Thursday, May 23, 2019

Baronial Events in 2014: When I Was The Chatelaine

In that year, there were four Baronial Events; Spring Schola: Russian Exchange Ducklings on  3/29/14,  Potted Arms VIII in the Canton of Hawkes Reache on  7/12/14, Arrows & Ales in the Mead Hall on 9/20/14 and St Andrew at the Highland Games  on 11/15/14. We also Hosted a Royal Progress, and had The Challenge II in Neighboring Ostgardr. 
I did things during all of these as Chatelaine.  I usually sat Troll, because that's a really good way to get the newcomers on their way in.  You can help them garb up from Gold Key, introduce them to someone who does what they are interested in, and really be helpful in welcoming them to the whole experience.

A piece of background info, for those who don't know... The SCA literally started as a Kick-Ass birthday party in a Science Fiction/Fantasy writer's backyard in May of 1966.  Later on, when they figured out that this thing was bigger than they thought, they decided that we could count years in "the Modern Middle Ages" by having a calendar that started with that party.  For ease of calculation New Years Day is May 1st.  Many of our documents are dated to Anno Societas  or "in the Year of our Society".  At this writing, it has recently turned to AS LIV or 54.  We frequently Number Events as well... This year will be Pennsic 48, (obv. we didn't have that war in the earliest years of the Society.)  In my 1st paragraph above I talked about Potted Arms VIII (obv. the 8th time holding that event.)


It is Eastern Custom that any given Barony should hold a number of events each year to keep their standing as "Active" within the Kingdom.  Similarly, Cantons should hold one event per year.  I do not know how other Baronies with Cantons handle this, but here in Ducky Land Potted Arms is the annual Canton Event.  It is held at a site within the Canton, and Staffed (mostly) by people who live within the Canton. More about that event later.


Our first event in the calendar year (in opposition to Society Year) is Spring Schola. I already posted about that one , so see THIS.

The Challenge II  was in early June. Since an Dubhaigeainn had hosted the 1st one, Ostgardr was on the hook for the 2nd.  It was held at a Church in Plainview, which is just over the border between Nassau and Suffolk Counties, so literally just into Ostgardr.

This is the second annual test between the Crown Province of Ostgardr and the Barony of An Dubhaigeainn.
On this day the champions and the populace of each group will test their skills in all martial activities: heavy weapons, fencing, archery and thrown weapons; as well as Arts and Sciences competition, Bardic and Brewing competitions.

Since we were not the hosts of this Event, I was not really running things. That being said, I fully agree with the sentiment that Everyone is a Chatelaine.  
I  remember an elderly man driving by the front lawn of the church. He stopped to ask who these "people in funny clothes" were.  So I told him.  It was an interesting encounter. I believe he was lonely, and really wanted someone to chat with him, while he was sitting in his car.  I offered a couple of times to show him where he could park, so he could get out and join us, but he didn't want to. 

The end result of the Event was that the Scores were Tied, and everyone had fun.

  
In June we hosted the East Kingdom Championship Tourney for Rattan Combat. See THIS

After that was Potted Arms VIII...

Spring flowers into summer. Their Excellencies, Baron David Vázquez de Valençia and Baroness Mistress Suzanne Neüber de Londres, set out across the lands of An Dubhaigeainn to collect tithes on their way to the Pennsic War.
The Canton of Hawkes Reache welcomes them with a Summer Faire, replete with two fencing Tournaments, including a Pas D'Arms Tournament to select the new Baronial fencing champion; the Baronial Thrown Weapons championship; an Archery practice with Royal Rounds, Heavy Weapons if a marshal is available and many other games and activities for all. Merchants are most welcome to help the populace get into fine shopping form for Pennsic. The Canton invites you to bring your chairs, blankets and shade to take respite upon the lawns, participate in the wide variety of activities, and visit with old and new friends. There will be a hearty day-board served throughout the event. No feast will be served, yet fear not! None shall leave hungry, as the table has groaned under the bounty of our day-board these past seven years!

This is the Event at which two of our Martial Champions are Selected, namely Fencing, and Thrown Weapons. As usual, it is the responsibility of the Outgoing Champ to organize the Tournament to find their replacement... This particular year my Lord Husband, Ronan FitzRobert, managed to be both the Fencing Champ and the TW Champ. He was a very busy boy, having to create and then subsequently run both main attractions on this day.

