Posted inCommons

Commons minutes for October 2021

October 21, 2021

October 2021 Minutes • Østgarðr Commons

The October commons meeting was held October 20. Here are the minutes/notes as recorded by Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin  and edited by Alienor Salton. The officers’ reports are attached at the end.

Attendance

Present

  • Suuder Saran, Il-Khan
  • Lada Monguligin, Il-Khatun
  • Alienor Salton, Seneschal, Social Media
  • Francisco de Braga, Exchequer
  • Drasma Dragomira, Herald
  • Catelin Straquhin, Chatelaine 
  • Kunigunde Wedemann, Chancellor Minor 
  • Ervald LaCoudre, Armored Combat Marshal
  • Alec MacLachlan, Fencing Marshal
  • Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin, Youth Marshal, Whyt Whey Seneschal, Deputy Webminister
  • Marion of York, Minister of Lists
  • Friderich Grimme, Webminister
  • Zahra al-Andalusiyya, Chronicler
  • Nagashima Ichiro Ujimichi, Lions End Seneschal
  • Ragnarr bláskegg, Brokenbridge Seneschal, Deputy Seneschal
  • Brekke Franksdottir
  • Richard the Poor
  • Gibbs Moryss
  • John of Østgarðr 
  • Perez ben Meir Gershon
  • Albrecht Anker
  • Jenna Childslayer
  • Oliver de Bainbrig
  • Hanya Vladimirovna Polotskaya
  • Edwin de la Torre
  • Belle-Assez Bat Samson
  • Berakha bat Mira v’Shlomo

Absent Officers

  • Randve L’il Hammar, MoAS
  • Arnbiorg Helga Niálsdóttir, Archery Marshal
  • Ian of Clan Mitchell, Chamberlain
  • Sofya Gianetta di Trieste, Historian

Opening 

  • Called to order at 7:31pm.
  • Seneschal: VIVAT & congratulations to…
    • Sofya for organizing our very fruitful apple-picking excursion;
    • Francisco for closing on his new home and for continuing to serve as Exchequer from outside the bounds of our province;
    • Catelin for her TikTok content;
    • Angelica for providing youth activity material to our Chancellor Minor, Kunigunde;
    • Our fighters, fencers and supporters turning out for the McCarren park practice;
    • The upcoming Crown combatants local to the province:
      • Jarl Valgard Stonecleaver for Lady Gracia Vazquez de Trillo;
      • Sir Ryouko’jin of Iron Skies for Lady Indrakshi Aravinda;
      • Our armored combat champion, Baron Pádraig Ó Brádaig for Lady Martha Bean Ui Bhradaigh;
      • Our neighbor and regular fighter practice attendee, Honorable Lord Fearghus mac Cailin for Lady Catriona bean mhic Cailin;
    • Many thanks to all our officers for submitting their reports before the meeting

Officer Report Items For Discussion

  • Calontir trim sample available soon.  Lada will show it around when it arrives.
  • Award recommendations for polling orders are due Nov. 3rd.  Non-polling award recommendations are welcome anytime.
  • New videos are wanted for our TikTok, bring your suggestions to Catelin.
  • We have an open invitation from Damion DiGrazia of Gladiators NYC to use Manhattanville Community Center indoor space for practice, classes, workshops.
  • Ervald has loaner gear and armor construction facilities available on request, seeking armor donations, especially in smaller sizes.
  • The ostgardr.org domain is up for renewal.  Plan is to renew for one year, look for a cheaper host for subsequent years.
  • Friderich would like to shut down unused mailing lists.  Consensus agrees: special interest lists native-land and newcomers will be deleted, as will old event planning lists coronation, decameron, musiciansday, three-princes-day and twelfth-night-food.
  • The next issue of e-Horse drops Dec. 1st; please submit content to Zahra.
  • Whyt Whey has broached the question of changing their name with the populace of the canton.
  • Letters of intent have been received for all open provincial positions. Meet the candidates next provincial commons, Nov. 17.  Incumbents of the herald, historian, webminister and fencing marshal positions have all expressed their willingness to continue in office.  Seneschal candidates include Alexander MacLachlan and Nagashima Ichiro Ujimichi.
    • Hi,

      I would like to be considered as a candidate for Seneschal of Ostgardr.

      In addition to being the Acting Seneschal for the Province, I was also the Seneschal of An Dubhaigeainn and for Hawkes Reache for several years.

      Please let me know if you would like a more formal and detailed letter outlining my experience and commitment to this position.

