The canton’s quarterly business meeting was held online January 23. The minutes below were recorded by Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin and reviewed by Alienor Salton.
Attendance
Officers:
• Alienor Salton, Seneschal
• Zahra de Andaluzia, Exchequer
• Angelica di Nova Lipa, Chatelaine and Vicereine
• Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin, Herald
• Simon Talbot, Webminister (arrival delayed)
• Ibrahim al-Rashid, Exchequer Emeritus
Populace:
• Varenne de Forêt
Overseas Guests:
• Nagashima Ichiro Ujimichi, Provincial Seneschal
• Vitasha Ivanova doch’, Provincial Minister of Lists
• Jenna Childslayer of Lions End
Opening
Meeting called to order at 7:05.
• Alienor: Welcome to Varenne; our previous commons schedule often conflicted with her other commitments, and we’re glad the new time allowed her to join us.
Officer Roles
Exchequer
• Alienor: Thanks to Ibrahim for his service as exchequer. It’s a demanding job, and he’s done it really well.
• Thanks to Zahra for taking on the job of exchequer. After the effort we’ve put in to this canton, we’re so glad we can continue it and her service makes that possible.
• Ibrahim: We’re ready to hand over the exchequer email account. Do we set up email addresses for deputies?
• Mathghamhain: We don’t always do this but we can if it would be useful.
• Alienor: Please let us know if that would be helpful and we’ll set it up.
Arts
• Alienor: Would anyone like to volunteer as A&S minister?
• Ibrahim: Yes.
• All: Acclamation!
Bullying, Belatedly
[At this point, thanks to a reminder from the provincial seneschal, the Society harassment policy was displayed.]
• Alienor: We take this seriously. If you are harassed, or bullied, or creeped on, please report it. We’re working on addressing missing stairs.
Resignations?
• Alienor: Is there anyone who is burned out and wants to unload some duties?
• Everyone here seems enthusiastic but I want to check in with our webminister, since they’ve moved out of our area.
Herald
• Mathghamhain: Our new name is in commentary at the kingdom level, no problems found so far. The effort to preserve the old name as a household name is also proceeding, with some discussion about whether it can include the word “great” or not.
Event Planning
Gallery Sundays
• Alienor: This weekend’s outing was a pleasant success, and we look forward to scheduling more of these.
• Mathghamhain: Museums are the one thing our canton has more of than anyone else, so we should lean into it.
• Alienor: Please suggest other destinations for museum outings.
• Alienor: Maybe the Morgan in February? They have an exhibit on Mesopotamian women and literacy, and so many lovely books.
• Mathghamhain: Or wait until the autumn, when they will have several special book exhibits open?
• Alienor: There’s enough there that we can go now and then return in the fall.
• Alienor: Possibly the Hispanic Society’s museum and library?
• Ibrahim: Are they open? Website gives conflicting messages.
• Vitasha: Google says they’re closed.
• Alienor: Let’s research and figure out when would make sense.
• Mathghamhain: Perhaps back to the Cloisters in the spring when their gardens are in bloom?
Le Petit Salon de Pomme
• Alienor: I would like to have a small, local, low-stress, in-person, in-garb A&S-themed event.
• I’m thinking of something for ourselves, not putting on a spectacle for the society as a whole.
• Can we find a nice space to rent? For what I have in mind, ambience is really important — no fluorescents and linoleum.
• Varenne: I support the goal of finding nice locations.
• Mathghamhain: We do have some funds to cover space rentals, after making $600 at Cloisters last year.
• Ibrahim: Yes, but remember that if our bank balance dips below $1500 they start charging us monthly fees.
• Ibrahim: We should take another look at the church at Seaman and Cumming — Trinity Church?
• Varenne: There’s a parish house on the grounds of St. John’s Cathedral.
• Mathghamhain: I’d like to figure out if we can use space at the Church of the Intercession (Broadway at 155th). They have nice underground stone crypts.
• Ibrahim: They also have a gymnasium that I’ve seen used for modern fencing.
Other Event Sites
• Vitasha: Isn’t there a castle in Central Park?
• Alienor: Yes, Belvedere Castle; it was recently renovated and we should visit to figure out what we could do there, but there’s no indoor space for fine arts.
