Present: Maewyn, Alois, Brilliana, Elie, Kudrun, Casarea, Ariella

The meeting was called to order by Brilliana at 2:10 p.m. at the La Crosse Public Library, Main Branch on Sunday, 19 October 2008.

Introduction for benefit of Casarea, digression into SCA name spelling.

Officer Reports

Arts and Sciences
  • Hasn’t done anything since AR. The colder weather should encourage folks to stay in and get stuff done.
  • Kudrun revived the idea of 50 for 50 challenge with an eye of sprucing up Autumn Rose:
    • Banners and signage are the obvious targets.
    • Kudrun mentioned interesting online chat about site token ideas.
    • Ariella wet-blanketed with the question of how much room we have in the storage shed, which led to the following points:
      • Kudrun and Brilliana brought up the idea of cleaning house.
      • Practice armor quintain for charity idea.
      • Loaner garb has aleady been triaged by Arnora.
      • Deferring shed housekeeping until Spring.
  • Kudruns’ “sawed rocks” from the lapidary class she was just at.
  • A & S list sent around.
Exchequer
  • We made $867.67 on the event, including what we know is still due. The Feast accounted for $425 of that profit.
  • The checking acount has a balance of $909.05. Again, this takes into account the checks that need to be written today.
  • We have a pre-reg for someone we know didn’t show up at the event; general consensus to mail it back rather than deposit it and write a check.
Thrown Weapons Marshal
  • The Thrown Weapons tournament didn’t happen at Autumn Rose because his substitute couldn’t make it.
  • Local practice won’t happen until spring.
Webminister
  • Nothing new to report.
  • Quote of the meeting:  ”You don’t know HTML, do you?”  ”Yes, and I even know about the other 22 letters of the alphabet.”

New Business

Event:  Autumn Rose – 2009
  • AR Autocrat of 2009 not present; Brilliana has already had a handoff meeting.
  • The big issue is T-Bones not being available: Two possibilities for food vendors to follow up on.
  • Brilliana and Bronislava discussed what went right, what went wrong with this year’s event.
  • Lady Silver has volunteered to be Feast Steward, as has a combination of Vitaliano and Angus.
  • Given that all of three folks are outside the Shire, the communication problems are a concern. The bottom line is that the Feastocrat and the Autocrat–in particularly the former–has to show up at meetings.
  • The question of asking one of the food vendors–encouraging them to making it period.
  • The idea of asking another group to step in holds the same communication issues as well as the funds issue.
  • Kudrun brought up the idea of a feast stew–sort of an extension of the soup usually available at Porter Friday night.
  • Brilliana launched the discussion of a “groaning board” potluck, except that it’s the group members who individually supply the foods:
    • Maewyn has many, many recipes he could share if people need ideas or are squeamish about winging it.
    • A big limitation, as Maewyn pointed out, is the equipment–cooking things ahead of time is preferred–but we will need to make sure that folks are not fighting over equipment for dishes that need to be reheated.
    • The budget would also need to be coordinated so that each dish has a budget.
    • Buffet serving will require servers for portioning food so that we don’t run out before the last group is served.
    • A set time for showing up, rather than a time-range will allow for things like the Bard of Rokeclif contest, scheduling Court and so forth.
    • The groaning board seems to have lost out in favor of a buffet feast.
    • Elie suggested making a competition out of it for those cooking.
Other New Business
  • November meeting will be in the Party Room – Potluck
  • December meeting–also potluck–at Cybele and DT’s (Heritage Village) Kudrun will ask Cybele if she’s okay with having directions for our house posted.
  • Coille Stromeil has asked us to provide lunch for That Moot Thingie, ans we’ve put them off so many times. Feb 6th – 8th Maewyn had already done a lunch for them with three hearty soups and has the recipes. He will be in the throes of tax season, but he is willing to share the recipes, if folks are interested in making it. He may be able to make some ahead of time and freeze it.
  • In addition to prep, we need someone to stand guard over serving.
  • Doing a Snit could be a tad crazy if we do lunch for TMT:  Buffalo pie snit, chicken snit ideas floated about anyway.
  • Kudrun opening the floor to brilliant ideas for recruiting members:
    • Raiding Jaravellir (a la The Welsh Border Song) didn’t get much traction.
    • Elie’s observation about the demo event he just attended.
    • Instead of looking for people interested in medieval garb, why not go for the medieval angle for folks who are into something else–food, music. Brilliana talked about PBS phone banking.
    • Going to medievally themed movies in garb.
    • Brilliana’s school history week kind of thing.
    • Business cards.
    • Just showing up anywhere in garb–Barnes and Noble, Rivoli.

Digression into mostly A & S stuff before Brilliana officially called the meeting to a close at 3:53 p.m.