The Spearpoint. January Why Dance Night in the Marche is essential. Sgt Raffaele da Cernia Baron Red Spears

Transcription

1 The Spearpoint January 2015 Why Dance Night in the Marche is essential Sgt Raffaele da Cernia Baron Red Spears The third Thursday in the month has always been reserved for Dance in the Marche for time immemorial (yes even before Meister Konrad). It is a tradition. Recently, though, there has been a push to cancel it, mainly because the fighters want to fight inside during the winter and can't see the purpose of a Dance Night. This disturbs me greatly. It means that we have lost sight of why the tradition was started and, ultimately, why we play in the SCA. Back in the bowels of history, under Baron von Pooh, ie. William Taylor the Pure, it was a time when no group actually talked to each other. Fighters fought, Fencers stabbed, A&S did arts and science, and no one interacted. This was mainly because no one wanted to leave their activity to try something new for fear of missing out on their activity. This lead to great divides amongst his people and poor William Taylor the Pure was saddened. Thus the Great William Taylor the Pure? came up with an ingenious, nay, even devious idea to have a night of revelry for all to attend. With a night of dancing, it allowed people to step away from their primary pursuit to experience something new. At a dance, they could dance if they wanted to, but because the hall was set aside for dancing, the rest could work on projects and socialize with people outside their normal activities. This helped to breakdown animosities and build group harmony. And this made William Taylor the Pure?! very happy. At least that is how it was told to me. Continued to Page 2

2 Why Dance Night in the Marche is essential Cont. The second reason has to do with the pursuit of chivalry and nobility. Even at our lowest level, we portray the nobility of the ancient ages. Almost all nobility at the time was expected to know more than which end of the sword was pointy. Those who are on the path to knighthood, or any peerage for that manner, must show ability and support for all aspects of the SCA. Martial, A&S, and Service. Why do you think that at a peerage ceremony they require a peer from all the orders to speak for the candidates abilities in these areas? Dance night becomes a night to pursue these others areas of the SCA for those on the path to peerage. This leads into what Dance night is. It is a time for the group as a whole to come together. You don't have to dance, but you can hang out and/or work on projects. It is a time to catch up with those you are too busy to see, a time to meet the new people who joined the group while you were out on the lists. Heck, for the fighters it is a good night to get together and fix your armor and weapons. In the long run, this helps the group thrive by breaking down cliquish barriers that has destroyed groups in the past. It is part of what makes Red Spears a fun group to come play in. Historically, all nobles were required to learn the courtly arts, or the art of not appearing like a country bumpkin in front of everyone else. You were expected to have manners and understand etiquette. Even today, people who have good manners and ability to act graceful in front of others tend to elicit a better reaction from those around them then those who don't. Sgt Raffaele da Cernia Baron Red Spears

3 Demystifying the Board of Directors By Meister Konrad Mailander The Society for Creative Anachronism is an incorporated non-profit organization actually several connected corporations since state tax laws are forcing incorporation in more and more individual states. As such it has a governing body. The Board of Directors often referred to as the Board or just as the BoD. There are two sides to the SCA, the game side and the world side. The game side includes Kings, nobles, events, and all the stuff that the general membership enjoys. The world side is legalities, insurance, taxes, liability and all the real world stuff we have to worry about so that we can play our game. At a local level the seneschal and exchequer are the offices that straddles the game and world sides of the SCA. At the top there is the Board of Directors. A lot of what the Board deals with is administrative world stuff that does not affect the general local level of the SCA. They also deal with disciplinary actions such as banishments, changes in status of local groups, changes to the governing documents, etc Section I. C. of Corpora The Role of the Board: The Board of Directors of the SCA Inc. establishes the rules of the Society s historical recreation activities and minimum administrative requirements for officers and branches; these are published in Corpora. It is the final arbiter of the interpretations of these rules as made by the officers of the Society. It reserves to itself various powers as described in Corpora, and these reservations apply to all branches, regardless of corporate affiliation. Who is the Board? The Board is made up from people who play in the SCA. The Board is made up of us. The Board numbers from 5 to 7 people at any time and chooses new members from a list of nominees to the Board. Like any other non-profit Board they select members with skills that are needed on the Board. You can find the list of current nominees here: How does the Board work? The Board gets together for quarterly meetings that are open to the populace of the SCA. They may also hold special sessions and conference calls as needed. For any changes to the rules they have to put those proposed changes out for commentary. The Board makes regular calls for comments to the populace of the SCA. These are on the SCA website in the Announcements & Calls for Comment section of the Board of Directors page ( are published in the Kingdom Newsletters, and sent out on an announcements list that anyone can sign up for on the announcements page above. This means that the actions of the Board are not going to happen fast. The bigger the issue the more times it may end up going out for commentary. Each time is at least another quarter, three months. We do not want fast action as fast action usually means a crisis involving modern legal problems. Continued to Page 4

