arontius | Entries tagged with chronicler

.....It was yet another whirlwind weekend that went by way too fast. It'll be just like this through the summer. I'd better get strapped in for the ride.

.....Saturday morning was a trip over to Angharad's house out by Horseshoe Lake for the new June Faire Sign Painting Party. It was hosted officially by the Order of the Wyvern's. But many other hands were involved in the process to this point. Adelheidi purchased the materials. TBT and Albrecht did the initial artwork. Marcus made sure they were delivered to their house for the painting itself. Arion went to the County Recycle Center for the paint. Then a bunch of us turned out at 10AM on Saturday to do some painting.

.....TBT initially set up the color scheme for the figures. I actually like the designs. It is definitely a different style that the old signs, but will work nicely. The colors pulled by Arion are BRIGHT. I thought them somewhat garish at first, but when I stepped back later and looked at them again, I thought that the colors worked great as road-side advertising.

.....Here is the design put together by TBT:

.....We painted one side of all three boards (which were six feet by four feet each). They needed to dry and then flipped over so that the other side could be painted. But we had to get going as TBT had to catch up on orders for her Business, and the next shift of painters were due in the afternoon. So we left around 12:30 or so. We'll have to remember to get pictures of the completed signs. :-)

.....After lunch TBT went to work and I started the pack up of Heather for May Crown. I pulled together both of the smaller pavilions and counted out all the parts to make sure of what we had and what we didn't and then made a list. Everything went into Heather or on the lumber racks at that point. The Baronial Chairs went into Heather, and the bed. Even with all of that packing done, Heather was only around a quarter of the way filled with 'stuff'.

.....Ran down to the Baronial Storage Unit with my lists of missing 'stuff' and pulled out the Baronial Pavilion and packed it up, and then dug out the missing items. Which, as guessed, were all located in the Storage Unit.

.....I think this is the earliest I've ever packed Heather for May Crown infrastructure. Loading the remainder of what we'll need for the weekend should be fairly straight forward. I finished Saturday feeling slightly accomplished. :-)

.....Sunday started with the usual Starbucks run first thing in the morning and then some catching up of chores on the computer. The quarterly financial report for the Office of Kingdom Chronicler is complete and out the door. It will be the last report dealing with paying a printing house directly for production of The Crier.

.....Also made arrangements for upgrading the software to the Chronicler's Office. When Angharad stepped down we picked up CS4 (InDesign). A new Chronicler will take office shortly, so we're going to purchase the next upgrade to CS5.5 / CS6. It is an amazing piece of software. Light years ahead of Pagemaker, which is what I used to produce The Crier. And already advanced from what we purchased as InDesign two years ago.

.....I still find it amazing the things that have simplified themselves in the handful of years since I was Chronicler. I remember having to spend upwards of an hour or two setting up each page of The Crier to be turned into a .pdf in order to send it to the publisher for printing. A single click of the mouse now formats everything and makes it publishing ready. A single keystroke!

.....I still remember producing newsletters in WordPerfect, so I think it is at least a little understandably on why I'm so constantly amazed. :-)

.....Madrun and Dylan showed up after lunch and I was regaled with stories of fighting units at Art of War over the weekend. Dylan had obviously had a very grand time there. :-) I pulled some of the basics from him and posted something to the Baronial e-list about it. Morgan piggy-backed on top of that post sometime later with an absolutely fantastic tale of the weekend and the exploits of the Dragon's Laire Populace members who attended. We need to encourage more people to do that. :-)

.....This evening was a trip to Rich and Gwen's in order to celebrate Rich's Mom's birthday. Rich performed grill duty, something he does very well. It was all very tasty. I also had a little bit of an opportunity to talk to Bernie as well about some of the September Crown site preparations I was hoping Bernie could help in doing. He was all over it. He's going to see what he can do to get a back-hoe out there to help fix the road on site. He also might have an in on a local (to the airport) brush hog that will take out the remaining scotch broom that is messing with our lay-out.

.....This week doesn't look too bad, although the schedule is tight. Tuesday is the regular Social. Wednesday is a September Crown meeting at the Sylvan Way library (I've got to remember to finish the agenda for it). Thursday is the May Business Meeting.

.....May!? Wow, I can't believe it is already May!

