Archive : Minutes : minutes 10-24-01

Lord Nial opened the meeting with a bit of happy news, there are a new Prince and Princess of the Midrealm! And they're here with us even! A loud happy cheer ensued for Dame Alys and Sir Valharic, resplendant in thier newly aquired coronets.

And even better, they brought Chocolate! (Eldred saved anyone else the stigma of being the first to sample the chocolate at this point, proving it was not poisonous, and proceeded to circulate with the chocolate for the rest of the announcements)

Alys and Valharic are the first Cleftlands royalty since 1986... the year Dame Alys joined the SCA!

In less gladsome news, the Poll of Confidence is coming. All Baronies in the kingdom are being polled to see if they have confidence in thier Baron and Baroness. This must happen at least once every five years by Kingdom law. Only paid members of the SCA who live in Cuyahoga County will be polled.

The polling process has been determined and should be finished by February. If you are not a member and wish to vote, Nial has membership forms, you should apply as soon as possible. The barony is paying for the postage for the polling, though the mailing will be done by the kingdom using the membership list (by zip code) from Corporate. When 67 percent of the polls are returned, they will begin tallying them, and the Crown will act on the result.

There will be space for comments on the poll form and His Magesty in particular voiced that he wants to see your opinions. Lord Nial as seneschal will recieve his poll first, he'll bring it to meeting so everyone can see what the poll looks like. If you are a registered member in Cuyahoga county and do not recieve a poll, see Lord Nial. If you've recently moved into Cuyahoga county, make sure you've registered a change of adress with Corporate as soon as possible. The adress list they use will be those registered members 60 days before polling begins. Try to have your membership updated, change of adress filed by November preferably.

The only people who will see the poll forms are the kingdom seneschal, officers, curia and thier magesties. Feel free to voice your opinion without fear of retribution. You do not need to sign your poll. Nial will not see the polls. If you live outside of Cuyahoga county, you can always write a letter expressing your opinion to thier Magesties or the Kingdom Seneschal.

Master Aiden noted at this point that he considers it a matter of personal honnor that he does not express opinions he would not be willing to have his name attached to. and Ser Nick mentioned that in his former barony there was a lot of politics over the choosing of a new baron and complications, and in the end no ones opinion was held against them, feel free to be honest and express your opinions... just keep it civil. Sir Ephraim added that including your opinion is helpful, remember the curia are going to be trying to figure out what we want. Being clear and concise about what we want will help them.

Ultimately it is the Crown's decision, technically even if 70 percent of the barony says they are confident in our Baron and Baroness... the Crown can say no, it's not likely that the Crown will go against the Barony's wishes. The poll is phrased simply, I have confidence in our Baron or I do not have confidence in our Baron, I have confidence in our Baroness or I do not have confidence in our Baroness, or abstain. If a vote of No Confidence happens, another poll will happen with nomination process to choose a new Baron or Baroness... but we shouldn't worry about that just now.

Lord Nial added that he is confident that our Barony will stay together as a strong group of people no matter how the polling turns out.

In related news, according to Kingdom Law we need to have a Baronial Charter listing the terms of office, term limits, job description and frequency of polling for the Baron and Baroness. A committee of nine people from different segments of the populace will be chosen to work on the charter, this will be a long term project. Anyone wishing to submitt sugestions for the Charter, please do so in writting.

personally Lord Nial would like to keep the polls as infrequent as possible... as the barony has to pay for polling.

Once the charter committee has been selected, the names will be announced and published, everyone should feel free to approach members of the committee with thier opinions. There will be a knight, a laurel, some new timers and oldtimers and of course His Grace. According to kingdom law, the seneschal is allowed to just write the charter and leave it at that rather than risk life and limb to ensure that everyone gets a say (sorry Rutgur, I didn't quite get all of that lovely little speech of yours) .

