We have migrated our official Baronial Calendar over to the new Google for Non-Profits accounts as of today. The reason for this change was numerous, not the least of which was to ensure that no official business is being conducted over personal accounts. This effort is being undertaken in an age of data and privacy breaches in order to better protect your information and to ensure a larger degree of professionalism as part of your Officer corps for the Barony. As we grow, we want to ensure our process is as flexible and responsive for 10 people as it is for 1000. Having standardized, official accounts for email and our calendar help us achieve that.
You will always be able to find our official calendar by going to the Events and Activities menu up top on the website. You can also visit the calendar itself directly at https://citadel.outlands.org/activities/baronial-calendar.
The Financial Committee of the Citadel has developed a new Financial Policy thanks to the efforts of our new Exchequer and the advice of our Kingdom Exchequer. These wonderful ladies have produced new guidance that will update how the financial policies in the Barony function.
Please take a moment to browse the Policy as it will impact you as a member of the populace when becoming an Event Steward, or in the event you donate items to the Barony. It also includes guidance on how officers will receive funds for their programs and offices in conducting Baronial business.
Next, the Policy will go on to Kingdom for final review before becoming the official Financial Policy of the Barony. Once that happens, we will make it available on the website under the Exchequer’s Officer’s listing and the Resources section.
For any comments or concerns, please email exchequer@southernpass.org or seneschal@southernpass.org.
Thank you Citadel for another wonderful month. As we move forward with major plans and work towards some incredible goals I always want to take a moment to appreciate the hard work and effort that is put in by this amazing populace. I ask you to be kind to one another and seek to better the world around us as we are charged in our charter as an organization through chivalry and honor. I am always going to ask you all to work towards the common good of our Barony and I hope that you join me in this journey.
June in Review
June was a great month. We hosted several Arts and Science classes with the choir continuing to do great things as they prepare for upcoming events and got some great insight into the world of tablet weaving. A&S continues to be a strong point in the Barony thanks to our wonderful artisans. Fighter Practices have picked up immensely with a regular contingent making it to multiple practices throughout the week. I’m truly excited to see our fighters take to the field in the upcoming melees and tournaments. We have now added a weekday practice and Saturday will soon become a regular thing following Battlemoor so there are a ton of options available.
A new design is being fielded from A&S Research and Development for our war tabards!
UTEP and Fort Bliss now have Deputy Seneschals in place to help us focus our recruiting and retention efforts within these specialized areas. It was decided that we needed to understand more about these locations in order to tailor our support to them. If you’re interested in helping out with either effort, please contact Dominus Caledonious at utep@southernpass.org or Lady Katriona at fortbliss@southernpass.org.
We spent a large portion of the month transitioning the Barony over to a new administrative structure which solidifies a lot of the laws and policies of the Society and Kingdom. We are currently working on a local Baronial Policy and a Baronial Financial Policy. The goal is to have both of these complete by the end of the month.
Visual Assessment of June
As a leader I love visual representations and models in order to demonstrate how things are going. Last month I introduced this SCA Organizational Model so that we could communicate and visually assess how we’re doing as a group. For me, it is a quick way to scan a chart and see, “oh cool, we’ve got lots of green,” or “oh, crap, we’ve got lots of red going on so we need to discuss some fixes.”
Team Citadel
Since we’re a volunteer organization I’m going to be a lot more lenient on the group. In my military units and business entities, I can be pretty harsh, but here we have to understand that we’re volunteers and we’re all working in our precious free time to take care of things. That doesn’t mean I’ll gloss over this and try to spout rainbows and butterflies when I think that we have something looming that we need to address as a group. I also won’t use this to air personal, dirty laundry as that is not the intent of this model.
For June we had some great things going on as I mentioned and some of these specifically that stood out in my mind consisted of the addition of a weekly and a Saturday Fighter Practice. I think it’s great that we were able to accommodate a wide range of concerns regarding practices and opportunities for folks to participate. Offering a Wednesday Night to both Heavy and Light now along with a Saturday option in addition to the Sunday one is a step in the right direction towards encouraging more fighters and we’ve seen just that. I’ve seen some new faces and some returning ones specifically because we’ve been able to offer more options. I’m more than happy to continue to support this effort. We’ve also had several Event Stewards submit paperwork or at least pitch initial ideas which is awesome. We submitted a bid for Fall Coronation, so that also shows we’re working hard as a team.
