July Commons Minutes

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Our canton’s quarterly business meeting was held on Monday, July 22, 2024. The minutes as recorded by Mathghamhain are attached below; they have been lightly edited to follow a more logical sequence for readers’ convenience. 

Attendance

  • Alienor Salton, Seneschal
  • Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin, Herald & Webminister
  • Madwen Gam, Chatelaine
  • Angelica di Nova Lipa

Provincial guests:

  • Ragnarr Bliskegg, Provincial Seneschal
  • Jenna Childslayer

Absent Officers:

  • Zahra de Andaluzia, Exchequer
  • Ibrahim al-Rashid, Arts and Sciences

Opening

  • The call opened informally at 6:55 and the meeting began in earnest at 7:07.

Seneschal

  • Alienor: My quarterly seneschal report has been filed.
  • Mathghamhain: We’ve had three gatherings since our April Commons meeting.
  • The May Day Festival was a rousing success, with just over 20 people. We should do this again, perhaps in the fall when the weather is cool but not cold?
  • Pilgrimage to Pride was a fun outing. Had 3 local people, and met some SCA-adjacent folks on-site.
  • The June Solar was convivial. Had 6 people show up. Thanks to Madwen for hosting.

Chatelaine

  • Alienor: This is the first meeting since Madwen took on the role of Chatelaine — thank you!
  • Madwen: I filed a quarterly report in June, with lots of information about May Day.
  • Madwen: I’m hosting another Solar on Sunday at 3:00.
  • We’ll be talking about garb, and giving away some donated garb and fabric.
  • Would be good to get this posted on the website. 
  • I’ve already invited some of the folks who came to the June event and will invite the others.
  • Mathghamhain: Our thanks to Ysenda Macbeth for her recent donation, and to Madwen for receiving and sorting it and helping to get it delivered to new homes.
  • Madwen: The donated items were mostly fabric. Athene (who camped with us at Pennsic) came over and helped identify fabric types. There’s a lot of silk (mostly aniline dyed), plus linen, cotton, and wool. There’s loads and loads of fabric and we’ll need to work on getting it to people who can use it.
  • There are also a few pieces of garb; I’ve already identified people who could make good use of most of these pieces, and am arranging to deliver them.
  • There are also some accessories, including shoes, hats, and jewelry; maybe some of this could be given away or used as largesse?
  • Alienor: We could schedule a garb construction workshop for the fall, to help newcomers get started at turning some of this fabric into useful items.

Arts and Sciences

  • Mathghamhain: Ibrahim is unable to attend but has sent in a report by email (attached below).
  • Pennsic is packed with A&S activities: classes, war point, and populace display. If you’re teaching or displaying, please let Ibrahim (and all of us) know!
  • A “what classes did you take at Pennsic / show us something you made / tell us about something you learned” would be a pleasant activity to schedule after Pennsic.
  • The museum visits have been a popular activity and we should plan more of these.
  • Madwen: For the August 25 solar we could combine the post-Pennsic show-and tell idea with a chat about garb construction and take home some fabric.
  • Alienor: For the museum visits, I challenge everyone to come up with one idea of something to go see.
  • Madwen: Whenever I talk to people about the SCA they’re always amazed by the Cloisters; we should go again!
  • Mathghamhain: We went in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023, so perhaps it’s time again.
  • Angelica: We could go to the Asia Society or Rubin Museum.
  • Mathghamhain: The Rubin will close in early October so if we want to visit we should go soon.
  • Alienor: I think there’s something coming up at the Morgan, pelase remind me to look.
  • [Added post-meeting:] The Met is exhibiting 14th C paintings from Sienna this winter and just earlier this year reopened their main galleries of European painting.
  • Angelica: There are some early music concerts we could attend.
  • Madwen: It would be fun to visit one of the performances of the group Emma is in, the Renaissance Street Singers (Sundays, 2:30 — 4:30).

Exchequer

  • Mathghamhain: I’ll ask Zahra if she has anything to report, but there hasn’t been any financial activity of note so I expect things have been quiet.
  • [Added post-meeting:] Zahra reports there’s nothing else to report!

Herald

  • Mathghamhain: My quarterly report was filed in May.

Webminister

  • Mathghamhain: My quarterly report was filed last week.
  • I updated the mail server and the website to reflect Madwen’s new role as Chatelaine, and then updated the site again when she received her AoA.
  • I still need to complete the transition of our mailing lists to the new domain name.

Event Planning

  • Mathghamhain: Alienor recently posted about a local paint-your-own-pottery studio (upperwestside.colormemine.com) which is holding a medieval-themed session Thursday evening; for about $50 you get snacks and drinks and a piece of raw pottery that you can paint and have glazed.
  • Madwen: We should look for a place we could rent for local events. I might have leads from my work in production.
  • Ragnarr: I’ve previously used VenuesNYC.com to look for space rentals, and it’s where I found the space we’ve used for Valhalla.
  • Madwen: How much is our budget?
  • Mathghamhain: As a ballpark, if you have two dozen people paying $15 at the door, you’re taking in about $400, which needs to cover the rental and food or other expenses. We have some money in the bank so we can front the rental fee and we have a cushion in case fewer people show up than expected, but we can’t do that indefinitely, so events should be budgeted to at least roughly break even. I’ll follow up with you to review finances.
  • Angelica: You also need to allow $75 for events that require a named insurance certificate.
  • Mathghamhain: I’d like to find a beautiful non-modern space, like the stone basement of the Church of the Intercession, or the chapter house of the Cathedral of St. John, and would be willing to donate some money to make the budget work out.
  • Angelica: There’s a church in my area that is very oriented towards community activities that rents out space: www.osanyc.org.
  • Angelica: Remember when evaluating sites to consider transit and accessibility.
  • Ragnarr: We should talk to Albrecht and ask whether the guy who owns the Kingsland bar also has leads on similar spaces in Manhattan.

Closing

  • The meeting was adjourned at 7:55.

A&S Report from Ibrahim

I know that Thorfinnr and myself will both be teaching at Pennsic.  If any other Appleholmies will be teaching, let me know; I would like to include that in my next report to the Ministry to credit those in our Canton who are promoting the Arts & Sciences.  

I have also been asked to be an alternate on the East’s A&S War Point team (which will be on Thur, 8 August).  Will any Appleholmies be showing their work at the Pennsic A&S Display (Sun, 4 August)?  Unfortunately, family obligation will have me off site on 8/4, but if anyone will be going, I think we would all love to see whatever work the members of our Canton are showing.  

Following up on thoughts about Pennsic – we have occasionally in the past had gatherings post-Pennsic for folks to come together and talk about any classes we had the pleasure of attending.  Perhaps we can think about planning something like this?  

Also – our organized museum visits seem to be very popular.  I am definitely in favor of continuing to plan for more of these.