*whew*

Events:

coming up in November
Collegium and Hofla in Grand Rapids Michigan
Royal University of the Midrealm in Flaming Gryphon
Saint Cathrine's cooking school in Minnasota

SCA Buisness:

Nail is starting brewing and he has a yeast chart, brewers see him if you're interested

There will be a January Event, Sir Ephraim is autocratting and he's hoping to make this a teaching event, come volunteer if you've ever wanted to learn how to run an event like this and hopefully by the end there will be twice as many people around capable of running events. If you're interested see Ephraim or his deputy Sarah.

Angharad and Francesca are teaming up yet again for the January event feast... but they're planning on doing something very different. Curious? see Angharad or Francesca.

Scribes or those interested in learning about the scribal arts, there will be a begining scribing class here at wendesday meeting in two weeks. Also there will be a scribes guild meeting Sunday November 4th at Guenhwyfar's house. See her for details and directions. More scribal classes coming up in the future.

Armourer's guild is meeting on the west side for the winter, you must be familiar with the winter sites 'ground rules' see Calum for clarifications and directions. (or Lord Timothy)

There will be an October Forum, honest, despite the Chronicler being a bit... preoccupied this month. If you have anything you'd like to see in the October Forum, please get it to the Chronicler as soon as possible, preferably before Monday.

There will be a Needleworker's Guild meeting the first Baronial meeting of November, that's wednesday November 7th for those keeping score.

Archery is still meeting on Sunday's at Lucus, there were some newbies there this week... would be nice to see some of the oldbies too (hint! hint!)

Officers, Domesday is coming soon! start getting your Domesday reports ready!

Scouts and stealth scouts see Darius, scouting is fun! honest.

Nial recieved a thank you letter from thier magesties for how well Coronation went, they regretted that they could not see everything especially the A&S activities and particularly wished to thank the Autocrat.

Demos:

There's a demo coming up in December, more details on that as it draws near. As always see Darius or his deputy Sarah Rex for demo stuff.

Non SCA Buisness:

Lady Alex found an olive colored... (and we don't get to find out what it was because someone claimed it before she finished, darn)

An orange tackle box was left at the Bork camp at Pennsic, if it's yours or you know whose it is, please see Nial.

Days of woe and dark clouds descend over Shlomo's household... sad times are upon us for Lady Sarra Bossard this week celebrates her 28th birthday yet again. We've lost count of how many times she's turned 28 and consider it a miricle. Also Lord Pietro can finally stop being carded at liquor stores, he's also got a birthday this week.

Lyonnete has wedding photos, come see 'em :) (her own wedding, sillies!) and Vietnam trip.

November 28th some author is signing books at some bookstore... gah, can't read my own writting... hey it was the bottom of the page...

2-4 pm this sunday the Irish Heritage society kids Halloween party needs volunteers, come in garb, be nice and show them what nice people we are.

if you don't like kids, the Collegium Rennaisance Music has a free concert at Harkness Chapel on campus at CWRU.

Those of you who saw Monty about those steel filing cabinets, he's forwarded your names on and the museum will contact you if they decide to give them to you.

Patrick O'Donnal was in an automobile accident with a deer and a wall on his way to Crown, happily he is doing well and crankily in the hospital. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

As His Grace was not in attendance this evening, Lord Nial asked if Thier Highnesses had anything to say :)

Her Highness stated that she will likely not be a particularly quiet Queen, and that they intend to attend our January Event this year and she looks forward to adding to Sir Ephraim's evil Pun for the evening. She thanked everyone for thier support and offers of assistance. If you would like to give assistance, please send her your information including what you can or are able to do so she doesn't ask a beadworker to illuminate a scroll or a brewer to do a bit of embroidery. Email works fine.

Pennsic will be big this year, please consider donating items for the goody baskets that thier magesties traditionally give out at Pennsic. "I hope we make you proud, you certainly are making us proud"

and His Highness added a short line "We pray for peace, we prepare for war"

And that is all for this week...

In service,
Milesent