Southron Gaard Council Meeting - Tuesday 14th September PRESENT: Belle, Bob, Rachel, Jenny Allen, Richard Goodwin, Donna Sommervail, Roland Rich, Charlene, Cat, Jenny Jacobs LATE: Sinech, Amy APOLOGIES: Colleen, Meredith, Melissa, Simone MEETING OPENED: 7:30 LAST MEETING'S MINUTES: Accepted OFFICER REPORTS: B&B: Opened an online discussion wrt. Baronial Charter. Cretteine posted what she remembered of statements the Crown has made to her about it. Heard from Viscount Sir Bran wrt. to CF timetable. He is interested in attending although he will only be able to make part of the event. SENESHAL: Not a busy month. Quarterly report done. Arabella has stepped down as Chatelaine and deputy Seneschal. I have communicated with Kingdom Seneschal about review of Seneschal that is suppose to occur. Expect to hear back from him when he can talk with Their Majesties. CHATELAINE: Vacant. Looking for a volunteer. REEVE: Apology and written report. SG Main Account: Money In: From Ball $141.00 Gross Interest: $2.38 Money Out: $228.30 Reimbursement to Steward for St. Chris expenses $ 40.00 Council Hall Hire $ 30.00 ? (I've noted what this was, but I'm away from the database. If anyone wants to query this, they can do it when the minutes come out.) Balance: $5512.49 FTT Account: No activity Balance: $20.97 Correspondence: Some further correspondence with Kingdom Exchequer regarding end-of-year report. Kingdom Exchequer has provided a "Quick Guide" to end-of-year report, but now Del says to hold fire, as NZ reporting period is likely to be 1 April-31 March. Holding fire as per instructions. Brass Rubbing: Beast and Meredith are getting it framed etc. so that it can be used to decorate halls for feasts and such. HERALD: Written report. Submitted quarterly report to Crux Australis. Still waiting for the rest of the Herald's stuff from Duncan. Been in contact with Benedict (Ildhafn Herald). He has offered to send me a Herald's starter kit. I have also offered to help him out with Heralding duties at Crown tourney in November. Pennon Challenge: If you have a pennon that you are using, it would be useful to contact either Benedict or the B&B of Ildhafn and register your interest so that they know numbers and allocate space accordingly. People wanting to make pennons should consider that period pennons normally contained the national device in the hoist (the area closest to the pole). This could be the English cross of St George, Scottish cross of St Andrew, the Lochac arms etc, depending on your persona. The dimensions are to be 2.7 m by 1 m. Normally pennons are tapered along their length, and then finish in a rounded point. Sometimes this rounded end was split for a short distance into two smaller rounded ends (Note that splitting the pennon ends has been reserved for Peers). MARSHAL: Still seeking a marshal. It is urgent that we fill this position soon. If we don't get a new Marshall in the next few months then we face losing Baronial status. LISTS: Got Bastian to send off the emails to get me rostered. Am still working on getting a membership. A&S: Report received after the meeting. Nothing much to Report Away in US starting next Thursday - going to Caid Collegium and GWW so will also miss next meeting. This Sunday is Sunday A&S CHRONICLER: Written report. Correspondence: Received Folia Roani. General: Published FTT - Madelein did the mailing out. Met with Lady katherine kerr to discusss electronic publication of FTT(Contessa Catalina was also invited, but was ill on the day). Lady katherine subsequently produced a paper discussing the various options ('Electronic From the Tower Proposal') to which Catalina added her comments (From the Tower 2). Lady katherine also posted the document to the discussion list, eliciting some discussion. Deadline for next FTT is Sunday the 19th of September. Update to Regnum. I am also looking for contributions for The Alchemist, which will go out in November. So far, I have received an article from Baroness Eleanora, and that's it. WEBWRIGHT: No report. CHIRURGEON: No apology, no report. CONSTABLE: No apology, no report. QUARTERMASTER: Very little to report. Don't have stuff yet as the space is currently being lent to Duncan who needed space on short notice. But this should soon be fixed. Is happy to store hire garb as well as the rest of the Baronial goods. UP COMING EVENTS: Spring Tourney: Being run by Beast and Meredith. The site is booked, it's $45 or $4.50 booking fee if cancelled, to be paid after the event. Currently there is no postpone date. Admittance is free. Symposium: Advertised on the mailing list. Will be advertised in FTT. Subtelty Workshop: 89 Yaldhurst Rd cnr English st. There will be an add in FTT. Two subtelties will be prepared for the feast. Royal Visit: Have discussed subtelties with Roheisa. Problems with cook pulling out but have found a replacement, Madeleine, who will be aided by Vicki and Eleanora. Madeleine will be getting money for food at next council meeting. The site is booked. Tourney and Archery are still being organised. Bookings close 24 October, price is $17. Have had some billeting offered for the Royal party. May need more. Some entertainments are being arranged. Xmas Revel: tentative offer from Katherine and Batholomew. Possibility of the