4 Demystifying The Board of Directors Continued Here is the important part: Your comments matter. The Board reads all the comments they receive, that is part of their job. Because the number of comments that they receive on any issue are relatively small compared to the numbers of paid members and non-paid members of the SCA each comment has impact, trends in comments have a strong impact. When you write your comments be polite and professional. Try to clearly state your advice or opinion. Comments can be as long or short as necessary. A short concise This change looks good to me, is often all that is need but still gives valuable information to the Board. You can comments to the Board on any topic to comments@sca.org or mail them to or SCA Inc., Box , Milpitas, CA There are more details about how the Board functions found in Corpora and the By Laws of the SCA. As they are the overall rules of the game we play I recommend everyone taking a look through Corpora at some point. If anyone has any questions about this or any other topic about how the SCA works feel free to ask me any time. Konrad seneschal@redspears.org

5 Actors and Singers Wanted! Last year, members of the bardic community of Red Spears performed a parody musical, and were asked for a reprise at Baron Wars this year. The performance was so well received, every seat was filled and over-flowing outside of the tent! We were shocked and humbled. While we are still waiting to hear for the official news that the musical WILL be performed, it is time to begin practicing regardless. We are looking for a few people to join us either as cast or crew. We have group singing parts available no matter what your skill level (depending on how many people are interested, I m sure we could even write in a few spoken parts.). This is supposed to be a fun project strictly for entertaining and making people laugh. We generally meet on Thursdays at the Marche of the Marshes meeting, but will probably try to schedule a few additional weekend practices as the date gets closer. If you aren t sure whether you want to commit or not, and are simply interested to see what it s all about, please feel free to join us for a meeting. We are very open and welcome everyone! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our musical director, Gulharr, at gulharr@redspears.org We hope to see you there! YIS, Always Lady Ketta Musical Script

6 So what is going on with a Prowess Peerage for Rapier? By: Meister Konrad Mailander The history. The Society for Creative Anachronism has three peerage orders: The Order of Chivalry, which is divided into two sub orders the Order of Knighthood and the Masters of Arms of the Society, for rattan combat; The Order of Laurel for the Arts & Sciences; and The Order of the Pelican for service. These orders are universal throughout the Society. There currently is not a clear path to peerage for prowess in a number of other martial activities including rapier combat. In 2010 the Society held a census of the populace. One of the things this census showed was support of the idea for a prowess path to peerage for rapier combat. Currently rapier fighters have been Laureled for their study of period arts of defense and made Pelicans for their service to the Society on the rapier field but no path for peerage for the high prowess rapier fighter that otherwise meets the requirements of peerage but do not have the arts or service aspect to qualify for those other orders. After all the data had been crunched the Board of Directors create a committee to investigate the idea of a apier peerage and draft a proposal if it seemed a worthy road to proceed. This process took about three years. The committee was instructed by the Board at that time to only work up a proposal for a new rapier only peerage order. My conjecture is that they though that by only putting forth one option they may avoid a split in opinion that looking an multiple proposals at once would definitely create. The committee s proposal was for a stand-alone order called the Masters of Defense that would be separate from and equal to the other peerage orders. There was one round of comments on the proposed order followed by drafting of the Corpora changes that would be needed to create the order. Then that language was put out for another round of comments. Saturday January 17 th the Board of Directors voted on whether to adopt these rule changes. What happened? At the Board meeting there was discussion of the proposal and then a vote. For a change to Corpora it requires a supermajority, at least 5 of 7 of the directors voting to approve. The outcome was that 3 voted to accept the proposal, 2 voted against stating that they believed that rapier should be recognized by the Order of Chivalry, and 2 voted against stating that they believed there should be a non-rattan omnibus peerage created instead. According to the reports this same three way split was found in the comments received. The Board did vote to adopt a language change in Corpora that removed reference to rapier being an ancillary activity in the SCA. This language dating to 1979 was out of date as rapier combat has been a major activity of most of the SCA for quite a while. Continued to Page 7