In September, we had our other Championship Tourney during Arrows & Ales in the Mead Hall 

Come one come all the Meade hall beckons the year has been good another Pennsic War has come and gone our warriors have fought honorably, our archers have honed their skill, and now lets come together to celebrate as the Vikings did with food, arms, and most of all drink.  Warriors come and test your skill at arms in the shield honor battle.  Those who enjoy thrown weapons come and test you ability at tossing the spear and ax.  Light blade enthusiasts come and test your mettle in a Meade hall brawl.  And last but not least come and see if your skill with the bow can match the skill shown by last years champion and become An Dubhaigeainn's Archery Champion for the coming year.  Brewers come and show what you past years creations have wrought.  Lastly what would a Meade hall celebration be with out having Skalds to entertain us so all bards come and shower us in your song, poems or tales.

This time, Ronan was the Feastocrat. It was a Viking Style menu taken from a book called "An Early Meal"
See here for details.  I remember being his taste tester, and falling in love with turnips. 

I actually don't have many memories of what I was doing at these 2 Events. Nothing stood out to me as a memorable activity.  By this time I was well used to my duties and activities as Chatelaine, and took them in stride.  I remember them both being a fun day, with good interactions, and being proud of my Husband for the wonderful job he did.

The last Event of the year is our Anniversary Celebration; Saint Andrew does Something,which is the theme, and changes every year.  During the Coronets' reign, it's just a party (and the Baronial Rattan Championship Tourney.) When the Coronets are changing, it's also Investiture, a Royal Progress.  In 2014, it was just a party and Tourney.  

St Andrew has decided to visit home this year with a visit to Scotland. The event is Scottish theme with food and events aligned accordingly. There will be heavy weapons,archery and fencing along with traditional caber toss and other events. There will also be a Best Lord in Kilt and Best lady in Tartan competition.

At this event I also acted as Substitute Minister of Lists.  I was running the Tourney.  The Outgoing Champ had come up with the format and such, but I was running the "tree" and determining which two fighters were next in line.  

I remember there being a lot of newcomers at this event.  I had my hands full early in the day getting everyone outfitted and securing loaner Feast Gear for them all.  We had enough supplies, but there was a bit of work involved.  Some had contacted me ahead of time so I had their loaner garb all ready for them.  Others didn't and I had to find something appropriate in the enormous bins full of stuff that we had at the time.  I tried to make it fun, like playing Dress-Up.   Then I had to run out to the List to MoL.  It was chilly.

The first office I held was MoL, it is a mandatory office for a Barony, and it's very easy as there is only 1 report per year.  But at this time I was Chatelaine, so I was only a Sub for the MoL.  I had fun running the Tourney, but re-affirmed that that office and I are not really suited to each other. 




Monday, January 14, 2019

King's & Queen's Rattan Championship Summer 2014 Omega & Etheldreda

In the summer of 2014 AS 49 my Barony of an Dubhaigeainn won the bid to host the K&Q Rattan Championship.

This was a Royal Progress event, (RP) meaning that the sitting King and Queen as well as the sitting Heirs,  come to your local area and attend the event...

The Royals need a space of their own (the Royal Room) that is not needed at Non-RP events.
If the Heirs attend they need space too, that is not needed at Non-RP events.

There will be at least 2 courts (local and Royal).
There may be Vigils and Elevations; these usually mean a morning court as well as the evening court.
Vigils require extra space that is not needed at Non-RP events.

Local people will receive awards.
Non-local people will receive awards.
Royal Entourage people will receive awards.
The Royal Heralds need space that is not needed at Non-RP events.

There are usually Merchants selling things.
Merchants require extra space that is not needed at Non-RP events.


There is MUCH more stuff for court, and much more time required for court

There is usually a larger than normal feast.
There may be 'Special Guest Feastocrats' (folk who normally wouldn't cook for a Non-RP event.)
There is usually a special menu, with items that are not usually available at Non-RP events, like Duck, Venison, etc.

There will be extra people coming for the special Feast.
There will be the people that come with these extra people.

There will be extra people coming to participate in the Main Thing (in this case the Rattan fighting.)
There will be the people that come with these extra people.

There will be extra people coming because It's An RP.
There will be the people that come with these extra people.

There will be extra people in the Entourage for the Royals, and for the Heirs.
There will be the people that come with these extra people.

There will be extra people coming to Shop at the Merchant Booths.
There will be the people that come with these extra people.

There will be MORE CHILDREN among all these extra people.
There will need to be children's activities.
We usually have this, even at Non-RP events, but this will need to have larger capacity.

There will be A LOT more cars.

All of this requires a LOT more space, time, organization, and (you guessed it) people that are not needed at Non-RP events.