      Thank you.

      In Service,

      Alexander MacLachlan
    • Greetings Officers of  the Crown Province of Østgarðr,

      It is my intent to offer myself, Nagashima Ichiro Ujimichi, as candidate for Seneschal of our beloved Østgarðr. I have served as seneschal of Lions End since 7/20/2018. I have been a feastocrat on a few occasions, run cooking and brewing workshops, and successfully stewarded a demo in Farmingdale.

      In mundane life, I worked in a gaming store, and run many gaming tournaments, the largest one had 85 participants. In college, I was president of several clubs. I can grab the attention of a crowd and keep a meeting focused.

      As Østgarðr Seneschal, I will keep the ship sailing smoothly. My intent is to continue the excellence of the office that my predecessor, Hlæfdige Alienor Salton accomplished. I also intend to ramp up promotion of the SCA and get more younger members to join our ranks.

      To see a list of all my activities in the SCA, please visit https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/index.php?title=Nagashima_Ichiro_Ujimichi. Thank you and best of luck to all the candidates.

      In Service to the Dream,

      Nagashima Ichiro Ujimichi
      長島 一路 宇治道
      Lions End Seneschal

Upcoming Events/Activities

Sponsored by Østgarðr 

  • McCarren park fight/fence/dance practice, Oct. 26
  • Brokenbridge commons, Nov. 7
  • Seastars class, Nov. 7
  • Østgarðr bardic circle, Nov. 10
  • Lions End commons, Nov. 12
  • Cloisters fieldtrip (Whyt Whey), Nov. 28
  • Whyt Whey commons, Jan. 6
  • Deck the Halls of Valhalla, Jan. 29
  • Spring Schola (Lions End)

Of interest to the populace

  • Arrows, Axes & Ales, Oct. 23, Middle Island, NY: at-the-door registration is permitted
  • East Kingdom College of Performers Winter Nights, Oct. 23, online
  • Midland Vale championships, Oct. 23, Port Jervis, NY: armored combat, youth combat, archery
  • Crown Tourney, Nov. 6, Feeding Hills, MA: vivat to our contestants
  • St. Andrew Visits the Notre Dame, Nov. 13, Middle Island, NY: royal progress
  • 100 Minutes War, Nov. 20, Sparta, NJ: novice day, armored combat melee, youth combat
  • Bhakail Yule, Dec. 11, Philadelphia, PA
  • For public transit to Middle Island, NY, the closest LIRR station is Port Jefferson, however more frequent service is available to Ronkonkoma.
  • Gold key (loaner garb) is available to all who would like to dress fancy or plain for any of these events, email our chatelaine Catelin to inquire.

Upcoming Commons Meetings

  • November 17
  • December 15
  • January 19

Closing

  • Meeting closed at 7:49pm.

Links Contributed in Chat

Viceregents • Suuder Saran & Lada Monguligin

Viceregal succession and polling:

His Excellency has reached out to Kingdom with our tentative timeline for the whole polling/succession process. They have not responded yet, so until we hear different we are going through with current plan:

-Letters of intent until the last stroke of this years end 12/31/2021

-1 month of ‘meet the candidates’ for our cantons and general populace.  Most likely virtual since it’s a bit tough to get around our province with all the traffic and possible January Snow.

-Beginning of February we will begin the polling process. (this gives us 8 months to make sure we have a valid polling) 

Membership:

With pandemic shut down and no Pennsic you may have let your SCA membership lapse.

In order to participate in the Viceregal succession polling you need to be a paid member of the SCA.

You can renew or sign up for a new membership here:
https://members.sca.org/apps/#Signin

Financial assistance is available if you are unable to afford your membership. More info on that is here:
https://www.sca.org/news/establishing-the-membership-assistance-fund/

Ostgardr Trim:

We should soon have a sample of the trim from Calontir Trim.  We’ll make sure to bring it around to in person activities so everyone can have a look.

Social Media:

Big shout out to Catelin for her work on Provincial TikTok.

SCA Corporate has picked up 2 of our posts over the last month:

  • Talk Like a Pirate Day, pirates in history series
  • Indigenous People Day Video about the Lenni Lenape tribes in Ostgardr geographic area

Kingdom Pollings:

Their Majesties are looking for recommendations for their second polling due Nov 3rd. Non-polling orders can be submitted at any time. As always, if you need help writing an award recommendation please do not hesitate to reach out to us, we will be happy to help.