7 So what is going on with a Prowess Peerage for Rapier? By: Meister Konrad Mailander, continued What does this mean? It means that the proposed rule change to Corpora that would have created a new rapier only peerage did not pass. That is it this proposal before the Board did not pass. It is not the end of the road for a prowess path the peerage for rapier. New proposals are already being worked on. It is of not that all the Directors stated that they believe there should be a prowess path the peerage, the disagreement is in how it should be done. If the Board only wanted a rapier only proposal then why didn t they approve it? The membership of the Board changes over time. By the time this vote came about the membership of the Board was different that the one that gave the instructions for only one proposal. The comments received did not support the proposals passage. It was split along similar lines as the votes of the directors. Also there were people that spoke at the meeting encouraging a different option. I heard that they would be made knights and now I hear that cannot happen. The meetings are open to the public. Members of the public that attended the meeting posted their notes and observations. These observations made it seem that the door had been opened for Kingdoms to start making rapier knights and masters of arms. Part of the confusion was the separate rapier language change. Assumptions were made that it was not a separate issue and those changes were made to open the door for rapier Chivalry. The Society Seneschal issued an announcement later explaining the vote and that the Chivalry path to rapier peers is not yet open. A specific barrier is a 1999 ruling by the Board that the Order of Chivalry was for rattan combat only. This ruling was there because a Midrealm King had inquired about making a knight for rapier. For the path to be opened this ruling would have to be discussed by the BoD and overturned. This may be a simpler process than a Corpora change but one that still requires a certain procedure. You can find this message here: So what happens now? The issue goes back to the proposal development stage. Then there will be a commentary period or periods and more votes. This process will not be fast. We are dealing with a non-profit Board of Directors that has to have commentary periods before making decisions. All the directors and the great majority of the populace support a prowess path to peerage for rapier. The question is just how to do it. That may take some time. Once we get to the point of the approval of the changes to Corpora needed for such recognition if the path is a new order it will still have to have the name, badge, and regalia go through the College of Arms. Continued to Page 8

8 So what is going on with a Prowess Peerage for Rapier? By: Meister Konrad Mailander, continued II What are the options for a rapier path to peerage? Here are all the possible options I see. 1) New rapier only peerage Rapier only branch of the Order of Chivalry equal to the Order of Knighthood and Masters of Arms. Rapier only peerage separate from an equal to the Orders of Chivalry, Laurel and Pelican. 2) New non-rattan martial peerage (would include archery, Combat archery, siege, equestrian, thrown weapons) 3) Open an existing peerage to induct members for rapier prowess a) Rapier Knights and Masters of Arms in the Order of Chivalry b) Rapier Laurels for the skill at arms 4) Make no changes to the peerages at all. Each option has different pros and cons. The most commonly supported are 1b, 2, and 3a. Just because a proposal for option 1b was just voted down does not mean it still cannot be a possibility. Such a proposal could be brought back before the Board at another time. I will gladly discuss what I think are the pros and cons of each option privately with any that are interested but as that is based on my personal opinions I will not go into them here. What can I do? Be patient. This process will take time. Be polite. The biggest enemy of all of this is jumping to conclusions, throwing around blame, treating others with disrespect in the heat of emotion. Comment every time on the proposals when comments are called for on issues you are care about or interested in. Every single time. A lot of people are complaining that they didn t comment the last round because they assumed this or that. Their assumptions were wrong. Every time the Board of Directors asks for comments they really do want to receive them and their opinion can be swayed by the comments received. Only 345 comments were received on the last round and of those the majority did not support the proposal at hand. If 100 more people, roughly the populace of Red Spears, would have sent in their comments in support of the proposal then we might be having a different conversation about rapier peerage right now. That is the impact that your comments can make. Comments to the Board of Directors can be sent to: comments@sca.org or SCA Inc., Box , Milpitas, CA Konrad Mailander Seneschal Red Spears

9 Monthly Canton Schedules Marche of the Marshes First Thursday Fighting and General Discussion Second Thursday Arts and Sciences Third Thursday Dance Practice Fourth Thursday Business Meeting Fifth Thursday Dessert Revel Hróðgeirsfjörðr First Tuesday Bardic Night and Business, Rapier Fight Night Second Tuesday Rapier Fight Night Third Tuesday Rapier Fight Night Fourth Tuesday Rapier Fight Night Fifth Tuesday Rapier Fight Night To put your canton s schedule in our newsletter, please contact the chronicler at chronicler@redspears.org

