12/18/18
Present: Abelard, Ysolt, Joanna, Akos, Arnbjorn, Geoffrey, Armond, Tatiana, Adrianna, Jean, Mysie, Rhys, Arthur's Guest.
Remote: Sofonisba.
Officer Reports:
Baron and Baroness: Boar's Head went pretty well. Sofonisba is sick. Yule Court is coming up (January 13) - please submit award recommendations.
Seneschal: Boar's Head attendance was pretty good, similar to last year, will discuss more later.
Chronicler: Reports due December 28.
Webminister: Absent due to a final.
Minister of Arts and Sciences: Nothing to report yet.
Knights Marshal: Some fighters are broken, so we're bringing in some others to fill in this week (Dec. 20).
Rapier: Practice on Thursdays. Boris is back.
Archery: We had eight archers at practice. Rhys and Akos represented CAM at the Winter Archery Clinic. No practice for two weeks - resuming January 7.
Youth Marshal: No kids since last Curia.
Thrown Weapons: Office is open. Might apply for an extension.
Chatelaine: Several new people at Boar's Head. Office is open. New people stayed for feast!
Exchequer: Lots of paperwork. We still have Baronial trim. We paid for a number of sites this year - Mandt (Crown), Border Skirmish, Delafield Legion Hall.
Quartermaster: Everything went great at Boar's Head. Nothing broke, nothing multiplies, we have disposed of one (of nine) containers of Gatorade. Kateryn is bleaching the tablecloths, Tatiana is cleaning the napkins. Ysolt can help with that. Hey, who has the round tablecloths, purchased a few years ago? Some are blue, some are green. If we can't find them, maybe we should get more...
Herald: Has one tote, the other is missing (as is the tabard). That might be in with the banners. Also, the OP doesn't match the Kingdom OP. Will bring a printout of the OP to Yule Court so people can check their awards.
Old Business:
Boar's Head: We've been charged $.50 per head every year, and that should have only been $.25 because we're a not-for-profit organization. Keep this in mind for next year. Also, they only charged us %15 for lunch and we expected %20. The ladies who ran lunch made about $900 - half went to a charity, half went to the Barony. 304 people paid. Next year's date is December 7. We should consider putting a set of tabards (4?) into the Troll event box as gold key. People need to remember to use the liners on the nescos. We could have used more servers.
Yule Moot: January 13, Legion Hall. Facebook page exists. Belle is the autocrat.
Crown: Asabella is the autocrat. Event is in May. Arnbjorn is the facebook person. Tatiana will send to the bid to Arnbjorn so he can post the information and send it to Event Information Officer. Once the website is up, post the feast stuff (ingredients, etc). If you want to help, ask Asabella.
Border Skirmish: Budget from Jean. He's not sure what to charge the equestrians; last year we cancelled that piece at the last minute and didn't get charged for it. Need to figure that out. Would like to do 'fight for food' on Friday night again (last year was sloppy joes and brats) - if you fight you get a token which you can exchange for food, but you could also donate. It cost us $250 which we gathered through contributions; this year it's in the budget. With this budget, if we get the same numbers as last year we'll probably make a profit; if attendance is 10% lower than last year we might take a loss. We made a motion to accept it as it is, which was passed. Expect a joint meeting with Ravenslake in January. Joanna volunteered to be class coordinator and Octavian volunteered to be heavy marshal.
Note for future event planning: Use the budget form from the Northshield website.
New Business:
Boar's Head Feast Survey: Geoffrey posted a question on Facebook, asking why people don't go to feasts any more, and these are some of the overall responses and some things we can do to prevent them. Note, this is about feasts in general, not just about Boar's Head. Also note: We shouldn't let bad feasts of the past steer peoples' perceptions or anticipations of the feasts of the future. Food allergies: A number of people have food allergies. We can get around this by posting the ingredient list in advance. Feast steward recognition: If a famous feastocrat does a feast (for instance, 'Manthra), people will come and pay lots of money to attend. We've got some notable feastocrats. Speed of delivery: CAM is pretty good at this. Time of serving: Maybe we can have food available from 10-4 with an actual lunch from 11-1, snacky food before and after. People don't want to wait until 7 PM to eat, especially if they can't eat during the day. Lateness of leaving: 9 PM may be too late to leave an event. Maybe larger but fewer removes (that is, three removes instead of five, with more food in each). Maybe have court in the morning or afternoon, or even during court, if TRM are amenable. Bringing your own food: We currently pay the fairgrounds .25 per head, and 1.00 per person eating lunch. Maybe we can pay them a flat fee of $2.00 per person and allow people to bring their own food. (Beverages still must be purchased at the bar.) Tatiana has asked this and is waiting for a response. If this goes through we need to announce it far in advance. Price: Our feasts are inexpensive, relatively. Not an issue. Noise: People can't hear. Maybe we can bring out the lattices and surround the feast area, and hang banners on them. Maybe we can build some internal awnings like TRM have, and surround the feast with those. Buffet style: Some people don't like it. If we do buffet style, let people from the north end of the room go first for the first remove, and from the south end of the room go first for the second remove, and so on. People feel excluded: Make sure this doesn't happen. Challenge peers (and others) to sit with people they don't know, or with new people. Entertainment: Some people really want entertainment. Some people really don't. Not period food: Also a double-edged sword; not everyone knows what period food actually is. Consider food for free, a server's feast, an off-board feast. Geoffrey will summarize the results somewhere, and we can determine the top ten things, and tackle the top three.
Build New Things: A suggestion was made that we work on new siege weapons, repairing old siege weapons, and building more 'corners' for the list field. This can all happen at woodworking.
Guilds and Groups:
Woodworking: Cancelled for December.
A&S West: Cancelled for December.
Student Group: Demo is March 6.