Present: Thomas, Rosie, Dafydd, Marieke, Odd. (Some of our officers were at Coldwood helping to prepare the site for next weekend.)
Business Meeting Frequency: Thomas has learned that we only need to have these meetings once per quarter. He’ll put it to a vote, whether we want to change to a quarterly meeting schedule instead of monthly. Meanwhile, he’ll continue his once-a-month Tuesday-evening Office Hours, and may increase the frequency of those.
Panther Vale Yule/Twelfth Night: Dafydd has confirmed that Panther Vale will be hosting a Yule/Twelfth Night feast this year, but the details are not yet firmed up.
Lack of Heavy-List Fighters: We discussed Leo’s concerns about the dwindling numbers of heavy-list fighters in the shire, and what we can do to improve the situation. Having more demos that include actual combat might be useful.
Ballista/Trebuchet Project? : Thomas proposed that we build ourselves some siege weaponry. We’d need a construction crew, – and then, even more fun, we’d train a team to deploy the dreaded weapon on certain battlefields and competitions! (There is a Siege Engines Handbook on the sca .org home page, if anybody wants to examine the details for a SCA-legal construction and usage.)
Arts and Sciences opportunities: The East Kingdom has some new A&S opportunities, which Rosie has been posting online. One of these is the Online Kingdom A&S Display, with entries due by Oct. 31. If you want details, Rosie (moas@mountainfreehold.eastkingdom.org) will be happy to assist you.
Possible event idea: Leo was talking about a “Vikings in the New World” event, which would allow some cross-cultural explorations. We felt it might be fun to do this as an outdoor event in early spring with a big cauldron of vegetarian soup and supplemental cauldrons of add-ins like meat and barley.
We also discussed some upcoming demo opportunities (Post-meeting update: the Winter Renaissance Faire is scheduled for the weekend of Feb. 5-6; and the Knight’s Hall/Armored Combat Sports is at the Fairgrounds on Sat. Nov. 13) – and updating our business cards and the trifold handout – and how terminology in the SCA can be confusing or off-putting (like “autocrat”) – and we admired Rosie and Tom’s two new kitties.
This meeting lasted about an hour.