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Computer Room.
Current Music: Road Noise.

.....So, I walk into the U.S. Bank branch located in the Albertson's in Silverdale. I've been using this branch to deposit checks into the account for The Crier now since September of 2004. The same primary name has been on the account. The stipend checks from SCA, Corporate have been made out to the same recipient for that entire time, 'SCA, Inc.; The Crier'.

.....So, like I said, I walk into the branch and I ask to deposit this stipend check. The teller takes the check and deposit slip and types the account number into her computer. She then asks me, 'Is 'The Crier' on the account?'

.....'Excuse me? Yes, 'SCA, Inc.; The Crier' is the name on the account.'

.....'I'm showing this account as belonging to 'The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.'.

.....'Yes, that is what the acronym, 'SCA, Inc.,' refers to.'

.....'But the check is addressed to 'SCA, Inc.; The Crier,' not to 'The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.' I'm afraid I can't accept this for deposit into the account.'

.....I blink in confusion for a minute or so. 'I've been depositing these same checks, made out to the same addressee, for several years now.' Then I pull out receipts of deposits from earlier this year. 'See, you've accepted deposits for these checks, from the same source, for even larger amounts, for a while now. Can you at least deposit this check into the account while you clear the confusion? There is enough in the account to cover the check if necessary.'

.....'I'm sorry, Sir. I cannot accept this check for deposit. The name on the check does not match the name on the account.'

.....'The checks in my checkbook here have that same name on them.'

.....'Anyone can have any name printed on a check. I'm sorry, but that does not prove anything.'

.....'What would it take to prove that 'SCA, Inc.; The Crier' is the same as 'The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.'?'

.....'Do you have the Certificate of Incorporation for either 'The Society from Creative Anachronism' or 'SCA, Inc.; The Crier.'?

.....'Um, I don't normally carry those documents around with me.'

.....'I'm sorry, Sir. I cannot deposit your check into this account.'

.....I'm just flabbergasted at this point. TBT was with me, witnessed the entire conversation, and was just fuming. I was rather irritated as well, and wanted to go away for a few minutes and calm down. So I just took the check back and walked away. Went home and grabbed a copy of the SCA Letters of Incorporation, a copy of the last bank statement (which had the same identical title on it as the checks, 'SCA, Inc.; The Crier') and went to the U.S. Bank Branch in Bremerton.

.....Whereat they accepted the check and deposited it without asking me for any further identification or proof of anything.

.....You know, I'm starting to doubt the sanity of any holdings in any bank. Maybe it is time for a complete overhaul of the institution of banking as an industry all together in the United States?

.....Only one more quarter of stipends for The Crier, than this job goes away. Starting to look forward to that with more and more eagerness. :-)

.....Although I still wonder what the future holds at SCA, Inc., and what their plans are exactly. We're looking at a revenue increase in Corporate of close to $75K to $100K a year due to no longer issuing stipends for the publishing of Kingdom newsletters. There hasn't been much talk of where those funds are going officially. I wonder if they are going straight to legal defense. I sure wish we'd hear more of what was really happening. Although I suppose that this might not be the best idea for legal reasons.

.....Maybe a shot of Don Julio or two might do the trick of taking away the irritation of the day instead. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: irritated
Current Location: Computer Room.
Current Music: Road Noise.

.....Tomorrow is TBT's birthday. We're combining it with The Rhys Monster's birthday and going to spend the day in Seattle at the Woodland Park Zoo. The weather does not look that great, but if nothing else the crowds will be smaller. A plus as far as I'm concerned. We're also talking about hitting Pike's Place Market. I'd love to, but after a handful of hours at Woodland Park, I'm not sure this is going to stay in the Itinerary.

.....It was kind of a sqweaker today as to whether or not the Mid-Level Boss was going to ask me to come in for at least part of the day tomorrow. We're still dealing with the change of Fiscal Year from FY'11 to FY'12. The actual change came on October 1st. But the computer systems that handle our finances are apparently unhappy with the number 2012. Maybe there is a little Mayan Silicon Blood running through their proverbial veins?

