Arontius of Bygelswade

.....It's the Summer Solstice and it is a nice day. A little on the nippy side, but not bad. Plus that bright, yellow thing in the sky felt good when walking to the car. :-)

.....I can tell also that TBT is solidly back on her diet. Know how I can tell? The Rhys Monster is baking brownies. The Brownie Production Machine always gets turned up a notch when TBT goes on a diet plan. I think it tortures me far more than it tortures TBT though. Just sayin'. :-)

.....Tonight is the final June Faire Board meeting for the 2012 Board of Directors. We've been warned that it may go on for a while. Those on this year's Board had ideas they implemented this year that worked out well, and have ideas they would like to see happen during future June Faires'. Which is a good thing, and what you want to see. You take what worked well and build on it to something better. And since we'll be in Port Gamble again for at least one more year, those ideas will come in handy.

.....Need to see if any of this year's Board wants to stay on the Board for next year. I don't think that Madrun does. :-) Talon might though. Marion possibly (although being the Baronial Exchequer may change her mind). I know that Adelheidi does. Angharad, I'm not sure. Brighid, I'm reasonably sure does not. :-)

.....Port Gamble and OPG have been making progress lately in their local disputes with the County and the Port Gamble Native American Tribe who monitors the improvements / changes OPG wants to make to the area. Permits are looking like they are coming together and the tribe is starting to drop some of their demands, or come to compromises on them with OPG. The reinvention of Port Gamble may happen sooner than we anticipated. I am still not seeing hard dates anywhere, so I'm not holding my breath. The future plan also calls for event space as part of the overall plans. Still no real idea of what this 'event space' will be in terms of actual size, but I continue to hope. Open land in Kitsap County is not in abundance, and what is available is not cheap. Anything useable for an event the size of June Faire is to be cherished and maintained as much as possible. Sure, Port Gamble has issues, but give me the perfect site in Kitsap County and I'll show you something we simply would not be able to afford.

.....The notes from last Thursday's September Crown meeting have been completed and issued to the Team Haggis III e-list. There are a lot of things to do in the next two and a half months. But the Team is already motivated and seems excited about wanting to do things. I was cornered last night at the Tuesday Social for a complaint that I am not giving enough for one of the Team Members to do. They were not whining, they just want to be taken seriously and I understand that. So I gave them some more tasking. :-)

.....The notes from last Wednesday's Regional Pelican Meeting have been completed as well. Sending out notes to the Kingdom e-list to solicit for information. One more item removed from my current 'to-do' list. If I can get a couple of free hours tomorrow night, I'll put in the next episode of The West Wing (currently in Season 3) and work on the overall 'to-do' list.

.....Friday is a stop at the heated storage unit to give the Gold Key garb to Adena so it can be laundered post-June Faire. That will not take long though. It is a Payday Friday, so maybe I'll swing home and grab TBT for a night out at dinner. Date nights for us have been pretty dull since putting on the Coronets. Heaven is simply a night of having nothing to do. :-)

.....Saturday looks busy. We have a meeting with Ellen to discuss Serjeantry and start formulating plans for the August Serjeantry Trials. Need to look at the overall summer Serjeantry schedule and see if there are any land mines in it. I don't think so, but it helps if the three of us talk things out to ensure there are no surprises. If all three of us understand the same thing and can articulate it clearly to each other, we have achieved success. :-) There is a lot of work to the Serjeantry Program. One of my fears is that the next Baron and Baroness may simply drop it all together as it requires so much effort that they may not have the time to take it onto themselves. All the more reason to have a sizeable cadre of Serjeantry Members before TBT and I step down. If nothing else, we're hopeful that given all their effort they'll want to see the Program continue and will do the leg-work. Will keep my fingers crossed as I would someday like to take part in that Program myself.

.....Sunday is a Team Haggis III site walk-through out at the Airport. Archery location will be finally decided, which will hopefully open up some more parking (if the land we're going to receive is conducive to parking). We'll have measuring wheels with us and some flags and will get a 'for real' look at how much space the erics will need. We will also want to measure the distance between the metered water and the Equestrian Area. How much hosing will be needed (if we go that route). I'm a big fan of going to the site itself as often as possible. It is easy to forget the feel and lay-out of the space and its actual size. Getting in touch with it gives you better ideas when laying out your plans.

.....'Brave' opens up in theatres this weekend. The animation looks rather stunning in all the commercials I've seen. I think we'll try to go if we can carve up the time to do so.

.....Would like to pull out the Bass Recorder this weekend and see how it sounds through a pass of 'Lady Hammond's Alman'. It is a John Dowland piece that I'm going to do as a single entry next year at KAS / KBC. I probably shouldn't as time is definitely a precious commodity, but I've been missing music a lot lately and I think this will be fun to do. If I can commit even an hour or two a week to practicing it, the song will be passable at least come next March. KAS / KBC looks like it will be local next year, another good incentive.