The autocrat for this event was Thorolf Egilsson, the real life husband of then Baroness Mistress Suzanne Neuber DeLondres.  I volunteered to be his assistant. The assistant is the Autocrat should the regular autocrat need to go offsite (which he did.) The assistant basically is a second set of eyes, ears, hands as needed during the event.  You spend a lot of time waling around the site. Either you are on a mission to find a particular person, or an answer, or a thing; or you are checking on your Marshall's, retainers, liaisons etc. to make sure that all is well with them. You also have to fix it (or find someone who can, or get the autocrat in on it) when all is NOT well.

I also wrangled the merchants.  This was not really a big deal as we didn't need to charge them anything  extra. It was mostly serving as point of contact before and on the day, and showing them where to set up, and making sure they closed during evening court. I did have one merchant who was a last minute entry, who was told by the Baroness that she could set up in a spot that was actually reserved for someone else, and had a bit of a kerfuffle when I required her to move.  She was a local who actually should have known better, but it all worked out in the end.

I also did my favorite thing to do at an event, Retain!!!  It was at this point that I met and served then Princess Caoilfhionn and Prince Brennan, and their children Girl C and Boy B.  The Princess and I hit it off very well, and became quite friendly.  It is only geography that gets in the way of becoming closer friends... she's in Jersey and has 2 young kids, I'm on Long Island with teenage/20's kids... different mundane worlds, similar personalities... Brennan and Caoilfhionn went on to sit the thrones 3 times, and I retained for them in each reign.  They are 2 of my "I would love for you to speak" for my elevation (if it ever happens)

The event went well and helped establish An Dub as a good RP location.  I got more Autocratting experience and learned a lot about an RP and how it works. I met more folks from off the Island and had a lot of fun.


Sunday, January 13, 2019

Pelican in Their Piety Hunt 2019 1st catch

I have caught and released my 1st Pelican, Master Richard the Poor of Ely.


Very nice conversation from which I took away that
the Path includes a lot of THINKING about What you are doing, Why you are doing it, and How you are doing it...

One should be open to changing the Course mid-stream...
if what you're doing is not working,...

STOP!!! 

Re-group,...
rethink, ...
see if maybe you should tweak it a bit, ...
change it a lot, ...
or start over...

Plan your goals and, more importantly,
plan the steps to get there....
be open to updating your plans as you go.

In the Martial world they say that no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

In our case, any plan may need revising at any point in execution....
If the goal is your goal,
and your guidelines are about How you behave on your way,
then the individual steps have a lot more flexibility.

Be flexible and
find a takeaway from every sidestep or setback...
you may accomplish more than you thought if you allow for this.

Thank You Master Richard.

Laurel Hunt 2019 (I know, it's out of order!!!)

Caught and released my 1st Laurel... Dame Judith Fitzhenry the Uncertain !!

(Edited to correct her name, about which I was Uncertain)

Good Conversation, got to know her "thing."
She liked what I'm doing on my "for fun-sies" scroll blank.

She also validated "Art as Service"

I am NOT an Artist.
At best I am a competent colorist, who can do some pretty calligraphy.
(And I am working to be better than "competent" and "pretty".)
ALL of my "artwork" is traced from the source material...

While this does not invalidate the importance of the scroll, (especially to the recipient) it DOES separate me from my geographically nearest other scribes THL Onora and Master Vettorio...

I create these artworks as a service to my Barony or my Kingdom.
If a Practitioner like myself can take the entry level scrolls (AoA's and Silvers)
then ARTISTS can be free to do the Journeyman/Master level ones (GoA's and Peerage.)

Thank you, Dame Judith for that validation. A successful 1st "hunting" day

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Spring Schola: Russian Exchange Ducklings March 2014

Later in March of 2014...

Back at home in An Dubhaigeainn... 

My Peer had me co-Autocrat something with him earlier... now it was my turn to take the reins.  I was still not comfortable doing it alone, so Lady Juliana le Chaluner decided to sign on and do it with me.

Spring Schola:  Russian Exchange Ducklings!

The Ducks of the Barony of An Dubhaigeainn have turned 22 and are soon to graduate college.  What are we going to do?!  We have mastered Swimming, Waddling, Quacking, & Rolling Water Off Our Backs, so it's time for some fun traveling.

We are excited to announce this year's annual Spring Schola and Feast inspired by the faraway lands of Russia!  Learn to cook the "local" cuisine, classes in fiber arts, silk painting, scribal arts, and perhaps even learn some nefarious uses for medieval herbs.  Get your hands dirty with woodworking and blacksmithing, or put on those gauntlets for some martial instruction in both heavy list and archery.  Exact class schedule TBA, See www.SCADucks.org or this listing for updates


Baronial Champions Lady Juliana le Chaluner and Lady Galle Amsel will be stepping down from their posts after a long hard winter, calling for new Arts & Sciences and Bardic Champions to be named on this day.  All are invited and encouraged to participate in these Annual Competitions that welcome Spring's Beauty back into the lands of our Barony.


https://eastkingdom.org/EventDetails.php?eid=2580

It was a great event... classes, martial stuff... it was fun.  I did well as an Autocrat, and gained the confidence needed to do it again, on my own.