.....Last night was our first indoor fight practice at the Pendergast Soccer Park. The whole area has sure changed. The last time I spent any time up there was when Fight Practice was held in the National Guard Armory. We drove up there and I didn't recognize the place! Brand new buildings and a lot of relatively newly cleared land. After looking at it, it kind of makes a little more sense as to why they are so reluctant to let us have the Armory for Fight Practice again.

.....Nineteen people signed up and paid on the roster last night, not including most of the observers. We pulled in $144. Which paid for last night's practice and started paying on next Wednesday's practice. A nice momentum start. It felt good to get it deposited today. We'll have to see what we can do to keep that momentum going for the next eleven weeks of practice.

.....The actual practice area is approximately 40 to 50 feet across and maybe double that in length. Certainly enough for all the fighters who attended last night. The lighting was good. The air was warm, but not too warm. There were bleachers for observers to watch. But what I liked the absolute best was the Astroturf surface of the practice area. Spongy and comfortable on the feet. I think this is going to work out rather nicely.

.....To start off the practice nights, both the Rapier and Heavy Fighters held a Tournament. The Rapier Tournament itself finished rather quickly. The finals consisted of THL Caius and M'Lord Ambrose. M'Lord Ambrose came away the victor. The Heavy Tournament finished about thirty minutes later in a final between Master Andras and M'Lord Albrecht. Master Andras was the victor.

.....Both victors won a set of feast gear handcrafted by Mistress Gwenllyn Potter, presented by the most gracious TBT. I think they were both happy with the honours given. :-)

.....By the time 9PM rolled around everyone was tired and left quickly. But we did manage to speak to Caius for a few moments. We're on a roll to pick up the pace on the scribal arts in November. Which is going to include the creation of a new Master Ceremonial. We've been limping along for the past year and it's time to start pulling it all in and creating something useful. Caius is going to the Heraldic Symposium the first Saturday of November, then we'll get together and actually pull everything together into something coherent. It'd be nice to get it all finalized prior to Yule.

.....Tonight is the meeting of the Dragon's Pearls. It should go fairly quickly. Maybe not as quickly as the recent Wyvern meeting went. :-) But at the very least we'll establish meeting dates for 2012.

.....Saturday was going to be a bardic gathering over at Tim and Truly's. But I think that the gathering is going to be pushed on over to the A&S Day Camp on the 29th. That Day Camp is going to be busy. Between the garb classes that TBT wants to teach. To the dancing we want to work with the Serjeantry Candidates for practice. The Heraldic Testing we want to do (although the actual doing is still up in the air. Not sure if the candidates, as a group, are ready on such relatively short notice). The Bardic performances we want to try. There will be a lot happening. But the good part is that we have the VFW Hall for as long as we want on Saturday, so we'll probably have some sort of potluck Saturday evening.

.....On Tuesday we also talked about maybe seeing if a couple of people would be willing to put together some soups and breads or something similar for lunch at the Day Camp. Must remember to speak to TBT on that, and Madrun, as soon as possible. Certainly it doesn't have to be anything elaborate. But there are no restaurants within walking distance. And only a little mini-mart down the road. Although Silverdale proper is just over the hill from the VFW Hall, and it has restaurants aplenty.

.....Sir Richard and Kathy are stopping by this weekend as well. I think we're going to do lunch and then geek out a while in the laboratory of TBT.

.....I sent off a note to the Board about the financing of Kingdom Chroniclers after the discontinuance of the stipend. It took only two days for a response. Which was a politely worded, 'Thank you for your concern. We'll monitor the situation, but we do not think it will be a problem.' I was not sure what I was expecting, so I was not fussed at all. I filed it away for future reference and made sure that THL Godith had a copy. I don't think that Godith, or any near term Chroniclers of An Tir, will have any problems with having the technology and software to put out 'The Crier'. But not all the Kingdoms are financially well off, so it will be interesting to see how things settle out in the long run.

.....Madrun will be home in the next day or so. I've missed her, so it'll be great to see her and hear the actual stories of her cross-country trip.

.....Then Sunday we have nothing scheduled, at least right now. I'd like to keep it that way. There was something to go to every night this week. I need to catch up with myself! :-) Although, Mom keeps poking at me to get into her storage unit and unburying her Christmas decorations. I probably should do that on Sunday, but not looking forward to it as they are BURIED and would require extensive excavation.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Computer Room.
Current Music: Road Noise.