.....People are gearing up to attend An Tir / West War in a couple of weeks. There is a part of me that still would really like to go. But there is just too much happening this year. I'm already working on plans to attend next year. I volunteered to be the Financial POC for the event, interacting between Etiennette and the Co-Chairs (Jenae and Magdalena). I'd deposit funds into the bank account I hold and then draft checks as needed. As well as provide the required quarterly reports. After September Crown, I could also help with contracts and such if they need it. I learned a lot working almost the same job for Brighid several years back and think I would be a lot more adept at it this time around. Hopefully I can make it seamless and easy for them.

.....This would be my first time at An Tir / West War in a number of years. I think it has been ten years since I was there last. I went with Inga Calle when she was merchanting Ingasbo. That was one hot event in Caversgate. Half of the Populace in attendance were sitting in the river at about 3PM in the afternoon. I still had a lot of fun though and am looking forward to Gold Beach. 2013 will be my first trip there. :-)

.....Time to go to the June Faire meeting.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....Only three more 'get ups' until the weekend. It is that reward for having survived the past six or so weeks of the SCA Speedway. :-)

.....I was talking to someone last night about the policy of closely regulating the number of people who stayed overnight on Thursday before June Faire. I have to admire the Board's certitude on implementing the policy this year, and certainly understand why they did it. Last year was kind of chaotic. We had hordes of volunteers who were eager to help, but we only had so much for them to do at any one time. Most of the infrastructure was set up by late in the afternoon, but by then most of the volunteers were setting up their own encampments and paying attention to their own preparations for the weekend. I can't blame them either. It was their understanding that if they lent a hand they would be allowed to set up. The details were just that, details.

.....Even that was relatively organized compared to the first year at Port Gamble where the call was put out to people to spend the night on Thursday if they helped set up infrastructure. The response was HUGE. I remember looking over at Cedric out the back end of the U-Haul and wondering how in the world we were going to get all these people organized. I think it was the year he was the June Faire Chairman. None of us expected that kind of response. Thankfully, most of the infrastructure of site was still set up before all these people melted away. Although it still seemed like the usual people at the end, loading stuff into the U-Haul and putting it all back into the Storage Unit.

.....We know that OPG, and the residents of Port Gamble, are sometimes uncomfortable with the number of people who end up staying on site overnight Thursday. We need to find out what that threshold is to make sure we don't cross it. We also need to continue the drumbeat of insurance. Either our named insurance has to cover the site starting on Thursday, and we need to ensure those volunteering on Thursday realize and understand that the insurance will not cover them in case something stupid happens.

.....We were brainstorming ideas back-and-forth last night and I wanted to put them on my June Faire tag as a reminder for next year. I'll pull it up as a 'lesson learned' and see if the Board for next year would be receptive to doing any of this. Most of this is pretty obvious actually, and doesn't take a genius to see. But, you know, when you are in the middle of the June Faire chaos you sometimes forget the most simple things. If it is written down, it is easier to catch and utilize.

.....1.) Have someone dedicated to putting together a plan for the Thursday set-up. This person would work with the SCA Coordinator on what needs to be set up on Thursday. Make sure that equipment is coming in and when and then organize the volunteers to systematically work that plan through to completion.

.....2.) When people volunteer to help with Thursday set-up prior to the June Faire weekend, immediately put them on a Team. Team A would be in charge of putting up Pavilion A, Pavilion B, etc. Team B would support decorating the site. Team c would help with marking out painted lines for camping or the Marketplace. Team D would put out all the road signs. Whatever needed to be done on Thursday. They would be required to be on site together as a Team at a certain time on Thursday to start the process. When they had completed their tasking, they would then be free to set up their personal encampments.

.....3.) I don't know if this is an equitable trade or not, but certainly worth a conversation. If a handful of people with strong backs would volunteer to dedicate time on Sunday to break down and unload the U-Haul at the Storage Unit, they could then be allowed to set up their own personal encampments on Thursday and / or stay over on Thursday night as their 'payment' for dedicating that Sunday time.

.....4.) Everyone wanting to set up personal encampments on Thursday would be required to put in a certain number of hours of service before they started on their personal encampments. They would 'clock in' with a coordinator, put in their hours, and then report back to the coordinator at the end of their 'shift' and tell the coordinator what actions they did. This way we wouldn't have to be as organized as to Teams and be a little more free form.

.....5.) This is kind of a wild idea, but it was an interesting thought. We hire a group to come in and set up our infrastructure for us. I can see this idea as being unpopular, but I'm intrigued about giving a neighboring barony, shire or local civic group in need something like $500 to set up 'X' number of pavilions on Thursday. This way we eliminate the camping and personal set-up issue all together. But it does require the outlay of funds.

.....Any plans that are made are only good if someone is available to police them. Just thinking back to May of this year, we had May Crown two weeks prior to June Faire. We had a host of other summer activities that needed attention. June Faire itself has hundreds of details that need attention. Not to mention the coordination of dozens and dozens of volunteers. Volunteers being the operative word. None of these people are being paid to provide these many hours of service and have to juggle it all with the immediate concerns of holding down modern jobs and maintaining households.