• Vitasha: Could we have a picnic there?
• Alienor: There is some adjacent outdoor space, but there are no picnic tables and it’s hard to get equipment to the site.
• Ibrahim: Didn’t you folks organize a picnic in the park recently?
• Mathghamhain: Yes, in Riverside Park this autumn, and in Central Park last year.
• Alienor: There are other possible outdoor sites for picnics; for example, at Riverbank state park we can have fires.
• Mathghamhain: We did a bunch of event-site research back in 2019, right before Covid hit — I’ll dust off the notes from that effort and send them around.
Dance Practice
• Alienor: I’d like to restart dancing. Maybe outside when it warms up? But until then, I would be happy to pay the inexpensive rental fee for an hour in our local dance studio (right by the 1 train at 103rd street). Would other people enjoy that? Is an hour enough?
• Varenne: I’d do it!
• Zahra: How often? Weekly? Just once?
• Alienor: Maybe monthly, if people have the energy for it?
• Zahra: With just an hour, we’d need to stay focused.
• Alienor: Yes, I’d like a dance practice that’s just learning and dancing, with less talking.
• Varenne: One of my dance teachers had a t-shirt that read “shut up and dance.”
• Alienor: That’s perfect.
• Alienor: I’ll schedule one or two sessions and see who shows up. What time would work for others?
• It sounds like weekends are best — I’ll suggest some dates and we’ll pick one.
Other Events
Fighter Practice
• Alienor: Angelica sent in her chatelaine’s report shortly before the meeting. Can you tell us how the indoor fighting practice is going?
• Angelica: Zahra can speak to the fighting side of it.
• Zahra: The fencing has been just me and Alec. Armored has Ervald and Ilya and Julian. We’re fencing in the gym, which is a nice big space. The Gladiators are on the adjacent stage.
• Angelica: A couple of the Gladiators folks have expressed some interest in the SCA.
• The local folks we encounter from the area around the community center tend to be teens, most of whom are leaving as we arrive, and don’t seem particularly interested in the SCA.
• Uji: The SCA now prefers “promotion and marketing” rather than “recruiting.”
Classes This Weekend
• Jenna: I am teaching two classes this weekend, both online and for free.
• Sunday at 9AM, “How to Make Friends with your Sewing Machine.” Bring the necessary supplies and dive in! Via Drachenwald University; signup via Event Brite. https://ku-online.drachenwald.sca.org/
• Sunday at 2PM, “Pennsic 101,” all experience levels welcome. Lada has set up a Facebook event. https://www.facebook.com/events/838119253936704/
Officer Roles Redux
Webminister
• Simon: Hello, sorry I’m late!
• Alienor: Welcome! Would you like us to find you a replacement, now that you’ve moved across the river?
• Simon: Because you folks handle posting content on your own, the stuff that you need from me is a very small amount of work and I’m happy to continue to do it.
• Simon: I’ve added a WordPress child theme, which means it’s easier to customize the site. That let me define a shortcode so that it shows the current year in the copyright statement.
• Alienor: I visited the site and get a “are you a robot” message in the calendar widget area.
• Mathghamhain: I’ve had the same experience on the provincial site. Its seems to only happen in Safari, probably due to the third-party cookie handling. I’ll investigate further
Exchequer
• Simon: Vika has recently become an exchequer in our area and is learning lots of things about how to do the job more efficiently which she might be able to share with you.
• Alienor: I’ve also newly taken up an exchequer role.
• Uji: I’ve just become the acting Lions End exchequer.
• Alienor: I’ll try to set up a call for us to chat and exchange tips.
• Ibrahim: I’d be glad to show up. Francisco could be even more useful if he’s available.
• Zahra: I consider all of you my deputies and appreciate your help.
• Ibrahim: I can share the file I’ve given to Zahra, which serves as my cheat sheet for going through the Spreadsheet of Doom. Filling in the tabs sequentially causes problems, but I came up with a procedure that works.
• Simon: Can we publish that?
• Ibrahim: It’s not polished, and it’s not official, so it probably shouldn’t get published as-is — but it is useful.
Closing
[Mistress Sofya joined us for a few minutes here to say hello before her next appointment.]
• Meeting closed at 8:04.