Baron Sir Duncan Bruce of Logan reports:
Announcing a Competition: At Grimfells’ Fall Event, Spirits of the Middle Ages, which is being held Halloween weekend, I’ll be sponsoring a competition for best Legend Macabre represented in period clothing. What does that mean? Maybe a period ghost story in Persian garb? Maybe a Grimm brother’s fairy tale done in Roman? A Disney Villain in Viking? A Greek myth in Elizabethan?
Embellishment and Accessories count towards your outfit. There will be two prizes, one Laurel’s Choice and One Populace Choice. Documentation is encouraged, and if you need help, please let me know. I look forward to seeing how creative you can get! Questions can be emailed to me at alineswynbrook@yahoo.com.
Cheers! ~Magistra Aline
From Countess Honor, SCA Publications Manager, via SCA Announcements:
Evolution of SCA Communications Survey
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Honor of Restormel
Society Publications Manager
From the Lilies War website:
Greetings all
Here is the information if you are curious about camping with the Company of Travelers.
The Company of Travelers once again invites anyone interested a more medieval atmosphere to camp with us. We are an informal Calontir group supporting attempts to be more medieval in any aspect, ranging from accoutrement to persona interaction. The camping area is intended to enhance the medieval experience by keeping blatantly modern things out of sight.
The guidelines are pretty simple:
1. To protect the medieval visual aspect, cars are allowed in for set up/tear down only between the hours of 9 am to 10 am and 3 pm to 4 pm from Sunday through Thursday.
2. All modern things should be kept out of the general view. Tents, furniture, and other large equipment should be of a period nature. No modern tents or shade flies as well as any other blatantly modern items please.
3. Due to several people with severe allergic reactions, we ask that this be kept a non-smoking area.
This is certainly not the only period encampment at Lilies War, but if you want to try it, please join us!
Countess Gwen A’Brooke
Quivers and Quarrels, the SCA newsletter for all things archery, is now available at
enewsletter.sca.org/archery-
Articles include:
Some of the many articles in this issue are:
Official announcement from Pennsic:
Effective this year, The Pennsic War can not provide refrigeration service for individuals needing storage of medications.If you must bring sensitive medicines that need refrigeration please take that into consideration when making your Pennsic plans.
Reposted from the Æthelmearc Gazettte.
Master William de Montegilt attended the April 18 Board Meeting and has submitted the following notes to the Gazette.
If you’ve never been to a Board of Directors meeting, you might want to attend one. The ceremonies are very impressive. The directors are carried in, each on his or her own palanquin, to the central meeting table laden with gold plate and jeweled cups, where they are greeted by cheering members of the populace…..
OK, fine. It’s not like that at all. This is a corporate board meeting. The directors and officers wear suits or other formal business attire. The meetings are run according to the Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure by Alice Sturgis. Meetings are held quarterly, and the Saturday session, which is a working meeting, is open to the public.
At the April meeting, the corporation was represented by the directors, the newest director-elect (who gets to watch, but not vote), several corporate officers, and about a dozen members of the populace. The guests get to speak and ask questions at the discretion of the Chair. Everyone is addressed by their modern names.
Dr. Scott Berk, the Chair, opened the meeting by asking all present to introduce themselves, and to tell everyone what their alternate persona would be if they could start over. There were lots of interesting choices, and the majority seemed to be driven by clothing. A new director-elect, Chele Martines (Sabine de Rouen) was announced, and she will be present at the next meeting. Directors serve for 3 ½ years, and typically one is replaced at every other meeting.
Standard business included recognizing new groups, approving group advances in status, approving bank accounts, and approving a new affiliate corporation in the Netherlands (the Shire of Polderslot). The member in charge of Board recruiting noted there were currently 40 nominees out of roughly 35,000 members. That is very nearly an all-time high. Five of these are from Æthelmearc. The Board likes diversity of geography and fields of interest when choosing among new candidates. It requires the approval of all seven members to elect a new member. The Saturday meeting also covers correspondence. There was NO written correspondence this quarter, which I found interesting. Everything (and there was a lot) came in electronically. Each director has to read a lot of correspondence before each meeting. Twenty years ago, this worked out to about a 4-5 inch binder. There is a deadline for consideration, which is generally the first day of the month in which the meeting is held. Anything later may likely not be considered until the next meeting, so plan accordingly.
There was no Old Business this time. There were three New Business items. One was Polderslot which got covered earlier. The second was a resignation from the Peerage (you have to write to the Board, or it doesn’t count). The last one was the proposal for the Omnibus Peerage.
The proposal was presented by Tessa Williams (Duchess Tessa the Huntress). This was the longest single item of the meeting, and discussion took almost two hours. When asked what she would like the Board to do, she asked them to approve the proposal. This was not possible, as it would require a change to Corpora, which must be put out to the membership for comment. Generally, the directors were in favor of the concept, but made it very clear that they were going to take the time to get it right, recognizing that whatever action is taken (or not), there will be some folks who won’t be happy.
