May 29

Reopening Update

Greetings to the members of the Citadel of the Southern Pass and Nahrun Kabirun. As you know, the BOD has declared groups may open June 1. However, there are steps that must take place first and requirements that must be met once events begin to happen. Please understand that as a loyal subject to Their Royal Majesties, it is my responsibility to explain and enforce their policies. Please continue to read to understand the requirements.

First, a petition to reopen must be submitted which I have done. This form, as of this time, must be submitted every month. We are currently waiting for approval from TRM and the Kingdom Seneschal. The petition I submitted was for Sunday fighter practices ONLY. Within the petition, I must include mundane data on infection rates, vaccination rates, etc. Since we are so close to Nahrun, I had to include their data (Las Cruces) as well as they are welcome to join us at fighter practice.

For every type of practice and gathering, a separate form must be submitted. That would include mid-week fighter practices, A&S gatherings, etc. If you wish to host any of these types of events, please contact me so that I can complete the form and submit it. It will take no less than a week for approval so please plan ahead. I cannot attend weekday events so the host will be required to check in those pre-registered and submit that form to me within three days. If this does not happen, that event will be cancelled until further notice.

What our fighter practices will look like. Pre-registration is a MUST and it must be completed at least 24 hours in advance. If we reach our cap of 5o people (to include fighters, observers, and children), then no one else may attend. If the cap is reached and more people show up, they may NOT move to the other side of the park to practice or gather. If that happens, I am required to shut down fighter practice for this date. Their Royal Majesties have commanded that this be done in accordance with the reopening plan, and I will enforce it. Refusal to follow the directives will lead to repercussions that one might not wish. The Crown will step in with said punishment.

When those who pre-registered arrive at fighter practice, they must check in with me or HE before moving onto joining the practice. Everyone MUST wear a mask, not a neck gaiter, not a bandana, but a mask. This is non-negotiable. I understand that masks will get sweaty and soaked within the helmet so please bring a spare or two. Masks around the helmet are not allowed. Masks will be worn by those on the sidelines as well. This is a decision from the BOD and although Texas has made clear its stance on masks, we are a private group and can set our own rules. Social distancing is also mandated.

Please bring your own water. We are not allowed to have a common water jug nor provide snacks, etc.

I know and understand how much everyone wants to gather once again. As long as these rules are followed, we can begin to rebuild our Known World and gather as comrades in arms and friends.

YIS
Mistress Joella of Blue Lion’s Keep
Baronial seneschal

May 19

Officer’s Meeting Thursday May 20 @7 pm

To join the video meeting, click this link: meet.google.com/imj-vryt-bmi

To join by phone instead, dial (US) +1 240-428-8730 and enter this PIN: 273 388 296#

More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/imj-vryt-bmi?pin=8732721953637

Apr 16

Populace Meeting Tomorrow 10 am

Good gentles, please make plans to attend tomorrow’s populace meeting. THL Christine Woyade, the Kingdom Seneschal, will be presenting some very important information to us regarding Kingdom policy before HE and I will share what we know about the slow reopening of the Kingdom (which is still fluid depending on the BOD) and what restrictions and rules will be in place and firmly implemented.

I look forward to seeing everyone.

YIS

Mistress Joella of Blue Lion’s Keep – Citadel Seneschal

https://meet.google.com/gme-bfrd-mtm

Apr 10

Populace Meeting April 17 @10 am

Calling all fighters, artisans, members of the populace of the Citadel of the Southern Pass! Next Saturday we will have a virtual populace meeting. All are STRONGLY encouraged to attend. The Kingdom Seneschal will be speaking to us about additions to Kingdom policy. We will also be discussing how we will be following the BOD’s rules for reopening events. Please note that these rules are fluid right now as they are listening to epidemiologists, etc. for the best, current advice. As seneschal, I will be enforcing the rules as set by our Kingdom with the full support of TRM. Please know that we all have the best interests of everyone in mind as we focus on safety first and foremost.

The link for the meeting will be posted here Saturday morning as well as on Facebook.

While social media is wonderful, please use this official website for the most accurate information about practices, meetings, etc.