.....The transition to a fully electronic Kingdom newsletter is going to happen at a faster pace than I had envisioned. You ever get the impression that things are moving around you so fast that you, yourself, seem to be a drag on the threads of time? Or is it that I'm just feeling old? I still remember the days when having a 'Printing and Postal Deputy' to the Chronicler was an important job. It went obsolete years ago. The job of Chronicler itself is not long for this world I bet. Web-Ministers are about to rule the world...

"Due to external economic conditions and increased overall costs facing the SCA Inc., the Board of Directors and senior staff have been forced to make over $250,000 in cost cutting measures to the 2011 budget in order to ensure continued operations.

The largest recurring expense for the SCA at the corporate level is the stipend payments made to the Kingdoms for publishing hardcopy newsletters. As our modern society moves increasingly away from hardcopy publishing to electronic mediums, the costs of hardcopy publishing have increased proportionally. Based on the need to curb these costs, and the responses of the membership in the 2010 census, the Board of Directors believes it is essential for the continued financial health of the SCA to transition the organization away from paper newsletters. Accordingly, the SCA has initiated a project to transition all kingdoms to e-newsletters, and is projecting implementation by Jan 1, 2012. Until the SCA has the infrastructure in place to support e-newsletters, the 2011 stipend amount provided by the corporate level for production assistance will be reduced to cover only those aspects required by the governing documents. This will reduce the overall stipend for mailings and production by 60%. The decrease will begin with the stipend checks being mailed after the end of the 1st quarter of 2011. The Board of Directors greatly regrets the necessity of making these changes to the stipend structure, but feels that it is the best of an array of difficult options to execute its fiduciary responsibility to the membership of the organization.

This means that postage will still be covered for all mailing classes, including the expected postal rate increase later this year, but the production stipend will be greatly reduced. Most components of newsletter production costs are controlled at the Kingdom level, including newsletter size, use of color printing, page count due to non-required information, and printing companies utilized. Thus, Kingdom Chroniclers have several tools at their disposal to lessen the impact of the stipend decrease. To further mitigate the financial impact to the Kingdoms, the following changes in required inclusions will be effective with April 2011 newsletters:
• Membership forms will no longer be required to be published
• The list of Board of Director nominees will no longer be required to be published
• Full Society regnum will no longer be required to be published. Contact information for the Kingdom Ombudsman must still be included.
• A statement indicating where to locate the additional information on www.sca.org and/or Kingdom websites will be required to be published.

As additional reminders, branch event announcements are only required to be published for the month in which the event occurs. Should the branch event occur in the first week of the month, publication in only the prior month is acceptable. Please refer to the Chronicler’s Handbook for the minimum event information required for publication.

The Society Chronicler has information available for the printing house in Knoxville, Tennessee (USA) that several Kingdoms have already been utilizing for more cost-effective printing and mailing services.

Fundraising that is specifically done for the purpose of newsletter publication is still allowed, but (as always) is at the discretion of the Kingdoms.

The Board of Directors, SCA, Inc. greatly appreciates the time and effort put into newsletters produced at all levels of the organization and is committed to implementing a financially responsible process to provide information to the membership by a blend of electronic and hardcopy media.

Please contact your ombudsman with questions or concerns.

Board of Directors, SCA, Inc."

.....There was a time when I thought being on the Board of Directors would be an interesting job. But the longer I play in the SCA the less I feel that way. The BoD has to get so wrapped up in the legalities and corporate structure of the Moderne Worlde that I think there is a real danger of losing the magic that is the basis of the SCA. It's a very tenuous thread, that connection. And once lost is hard to recover.

.....It'll be interesting to see what the SCA changes into over the next decade or so.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: Desk At Work.
Current Music: Ventilation System.

.....Woo! Hoo! The July issue of The Crier is done and has been uploaded to the Idaho Falls ftp: site. I'm done! I'm done! Only three more freakin' issues left! August, September and October issues. I can see the end at hand, and it feels wonderful!!! :-)

.....The advertisement for the office of Kingdom Chronicler will appear for a second time in the July issue. There has been some interest, but I still think that Angharad has it in the bag. So for the August issue Angharad will be accepting and reviewing all copy that comes in for publication. This way she'll gain the necessary experience in being able to review event copy for accuracy and completeness. This is probably the most difficult part of the job. You not only have to go through the event copy checklist, you have to ensure that the event is on the Calender with an EIF on file. Then you have to follow up with any copy that is missing any data. At this point in time about 40% of the copy that comes in is complete and ready to go. The remainder requires some additional work to some degree.

