January 2025 Officer Reports

Posted on January 15, 2025 By Ellyn Grene

Following are the monthly officer reports that have been submitted prior to the Bhakail monthly business meeting of January 16, 2025..

Coronet’s Report – Baron Mikael melrakki 

Greetings,

Well, I have survived my first month as Baron, so I guess that is a good start. 🙂

Once again, I want to thank everyone for your faith and confidence in me.  I will strive to do my best for Bhakail and hope to see the Barony prosper.

I have set myself several goals for things to work on to improve the Barony, such as reviewing our bylaws and financial policies, our event planning process, and our champions.  However, if there are other things that you have noticed that you believe can be improved upon, please let me know.  

I am here to serve you, but I can’t do everything.  I need you to be my eyes and ears. If there are people needing recognition to let me know. If you have ideas, come forward and let me know. If you can run a class or a workshop, let me know. If you want to help, but don’t know where to start, let me know.

Mikael

Archery Marshal – Lady Ellyn Grene

Practices are on hiatus until spring appears.

I’m now set up to submit scores for the InterKingdom Archery Competition (IKAC), which is a privately sponsored “postal match” style shoot open to the entire Known World. The annual standings are based on the scores of the top 3 archers from each kingdom in different divisions, and medals are awarded after the season closes. The divisions are based on equipment used (open bow, open crossbow, period bow, period crossbow), and with adult and various youth archer divisions. An IKAC round is equivalent to two Royal Rounds plus 2 timed ends each at 30 and 40 yards. Support the East in 2025 by coming out to Bhakail archery practice and shooting some IKACs!

Chamberlain – Dame Ysmay de Lynn

There will be an organizing session sometime in the next few weeks to put everything away, from Yule and Tavern, label and catalogue everything. Having all the items in the same place seems to be working for the event stewards and cooks. 

Chronicler – Lady Ellyn Grene 

The chronicler keeps chronicling. If you have any content to contribute to the next issue of the Salamander, please get it to me by Jan 20.

Minister of Arts & Sciences – Honorable Lady Scolastica Capellaria

Winter is here and its time for our Bardic and Gaming Competitions which will take place at the Sign of the Elderflower and Boot on January 25:

***Bardic Competition:***

This year’s Bardic Championship will be in two rounds.

One round will be based on the theme of Winter.  The work can be, warm & cozy, seasonally festive, dark & cold; however you want to represent the season.  The other round will be bards choice.  Be prepared to present a favorite performance piece, or something you love. 

Performances may be any kind of entertainment, including but not limited to songs, instrumental music, stories, dance, juggling acts, and puppet shows.  Pieces should be period, period-compatible, or SCA-related, but no documentation will be required.  Each piece should be less than 5 minutes.  If there are five or more contestants, contestants may be eliminated after the first round.

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***Gaming Competition: ***

Bhakail is in the midst of an exciting time!  We have just witnessed the Investiture of our new Baron, kennari Mikael melrakki.  It is one of His Excellency’s early obligations to appoint a new Baronial Gaming Champion.  At Tavern at the Sign of the Elderflower and Boot, a new Champion will be decided.  The format will be as follows.  Boards will be set out for chess (a medieval form, rules below), nard (backgammon without doublets or a doubling cube), alquerques, plaisant (modern checkers or draughts), and fox and geese.  Players may play any combination of games, but must win at least two different games.  The player with the most wins at the end of the tourney will be declared the winner.  In the event of a tie, the champion will be decided by a best of three of nine man morris.

Our version of chess will be one of the earliest versions, taken from CA #71 and called “simple chess” by the author.  All pieces except the pawn and the queen move as modern pieces do.  The pawn does not have an opening two space move, but otherwise moves and captures as in modern chess.  The queen may move only two squares, though in any direction as in modern chess.  There is no castling.  A pawn that makes the final row is promoted to the capitol piece that started in that space, though the king or queen’s space is promoted to a bishop.

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If you are interested in teaching a class, holding an A&S night, or other A&S related activity, please contact me!

There are A&S opportunities at the following local events:

•       January 18, 2025: Owlsherst County Twelfth Night (York PA). A&S Display, period games, sing-along and dancing.
•       January 25, 2025: Tavern At the sign of the Elderflower and Boot. Barony of Bhakail (Philadelphia). Baronial Bardic Competition and Period Games Competition.
•       March 1, 2025: East Kingdom Crown’s Arts and Science Champions Competition: Kingdom A&S Championship! Settmour Swamp, (Washington NJ.)A great place to display and compete on the kingdom level.
•       March 8, 2025: Nova Schola, Hartshorndale (Collegeville PA). A Day of learning with classes!
•       March 29, 2025: Mudthaw XLIV, Settmour Swamp (Washington, NJ). A&S Challenge and Display.

The Kingdom MOAs office now has a calendar for arts and science events across the kingdom! https://moas.eastkingdom.org/event-calendar/

Deadline for entering the EK MOAS A&S Online Display is November 15, 2024! Contact me or email MOAS.Display@eastkingdom.org with any questions or more information.

If you have any A&S interests that you would like to explore, need help researching something, or are looking for resources feel free to email me at MOAS@bhakail.eastkingdom.org. I also would love to see what you are working on! Please send me pictures of your projects!

Chatelaine – Lady Chana Freidl the Maker

I have reached out to everyone that gave me their contact information at PAX, a total of 67 emails.  I copied their local chatelaines as well, allowing me to reach out to chatelaines in 6 kingdoms.  A lot of people have yet to respond, but a couple people have been in communication since PAX and we are looking forward to welcoming them.  I highlighted Tavern as a great event to introduce them to the SCA in a small environment, and I know at least one newcomer will be joining us there.

Pennsic report – Pennsic pre-reg has begun, and online paid pre-reg ends June 15th.  Please note the Pennsic War website has been updated, and new rules about Pennsic are being released.  If you camp with Bhakail, please notify me if you intend to camp with us again this year before pre-regging.  We will have a camp meeting this Sunday, January 19th, at 5pm using the Google Meet link used for our baronial business meetings (https://meet.google.com/gpf-gerd-ikj).

Webminister –  Máistir Mael Eoin mac Echuidh

I am still redoing the website; the current theme is a custom theme that doesn’t allow photos and having newcomers encounter a wall of just text isn’t very engaging. Looking for content – photos especially – to keep the website appealing.

Officer Reports

• ← December 2024 issue of the Salamander