Some Great Things Behind the Scenes
In terms of some of the more boring, admin type stuff we actually accomplished some monumental tasks to include having a full slate of officers to cover every possible position. We have a new consolidated reporting system that is automated and integrated into our social media, website, newsletter, and connects to each Kingdom counterpart as per their requirements.
Communication Can Always Improve
This one will more than likely be a reoccurring theme so take it with a grain of salt, especially since we’re making some pretty sweeping changes in the way we do business, but communication needs some work. Over the years with all of this new technology and social media we have tended to drift apart and let some of the basics of communication slide. Sometimes we put things out onto the internet and then think our job is done when the tenets of communication require things like minding a sender, a receiver, and a medium; we tend to let the receiving part of it slide and either don’t get a receipt of information or don’t follow up when needed. This is just something we need to continue to monitor and make improvements where we can. It will be helped by the new schedule for Officer Meetings and their subsequent Populace Meetings that immediate following weekend.
On the Horizon: July and Beyond
Coming up this month we have Battlemoor, which is already here for some. This event is one of those that everyone who is a member of the Kingdom of the Outlands needs to roll into their regular events. Next year it will be closer to us, so that will help. Reducing the drive time to about 7 hours vs the 10+ it is at right now is a good thing for us. We also have a crew going to Pennsic in August, which some consider the mecca of the SCA, for war week. These are two amazing war events where Citadel will be represented in some capacity.
Also in July, the 27th, is the Baronial Investiture in al-Barran. I will be heading up to say good-bye to my current cousins of al-Barran and welcome in the new ones. I look forward to growing with al-Barran and coordinating as a Southern Kingdom. We have already begun discussing how we can better support each other and I’m excited about all of the possibilities.
Talks have begun about a War Collegium or at least a continuation of the Fighter Clinic that we hosted with Duke Sean of Artemesia. It will likely take place in Truth or Consequences or St Golias, which is a day trip away and will draw in fighters from all around the Outlands and beyond.
“C” is for Citadel!
Highlights
New Fighter Practice Location for Weds – Hacienda Park
New Fighter Practice on Saturdays – Album/Eastwood Park
A&S Calendar to Change in August
3rd Thursday is Officers Meeting at Tres Gallegos on Pebble Hills
Populace Meeting will immediately follow on that weekend
Due to various life circumstances, the current Seneschal and Archery Marshal have expressed the need to resign from their offices. Out of respect for the privacy of the individuals involved, specific details regarding their respective situations will not be shared.
The Barony will be accepting Letters of Intent for both positions effective immediately with a deadline of the 1st of August 2019 at midnight. Please submit letters to the corresponding Kingdom Officers, Baronial Seneschal, and Baron with your membership number, expiration of membership, SCA and Mundane names, as well as any pertinent SCA and mundane experience you feel would best qualify you for the position.
The email address for the Seneschal position are: seneschal@outlands.org, seneschal@southernpass.org, and coronet@southernpass.org.
For the Archery Marshal, please send them to: archergeneral@outlands.org, seneschal@southernpass.org, archery@southernpass.org, and coronet@southernpass.org.
Thank you for your interest in serving the Barony and thank you to those who have served in these positions during their tenure.
The new reporting system is up and ready for use by Officers in the Barony. This is a short guide on how to use the form with basic instructions to go from not being logged in to reaching your specific report.
First, Log in to your Officer Account
You will scroll all the way to the bottom of the website on any page and click on the Officer Login link. Using your official @southernpass.org email as your username, you will also enter your associated password.
Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of any page on the site and click Officer Login
Next, go back to the site
After you’ve logged in you will reach the Dashboard for managing the website. You’ll want to go back to the main page by clicking on the Citadel of the Southern Pass link up top.
Go back to the website for the next step
Use the Officers and Court drop down menu
Now hover over the Officers and Court tab on the top menu and you’ll see two options. You want to click on the Officer Report Submission link.