Seneschal • Alienor Salton

I would like to highlight the Manna-hatta fund, https://mannahattafund.org, as part of our efforts to acknowledge and honor the original inhabitants of the land we occupy, and their descendants.

Letters of intent have been received for seneschal (Alexander MacLachlan), herald (Drasma Dragomira), webminister (Friderich Grimme), fencing marshal (Alexander MacLachlan) and historian (Sofya Gianetta di Trieste).

We need a social media officer.  This is a new position which will be responsible for reading the kingdom social media handbook and ensuring that the social media committee members taking charge of each social media platform (soliciting or generating and posting content) remain in compliance.

Exchequer • Francisco de Braga

  • I will be submitting Q3 Exchequer Reporting this evening. I had requested some feedback on how to identify certain transactions from the regional deputy for which I received a response last weekend.
  • Event Reporting for Return to Barleycorn should be complete. Reimbursements were issued last week and should be received by everyone soon, if not already.
  • Lastly, I have also recently closed on a new house that is located outside the boundary of the Province. With approval from everyone, I will be requesting approval to continue as Exchequer, at least until the end of my term in 2022, from Kingdom.

Herald • Drasma Dragomira

The next quarterly reports for all heralds are due November 1st.

I have also sent the seneschal my letter of intent to serve another term.

And as always, I’m here to help with names and armory submissions for registration.

Chatelaine • Catelin Straquhin

As part of the general outreach program I’ve been developing, in addition to speaking with the public and marketing the Ostgardr chapter, I’ve been working on short form videos for our Tiktok channel. Here’s some data points dating from September 20 to October 16:

TikTok Data Points

  • Number of video views totaled at 20.1K views. 
    • This is 29% less than the last 28 day period, but that data point is consistent with having a video go semi-viral in early September (Ryu’s opinion on The Princess Bride). 
    • In general the videos viewed the most are members in armor and videos with succinct lines and opinions. The FAQ series is gaining traction and makes excellent evergreen content.
  • Profile views totaled at 330. 
    • This data point shows us how many people are going to the account’s profile after seeing one of our videos, indicating they have an interest in what we do.
  • Liked videos totaled at 2,268. 
    • This data point is important to the platform since the more videos are liked, the greater likelihood it will be sent to people’s “For You” page and be seen by people who are not aware of our chapter.
  • Comments and shares totaled at 126 and 158 respectively. 
    • These are related as engagement also drives the organic sharing and visibility of the chapter. Video shares went up by 22.48% compared to the previous 28 day period.
  • Follower growth rate has been very good! We had a 51% growth rate this period with 310 new followers. We have 924 followers total, meaning that we’re very close to reaching 1,000!
    • This is an important thing to note: Once an account reaches 1,000 followers, the ability to Live Stream becomes available on an account. For this month’s meeting I’d like to bring forth the idea of doing Live Streams and how to manage the intricacies of it and how to keep them compliant with Corpora.
  • I would like to make a call to action for members in the chapter to bring forward ideas and videos they’d like to see on the platform! I would really love to show off the diversity and creativity of the province for everyone to see. 
    • If you have an idea, or need some help on formatting a video for TikTok, please reach out to me!

I have not received emails from potential members inquiring about the society, but I have been actively marketing while out and about in the public. At practice I have passed out an average of 20 cards a night and have spoken to about 40+ people during the evening. When medieval-related topics come up, I keep a handful of business cards on me just for the occasion. Many thanks to Alienor, Mathghamhain, and other members for making us more visible at practice and for providing a surface space to work with.

As part of my responsibilities I am slowly working on creating documentation so that future Chatelaines will be able to pick up many of the processes and techniques I am using, thereby creating a base of institutional knowledge for the province to pull from.

Chancellor Minor • Kunigunde Wedemann

Lady Angelica di Nova Lipa has passed on to me material to use for future youth activities, to whom I am in gratitude. Otherwise, I have nothing to report.

Arts & Sciences • Randve L’il Hammar

Nothing to report.

Armored Combat • Ervald LaCoudre

THANK YOU to all the fighters and fencers, belted and otherwise, who have been coming to practice weekly, as well as the supporters and chatelaine staff who have been ever-present as well with paperwork and promotional materials.

Armored combat practice continues concurrently with fencing practice in McCarren Park in Brooklyn on Tuesday nights, 7-10 PM, and will do so until a consensus regarding not fighting in the cold is reached.