June 1 is still the proposed opening of the Kingdom. We are not to have any in person events, gatherings, or fighter practices until that point. Refrain from posting anything on ANY social media that suggests meetings/ practices are happening before June 1.

Fighters. There are changes to the authorization for fighting that HE and our marshall will update you on as well.

The one rule that will not be changing when we open is masks. TRM have stated that all will wear masks at all times at fighter practice (that means even when fighting-imagine your stamina once the rule is lifted), arts and sciences gatherings, etc. Please know that it is for everyone’s health and well-being.

meet.google.com/gme-bfrd-mtm

YIS

Mistress Joella of Blue Lion’s Keep

seneschal Citadel

Apr 09

Baronial Letter for March 2021

Greetings to one and all,

I hope this missive finds you well in this waning time of pandemic. As much as we wish this all to end quickly, we must still be safe and act in the best interests of all among us. Our dream is a shared one meant to be enjoyed by a community and this means we will act in the interest of our community. Thank you for all that you do in support of the dream and as we turn towards opening back up again we will keep safety at the center of how we act.

Their Royal Majesties have announced the path forward for us and we will discuss the specific Baronial plans on the 15th of April at 7:00 PM at the Officers Meeting and again at the Populace Meeting on the 17th at 10:00 AM. We will use the Google Meet for the Barony for both events with the link being found on the Event Calendar or here: meet.google.com/gme-bfrd-mtm

We will be having Bystander Intervention training provided by the Kingdom Seneschal, which is designed to encourage a “see something, say something” attitude to keep our members safe. As supporters of chivalry and honor, it is our charge to look out for one another and this training will help identify methods for dealing with potentially negative situations.

Even as we open up, there will be various steps and procedures involved in hosting and scheduling events. We will follow the letter of the law as a Barony to ensure we are holding ourselves to the highest standard while ensuring the safety of our members. I appreciate everyone’s patience and cooperation as we navigate some of these requirements.

We’re working to revamp portions of the website which will be getting a redesign in the near future as part of the Kingdom’s effort to enhance communication and the availability of information. The website and the Kingdom Newsletter remain the primary forms of communication, not social media. We here in the Barony will go a step further and get back to the core mechanics of communications reaching out in whatever medium is your preferred method. This includes phone calls and emails if that is how you prefer to get your information. We need to be better communicators and that means ensuring the message is received by those who express interest.

Thank you again for all you do and your participation in our shared dream. I’m excited to get things open again and seeing everyone. Please join us at our virtual Officers Meeting and Populace Meeting this month so we can figure out how best to serve your interest in the SCA.

I am always available at coronet@southernpass.org and if you need to speak you can email me to request my phone number. I’d love to be able to chat with you and see how you’re faring.

Yours in Service,

HE Bernardo dei Medici
13th Baron of the Citadel of the Southern Pass

Feb 10

Baronial Letter for January 2021

Greetings once again, dear reader,

We have begun Officer Meetings once more after a bit of hiatus while many of our officers attended to mundane matters. We covered quite a bit of territory in discussing the future of the Barony and I’m very pleased to share with you the game plan we’ve developed as a team. Everyone very quickly came to a consensus on the plan and I’m looking forward to getting back to having fun with old friends and new. Currently, the latest word around the halls is that June 1st is the reopening date pending any changes in the circumstances around the country.

The plan is to roll out events between locally focused (Minor) and Kingdom-wide open (Major) events scaled to the resources available to the Barony. The goal is to host two Major events and several Minor ones as we are able. If we cannot secure resources meaning people to plan it at least 6 months out, then we will cancel it for that year and try again in the next. We will also seek to coordinate events and share resources as much as possible with other nearby groups to help ease ourselves back into some degree of normalcy.

It is expected that there will be clearer guidance provided the closer we get to June, but it is not pre-determined what will happen as of yet. There are many different factors to consider at several levels between us and the BOD.

Thank you to everyone who is standing by, helping out, and getting eager to get back together and enjoy the SCA as one big family.

YIS,

Bernardo dei Medici
13th Baron of the Citadel of the Southern Pass

Jan 10

Baronial Letter for December

Greetings to the mighty Populace of Citadel,

As we move forward into the new year we face new challenges and many see the change in annum as an opportunity to make a difference. I appeal to your sense of optimism and hope for the future as we navigate this adventure we call life.

