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.
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.
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