Mummers doing something. Canterbury Faire: Bid from Richard. It is for a 5 night event Thur 3rd Feb to Tues 8th Feb. At the same location as last year. Due to November Crown in Ildhafn and the lack of a long weekend our attendance numbers may be down from previous years. So the budget will be calculated on having 100 people attend which is less than the attendance in the last few years. The feast will be cooked by AB Catering Ltd. as no one was willing to volunteer to cook when volunteers were asked for. They will not be charging us full commercial rates and the Steward is providing guidlines for what they want the feast to be like, for example not overstuffing the tables. Reminder. Please Tell the cooks of any allergies/food preferences (like vegetarian). The bid was accepted. A budget will be brought to the council once we know what will be charged for the site. The current lack of usage of the proper grievance procedure was discussed in Council. Recently there has been problems with people expressing opinions (often second or third hand) in a manner that isn't useful and is often long after the fact. If you have a problem with how an event is run or the cooking of a feast or other things like that then you need to express this to the event steward. If it is something that can be fixed immediately then approach the steward at the event, otherwise wait a few days until the steward is no longer in the middle of the event. Unfortunately people are currently not bringing things up an appropriate way. This is making it harder to get people to run things. GENERAL BUSINESS: FTT Electronic: A written report of the options has been provided. Of those discussing it online 8-9 have preferred text (which would include links to the website), 1 preferred HTML/text, 3 preferred PDF and 2 had no printers to print out PDF. Of the contents of FTT only the columns (Seneschal, B&B, etc.), the event notices, and council meeting minutes aren't available on the website. Everything else is. It was suggested that we might want to have printed copies to give to newcomers. However a specialized pamphlet for newcomers is probably a better idea. Suggested that we put a condensed version of the report onto the website and ask for preferences from the populace. Sinech will asked Katherine to put a copy of the full report up on the website for people to read. Note: with the formation of SCANZ we are not bound by the US BoD publication policies. Baronial Organizational Document: Written before we became a Barony and concentrates on initial setup. It also has out of date references such as those to the college and Burnished Sun. Chretteine has talked with the Baron of Innilgard to compare how they do things as far as appointing new Barons and Baronesses goes. They have a similar procedure although they have a straight y/n poll where we rank the candidates. The poll then becomes part of the information that is sent to the Crown when they are deciding who to appoint. It used to be that the Crown wouldn't know the candidates in question and would have been solely depending on the people to inform them. We are now in a position where the Crown is likely to have met the candidates in person. Confidence Poll? It was created at the time because we wanted a limited term for the B&B but Kingdom did unlimited. Many people have expressed the opinion that it is a bad idea. Selection of a new B&B always comes down to the perogative of the Crown. The B&B serve as the voice of the Crown locally and as liason back to the Crown. What the Crown wants of the B&B fluxuates from reign to reign. Note: All comments voiced have been neutral or against the confidence poll but don't know what to replace it with. Comment: the B&B should be prepared when they step up that a no-confidence vote might occur. The confidence procedure is open to manipulation if a group decided that they wanted a B&B from their ranks they could block vote the confidence poll, at that point it wouldn't matter if the B&B were doing a good job or not. We need to use the Greivence Procedure!! As a group we need to get into the habit of addressing problems rather than just muttering in the dark. Send letters to the B&B or Crown, it will get addressed. Realistically we need something in place because people just don't step forward to express opinions otherwise. Suggestion: A regular survey to get comments rather than a poll. It would basically be just the comment section of the confidence poll. Decisions: The Baronial Document needs to be reviewed. The Confidence Poll in it's current form is not liked. Pretty much happy with the current Selection Procedure. Next Confidence Poll is due in Feburary. The aim will be to have a poll on changing the Baronial organizational document etc. at the same time. Need an outline or at least some ideas by November so that it can be presented to/discussed with the new Crown. 1) general discussion on mailing list 2) bring ideas generated to next council meeting 3) return to mailing list for 'straw poll' and more discussion. Banner making workshop before Crown? Standards for SG banners, guidelines will go in FTT. If Spring Tourney is rained out there will be a pennant making workshop. Drawing up, figuring out materials etc. MEETING CLOSED: 9.15pm