Gladiators NYC, the independent organization that recently broke away from Armored Combat Worldwide (one of the two organizations resulting from the 2019 split of the Armored Combat League) has an open invitation to us to return to using the space available at Manhattanville Community Center whenever we want for an indoor fighter practice site.

Incidentally, their leader, Damion DiGrazia, is interested in having non-fighting SCA classes, workshops, etc, at the Center, so long as they are open for anyone at the center (mostly children and teenagers) to participate. In other words, we are being invited to have a “clubhouse” in Manhattan that we can go to regularly to do our educational thing. 

If anyone who wants to host a class wants to use that space…AND/OR…if the Province wants to begin a regular series of classes and workshops (weekly? Bi-weekly? Monthly?) in anything, or rotating things (For example: dancing on the first week of the month, calligraphy on the second, sewing on the third, something different on the fourth week of every month),  I will put you in touch with Damion to work this out.

I encourage all Østgarðr fighters, especially those who have only been fighting for a few years and have not gone to Pennsic or a big melee event, to go to the 100 Minutes War on Saturday, November 20th, in Rusted Woodlands. (https://www.eastkingdom.org/event-details/?eid=3759). It is an opportunity to meet a lot of great fighters, fight in a 100-minute resurrection battle with them, learn a lot, and you can even get authorized there! I would love to see a corps of Østgarðr fighters fighting as a unit, or with a friendly unit, to get the kind of experience we can take to Pennsic!

I have a lot of gear at my home in Astoria that I can loan, both personal and provincial, and enough tools and materials to make almost any repair and even construct armor out of leather. I also have plenty of books that can be used for armor and historical reference. Access is by appointment, and temporary possession of armor by users can be arranged on a case-by-case basis.

Donations of armor are welcome. They must be serviceable and SCA legal. We are most looking for armor for short and small people, particularly legs, shoulders, and cuirasses.

Every fighter should read and know the Rules of the List and Armor Standards of the SCA. That is the default for the East Kingdom. It is within the Marshal’s Handbook (https://www.sca.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/marshal_handbook.pdf)

Archery • Arnbiorg Helga Niálsdóttir

No report submitted.

Fencing • Alec MacLachlan

Weekly fencing practice is continuing at McCarren Park in Brooklyn.  We have been getting a steady three people each week since my last report.  

Zahra authorized at Barleycorn.

I have put in my letter of intent to continue as the Provincial Fencing Marshal.

Youth Combat • Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin

There hasn’t been any youth combat in the province this month.  The next scheduled opportunity for local kids to armor up will be at Hundred Minutes War.  Other than that we expect youth combat to be on hiatus over the winter but are optimistic that it will pick up significantly in the spring if (as expected) most children are able to be vaccinated this winter.

Minister of Lists • Marion of York

Nothing to report.

Webminister • Friderich Grimme

The website continues to function.  I am mostly keeping up the weekly posting of known events, but I would like to see content expand in the future (long term goal).  Links to our social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Youtube) have been added to our mainpage.

Analytics: 274 sessions from 9/18/21 to 10/17/21. (I wonder how many are humans vs. bots?)  60% vs. 40% New vs. Returning Visitors,  Access by device type Desktop 55%/ Tablet 0%/ Mobil 45%.

I’ve sent the seneschal my letter of intent to continue as webminster.  

Action Items – The following two areas will need to be discussed by the provincial officers council at commons.  Based on that discussion, I can take action on both items in late October/early November.

Renewing ‘ostgardr.org’ domain name:  Registration of the domain name Ostgardr.org expires on 12/3/2021.    

Our East Kingdom web address (ostgardr.eastkingdom.org) is not impacted by this domain registration.  This domain is a legacy registration from when Ostgardr hosted its website and mail services through Panix.  Inputting ostgardr.org into a browser will not resolve to our current web page, but inputting www.ostgardr.org will resolve to our website.  As best I can tell, www.ostgardr.org still points to Panix, which has a CName file that reroutes to our current EK website.

The EK webminster (as well as other from the EK web ministry) do not recommend keeping the domain registration, though there is no prohibition against it.  Some other groups have maintained legacy domain names as well.

Our current registrar is Pair Domains.  I was able to access our account with Pair Domains and can re-register the domain name through them.  Below is the current renewal fee schedule:

  • 1-year        $22.65       
  • 2-year    $43.74
  • 3-year    $63.39
  • 4-year             $81.68
  • 5-year      $98.75

Pair Domains seems to be set up for credit cards.  I can run the domain registration on my personal card and then submit to the exchequer to reimbursement.