10 Chiurgeon Open Baronial Officer Positions! Middle English cirurgian, from Anglo-French cirurgien, from cirurgie surgery First Known Use: 13th Century In the SCA: Chirurgeons provide first aid at Society events. (The word "Chirurgeon" is a medieval term from which the modern "Surgeon" is derived.) Members of the SCA Chirurgeonate include Red Cross trained first aiders, medical doctors, military medical corpsmen, nurses, paramedics, St. John's Ambulance volunteers, and many other medical volunteers. A Chirurgeon's Warrant of office crosses Kingdom boundaries. The fleam was used in the Middle Ages to open a vein to bleed the patient in order to balance the humors. Rest assured, however, that the first aid provided by the members of the Chirurgeonate is strictly 21st Century! Qualifications: First Aid and CPR certifications Historian Keeping a record of our Barony s history Qualifications: Ability to talk to people (to learn history), a safe place to keep the records, and possibly a slight obsession with scrapbooking and hoarding. Quartermaster Quartermaster is a military or naval term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores and distributes supplies and provisions. In many navies, quartermaster is a noncommissioned officer (petty officer) rank. In some navies, it is not a rank but a role related to navigation. The term appears to derive from the title of a German royal official, the Quartiermeister. This term meant "master of quarters" (where "quarters" means lodging/accommodation). The term was then adopted by some European armies and navies. The first use in English was as a naval term, entering English via the equivalent French and Dutch naval titles quartier-maître and kwartier-meester in the 15th century. The term began to refer to army officers in English around In the SCA: Acting as a deputy of the exchequer, the quartermaster is responsible for storing, maintaining, and making available all equipment, gear, and other items owned by the barony. It is the quartermaster's responsibility to make this property available for general use as deemed appropriate by the baronial officers and policies and that all such property that is checked out is returned in a reasonable amount of time. Qualifications: Safe place to put stuff Please contact Meister Konrad Mailander, Baronial Seneschal, if you are interested in filling any of these positions. seneschal@redspears.org

11 Missives from the Baronial Chatelaine Greetings to the shiny populace of Red Spears! Though it's early in the season, we already have a couple of demos scheduled for this year. Keep an eye out in February for a possible demo with a local Boy Scout group! Coming up on Saturday, March 21st is our return to Animarathon at Bowling Green State University. While Animarathon is an amine convention, it is still a great opportunity to attract people of many different ages and interests. We usually have two tables-worth of space to display our Arts & Sciences projects as well as performance space for combat and dancing demos throughout the day. The weekend of May 16 and 17 holds the potential for us to head back out to 4-H Camp Palmer for a living history event. Stay tuned for details! The first weekend of June is the Old West End Festival in Toledo and we'll be looking to get in on that and the King Wamba parade again this year, if there's interest. I was told at the end of our visit to the German American Festival in Oregon, OH last year that they'd love to have us back again. I'd love to see more of your German attire for this year! Let me know if you need ideas. The event is scheduled for the second to last weekend in August. If you know of any events we can be a part of this year or have ideas for an educational demo, please let me know. You can also share your ideas or questions with Lady Bryndis AEvarsdottir in Hrothgeirsfjordr or Lord Anton Stark in the Marche of the Marshes. Everyone can be a Chatelaine! In continued service, Lady Beatrix (Bea) de Vezelay Chatelaine for the Barony of Red Spears

12 Officer Contact Information Baron/Baroness Raffaele (Philip Chrysler) and Margherita (Margaret Chrysler) (419) Seneschal Meister Konrad Mailander (Dale Niederhauser) Exchequer Lord Abdullah al-rashid (Frank Connor) Herald Lord Anton Stark (Zac Gilley A&S minister Lady Genevieve O Connor (Jen Conner) moas@redspears.org Chatelaine Lady Beatrix de Vezelay (Megan Schwartz) chatelaine@redspears.org Webminister Lady Kimiko (Kerry) webminister@redspears.org Chronicler Lady Ketta chronicler@redspears.org Knights Marshal Sergeant Raphael da Cernia (Philip Chrysler) armored@redspears.org Rapier Marshal Warder Lleng Craidd (Alan Powers) rapier@redspears.org Archery Marshal Lord Uthan Loach (Bil Kilpatrick) archery@redspears.org Signet Lady Isibel of Dunbegane (Paula Ritter) signet@redspears.org Chiurgeon OPEN (See page 10) Historian OPEN (See Page 10) Quartermaster OPEN (See Page 10)

13 Artwork The borders on pages 1,2, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 11 were taken from: The Art of Illumination, Dover Publications Inc. and is royalty free. Inside this Issue Page 1, 2 Why Dance Night in the Marshe is Essential, By Baron Sgt Raffaele da Cernia Page 3, 4 Demystifying the Board of Directors, by Meister Konrad Mailander Page 5 Actors and Singers Wanted Page 6, 7, 8 So What is Going on with a Prowess Peerage for Rapier by Meister Konrad Mailander Page 9 Monthly Canton Schedules Page 10 Open Baronial Offices Page 11 Missives from the Baronial Chatelaine Page 12 Baronial Officer Contact Information