The SCA is an organization of honor, chivalry, and virtuous ideals. We can become cynical or negative in our view of the world and others when faced with life’s obstacles. As students and examiners of history we can easily cite grave events that toppled empires and nations alike. Despite the ongoing events throughout the world today, I encourage you to focus locally on your friends and family to find the good in our collective lives. We don’t often know the details of events or the struggles of our neighbors or even those closest to us, but we can do better by being good communicators. I encourage you to openly communicate, break bread with your fellow humans, and share in the hospitality that spreads positivity to remind us of why we get involved in organizations like the SCA.

Recently several members of the Kingdom met to address the technological challenges we face not only due to COVID, but also as an ongoing matter as a direct result of STAGSCON. Better access to reporting, transparency in process and systems, and overall ways to make our lives easier were the main focus areas coupled with a showcasing of current and potential technologies available to us. While things may be quiet locally, we are preparing for a return to a rush of activity and events.

Speaking of which, on the 21st of January at 7PM on Google Meet we will be hosting our next Officer Meeting. The link to the meeting can found by clicking the previous highlighted text or by visiting https://meet.google.com/gme-bfrd-mtm. The great thing about Google Meet is that this URL will always be the same for all of our Officer Meetings unless we change it on the calendar. My goal for this meeting is to get us all back on track with the admin plan we developed last year and talk about how to transition back to in person events as we react to BOD and local government directives.

Thank you to those who have been staying in touch via email coronet@southernpass.org, phone/text, or making other arrangements. It has made this difficult time easier by maintaining human contact and reminding us all that, “this too shall pass.”

Yours In Service,

HE Bernardo dei Medici

13th Baron of the Citadel of the Southern Pass

Dec 17

Baronial Business Meetings

Greetings to one and all,

The Baronial Calendar has been updated to include using our Google for Nonprofits Google Meet services. After revisiting the service and noting some of the wonderful updates Google has made to Meet we have decided to implement it as our system of record for virtual business meetings. This URL will lead you to the meeting room for our business meetings. It looks like it will stay pretty consistent, so bookmark it, memorize, tattoo it on your arm or refer to our Baronial Calendar for the link.

https://meet.google.com/gme-bfrd-mtm

Not only can you find that link here, but we’ll begin plastering it all over our schedules and posts for you to reference.

We will meet on the 3rd Thursday of every month at 7 PM MST using Google Meet. We do this because the following Saturday is Populace. Populace always follows the Business Meetings so no need to worry about 3rd or 4th or whatever. It will always be the Saturday following the Business Meeting.

Stand by for more information regarding plans for Populace meetings. We’re reworking the entire communications flow along with the Kingdom assets to be in line with Corpora and reach the max amount of populace.

Dec 09

Baronial Letter for November 2020

Greetings to one and all in the Barony of the Citadel of the Southern Pass,

I hope all is well for you in these trying times knowing that many of us are facing challenges that are hindering our abilities to know happiness and joy as we once did. My prayers to you for mental health and well being while acknowledging that some of us are facing significant attacks upon our once stalwart walls of mind, body, and spirit.

I have taken some of my own steps towards ensuring mental well-being while taking advantage to the best of my abilities the fact that the BOD has placed us “on ice” as it were in terms of some of the things we are able to do as a group. I wanted to address these challenges a bit more and speak to the limitations placed on us by the BOD’s direction and even more so some of the self-imposed limitations the Seneschal and I agree upon 100% to ensure the safety and well-being of Their Royal Majesty’s populace in Citadel.

Firstly, I am not on Facebook. I know many of us think of Facebook as the platform for the SCA and I have had the opportunity to really understand how this has legged our organization in an effort to be open, accepting, and diverse. Even more now than ever our reliance upon Facebook as a venue for communications is hurting us; it is hurting our web presence, marketing, and sadly, relationships. Doxxing, hacking, political messaging, etc. are all temptations for those who take their passion for a topic too far. For my own safety completely unrelated to the SCA, I have had to disable my account and avoid use of the platform. I am still available always via Phone/Text (email me for my phone number!), Discord (Here), Email (coronet@southernpass.org), and good ole fashion mail (email me for my address!); in fact I’ve started writing back and forth with some long lost friends rebuilding those connections and it has been wonderful.