.....June Faire XXXI is only eleven and a half months away. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....Oi! I'm glad it's Friday! It's been a rather long week! Even though we have Honey War to attend tomorrow, we'll still be able to sleep in for a little and the schedule will not be a race. So maybe we will get to relax a little bit. I'm really tired and looking forward to Sunday, when I really get to sleep in some! :-)

.....Lots of thoughts still churning in my head from June Faire. Many impressive things happened as part of the event. Some things that worked, but could have worked better. And some things that didn't work at all, or were foo-filled beyond normal. I want to get all of this down in black-and-white, but maybe one thing at a time for a while. Like a bunch of tangled strings, if I pull out one at a time maybe I can get them all organized.

.....One thing that worked for me, finally, was Baronial Court on Saturday. TBT is a professional at that type of interaction, so Court has never been a big deal to her. But I am not a natural at all. I'll never forget my very first Court at Yule Feast in 2011. What a disaster! I kept blanking out in mid-sentence. Kept getting flustered over what to say. Kept turning to TBT to carry on the conversation. Never seemed to know where I needed to be at any given moment.

.....But improvement has been steady. I have my own way of getting myself organized, and when I started doing that more for myself and then integrating it within TBT's style, things became much smoother and more efficient for me. The Court Staff has been excellent and professional throughout this period. Between them and TBT carrying the conversation at times, it has definitely helped prevent me from looking like a complete idiot. :-)

.....AS usual, Tsuruko put out a preliminary agenda for June Faire Court. She plugged in all the notes from our retinue meeting to make it as complete as possible with the information she had. At work, I routinely put together agendas and run meetings by them. They keep me organized and focused and help from meandering and getting lost. Once I put one together and familiarize myself with it, I usually don't need to even have it with me as I have it imprinted on my mind. But it makes a great starting point to get myself organized in the first place.

.....I opened up Tsuruko's agenda and started adding to it. The new awards with the new names we'd developed for them. I added business that had come up since the last retinue meeting and then anything else TBT and I thought important. Then I organized the listing in a format that let us easily add and subtract items from that list. Since Their Majesties had at least two hours worth of business, we decided that we needed to hold our Court to an hour. TBT and I looked at our list of business and did our best to time it to an hour in length.

.....After TBT had reviewed the list and essentially gave her blessing to it, I studied it so I had a good idea on how it was going to flow. I made copies for Caius and the rest of the Court staff to review and have available. Then I went through each line item and made sure we had scrolls, medallions and any other materials needed to support each items of business. Some of the new awards were so new that we did not have scrolls for them, so we had to generate promissory notes for them.

.....Thankfully, we had plenty of necklaces and medallions to pass out with each award. Gwenllyn and Company have made dozens and dozens of necklaces. I think at this point we have enough necklaces to give one to every single member of the Barony! Although I am NOT complaining. I think this is great! And to top that off, Rebecca added to the stash just before June Faire itself.

.....I wrote some words for some of the new awards and TBT made up the scrolls on the computer and printed them up. They looked nice. We made sure we had a scroll and a specialty medallion for the new Wyvern (Caius). Conchobar painted a special scroll on some wood in an Elizabethan styling that looked especially great! :-)

.....Saturday afternoon, TBT and I started organizing over an hour before Court. We pulled out all the Court Business and placed it in order on one of the back tables, making sure that all the supporting material was in place. Some items had to be shuffled and replaced. We pulled out medallions and necklaces. Made sure we had all the appropriate prizes, and the right number, were available.

.....At the same time, the Court Coordinator, Tsuruko, and the Court Herald, Caius, were making up note cards for all the business happening during Court. Familiarizing themselves with everything to be presented. They were also preparing to have guest heralds dropped into the schedule. The Serjeantry Candidates are required to perform an item of Court Business and they were all lined up to be ready for this to happen.

.....At around 5:30PM, we lined up in a Processional and followed Their Majesties into Court. It was actually a Royal Court with lots of Their own business. About an hour into Their Court, They turned it over to us and Caius did a great job of stepping right into the swing of things. After a few up front wobbled, his voice and presence settled into a nice and regal flair. The Baronial Court Staff flowed! Tsuruko and Gwenllyn passed materials to us smoothly and efficiently. We were always being passed materials right when we needed. We had a nice rhythm where TBT would give the necklaces and medallions and I would give the scrolls to the recipients.

.....I took on more of the vocal role during this Court. For some reason, I still find it nerve wracking to speak in Baronial Court. Which is odd as I have no problems conducting meetings or giving presentations at work. I figure it has something to do with how I think of my audiences. At work, it is professional and impersonal for the most part. In the SCA it is more familial. But I'm working on it and TBT let me go to town. I only wobbled a few times, which made me feel a little more confident.

.....Those times I stumbled are when I blanked out on the deeds of those who were being presented awards. I'd look at them and forget completely why they were there. I think next time I need to put those notes on the Court Agenda. Shortened bullets maybe instead of complete notes, just something to queue a reminder. That might help prevent the blanking out.