Click on Officer Report Submission to get to the form
Select Your Office, Fill it Out, and Submit
Once you click on the link, it will bring up the combined form. Select your Office from the drop down menu and it will fill in the form with the fields that pertain to your specific position. The form will take care of where to send it and automatically make a post on the website, Facebook, and Twitter when you submit. For certain offices, the questions/issues/problems section won’t post publicly and will only go to your Kingdom Officer counterpart.
Select your office and the form will fill in with fields relevant to you
Questions or Problems?
For any problems or issues, contact Bernardo for support. If information isn’t making it to your Kingdom counterpart, please let us know so we can make any fixes that need to take place.
Meeting was called to order at 7:13pm on June 20, 2019
In attendance were: Carlos, Mayala, Jim, Hazel, Brandon, Eli, Amanda, Shane, Kait, Kath, Nate, Scott, Jessa, Claudia, Victor, Monica, Jack
Populace remarks
Carlos encourages everyone to discus meal plans, tents, and carpooling to Battlemoor. Eli advises that very few have given tent measurements to Tariq, the deadline is July 1, so please send them to Tariq in message or email ASAP. Monica’s brother is in the hospital needing a kidney transplant. If you are moved to see if you are a match, he is at Las Palmas. John Dolan is still in the hospital as well.
Opening remarks from the Baron
The 30/60/90 day plan is moving along. The auto-magical officer reporting system is up and running and has been blessed at the Kingdom level. Please give this system a good run as it is a pilot program of sorts for the Kingdom. We know we are heavy on admin changes and focus right now, but it is all to make the fun stuff easier. Please bear with us as we roll out all these new things. Once everything is implemented, there will be more time for fun!
Officer onboarding process is being perfected and rolled out as well. This includes passwords and training on emails, Google driver, reporting, and all the admin stuff that goes with being an officer in the SCA.
Reports are now automated! Please get these in before the 10th each month. The reports will send out to everyone they need to go to and will be available for the populace and officers to view on the website in one place. This will make the officers’ meeting go smoother as everyone will have read the reports before arriving to the meeting. If anyone needs help with any of this process, please reach out. Individual learning and a group meeting can be scheduled!
Officer Reports-
Youth- not in attendance, no report received
Heavy- 8, no injuries
Rapier- 2 new youth fighters, 5 average adults
Archery- 83 attendance
A&S- The A&S minster change over has occurred. New minister is Nate Mankel, he has hit the ground running with classes and plans. The Citadel is active with A&S projects and groups meeting.
Herald- new process implemented, awards emails, spreadsheet for in-house tracking in the works
Exchequer- paperwork up to date and organized, quarterly report, financial policy first draft, inventory, trailer/storage ideas, previous baron/baroness inventory submitted
Chatalaine- gold and silver keys needed
webminister, chronicler- lost 1 subscriber, any issues with online, please contact
New business
We are using the SCA Branch Organization Model posted in the Facebook discussion group as a visual for how we can make sure all the needs are met. It is a hierarchy of needs in target form.
Fighter Practice to change to Saturday- we are NOT getting rid of Sunday practice, simply adding a more focused practice on Saturdays! Please come to whichever (or both) that fit your schedule! Sunday will be more laid back, with more group practice (War Practice) with the Baron. We are checking out Yucca Park for Wednesday night Rapier and Heavy practice, barring any lighting issues, we will be having Wednesdays nights together, populace is ALWAYS welcome to be in attendance as well. We are hoping this will instill togetherness with our marshalled activities..
Upcoming events:
Battlemoor July 9-14: Master Reese to be in attendance to work with Citadel on shield walls
Fall Coronation November 9: Bid put in by Dominus Caledonius and Domina Julia
St Edrik October 19: Nate and Kath have voiced interest in helping plan with Oleg
Hastilude: co-op with Mons at Badlands in November: looking for volunteers
12th night January 2020: Monica
Closing remarks: Communication is getting better, we are getting to the next level, the SCA is growing more corporate which in turn, makes local Baronies grow more corporate. Thank you for attending (and/or reading these minutes)!
Unto the Populace of the Citadel of the Southern Pass, let it be known that Arts and Sciences Night for 28 June will be held at the Fortress Keep of Albrecht, who secures the North East. The project(s) for the evening are as follows;
1.) You can bring something of your own to work on. All are welcome to attend, even if you do not wish to participate in the craft planned.