I have not looked into other registrars.

If the officers decide to extend registration of the ostgardr.org domain, I would recommend doing so only for 1 year.  That would allow us to price-shop and to address where the domain name points.

Google Groups Clean-Up: Here are the mailing lists/google groups associated with the Crown Province.  More than half of them have low activity levels or are for past events.  I would like the officers to discuss which lists are still needed and which I can close.

Active Groups – These should likely remain open

  • bylaws         Bylaws Committee
  • e-horse        Mailing list for our e-newsletter, the Seahorse
  • flair            Flair committee – active
  • ostgardrnyc        SCA email list for the Crown Province
  • Ostgardr-officers    Officer mailing list
  • outreach        Outreach and marketing – active
  • reports        Reports should go to the Seneschal and Viceregents
  • viceregents        Forwards to Viceroy and Vicereine

Officer Mailing Lists – Are these used?  If not, do the provincial/canton officers still want them to be active?

  • chatelaine-officers    Canton and Provincial Chatelaines of Ostgardr
  • Moas-officers        Communication for Ministers of A&S in province
  • Seneschal-officers    Canton and Provincial Seneschals of Ostgardr

Special Interest Lists – Are these used?

  • native-land        Discussion of Native Land Acknowledgement
  • newcomers        Welcome to Ostgardr

Old Event Planning Lists – I would like to close these

  • coronation        Coronation Bid Committee
  • decameron        Day of the Decameron Event
  • musiciansday        Musician’s Day Event
  • three-princes-day    Three princes day eventTwelfth-night-food    Cooking group for Twelfth Night

For groups that we are no longer using, I will stop members from posting and remove all non-manager members.  I then plan to check with the EK web ministry to see if they can download the group data for archival purposes.  Once we have the data, I can delete the groups. 

Social Media • Alienor Salton

The SCA Social Media handbook has been updated and is available here: https://www.sca.org/news/social-media-handbook-now-available/ 

Social media committee members, please review.  Until we have a volunteer for this new position, it falls to me as the seneschal.  I am reading it with great interest.

Chronicler • Zahra al-Andalusiyya

The next issue of the E-Horse will go out on December 1, so please send me your art, photos, articles, memes, quizzes, jokes, poems, captions, crossword puzzles, and…y‘all know the deal. Thank you!!

Chamberlain • Ian of Clan Mitchell

Nothing to report.

Historian • Sofya Gianetta di Trieste

Nothing to report.

Whyt Whey • Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin

Our recent quarterly business meeting was productive.  We discussed various opportunities for events and outreach to re-engage folks in our activities.

We’re planning a trip to the Cloisters the afternoon of Sunday, November 28; further details will be announced in the coming weeks, and all are welcome to join us.

We’ve started a discussion of possibly selecting a new name for the canton; this is obviously not something we’d undertake lightly, so there’ll be extensive discussion with the populace to determine if there’s a consensus before we move forward.

Officer roster and reports are believed to be current. We’re waiting on review by kingdom and society before our bank account signatories are updated.

Lions End • Nagashima Ichiro Ujimichi

Started planning Spring Schola.  Nothing else to report.

Brokenbridge • Ragnarr bláskegg

Brokenbridge will be running Deck the Halls of Valhalla this year.  It will be Saturday, January 29th.  It will be virtual again and will run from 6pm to 10pm.  Eadwin the Younger will be the event steward, and we are super excited to try some new activities this year since the virtual format allows us to play around a bit with what we can do.  

Brokenbridge commons will be November 7th at 11am.

Committees

Flair • Alienor Salton

The flair committee has made Queen’s favors, to be presented at St. Andrew’s, Nov. 13th, and is in the process of assembling Østgarðr favors.  Banners are in design.

Outreach • Alienor Salton

A hootsuite meeting being scheduled; Albrecht is spearheading this effort.  Our Discord server is (almost?) ready to move out of beta.  Mathghamhain continues to post to Twitter, and recently uploaded more history videos to our YouTube channel.  Onlooker levels at McCarren park are dropping as temperatures fall.  Conversations continue to engage.

Events

Barleycorn • Aurora ffolkes

I sent the receipts to Francisco and he sent both a copy of the financial report and refund check.  Everyone enjoyed the event and would like us to do another.  The only thing I haven’t finished is finding a helm that was due as a prize and was not given so I have to check up on it…  Right now I am recovering from Surgery  and waiting for clearance to go back to work.