaria Show, Coronation 2006/7, St Kessog and incipient groups in general, St Kessog armour needs, also messages exchanged with intending visitors for next CF. EVENT REPORTS: Canterbury Faire 2006: suggestion to spend some of the surplus on cleaning due to lack of cleaning by populace. --------- No Bal d'Argent report. --------- Arms and Militaria show: Call for volunteers for table duty. Show is 15th/16th July. --------- Canterbury Faire 2007: No bids, Seneschal to publicise for stewards. Site dates are pre-booked, so dates to go in Pegasus. --------- Call for a steward to run a Spring Event (Sunday of Bal d'Argent weekend). --------- Possibility of running indoor monthly musters during the winter. GENERAL BUSINESS: Request from catering company for hiring banners for a night in December. Basic concerns about the treatment of our stuff. We hired out banners a few years ago for several hundred dollars. Roland will suggest a few hundred dollars and ask for more info about the event and how the banners will be treated. --------- Request from Duncan and Helen to borrow Baronial Pavilion for a day in the end of July. They need council permission to do this. All in favor, no objections. --------- Armour Proposal from: Peter and Vicki We would like to propose that the Barony set aside a budget of $450 to purchase as much as possible of the following armour items and materials: * Two heavy-legal helms and one smaller aluminium boffer helm, to be sourced from Baron Fulk of Cluain for only the cost of materials and consumables involved in making them * Two lightweight basket hilts suitable for "super"-boffer combat swords - these could be commissioned from Dieter, or from Fulk * Materials for making several boffer swords and shields at Medieval Stuff Nights, also helm padding/coifs and straps etc. * One set of heavy-legal knees/legs and one of elbows, plus associated leatherwork. To be purchased from existing owners if possible, or commissioned if the expected cost is affordable in the budget. Background As new people enter the Barony, both here and in St Kessog, many are attracted by the possibilities of heavy and war combat but are deterred (or at least greatly delayed) by the cost, time and complexity of assembling a full set of their own armour and weaponry. Some people are helped by items loaned to them privately, but this is necessarily limited, and relies on the generosity of those making the loans and carrying the costs and risks involved. In the past, the Barony has owned loaner armour and weaponry. Much of this has now been broken or dissipated and what little is left is of limited or no use. Since the Barony is in excellent financial health, we believe the development of fighting skills and activities will be greatly assisted by investing in more loaner gear, both for "super"- boffer and full-contact fighting forms. We specifically mention "super"-boffer because it's been very noticeable at a couple of recent events how easy it was for young adults (and some older ones) to pick up this gear -- sword, shield and lightweight helm -- and start using full SCA heavy-style fighting forms, rather than the simpler sword-waving you might associate with child boffer. We believe there is great potential to promote super- boffer as a very low-cost and low-risk introduction to SCA fighting. For heavy fighting, it takes time and needs money to assemble metal knees, and elbows, and legs, and gorgets and kidney belts... Super- boffer needs none of that, but still encourages SCA-style combat. It also offers an appealing transition form between children's boffer and normal SCA combat, helping us both attract and retain mid-teens which we'd otherwise usually expect to lose. Cluain have had very good experiences in this regard, and we have on the table an offer from Baron Fulk of Cluain to make us several items at cost, in addition to some gear he has already donated to Southron Gaard. Furthermore, two of the helms in the proposal would be suitable for both heavy and super-boffer combat. We have also passed Fulk's offer on to St Kessog as they currently have several would-be fighters and virtually no gear apart from a couple of items Peter loaned them. Care and Maintenance When the armour items are complete, they should become the responsibility of a Baronial officer or deputy who is able to take care of their storage, maintenance *and* ready availability at both events and practices. We don't benefit from gear which stays locked in a garage, nor that which is mislaid at its first event. But that's one reason why we have officers. Further, the armour items can be painted, or at least have badges painted on them, to make them readily identifiable as Baronial property (even the helms, which will be to paint-ready quality, not highly polished). This will also improve their life-span and lessen maintenance. Archery We understand that the Captain of Archers is (or will soon be) putting a proposal for the Barony to acquire and/or repair more archery gear. We strongly support that also, for similar reasons to the above. And also because we feel the Barony could support this worthwhile activity with its own reasonably substantial resources, rather than relying on personal gear. Result: All in favour of spending the $450. ------ Archery gear proposal from David Much of the Baronial loaner gear for archery has been donated by individuals. The Captain of Archers proposes the following items be purchased so that Barony can have some loaner equipment and not rely on individual's generosity. 2 dozen cedar arrow shafts: $118 Feather fletching: $33 Nocks: $5 Points: $18 Subtotal: $174 Longbows (30# draw): $320 for two. Arrow making tools: Fletching jig (Blitzenberger) $155 Taper tool $15 Prices (except for the longbows) are from the NZ archery products website (www.nzap.co.nz). They have free shipping in NZ for orders over $100. The longbows come from Lord Emrys in Auckland (he had these for sale at CF). Fletching jigs: There are two other options for the fletching jig: 1) Martin J-8 ($75). Cheaper, but is plastic and less versatile and not as sturdy as the Blitzenberger. 2). Jo-Jam 6 arrow jig ($275) can fletch 6 arrows at a time and is commonly used by commercial archery suppliers. All in favour for the purchase of the arrow materials. Bow and fletching jig purchase to be further discussed on the discussion list. --------- Call for small gifts for Yule. --------- Quartermaster has no email access for the next few weeks, so contact by alternate means. --------- Call for all officers to email their monthly reports. --------- Sam is hassling Schmoo for first aid box. If this is unsuccessful, he will source things himself. --------- Chronicler requests that 'FTT' be put in title of all emails concerning FTT so that they can be filtered appropriately. Meeting finished 8:20pm.