MINUTES
Kingdom of Ealdormere – Privy Council Meeting
December 7, 2019, 3:00 PM – 3:45 PM
Meeting called by TRM & Lars
Attendees:
TRM Kaylah and Trumbrand, TRH Rattanicus and Isabel, Seneschal (Arlette standing in for Lars), Exchequer (Jane), Clerk Register (Lucia), Trillium Herald (Rylyn), Kingdom Chronicler (Evan), Earl Marshal (Menken), Lawspeaker (Nicolaa)
Regrets:
Minister of Arts and Sciences (Xristina), Seneschal (Lars)
Welcome from Their Majesties & Kingdom Seneschal
- TRM thanked everyone for attending the meeting.
- Their Majesties have received no commentary on their proposed law changes, which was not surprising to the council as the changes are not considered controversial
Seneschal (Arlette for Lars)
Law Changes for the Reign of Queen Kaylah and Trumbrand
- Changes to the Law regarding award recommendations
Background: Barons and Baronesses were given access to award recommendations during the reign of Edward and Rylyn, while Her Highness Isabel was seneschal, but those completing recommendations haven’t been reading the header on the form, this has resulted in Barons and Baronesses receiving copies of award recommendations for themselves
- The webminister indicated they can set up the award recommendation form from their majesties account, doing so would ensure no one has access including the webminister
- It was suggested by the Her Highness Isabel (as a former Kingdom Seneschal) that the Web minister needs access to correct issues, and has a paid account that allows making multiple forms
- Access to recommendations was a result of Barons and Baronesses requesting it so that they could give baronial awards when appropriate
- The Queen and King can still choose to forward recommendations to the Barons/Baronesses,but it will no longer happen automatically
- The webminister will add a note to the automatic reply (showing a successful submission) indicating that submitters can forward the confirmation with details of the submission to the Barons/Baronesses if they would like
- Changes to the Laws surrounding Crown Tournament
- The Kingdom Exchequer will no longer be allowed to be a Crown Tournament participant because it is too hard to change the office over quickly – the most recent changeover took almost 6 months
- Gender-neutral language specifying Consort replacing references to Queen
- The process for matching opponents in the semi-finals was detailed, to specify that either a second random draw or the current practice of ensuring opponents would not meet those they had already met earlier in the tourney (if possible) was permissible
- New Laws regarding privacy of information
Background: Some individuals have been surreptitiously recording fight practices in order to study opponent’s techniques – this is not acceptable behaviour for modern sports teams and is not acceptable in an SCA context either.
- A phrase will be added to the handbooks for autocrats and seneschals for them to use regarding permissions for photographs etc.
- Her Highness Isabel (as former Kingdom Seneschal) confirmed that fight practices are also legally events
- The US forms created by SCA Inc. are not applicable in Ontario, a form based on the University of Guelph form has been developed
- This may not survive a court challenge
- It will likely still discourage the kind of surreptitious/without permission activity which has been concerning people
Exchequer (Jane)
The Exchequer presented the 2020 Budget Document. The following items were noted:
- $1,000.00 was received from Fall Crown Tourney this year (a number was not available when the budget document was printed)
- Subaccounts that cover their own expenses such as the scribal, commissariate, etc. were left out
- A new line in the budget this year is for bank drafts, the exchequer is in conversation with society about options to save on this
- We may be able to do a paypal transfer for the NMR expenses in the future, but that would still have costs
- Bank drafts are a set fee, paypal is a percentage
- We have suggested submitting quarterly rather than monthly, but this may not be possible
- Slow mail is a problem – it can take up to 3 months for society to receive our drafts, so current practice is to send a picture of the draft when it is put in the mail
- Bank drafts are equivalent to cash – if they get lost it is a problem
- Sending drafts by courier is too expensive
- Currently we are not allowed to send electronic transfers of any sort
- Drafts are sent for background checks and the seneschal symposium as well
- There was one error on the 2019 budget – the donations number didn’t separate directed donations from general donations
- The last 3 years have seen a net loss - $2,611.55 loss for 2019, $3,050.00 budgeted loss for 2020
- We have approximately $20K in investments and $43K in the main account, so this loss is not critical, but we should keep an eye on it
- The Heraldic symposium is in Australia this year, the Kingdom Herald is not expecting coverage of flights etc. to attend, but it is mandated by society that we attend these types of events and society does not provide any funding for us to do so
o What happens if we don’t attend? – nothing for Heraldic symposium, but could be a bigger problem for the seneschal and exchequer symposiums
o The herald’s symposium is every year, the seneschal and exchequer symposium is alternate years
o We may ask if Skype options for these meetings are possible in the future
o It was asked if the heraldic submission money could be used to support attendance at the Heralds symposium – there is a healthy balance in this funding, it may be possible – the Exchequer will investigate
- Let the Exchequer know if you feel any other changes should be made to the budget – an online
vote will be held shortly