We met via Zoom. Present: Thomas, Rosie, Marieke, Lily, Tearlach, Katherine, Aethelwulf, Dafydd, Leo, Eleanor, David Poirier, Odd.

Normally we announce Business Meetings in advance and allow other Freeholders to attend/observe. For this meeting, the advance public notice didn’t happen, but going forward, these meetings will be announced in advance.

Youth Activities, & Mimir’s Well – Eleanor reported that because the SCA’s two-deep adult supervision requirement is impossible to enforce in an online environment, it’s not possible for minors to attend official online SCA activities. As a result of this, Eleanor said that these circumstances make it difficult, if not impossible, to do Mimir’s Well as a virtual event, since children would be excluded, and it has traditionally been a very child-friendly event.

New People – Odd said he’s had some contact with new people. Maybe we could hold a “new members night” via Zoom, to introduce them to the shire.

Trebuchet – Thomas suggested we could build a shire trebuchet. Perhaps sub-sections could be farmed out for construction, and later in the year we could assemble them. (We might then need to acquire a siege engine marshal.)

Making Old Ideas New Again – Thomas suggested compiling old moot minutes and officer meeting notes, taking good ideas from the past and making them accessible. For example, we had talked a while ago about putting together a digital library of useful PDFs and making them available on the shire’s website.

Sharing Routine Officer Reports with the Shire – This was discussed but not finalized. Local officers report quarterly (mostly) to their Kingdom superiors. Making these reports available is a good way for shire members to understand what’s going on behind the scenes, but sometimes things are discussed that might bring up concerns about privacy and discretion.

Emergency Deputy Seneschal – Thomas needs an Emergency Deputy. Leo volunteered to serve in that role. Dafydd will provide backup and support if needed. We discussed what sort of confirmation, if any, is needed for an officer to appoint a deputy. Currently our shire policies say that deputies are appointed, not elected. It was suggested that the officer could post an announcement saying “I am planning to appoint x as my deputy, any objections?”

Minor conflict between shire policies and kingdom seneschal’s policies – It was noted that our shire policies say that if an emergency deputy seneschal has to take up the duties of the office, they will serve out the remainder of that term. But the kingdom policy says that the emergency deputy will serve until an election can be arranged. We will adjust our policies to conform to the kingdom’s. Thomas alao suggested making a guide for the emergency deputy, outlining the necessary duties of the office and offering helpful resources.

Regular meetings – We discussed having monthly officer meetings, with Freeholders invited to attend. If the officers have something sensitive to discuss, it could happen prior to the open meeting. We discussed various days and times. Thomas will send out a poll, to let people choose between Tuesday evenings or Sunday afternoons, once a month.

Shire Champions – We were not able to select new Freehold Champions this past fall. We discussed the advisability of splitting up the championships so that each can get its due attention, rather than having too many competing championships at one event.  

Shire Financial Policy – Katherine mentioned that the Financial Committee, plus anybody else who’s interested, will be reviewing the shire’s financial policies. This review is required by the Kingdom Exchequer.

And that was most of it – if I missed anything, I’m sure somebody will speak up.

Notes by Marieke