.....One of my favorite presentations was for the awarding of the Serjeantry Cloaks to THL Jahnkin and THL Madrun, who had both completed their Quests after they completed their Trials last December. For me, it was the culmination of a lot of angsting and work. I spoke to the reasons why I thought the Quest was important and touched base on what the Quests were for Jahnkin and Madrun. I had a lot more I wanted to say, but in my mind the clock was ticking loudly and going 'faster...faster...faster...'. So I kept the presentation short.

.....TBT had been working on the cloaks up until the very last minute. To someone unfamiliar with our thought process, they looked rather simple and unadorned, but that just fed into what I wanted to say. That being the newness and freshness of the new members of Serjeantry. And how, over time, the cloaks would be weighty with the experiences each Quest brought to the Serjeantry members. Those experiences translated into tokens that would be added to the cloaks over time.

.....It was an exciting moment for me. We're going to have the new members speak the tales of their Quests at the Baronial Picnic later this summer, and we'll have a lot more to say at that time. But it looks like the primary mission is being accomplished. People are interested and asking questions and thinking that they would like to try the Serjeantry Program for themselves. It is my hope that this excitement will continue to feed the Program.

.....The other favorite presentation of mine was for The Dragon's Keep. This is a new award of ours being given to households who have devoted themselves to the Barony or given special and / or extended service to the Barony. We gave this first one to House Awry. The household nominally headed by THL Conrad Ross, son of Cedric and Brighid. The entire household made a lot of noise as Conrad approached the thrones, and even more as they were called to rise and approach. It turned into a very special moment. House Awry has worked hard behind the scenes, especially at June Faire, for many years now. It is good to see them recognized for all that hard work.

.....We gave out a Wyvern (extended service to the Barony), Snapdragons (service), Bumblebees (arts & sciences), Dragon's Company (service to the martiallate), the Dragon's Keep, and an Argent Pavilion (for distinguished and period (or 'perioid') encampments. We also managed to adopt two people into the Barony (Mistress Morgaine and Mistress Althaia). Prizes were given for the Martiallate Championships of the day. War was formally arbitrated by Druim Doineann (a story unto its own). The Serjeantry Cloaks given. It was a long Baronial Court.

.....But as we gave our last presentation and sent Court back to Their Majesties, I took note of my watch. We had done the entire agenda, and had done it in one hour and five minutes! Outstanding! We couldn't have done it without Tsuruko, Brian Devereaux, Caius and Gwenllyn working as an efficient Team behind us. The Baronial Champions even assisted with the movement of material and largesse to speed things up. Between THL Richard (Heavy Champion), THL Mateusz (Arts and Sciences Champion) and Roderkr (Thrown Weapons Champion), we were well attended!

.....THL Talia, our Bardic Champion sat in front of us in her best entertainer garb (after providing the food we ate during Court. Thank you, Talia!!!!). She sat alongside THL Nidda, the Kingdom Bardic Champion, and was as energetic as Nidda in keeping the audience entertained. We may have to ask her to continue with that over the rest of her tenure. :-) I was especially convinced of that the following day as Talia sang in Court for us to keep things rolling while we were trying to get organized.

.....After Their Majesties took back control of Court, TBT had a drink and I finally relaxed some. Court went really well and I was grateful! :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....It's Friday morning of June Faire. I'm within a half hour of heading to site. I'm sure there are ten million things that need to be done between now and tomorrow, but I can't seem to think straight at the moment. :-)

.....The pack-up went well on Wednesday. We loaded the U-Haul in just over an hour. The truck we ended up renting was a behemoth! They didn't have our regular 17' truck available, so we were given the 24' diesel. It made me a little nervous driving about town. Not to mention the narrow roads of the storage unit complex visited to pick up bottled water for the weekend. I had to perform one of those 300 point turns to get it in and out of the complex. Eeep!

.....Thursday started off cloudy and cool. Everyone who arrived on site was a little sluggish. But by 11AM we were rolling with the stuff. By 4PM a lot of the infrastructure was already set up, which was nice. The set up today for us should be fairly straight-forward, allowing us all to deal with the 'surprises' that always seem to come up on June Faire opening day.

.....I still have to put together the Baronial Chairs. Then clean out the U-Haul and get it parked down in the Mill Lot. Then I need to get Lobelia all set up and decked out. Then go through the lists of stuff we need for Courts tomorrow and make sure I have everything I need. TBT will be finishing off cloaks and day shades today, and then arrive on site later.

.....Just not feeling totally 'with it' though for some reason. Need to see if I can get an attitude adjustment sometime later today. Maybe a Quad, Vente, Sugar Free Vanilla, Latte, will help do the trick. Just need to wait for the clothes to finish drying.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....I was thinking about when I last posted to Live Journal and realized that it had been over a week. The time has really run away from me. But I still would swear to anything that June Faire Season is a temporal phenomena that really messes with the mind. At least it does with mine. :-)

.....Work has been rather intense lately. The Shipyard is taking a deep breath before really launching into a grand re-structuring of the management, from the top of the civilian leadership, all the way down. A lot of people are antsy and full of anticipation. Some positive, some negative, but mainly just a 'let's hurry up and get started because we're tired of waiting'.