Seven other guests spoke about the proposal, and the audience was included in the general discussion that followed. (Editorial note: Folks who consider the Board to be a monolithic hive-mind really need to see one of these discussions. They will be…enlightened). There was discussion of timing and whether it is too much too fast for the Kingdoms to handle? Build on the Order of Defense? Include this in the Order of Defense? Another consideration was that future martial activities be included in this new peerage so that the process would not need to start over yet again. Fairness, inclusion, and paths to mastery for everyone, and the ensuing benefits to the membership were also considered major factors. Opinions both pro and con were aired on the proposal. Eventually, the Board decided to take the following actions: First, a conference call will be held with the Board, certain officers, and the Crowns of each Kingdom, to get their thoughts. Second, a proposal with a variety of alternatives will be put out as a membership survey. Some of these are: 1) The Omnibus proposal as written 2) Similar, but for all martial activities not included in the Orders of Chivalry and Defense (the Omnibus proposal only covers martial activities, present and future, that fall under the purview of the Society Earl Marshal) 3) Inclusion in the Order of Defense 4) Do nothing at this time. There may be other alternatives depending on the feedback from the Crowns. The target for reconsideration of the proposal and its alternatives is the October meeting.
After a lunch break, the meeting reconvened. There was a very nice presentation from the 50-Year Celebration committee. They are expecting attendance in the 3-5000 range. It will be in the Midrealm, in June of 2016, near Indianapolis. There are 19 large buildings, mostly climate controlled, including horse barns, and large outside areas. They believe this will be the largest equestrian event in the history of the Society. There are about 75 merchants and over 200 classes arranged thus far, and these numbers will increase. There will be themed balls for the dancers every night. There will be a period encampment area. The local area is supportive. There will be 5000 gift packets from the local chamber of commerce. The Baroness of Sternfeld sent a letter making it very clear that the RFRA was modified to prevent discrimination by gender identity, and that attendees would find themselves very welcome by the folks in the area. Other accommodations: handicapped and mobility services will be available, as well as docents for non-SCA folk who show up. There will be a display area with the history of each of the kingdoms, including a YouTube presentation for each on a big screen. It is expected that the one from Avacal will be fairly short.
Next were officer reports, and here are a few highlights. The Society Seneschal (Vice-president for Operations) noted that commentary on the Chirurgeonate is open until July 1. The Vice-President for Corporate Operations mentioned that a survey on electronic communications will be pushed to the e-newsletters. Sign in if you want to respond. Also, the SCA, Inc. passed a fairly rigorous audit by the State of California with flying colors. The Minister for A&S had 39 pages of ongoing activities and commended the A&S community for being awesome. The Chair of the Grand Council commended a number of people, including Æthelmearc’s Arianna of Wynthrope!
Officer changes: A new director was elected (Chele Martines) as mentioned above. The new Society Marshall will be Alan Smith (Alan Gravesend). Interestingly, he will be one of the premier Masters of Defense from Atlantia. Applications for Society Chronicler will be accepted until May 15th. There were various tributes to Lisa May, who is stepping down after this meeting, and she was given the traditional privilege of adjourning the meeting.
The October 2015 meeting will be held in Pittsburgh at the Embassy Suites by the airport. I encourage as many as possible to attend, and get a better idea of how the administration behind our hobby/lifestyle is run.
The Society Publications Manager, Countess Honor of Restormel, is looking for your feedback on SCA Newsletters, current and future. Please take a few minutes to complete a survey designed to gather data to assist in the evolution of communications within the SCA.
Reposted from the East Kingdom Gazette, the original can be found here:
The Seneschal of the Society sends greetings to my fellow SCA members and participants,
Based upon the fact that ACCEPS has now shut down, the need to remain silent to ensure the security of everyone’s credit card information on ACCEPS is no longer a concern and as such, I am able to divulge the following factual basis for the SCA’s ending of its relationship with ACCEPS in terms of all future events.
Please know that it was the Board of Directors and the Corporate Officers’ intention to allow ACCEPS to continue to serve the Kingdoms and the local groups in terms of those events that were currently being handled through ACCEPS and that the immediate shutting down of all ACCEPS activities was not anticipated by the Board of Directors or the Corporate Officers. The immediate termination of ACCEPS was a decision made solely by the ACCEPS staff.
Furthermore, I did not anticipate that my official memorandum to the Kingdom Seneschals (the same email was sent by the Corporate Treasurer to the Kingdom Exchequers) would be disseminated in whole or in part on Social Media feeds and as such, I feel that the following points need to be made.
1. It was reported to the Board of Directors that ACCEPS’ security structure could be compromised and that ACCEPS’s security must be updated; when this was reported to ACCEPS, the creator of the ACCEPS program refused to bolster and update security and make the necessary modifications to ACCEPS to protect participants and the SCA.