My time away from Facebook has taught me how to really communicate on a human level again and I encourage others to assess how they’re talking to one another and if your message is really being sent and received. Are you being heard the way you believe you are? You may be surprised. Is there anger in your messaging because circumstances are not in our collective favor right now? These are things to consider to ensure you’re acting in an honorable and chivalric manner according to the ideals of our organization.

For several months during the pandemic we hosted virtual meetings, gatherings, and even some A&S activities. These events were not well attended and did not do credit to those who had spent the time organizing them so I made the decision as a leader to wind them down and focus our energy on supporting other groups who had the capacity and were already rolling on collaborative efforts to host online classes and other events. The virtual world and generating the content necessary for completely virtual events (and doing it well to the high SCA standard we’ve come to expect) takes a lot. I felt it was best to take a step back, charge our event stewards’ batteries, and fall in under the BOD’s directions. Some folks pressured me to host an “unofficial” fighter practice and “unofficial” meetings. I can’t do anything unofficially while wearing the coronet. That is to say, that if my name is tied to something, it has the appearance of being official and in today’s world we are creatures driven by perception.

Part of the reason why some of our events were not well attended virtually in the beginning comes full circle to my virtual walkabout in life without Facebook; and I’ll fully admit I was part of the problem myself. We have become terrible at communicating. The SCA doesn’t have the advertising budget (Read: zero…) to compete with some of these other organizations that use paid SEO and ads to snag members and activity. We can SEO the crap out of our websites and social media platforms, but that is a significant effort that not a lot of people know how to do and those who do know how are generally getting paid reaaaaaally well to do it.

So what good are these lessons and epiphanies if we don’t do anything with them? Well, there’s the feel good portion of it, but ya’ll know I’m a being of action. To that end, the Seneschal and I have discussed how we’re going to address some of the perception of inactivity, because trust me, we’re both still here doing stuff and taking care of Baronial business to ensure this thing kicks into high gear when we come back up from this.

We’re going to hammer down on some of the information issues we’ve been facing. A lot of this is going to be how we share information and educating people on Corpora and what we really can’t flex on when it comes to business rules. You’ll see me writing more letters like this one to keep up with the latest news. It’s also part of our effort to refocus on the website to get folks ready for how business will operate once we’re fully back.

Stay safe you wonderful human beings! If you ever need anything, you can always reach out to me … just not on Facebook … for now. Phone, email, and carrier pigeon. I’d love to see someone pull that last one off.

YIS,
HE Bernardo dei Medici

Mar 10

Baronial Letter for March 2020

Citadel! My heart is full thanks to all of your great works and presence this past month. Estrella War was a wonderful time and we fielded six heavy fighters alongside our allies in Nahrun and White Mountain bringing a strong presence to the war effort. Every task we were given was met with fierce effort and energy that brought glory to Citadel. The populace of Citadel was well represented with our volunteers, performers in the Known World Choir, and competitors in various categories. It was a very enjoyable event. Our camp was full of laughter and enjoyment. I highly encourage everyone to make every effort to attend next year.

Coming up we have several local events, including May Day, being put on by Lady Rita. Details will be available soon so you can start preparing your participation in the numerous activities, tournaments, and competitions.

We are looking for event stewards to step up for St Edrik’s in 2020, and Twelfth Night in 2021.

Demo season is also upon us as we just completed the Big Red Comic Con at Del Rio High School. Thank you to all who showed up, including the choir who performed together with the high school’s choir. It was a wonderful performance. There will be plenty of opportunities to step up and help us recruit including El Paso Comic Con and Chapin High School’s Comic Con. Keep an eye on the Baronial Calendar for demo opportunities and other events.

Next up on the list of things to address includes tracking Baronial progress of devices and names. We’ll be working to integrate the Google Sheet we have into the website so you can see exactly where your device or name is with our local heralds and a link to the Kingdom page for tracking things beyond our reach.

Thank you all for what you do. You help make the Barony better every day!

Yours in Service,
HE Bernardo dei Medici