.....The structure of our Submarine Battery Team is something of a model for what the larger Shipyard structure is going to look like when all is said and done. In fact, our Team is specifically called out in the Desk Guide as an example of how the new model works, and can be successful. So from that standpoint, I'm not worried much about a lot of huge changes coming my way. But the desk guide I just finished reading has a lot of differences between what we do and what the new model is supposed to be, so I am a little nervous. We'll see. The model is supposed to be fully functional by the end of July.

.....Our schedule in and of itself has been rather intense as well. We're in the midst of one installation, have another fully in preparation to launch in August, and three more right behind it. Next year is going to be tough.

.....June Faire looks like it will go well. The Board is fully engaged and everything is lining up nicely. It even looks like there are people who are going to miss May Crown so that they can attend to June Faire. Well, I suppose that could be just me, but it kind of seems that way. :-)

.....The Serjeantry Schedule has been out for a while, and we'll jump into it as soon as we've recovered from June Faire. There has been a large amount of angsting about the Trials being on the same weekend as Autumn War. We are taking a harder look at it to see if we can't move the Trials to an earlier date and compress the overall schedule some. That's just me talking now. Haven't vetted that with all the other parties who play into that prominently (like the Candidates and the Secretary), but it would be nice to free up just a little more of August in preparation for September Crown.

.....Packed a little more for May Crown today. At least one stuff bag and a bin. Excavated the bedroom a bit. Most of the clothes are put away and we can walk from one end of the room to the other. The kitchen is excavated as well. The cat boxes are all cleaned. Laundry has been moving for several hours now. So I feel a little accomplished.

.....Would like to finish the bedroom tonight as tomorrow might be a little busy. The 'to-do' list is long. I think we'll try to get the sign done though. It will be such a nice day tomorrow that the paint will dry in a hurry. I don't think it will take long either. Which reminds me that I need to see about making the arrangements to get the signs to Poulsbo. They go up over the three day weekend. I must remember, I think I'll write that down now.

.....Tsuruko reminded us about June Faire Court as well. We have a rough draft, but must finalize it. Would really also like to make arrangements for a meeting with Caius so we could go through a walk-through of the plan.

.....Dame Tamlyn has been working hard to produce a set of charters for the Barony, especially some of the newer awards that TBT and I created. I had a good look at the Dragon's Company charter today. It was absolutely fantastic! We haven't been able to concentrate on the details of the charters as we would have liked, but Dame Tamlyn really ran with this one and the results are even more fantastic than I thought they might be.

.....I have whined a lot about how much work being Baron has been. But I think I need to mention the wins more often, because they are certainly there. In the end, no matter how difficult it has been, I'm actually very glad to have had the opportunity to be the Baron of Dragon's Laire. It has been and will be the biggest and best learning experiences I've had in the SCA.

.....TBT just awoke from her nap and mentioned the magic word on her way down the hall, 'dinner'. I think I'll sign off for now. Will probably post the upcoming 'to-do' list tomorrow, which will most likely be epic. I should enjoy the current good feeling for as long a moment as possible. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....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.

.....Well, it's Monday night after NORWESCON and it is time to re-insert myself back into The Matrix of 'Real Life'. I'm not looking forward to it, but it had to happen sometime. Tomorrow is going to be rough, followed by not just one, but two meetings in the evening. What timing! I need to watch my patience level closely. Grumpiness will only be tolerated so far.

.....Even though today went by fast, a number of things were completed. Everything that went us to NORWESCON was unloaded and put away. Clothes are in the wash cycle. Food put away. Dishes done for the most part. Even the cat boxes were cleaned again. And the Computer Room was washed down. Definitely a win.

.....Started putting together the big 'to-do' lists for the next handful of months. It is now officially June Faire season, and it will be here fast. The U-Haul reservation was sent to Adelheidi for her records. Invitations re-sent to the local Barons and Baronesses for reservations about the Erics. A note was sent to the Noble Estate list, but this one targeted the neighbors directly. With Their Majesties set to be in attendance, we need the Cousins to get their space reservations locked up as soon as possible.

.....Cedric and Talon gave me their vision of the June Faire Tournaments at the last June Faire Board meeting. I translated my notes and sent the resulting list back to them for review and correction. Once it is complete and accurate I'll start spamming the Noble Estate e-list, and maybe others, to generate more attendance. I need to also emphasize the fact that June Faire is a stop on the Kingdom Heavy and Rapier Tournament Circuits. That should be a draw as well as the hopefully spiffy prizes. Really need to beef up that letter before I send it out.

.....Sent batch of award recommendations in to Gabrielle for June Faire. That's a little earlier than last year, but not by a whole lot. Must do better next year. There are several of the newer awards that need Master Scrolls done as well. I'm not sure there is enough time to get them done prior to June. We may end up giving a few 'Promissory Notes'. Certainly not the preference or either TBT or myself. But sometimes you make some compromises. It's the recognition that is the most important.