.....For the September issue I'll be looking over Angharad's shoulder as she format's the copy for inclusion in Pagemaker. I want to make sure that she has a complete understanding of how *I* put together an issue of The Crier. Once she is officially the editor, she can do whatever she wants with the formatting, look, lay-out, etc. (in fact I am encouraging her to get creative and try out new ideas).

.....For the October issue, I plan on just watching over her shoulder and not saying anything as she completes the issue. On September 2nd, the Kingdom emancipates me with my complete freedom coming on September 10th. Only 87 freakin' days left!!! Huzzah!!!!

.....I'd better get to bed if I want to be in any condition to pack Mom's house later in the morning. The Baronial Copier goes away today as well. There is an additional 16 square feet of space about to be reclaimed from my basement. Huzzah! Tamm will be pleased, almost as much as myself. :-)

.....Take some time to enjoy the day today. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: Living Room.
Current Music: Mindlessness On The Tele.

.....Greetings All!

.....It's Saturday morning and I have no place I have to be at the moment. I have none of my 'to-dos' in front of me. So I'm doing a little relaxing and enjoying the moment. The rest of this month will be a blur up to June Faire, but I'm going to take advantage of these last few moments of peace. :-)

.....Work is still kicking my butt. But I'm dog-paddling like mad and keeping my head above water. It has been a good lesson in stress management and how to deal efficiently with a crisis in a hurry. It has actually provided some good recognition. I've been asked by several different groups to come on over and join them as a Business Manager or a Planning Manager. Its been flattering actually. These offers have also included the possibility of travel to Japan, Pearl Harbor and San Diego. I am actually jonesing to do some traveling, but am adamant that I don't want go anywhere without the Beloved Tamm coming with me. When Rhys comes into the equation Japan is pretty much out of the picture and probably Pearl Harbor as well. But San Diego looks interesting to all of us. We'll probably wait a few years though to get fully moved and situated in Bremerton.

.....The countdown is in full swing for release of the Kingdom Chronicler's Office. I'll be having a party at September Crown to celebrate the occasion. Bring your Don Julio! I plan on having at least one bottle of each type of Don Julio produced (maybe more :-)). The first advertising for a replacement officer will appear in the June issue. I have a very good deputy (THL Angharad) waiting in the wings to take on the office, but Kingdom Law still requires the advertising. I've tried very hard whenever I get the chance to remind Angharad to not take on the office alone. Deputies! Deputies! Deputies! That has been the biggest mistake that I've made, trying to do the entire office with a minimal number of people. You need help. And it is not a sign of weakness to have a full stable of people helping you. It is a sign of strength!!!

.....OMG, June Faire will be here before I know it. I'm running hard to try and keep up with it. I am sooooo looking forward to next year. I think that the only jobs I plan on doing are helping with the storage unit and playing my gemshorn and harp all weekend long in some back corner of the event. As well as watching the Beloved Tamm as she wows the crowds who will invariably gather around her to listen to her speak.

.....Every day that goes by makes me want to be married to the Beloved Tamm more and more. I am having a difficult time waiting to get her moved into the Silverdale home. We've got a huge pile of stuff in the basement already. About this time in July I'll be able to wake up in the morning and gaze upon her most beauteous face and smile in the full knowledge that I'm the luckiest man in the world. Makes me supremely happy just thinking about it. :-)

.....On that note I think that I'm going to stop for the moment. :-) I'll probably post more later as I think about it. There have been a number of things percolating in my brain. :-)

.....Having a good day. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: The East Side.
Current Music: Conversations.

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Arontius of Bygelswade

Known as Michael Aaron Rogers

Entries tagged with chronicler

Weekend In The Rearview.

Well, That's Lame!

Onwards Towards Friday...

Evolution Of The Crier Kind.

July Crier Has Left The Building!!!! :-)

Updates On Life.