Minutes for Whyt Whey September Commons Meeting
Thursday, 15 September 2022
7 PM to 8:30
Minutes recorded by Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin.
Attendees
• Alienor / Piglet, Seneschal
• Ibrahim, Exchequer
• Angelica, Chatelaine and Provincial Vicereine
• Simon, Webminister
• Zahra, Provincial Chronicler
• Hanya, Brokenbridge A&S Minister
• Mathghamhain, Cloisters Event Steward
• Levi
Absent Officers
• Berakha, A&S Minister
• Alasdar, Herald
Officer Review
Seneschal: Alienor
• Alienor: I am willing to continue in this position.
• Ibrahim: Will you be overcommitted when you take on the provincial exchequer position?
• Alienor: No; the canton is small and quiet so it hasn’t been too demanding.
Chatelaine: Angelica
• Angelica: I do have a lot of other commitments, but am willing to continue in the position. It’s generally not very demanding, with the exception of Cloisters, at which there are lots of people to help.
Exchequer: Ibrahim
• Ibrahim: I am term-limited by the new EK policy which limits people to four years in this office. I believe my current term officially ends in February at which point I must step down. If we do not have a replacement the canton will be suspended or dissolved. I would like to identify a successor before December 1 so they can start to learn the ropes by participating in the year-end reporting. I will still be around after my term ends and can help out and answer questions for my successor.
• Simon: Does the exchequer have to live in the canton’s boundaries?
• Alienor: That’s the normal expectation, but exceptions can be made; we have obtained such a variance for the Province.
• Simon: Can two members of a household be exchequers for two separate groups?
• Alienor: There’s no rule against it.
• Simon: If it was necessary to save the canton, I could be persuaded to take on this role, but I would really rather not.
• Alienor: I am about to step up as the provincial exchequer, and could perhaps also serve as the canton exchequer if someone wanted to take over as the canton seneschal.
• Ibrahim: I will enquire with kingdom as to whether there’s any rule against the same person being exchequer for the canton and the province at the same time.
• Mathghamhain: The exchequer and seneschal can’t be partners or roomates, so I can’t solve this by stepping into either of those roles.
• Alienor: Zahra, no pressure, but think about whether you might be up for taking on one of these positions.
Arts and Sciences: Berakha
• Alienor: Berakha will be stepping down as MoAS when she moves out of kingdom in mid-October.
• Alienor: She’s done a great job that benefited the entire known world, and we thank her for her efforts.
• All: [Round of applause and cheering in appreciation.]
• Mathghamhain: This is not a required office, so if nobody volunteers we could allow the position to remain vacant.
• Ibrahim: If we can find a new exchequer, I would be willing to be the new MoAS. I would be happy to continue organizing online Solars, but not at the same frequency as Berakha.
• Hanya: At the last Brokenbridge meeting, there was talk of organizing a series of A&S evenings, in the style of the Solars; Sofya, Thorfinn, and I all expressed interest.
• Alienor: Thorfinn has said he would like to host monthly in-person get-togethers / A&S evenings / crafting hangouts in his home, starting around December. We are checking with kingdom seneschal to confirm that as the host he can require masking in his home without needing a variance to kingdom policy.
Herald: Alasdar
• Mathghamhain: Alasdar moved out of kingdom last year. He’s continued to serve as herald for some time but is now ready to step down as he is taking on other commitments.
• Alienor: We thank him for his service.
• Mathghamhain: If there isn’t anyone else interested in the office, and there isn’t some other job you’d rather have me do, I volunteer to step up as canton herald.
• All: That sounds good.
Webminister: Simon
• Simon: The website is running smoothly. If you’re okay with me doing the job from here in Settmour, I will stay on.
• All: Yes!
• Simon: I appreciate the vote of confidence.
Cloisters
• Mathghamhain: I’m excited we’re going to have a big in-person event here in the Canton for the first time in years.
• I’m trying to keep things organized, but would appreciate input from others, so if you’d like to be a sounding board and collaborate on this, please say so.
• Zahra: I’d be happy to get involved.
• Mathghamhain: Great, I’ll email you links to the planning documents and then follow up.
• Mathghamhain: I have applied for a variance for Cloisters to allow us to check for vaccination or test results.
• Ibrahim: Vaccination card checks no longer provide a great protection against infection, although recent negative test results are helpful.
• Mathghamhain: We have additional space to work in this year, because the other exhibitors that have shared this field in the past are not attending this year, and there are significantly fewer vendors.
• Mathghamhain: I’ve debated having separate list fields for rattan and fencing.
• Ibrahim suggested that trading off in a single list might be better to make the display more focused, and to give folks a chance to rest.
• Samson leaned towards having separate lists, and it looks like there might be a dozen rattan fighters so they are more likely to be able to keep the list busy all day.
• I haven’t yet secured the availability of a full youth marshal, and we don’t have any youth combatants lined up to attend, so perhaps we don’t need a dedicated youth list, and when the fencers are resting we can use that list for youth pell practice.