.....Held a conversation with the Director from the Port of Bremerton today. I'm impressed that we made it to this level. He seems to be willing to work with us. But I suspect some bad news is coming, along with whatever good news he has to offer. At this point in time, I'd rather get all the cards out on the table so we can punt as we need to. All these unknowns are far worse. We'll make due with what we end up with. Deal with those who'll complain (this is the SCA, complaining is an art form :-)). Then we'll move on and get the event done.

.....First thing first, meeting with the Director.

.....Tomorrow is the June Faire Board meeting. TBT and myself are going to stop off at the VFW Hall first and give Ambrose our best wishes (along with cupcakes) as this will be his last Fight Practice in An Tir. He is on his way to Artemesia shortly. We also have other things to drop off there.

.....Wednesday, TBT has a Regional Laurel's meeting.

.....Thursday is the Spring Wyvern meeting at the Subway on Kitsap Way. Should be a straight-forward meeting and get over fairly quickly.

.....Then it is Friday and a weekend with nothing planned. :-) Not many of them left between now and October. I'm going to enjoy every one of them. :-)

.....Time for bed. Zzzzzzz.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....I enjoyed the Kingdom Arts & Sciences and Bardic Championships immensely last weekend, but if the decision to go had been based on what I should have done I probably shouldn't have gone. Our customer at NAVSEA visited us for a Program Review this week. There was more than a little anxiety on the part of management and I spent the first couple of days of the week putting together all kinds of data, adding much information and changing the Powerpoint countless times.

.....In the end the presentations went rather well. We learned much of what is happening at a higher level in the NAVSEA Battery Community, their plans for the future and the challenges they face. The customer had a good look at what we face on the ground level and the whys behind the processes we used. They were able to see how every dollar was spent and why it was and ways they could make it easier on us.

.....The reductions of budget which have been a mantra for many years now have progressed beyond mere slogans to rather drastic and sometimes unexpectedly large cuts. Our program at the NAVSEA level had to absorb millions of dollars of cuts for the next handful of years. Installations still have to happen, so every dime is being examined closely. Every expense questioned more than ever before. In some ways, not necessarily a bad thing. But in others it makes progress painfully slow and research difficult at best. Problems that come up have to stay unsolved at some level for longer time periods than they would have in the past.

.....The meetings were intense and I had to drag myself home as a zombie a couple of times this week. But then I had to put that Silver ring on my head and support the Barony. I love Dragon's Laire, don't get me wrong. But sometimes when given the choice of supporting the Barony and crawling into bed, that bed looks pretty damned inviting. :-)

.....Tuesday night was the Social and was rather well attended. Several people have really taken up the cause of Kingdom largesse and are producing material by the gross. It is heartening to watch and I encouraged everything I could. TBT is seen as the artist though, so it is her approval that is generally sought in this category. I don't mind at all. :-) I had my own issues of supporting heraldry and answering Serjeantry questions. Being a Jack-Of-All-Trades (Master-Of-None) keeps one rather busy. :-)

.....But I did score one nice victory. THL Mateusz agreed to wrangle the Dragon's Laire encampment at May Crown in Omak. This is a score as he is meticulous in his mapping and lay-out and has a good feel for placing people. He is organized and thorough. I will put this out of my mind and not even worry about it, which is rather a relief.

.....Wednesday was Fight Practice at the OSSC. A rather decent turn-out. People we don't see elsewhere always show up for activities like archery and fight practice, which makes a good reason to attend as often as possible. Also makes me glad that Fight Practice and Social are coming back together at the same location and same day in a handful of weeks.

.....TBT cleaned the kitchen on Friday and I worked on backfilling with another load of dishes, laundry and cat boxes. It always amazes me how housework goes chaotic in a hurry. The minute you turn your back the gremlins turn your house into a disaster area. :-)

.....Saturday was a busy day. Started off with a June Faire Site Walk-Through with the Board at 10AM. The major placement of activities was decided, as well as combat formats. Things are really starting to come together. The Board were interacting well and solving issues fairly easily. We ended the meeting on a good note. Plus, we had the opportunity to have good Bar-B-Que on site. Always a plus.

.....Then it was off to the Regional Pelican Meeting at 1PM. A better turn out than I expected, to be honest. Plus many others in the Region who could not attend sent me notes to be included into the overall set of notes from the meeting.

.....There is a lot of pressure from outside the Region to move us in particular direction. The Region itself has its own perspective on things. It can sometimes be interesting to be the Regional Secretary. I actually enjoy the job itself as I learn a lot about many people I might not otherwise interact with. But I find the balancing act a little difficult at times. Maintaining a certain level of neutrality is important to me, especially on some occasions where I think that things are going in strange directions. But, ouch!

.....The notes I publish as the Regional Secretary take up a lot of space. To the point where I have ended up editing far more than I would like. I took a tour of the notes from the other Regions last night to gain some different perspective and was frankly rather surprised at the lack of details contained therein. Our notes definitely fall on the side of being thorough. But even then I think they lack detail. Even though JL has increased the size of the database, I think the notes are going to come off of the database server and reside on the computer (with back ups) and will be e-mailed upon request. That way they can be as large as necessary.