Biggest lesson learned is that the Autocrat CANNOT sit troll.  I knew there was a reason for me to sit in for Lorenz back at Yule, but I tried to sit troll anyway.  It worked only because I had a co-autocrat in Juliana, and had further assistance both at troll and in ther rest of running things from my lord husband and my Peer.

SCA Invades Genericon March 2014

My daughter, Miriam Giant Slayer, was an Undergrad at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. They have an annual Sci/Fi,Fantasy,Anime,Geeky stuff convention and in March of 2014 she was on the staff... so she posted on our local FB page for folks to come up and help... of course the Family FitzRobert couldn't resist.  

My Lord Husband, Ronan FitzRobert and I drove up to Troy NY for him to Fence & Fight, and me to Chatelaine. Baron Don Jean Xavier Boullaine and his Lady wife Baroness Gianetta also went up for the same reason... They were socially close with Miriam, and wanted to help her.  

We spent the day fencing, schmoozing, helping folk try on chain mail and helm, heft weapons, hit a pell... Ronan also made an "Emergency Brisket" for Miriam (which she and her friends enjoyed for the next 2 days) and we had fun demonstrating our hobby to a bunch of our Target Audience... college kids and local Geeks/Nerds... we helped to Recruit for the local group (Anglespur) with no net gain for an Dubhaigeiann...except good will.... and a daughter's smile for her parents.

Totally Worth It.


Thursday, August 9, 2018

6th Annual Yule Feast - Shire of Coill Tuar, 1/11/14

The next opportunity to serve came to me without warning or preparation, kinda just fell in my lap.
We are friends with the then Seneschal of the Shire of Coill Tuar (Southern Ulster Co., NY & Northern Orange Co., NY) Lorenz Greylever

We attended their Winter Holiday event, and specially drove through NYC (specifically Brooklyn) to pick up the then Vicereign of OstGardr, Johanna I Visby. 
We could have taken the Cross Sound Ferry into Connecticut from Long Island, but we picked up the Vicereign instead. 
She's a Lovely woman who has since been admitted into the Order of the Pelican...
More about her later.

When we arrived at the event site,  we found Lorenz (the Seneschal) sitting at the admissions gate.
This was unusual, because the Seneschal is typically moving around and about an event, getting things done, and making sure any sparks don't turn into fires. 
We did not know the place was already 'ablaze.'

I volunteered to sit troll until the regularly assigned person showed up. 
Lorenz told us she was down with the plague. 

I told him I would handle troll for the day, and he should go do what needed to be done. 

At this point my Lord Husband, Ronan FitzRobert, volunteered to help in the kitchen, along with our daughter, Miriam Giant-Slayer, and asked where they could find the Feastocrat. 
She was also down with the plague. 

My hubby and daughter promptly rolled up sleeves and took over the scut work in the kitchen, ending up basically running the Feast for the event. 

This was the start of the Family FitzRobert getting known for attending events outside our own area and working them so the locals can have fun.

SCAdians are a pleasant group as a whole.
When the locals were told I was a foreigner helping out, they were quite patient & helpful to me in return.

I got to really place name to face for folk I otherwise would not have.
At Troll you get their real and SCAdian names, and their monies. 
You give them a site token, (a commemorative souvenir as proof of admission,) and help them head off to the activity for which they showed up. 

This part was a bit challenging, because this was the first event I had attended in the Shire.
I really didn't know where anything was.

I muddled through.
The paperwork got completed correctly.
The monies balanced.
The Feast went off without a hitch.
The food was enjoyed by all.
Lorenz got to return to his Seneschal-ly duties and the 'fire' was extinguished. 

I had fun.
So did Ronan and Miriam.

I got to sit beside Johanna for Feast, and see how things are done in a Shire as opposed to a Barony.  It felt a bit odd to not have an Event include Court, but it does make it feel more casual and homey like. It also allows things to end a bit earlier when you don't have to include time for a Court and all the things that go with it. I can understand why an area might want to stay a Shire, all the fun stuff without the extra layers of  formality that accompany even the most casual of Courts... and if you want that at any given event, ask your sponsoring Coronet to come to that event. 
Best of both worlds, really