• Mathghamhain: We have a bunch of people signed up to do different kinds of A&S exhibits, including fabric/fibers, painting/calligraphy, metalworking, glassworking; if you think of other people we should ask to join us, let me know.
• Mathghamhain: Several of the folks I was hoping might play music for us are either unavailable or are taking independent paying gigs at the site, so I am still looking for more bards and performance ideas.
• Mathghamhain: In previous years, we’ve had a “fashion show” — should we do it again?
• Several people: Yes.
• Angelica: What about dancing?
• Mathghamhain: It would be nice to have dancing, but I don’t have musicians or a dance master.
• Angelica: We could use recorded music for dancing. I have a little portable speaker.
• Alienor: I can lead the dancing.
• Angelica: Verenne might also be interested in helping with this.
• Simon: Do you have a cooking display?
• Levi: I’m interested in historical cooking and might be able to put something togther.
• Mathghamhain: Thanks, I’ll contact you in the next few days to coordinate.
• Mathghamhain: We don’t need a lot of gold key, but it would be good to have 3-5 simple tunics on hand that could be thrown over street clothes for people who show up without garb.
• I’ll contact folks at the provincial level (Sofya, Catelin, Albrecht) who might have this garb, or know where it is, or be able to bring it to the event.
• Angelica: I also have a few simple pieces of clothing on hand.
• Simon: Have you figured out a plan for handouts, like business cards or QR codes?
• Mathghamhain: I figured we’d use the same kinds of materials we had at the last Cloisters event.
• Hanya: Albrecht is working on something like that for Østgarðr which could also be used by the cantons.
• Mathghamhain: We need to iron out the designs and quantities needed in the next couple of days, so we can arrange to have them printed.
• Mathghamhain: I’ve also registered an easy-to-say domain name, medieval.nyc, which currently redirects people to the Whyt Whey site.
• Simon: Do we want a specialized landing page for those materials to point to?
• Mathghamhain: What might we include besides what’s in the current welcome message? Or if we come up with a new improved welcome message, perhaps it should replace what’s currently on the home page
• Mathghamhain: Let’s hash this out via email in the next few days.
Branch Names
• Ibrahim: [By email.] Of the names discussed in July, I’m most enthusiastic about “Isle of Colossus” and “Golden Door”. I don’t know if either of these is really good period form, but I like the associations.
• Thorfinn: [By message.] I like the “apple” names, such as “Appleholm.” Dislike “towers” and “spires” as they seem obtrusively modern. I don’t think there’s a probelm with a name in Norse or Old English, especially given that Østgarðr is Norse. The assocations of “Gotham” make me cringe.
• Alienor: I went through the Apple names and didn’t love any of them, but “Appleholm” and “Applefirth” aren’t bad. I kind of like “New Colossus;” some concern that it’s too colonial-settler-ish, but on the other hand I like the “tired and poor” associations.
• Simon: I recuse myself as a non-resident.
• Zahra: As you know I have Opinions. I stand by the case I made this summer for the use of English. Middle English and Old English are also okay. None of the suggestions discussed in July sound bad. I like “New Colossus” and “Golden Door.” New things always sound weird at first. As long as nobody hates it, it’ll grow on people.
• Angelica: I like the “towers” and “spires” names. “New Colossus” is fine. I’m okay with “apple” names to match the arms.
• Mathghamhain: I don’t love “New Colossus” because it doesn’t strike me as a historically-plausible name — but on the other hand, it’s got good associations, and it sounds imposing.
• Alienor: I like “Applefirth,” “Applehaven,” and “Appleholm.” Of those, I like the “haven” variant the least.
• Alienor: I’m not fond of “Golden Door,” in part because it makes me think of “Behind the Green Door” and the “Red Door” line of cosmetics.
• Zahra: What about “Thousand (or Hundred) Towers?”
• Mathghamhain: It sounds great, but I am not sure it’s viable due to the similarity with the Canton of the Towers.
• Alienor: I don’t like the association of “towers” with downtown’s business and finance.
• Alienor: How do people feel about “Rising Spires?”
• Zahra: It might be too suggestive of Prague, the “city of a hundred spires.”
• Mathghamhain: Are the “spires” in the name church spires and thus religious?
• Alienor: No, there are gothic spires atop many castles and halls.
• Alienor: It sounds like we’ve got a short list of a few names that have the most backing: New Colossus, Rising Spires, and Appleholm.
• Alienor: I plan to put out a poll with ranked-choice voting to gauge how people feel about those names.
• Alienor: The poll will ask for residence and member numbers, so that we can properly focus on the responses from canton officers, local members, and people who live in the canton.
• Alienor: This is an advisory polling, not a decisive vote; we’re soliciting input to inform our next steps.
• Simon: A couple of us have thought ahead to the webministry’s technical procedure for a name transition. We’ll add the new name and then update the contents on the website. We’ll keep the old domain name around as a redirect for a long time to avoid breaking old links.