.....Contributing to the candidates database is much better anyway. It's much easier to pull from there to put together presentations. I encourage everyone to do this anyway, but I need to push it more.

.....The whole thing is going to come to a head at some point. Culturally, I find it amazing how differently the Regions act and process information. How do you manage a 'standard'? I'm not totally sure that is possible, but...we'll see what happens.

.....Then it was off to birthday parties. I enjoyed the conversations and interactions. It was fun to just relax and laugh for a while. TBT tired out by 9PM, but I still was having too much fun. She stayed for me until 10PM and then had to call it. I felt bad for essentially forcing her to stay out later than she wanted. We probably should have taken separate cars. But when she called it, I left and didn't argue.

.....Moving the clocks all forward an hour, slowly. I have to get TBT out of bed sometime soon if we're going to do a Starbucks run before the retinue meeting at 10AM. Then it is off to an Arion meeting at 1PM. Sometime today we have to do our shopping run as well. Another busy day. I'm glad nothing is scheduled for next weekend. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....The check from the Kingdom Chronicler's Office for the portion of the legal settlement of the SCA is ready for a second signature and I'll have it into the mail this evening. Just because I'm paranoid I'm going to at least get delivery confirmation at the Post Office kiosk after the Social. I'll just be glad that the whole thing is coming to a conclusion. And it looks like everyone is maintaining an air of civility about the entire process. Which probably amazes me the most out of this whole affair. I was really anticipating flame wars and name calling all over the e-lists. But everyone buckled down and went to work. I wish we approached everything in this manner. The things we could accomplish would be wonderful.

.....I'm hoping and hoping that we as an organization have grown up a little from this experience and shaken off a little of our naiveté. The truly despicable things this person did in the East could really have happened anywhere. Vigilance and attention to detail are not always our strong points as a group, but we need to work on those skills. Amongst other things.

.....Enough said by me on that subject I guess.

.....That check hurt though. The accounts of The Crier are the lowest they've been in well over a decade. The 2010 figures used as a starting point were higher than the account levels are today. It's a good thing we're moving to an electronic format. I guess I will not have to worry so much about what to do with all the extra money as there is far less of it now.

.....Sir Rauokinn brought up a good point in her Live Journal, something we struggle with a lot even in our local branch of Dragon's Laire. An Tir is paying over $120,000.00 as their portion of the settlement while the West is paying around $36,000.00. Both of these figures represent 18% of the amount of the total funds held by the Kingdom in 2010 (including all the sub-branches). Good points were brought up. Is the West divesting itself of savings in order to make purchases (land, regalia, etc.)? Is it just more important to those of the West to purchase what they want and need up front rather than save for 'something better' or a 'rainy day'? Do they have their funds invested in ways that are outside the incorporation? I tended to doubt that one at first, until I started thinking about their Kingdom Land Fund (KHTI), which is an entity completely outside the SCA. Out of necessity and legality, funds cannot go back and forth between these two funds sources at all. But it makes a great and independent way to keep money secure.

.....That is merely speculations though. The West may just have a bigger vision in mind in the handling of their funds, or at least a much different perspective. It would be interesting to come together and discuss our different perspectives and trade ideas.

.....In Dragon's Laire we've always been careful to maintain a healthy balance just in case we have a disastrous June Faire one year. That way we'd have the funds available to support ourselves for at least a year to rebuild if possible. In theory the idea is good, but just how much do you keep in reserves. Enough to cover all the rentals and June Faire for a year? Enough for just June Faire? some have advocated that we keep little to no extra funding as we are a not-for-profit organization. I certainly don't agree with that radical of approach. But balancing out all the different viewpoints and desires of the Baronial Populace can be difficult at times, that's for sure. We could, if necessary, go without a meeting hall, rental fight practice site, and storage units. We've done that in the past, but having all this available has certainly made things much easier on us in many ways.

.....The next several months, at least through June Faire, are going to be interesting to watch from a financial standpoint. We really need June Faire to do extra well this year.

.....I need to keep an eye on the September Crown bills as well. If I can hold off on actually paying many of them until after June Faire, that would be good. I don't really want to have to knock on Kingdom's door and ask for funds up front. Just makes the record keeping more difficult.

.....Serjeantry this year could prove as interesting as last year. In 2011 the model was established. Now we have to go through the growing pains. There will be some changes still in the requirements as we find things that do not work well and things that could work better. We've discovered something already this year we want to incorporate for next year. Last year and this year we announced a time and location of when we would accept Letters of Intent for Serjeantry. We solicited for questions. But we did not, at least this year, actively canvas the Populace to see who was going to submit a Letter. The requirements for the Serjeantry are lengthy, and complex in parts. We need to ensure that the potential candidates understand exactly what they are submitting a Letter to do. I would hate for someone to become excited and passionate about becoming a member of the Serjeantry only to find out that it held obligations that they could not in good conscious accomplish.

