Gleann nam Feòrag Dhuibhe - Canton Meeting Minutes December 6, 2004

The Incipient Canton of
Gleann nam Feòrag Dhuibhe
Barony of Bhakail

Canton Meeting Minutes

Monday December 6, 2004

Present: Lady Damiana Almodóvar, Lady Eleanora the Tilemaker, Lord Corwyn, Lord Bilgisayar Tajir al-Hissoon, Fiona Villon, Lord William Graham, Lady Suba al-Hadid, Baron Lorcan Dracontius, Baroness Scheherazade Allouyna al-Zahira, Lord William Fitzwater.
Meeting called to order at 8:01 pm

Officer’s reports:

Seneschal

Seneschal was absent and did not send a proxy. Deputy Seneschal waited a half-hour past the scheduled start of the meeting and then called the seneschal, who was home with a scratched cornea. The seneschal authorized the deputy seneschal to proceed with the meeting. There was no report.

Deputy seneschal: William Graham :

Copy of Keegan's report to the Barony (via an e-mail to the Baronness) has been requested to be sent to the Canton. In that report there was a scheduled Beltaine meeting, but the date and time of the meeting are in the e-mail report and were not available to the Canton during this Canton meeting.

We have fencing.

Yule is this Saturday December 11. There are 13 on-board spots left.

Hafla is January 22nd.

Cooking workshop at Damiana's prior to Hafla to feed people on Friday night.

Rivermarche is January 23rd.

Thank you for supporting the Canton by supporting the Barony.

Exchequer

Nothing new since last month.

Chatelaine

Nothing new since last month. No new contacts. Chatelaine will attend the baronial newcomers meeting. Contact Cal regarding preferred dates for newcomer meetings.

Herald

Acting Herald: William Fitzwater: send e-mail to Fitz regarding your device.

Mistress of Arts and Sciences

Acting MOAS: Elenora the Tilemaker: Nothing to report at this time.

Webmistress

Webpage is up. Dance status is reflected (no Dance Practice in December).

Marshal of Fence

We will have fencing practices for the Tuesdays of Dec 14 and Dec 21 in the Canton of Gleann nam Feorag Dubh. I have rides to them, 'n stuff. :)

There will be no practice on December 28 for the holiday.

Practices run from 7:30-10:00 pm at Indian Lane
Elementary School in Media, PA

We had six fencers last time.

At Barony meeting - the Barony and the Bailiwyck are putting up $100 each for loaner gear for fencing. Is the Canton willing to put up a similar amount? Suba motion Elenora second. motion unopposed pending the finance committee's approval.

Chronicler

Send articles before January for the January Newsletter which is now quarterly.

Minutes will still be published monthly on the webpage.

Chamberlain

No news.

Special committees

Finance Commitee

Now that we have a fixed committee the committee can meet by e-mail. How is the budget coming along? Fiona will get back to us. Keegan, Fiona, Deiniol are the current members of the committee.

Beltaine Brew and Brawl

The date of the next meeting will be posted when we get confirmation of the date.

Old Business

Pavilion - canvas is approx $250 and we can make the poles and the ropes.

Bilgisayar - motion to donate $50 to the baronial meetings site fee. Fitz second. Motion passes unopposed and is passed on to the finance committee.

New Business

New Site: Masonic Lodge is a potential new site. See Fitz.

Motion to open nominations for MOAS and Herald. Suba, seconded by Fitz. Deputy Seneschal asks that all bids get cc'd to both Seneschal and Deputy Seneschal. Baronial bylaws: parent barony's seneschal must approve nominees. It is therefore appropriate to cc the Baronial Seneschal as well. Suba nominates Elenora for MOAS. Graham second. Suba nominates Fitz for herald. Bil second. Nominations will be accepted until and during the next meeting.