2. In an attempt to protect the members and participants of the SCA using ACCEPS, the Board of Directors decided, in conjunction with the President, Society Seneschal (i.e. myself) and Corporate Treasurer, decided to remove the SCA’s authorization to use ACCEPS in terms of any future events.
3. All Kingdom and local group events currently being served through ACCEPS would be allowed to continue to participate as active ACCEPS participants; however, it was determined by the Board of Directors, in conjunction with Corporate Officers, that no new events will be allowed to register with ACCEPS due to the financial risk to the SCA and its participants.
4. The Board of Directors and Corporate Officers determined that it was most prudent to protect the individuals who are still being served by ACCEPS by not drawing attention to the security weakness inherent in ACCEPS; to do so would have been to place the participants and their credit card information at risk in terms of credit card fraud.
5. The Society Seneschal and Corporate Treasurer drafted an official letter to Kingdom Seneschals and Kingdom Exchequers to not use ACCEPS in the future, that to violate this rule would result in a suspended warrant (i.e. there was a real consequence to not following this directive) and that those events that were currently being served by ACCEPS may continue, but not be extended. The potential sanction for any Seneschal and Exchequer not following this directive was commensurate with putting the SCA’s membership at risk.
6. A courtesy copy of these official letters (to Kingdom Seneschals and Exchequers) were sent to ACCEPS. As such, ACCEPS was informed that the SCA was terminating its relationship ACCEPS in terms of any new events; however, it was clear from the letter that the SCA would continue to allow the Kingdoms and local group to maintain all current events handled by ACCEPS.
7. The treasurer of ACCEPS contacted the Corporate Treasurer on the evening of April 18, 2015 which was the genesis of a conference call between the treasurer for ACCEPS, the President of the SCA, the Corporate Treasurer and I (as Society Seneschal), immediately after receiving the courtesy copy of the official email sent to all Kingdom Seneschals and Exchequers. The terms of the SCA’s response to ACCEPS were reviewed orally during this phone call, i.e. that the current events already being handled on ACCEPS would be allowed to proceed until fruition, but there would be no further events handled on ACCEPS.
8. Not only did ACCEPS refuse, previous to this past weekend’s Board of Director’s Meeting, to take steps to protect individuals which forced the hand of the Board of Directors and Corporate Officers, but later that evening, after the Board Meeting and after the conference call with Corporate Officers, ACCEPS chose to terminate their services to each Kingdom and local group in terms of all of the current events being handled by ACCEPS.
9. Later that evening, statements were made on Social Media quoting portions of the official communication to SCA Seneschals and Exchequers and this generated a great deal of negative comments in terms of the Board of Director’s and Corporate Officers; however, the Board of Directors and Corporate Officers were unable to comment on these until this opportunity. To do otherwise would be to expose the weaknesses in security in terms of the ACCEPS system and put the credit card information of the members and participants at risk. This posting is a response to all of those comments. A number of comments received by the Board of Directors and Corporate Officers and I will be responding to each of these now that ACCEPS has been shut down.
10. PayPal is currently being utilized by several test Kingdoms and while the vast majority of the other Kingdoms are not currently ready to employ PayPal; however, the Board and Corporate Officers were compelled to act swiftly to minimize the opportunity for fraud in view of the refusal by ACCEPS’ owner/creator to make proper updates and enhancements to protect credit card information. I believe that we all understood that this would be inconvenient to Kingdoms and local groups, but in view of the world wide threat of credit card fraud and identity theft, the Board acted to protect individual participants who could be compromised by utilizing ACCEPS in the future.
If anyone has any questions regarding this matter, I can be reached at seneschal@sca.org. I am unable to participate in Social Media due to the nature of my mundane employment; as such, if you are interested in actually discussing this matter, I invite you to send me an email.
Regards,
A.J. Pongratz, Esq.
Society Seneschal/Vice President of Operations, SCA Inc.
This notice now appears on the ACCEPS web site. http://acceps.ansteorra.org/index.php
The Board of Directors has decided to discontinue the variance granted to ACCEPS to take credit cards on behalf of SCA events, effectively immediately.
There was no explanation nor discussion from the corporate level with any member of the ACCEPS staff prior to this decision, which was broadcast to the Kingdom Exchequers on Saturday, April 18.
Based on subsequent phone conversations with the Society Treasurer and President, no issues or problems were communicated to us, just that the Board had decided to stop using ACCEPS.
Without the variance, ACCEPS cannot continue to operate in good faith within the SCA. We apologize for the inconvenience to all our friends and those events which were in progress.
The ACCEPS fee will be refunded to all branches for events which were not able to complete their requested registration period. All current registrations and funds will be sent to the event stewards during the next two weeks.
It has been an interesting and fun 12 years providing ACCEPS to the SCA.
Farewell and good luck.
ACCEPS Staff – Mistress Isobail, HL Sarra, Sir Rhodri, Misress Kaitlyn
Please send any concerns or questions to comments@sca.org and please copy acceps@gmail.com.
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