.....I think what we might start doing next year is establishing a date, prior to Candlemas, where each potential candidate must meet with us by in order to talk about what they want to do and what they understand of the Serjeantry Program. That way maybe we can head off at least some concerns before they become concerns. Then, if the candidate still truly wants to take part, they can go ahead and submit their Letters. I have often thought that the 'out' was the fact that no oaths are given with the Letters of Intent. But really, a Letter is a commitment and pretty close to an Oath in reality. So we may have to noodle on that concept some more.

.....Something that has become 'tradition' for TBT and myself is a letter to the Baronial e-list after major events and happenings that involve members of the Populace. We think that recognition of the good things people do as part of the SCA is one of our primary missions as Baron and Baroness. The giving of awards is one of the great ways of recognizing these people. But you can't give awards to everyone at an event, they become meaningless quickly. People seem to like their names mentioned though, specifically connected to the things they do at any given event or happening. The letters we've been doing seem to be well received. But they keep getting longer and longer. It might be a good thing that Master Ralg has set a size limit to the Baronial e-list. I'm constantly running against that bulkhead these days. :-)

.....I'm just hoping that there aren't just as many people sighing whenever they see my name flash across the e-list on the computer screen. 'Oh, no, here comes another long snoozer of a post.' At what point does 'recognition fatigue' start setting into the people reading the list? I might start posting short posts on the e-list that direct people to longer ones on the Baronial web-site. I wonder if I can get Aelianora's buy-in on that as the Baronial Web-Minister? Hmmm, might be the way to go. I'll have to solicit some input on that one.

.....Time to update the e-list anyway with items I missed from the original Candlemas post. I seem to be rambling anyway, and it is almost time to go to the Tuesday Social.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....Today we completed Certification No. 1. It took a lot of concentrated corraling of engineers, sailors and administrators. Lots of running from place to place to place. Lots of Muppet Arm Flailing. Lots of phone calls and review of ancient certification tomes of knowledge. But at 5PM, the CO of the Boat received from the hand of the lead engineer a binder of certification paper. This act signifies the official completion of installation and permission to procede with final testing, which will commence on Monday. Huzzah.

.....The final countdown has begun. Final certification is set for Wednesday. We have at least a dozen meetings left to live through. An epic number of Muppet Arm Flailing sessions. And we're all crossing our fingers, and every other body appendage available, that final testing goes off with no hitch.

.....The end is near. The end is near.

.....But I do get this weekend off. I had feared that I would be chained to my desk until late tonight trying to get all the signatures in place. But everything magically came together this afternoon. I was amazed. It was a mystery. :-) But now I get the weekend off. I've got ten million things to get done at home. But it will be....at home. :-)

.....Read a note on Facebook the other day. Someone was explaining why they did not like Live Journal. Basically it came down to having to plow through tons of inane conversations and whining and other 'stuff' that didn't interest them in the least. I can understand that. I don't agree with that, but I understand it. I personally like reading all that inane stuff. It makes for me a connection with someone, strengthens friendship, gives me glimpses into the lives of people I don't know as well as I would like to know them. But I'm just weird that way I guess.

.....However, I know that 90% of the stuff I put in Live Journal is crap. I accept that. I ramble a lot. I understand that. So, if you needed my permission to unfriend me, now is your chance. You have my permission. Fly free! I will not hold it against you. I promise. :-) Although, to be honest. You never needed my permission to unfriend yourself from me anyway. People have done it, and will continue to do so, whether I say anything or not. But some people feel badly for unfriending themselves from another. I can understand that as well. Which is why I'm giving this 'official permission' to do so now. :-)

.....Met today with the Secretary for the Bremerton Motorsports Group. They are leasing a site from the Port of Bremerton out at the Airport that the Barony has been salivating over for YEARS! Every attempt to run the gauntlet through the Port has met a stone wall of nothingness. How BMG was able to pull it off? I don't know. But we could learn some lessons from them! :-)

.....I looked at their eventual plans for the site. The centerpiece being one huge drag racing strip, with full on grandstands to the side. It is enormous! The rest of the site is filled with racetrcks and car courses and all manner of motorsports tracks. It is rather ambitious.

.....However, it is going to take a lot of capital. Millions of dollars. And the group is just getting started. So it could be a number of years before development even gets off of the ground. That's where we come into the picture. It is a great site! All ready to host a June Faire. BMG is talking about it amongst themselves. But Bernie spoke with the President of the BMG, and between him and the Secretary I spoke to today, things are looking somewhat promising to start talking. We'll see how it goes.

.....This, of course, assumes many things. The price is right. The contract is right. The June Faire Board for 2012 is willing to go with this site and plan. And finally, and most important, the Barony as a whole is ready to take on this site.

.....I'm going to run out to the site this weekend and take some pictures. I'll post a few of the better ones to Live Journal.

.....Now I'm going to relax a little and get ready to maybe, like, sleep in a little both days this weekend. :-) YES!!!!!

.....Aaron / Arontius.