Baroness: When Mel stepped down she e-mailed Crown, Kingdom Seneschal and B&B. B&B got call from Crown (Thorsen). This should have stayed at the Baronial level. Because of the contents of the letter, Katherine (Kingdom Seneschal) has put the matter into the B&B's hands. The Canton is now on probation for six months. In six months the Kingdom Seneschal will contact the B&B and ask if the Canton is viable. We have six months to make something workable - not perfect but workable. Mel did try to contact Baronness 24 hours before contacting Kingdom. Give people 24-36 hours to get back to you - preferably 2 days. If you have a problem with your own compatriots, call an emergency meeting. It is the responsibility of both groups (Barony and Canton) to maintain communication. There is no reason to air our dirty laundry outside our borders. The Barony has in place a grievance procedure that you can go to if there is a problem with an officer. If you disagree with the decision that the committee makes, your next level of appeal is the Regional Seneschal, and after that the Kingdom Seneschal. If Kingdom isn't able to handle it, it goes to BoD. Do not waste what you've done building the Canton by going over our heads. If we cannot advise you officially, we will give you the proper avenue. Putting anything online that shows any temper, incluing all caps, you are setting yourself up for an explosion. The Barony already has had this problem, and the Canton is getting a reputation for this. Please e-mail privately first. Sit on a touchy e-mail for 24 hours first. Touchy subjects should be handled in person. The moderator of the list should have shut down the ascerbic remarks sooner (Beltaine list). We are here to help each other, this is supposed to be fun. Lets try to keep it that way. There are times that we don't get along for whatever reason. At this point, please be aware that there is somebody on the Kingdom level watching the Canton at any given moment. This is the second time the B&B has had to protect the Canton from being dissolved. I don't know if they will allow us to protect you a third time. This is our second time in under a year.

Baron: It was a very interesting telephone call. We had to contact His Majesty and Katherine and had a conference call. We were asked: Is this group a viable group? B&B automatically and simultaneously answered yes. No matter what the disagreements are, this group is a lot more than just the people who have had the disagreements. At the end of the six months the question will be raised again, and the B&B may not be allowed to answer it this time. If the Kingdom feels the Canton is not viable then the Canton will be put into dormancy for six months.

What does Kingdom look at to determine viability? Amongst other things, is the household vs. official SCA group issue. An SCA official group is judged by standard of conduct – part of which is how do you handle dissent inside your own group? Even Barony has had a hard time with this – our Barony once almost got disbanded. The Canton doesn't have a track record to fall back on. Over the first Beltaine the King almost disbanded the Canton. We have not shown the ability for dissenting opinions to be expressed. Canton needs to think about Beltaine carefully - does it have to be so big with so much stress? Try rethinking size.

Baron also talked about online lists. They should not be used for official Canton business, especially because of what has gone before. Doing so is leading the Canton into lots of trouble and lots of hard feelings. This whole thing started over the Beltaine list.

Officers - you are now officially light one required officer. Officer-ship is NOT official until the kingdom officer warrants you. Please pay attention to the pikestaff - most of the Canton Officers' reports are due in the next two months. Herald has a due date soon, as does MOAS. Officers must cross all t's and dot all i's.

General discussion about the Yule event report by a Canton officer holding up East Kingdom finance report - this reflected badly on the Canton. B&B pointed out it did not matter that it was a Baronial event. When Canton officers do well, no matter where we are working, it reflects well on the canton. When we as officers do poorly, no matter if the work is for another group, it still reflects poorly on the Canton. Yes, we (Canton) are having problems. In general – how well a new SCA group survives has a lot to do with how it handles its first big crisis. Canton has reached that point. B&B have reiterated that they are here to help us get through it - BUT - the Canton must go through it.

Graham - Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and thank you for supporting the Canton.

There was lively discussion about the noted absence of and lack of communication from the Canton's Seneschal in the past few weeks when action from the leadership was needed during this crisis. This sort of extended disappearance happened once before during the planning for the Beltaine event when communication from leadership was necessary in order to proceed. While recognizing his many contributions to the Canton in the past, there was a unanimous expression of concern about a) some members being uncomfortable risking his anger to bring him necessary but controversial information and b) his current inability to effectively serve the Canton at this time due to the many pressing concerns in his mundane life which cause him to be absent and uncommunicative, which caused c) problems within the Canton to be taken out of the Canton and up to Kingdom level, bypassing both the proper Baronial grievance procedure and the Regional Seneschal appeal, which therefore nearly caused the dissolution of the Canton for the second time.

A delegate from the Canton was deputized by the members present to talk directly to him about that topic at the earliest possible opportunity, specifically within the next week. It is hoped that a resolution can be found that will not reflect badly on Keegan. An emergency meeting will be called either after that meeting or at the end of that period to discuss his answer or lack thereof, with the purpose of planning action to be taken about the Seneschal position at the January Canton meeting.

Comments for the good of the Canton

Next Canton Meeting is scheduled for Monday January 3, 2004 at Elenora's house.

Fitz moved Corwyn second. Meeting Adjourned at 10:09 pm

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