2.) His Excellency Bernardo and myself have come up with a design for War Tabards for the fierce denizens of the southern pass. Please see Attached picture for concept design as well as material. I personally will be making a prototype one this week to debut on A&S night, and will provide updates through out the week.
Greetings Citizens of Citadel. I Albrecht am sending out the call for assistance for the Barony! Having talked to His Excellency Bernardo, we have decided to host between our two Fortified Keeps, 2 evenings of Preparation work. Friday, July 5th will be at HE’s Manor, and Saturday the 6th of July will be at mine. Time is still TBD.
There are several reason for this weekend of crafting, the first is that there will not be a A&S night on Monday the 8th since I will be prepping to leave. Also there will be no Choir practice that evening as Tariq and Ellie will not be here. 2nd is that we wish to continue working on tabards that may not have been finished on the last A&S night (28June) as well as assist anyone else who wishes to make one that was not able to come the previous tabard making session. 3rd is that HE and I have discussed making baronial Camp walls. Please see the picture Below.
We wish to continue to make walls so that we may eventually encompass our entire camp. I have calculated the individual cost, and broke it down as to where you might be able to purchase the items necessary to make your own or make one for the barony. When i say make your own wall, instead of putting the citadel chalice in the center, you can in fact place you own device instead.
Textile Medium is used in conjunction with acrylic paint to make it easier to paint onto fabrics such as canvas, this can be purchased at Micheals or hobby lobby
And lastly, we all know how hectic life can be before an event like Battlemoor, so if you need an excuse, well here is one! two nights of hanging out, crafting with good company, im quite positive that the amount of expertise in every aspect of campaigning in the SCA will be present to assist you in finishing up a last minute project, repairing some clothes, or finally finding some one with a leather punch since no one ever seems to have them at fight practice.
We had a great Populace Meeting today, Saturday, following our Officers Meeting on Thursday. I think this format works wonderfully and helps us get better at communicating as a Barony. One of the big points we’re trying to drive at is communication and hosting Populace Meeting quickly after the Officers Meeting is a great way to ensure each of the Officers can address topics that either require populace input or benefit from getting that message out to more members.
More Fighter Practices for Everyone!
Speaking of which, just to wrap up some of the topics we discussed today, we are moving Fighter Practice officially to Saturdays and will be adding a Fighter Practice to Sunday. Why did I state it that way? Because we are shifting our Tournament Fighting practice to Saturdays and creating a more team oriented practice on Sundays. This way we can catch people on the weekends when they can’t make it to one of the days. No one said we can’t have multiple practices, right? Moh practices, moh betta! Even when you thought that couldn’t get any better, we are even adding a weekday practice back to the schedule for Heavies. We are currently exploring Yucca Park as an option for a combined Light and Heavy weekday practice on Wednesday. The current hangup is whether or not the lighting will be sufficient for our needs, so expect word on that soon.
Event Bids. Thank You for the Submissions.
We have several bids and packages for all of our events through Twelfth Night in 2020. That means St Edrik’s, Fall Coronation, St Stephen’s, Twelfth Night and Hastilude have either had packages submitted or at least plans in the works to do so. The goal is to have bids in 10 months beforehand, so expect announcements for bids to follow shortly behind the completion of that event. Each of the coordinator teams have also teamed up with some of our local peers to help gain mentorship and guidance on stewarding an event.
Please Use the Website.
Please use the website. That was the major push and theme of the open discussion we had. This website is the officially official source of information. If there is a conflict between Facebook and this website, this website is correct. Always fall back to this website as the official source of information for the Barony.
More Cool Website Stuff
We have some cool features coming up for use on the website and expect a lot of the way we do business to become forms of their own kind. That means submitting A&S projects, event requests, after action reports, officer reports, etc. All of that will be put into forms so it will be much easier to submit things to us through official channels.
Greetings to the Populace of the Citadel! I, Albrecht wish to know what secret projects you have been working on for the past month. Please share what you have been doing and make your project not so secret anymore. Show us some pictures if you are able by sending your project summary with any images to artsandsciences@southernpass.org!
