How will you make your mark as baron/baroness of BBM? I.e. what is your focus/main area of interest in the Society, and what steps will you take to put your plans in motion?
Sisuile Rumhann says: We fought over this question in our house – Rumhann maintains quite strongly that having a goal of “making your mark” as baron and baroness is antithetical to being of service to the populace. Sisuile is of the opinion that while it shouldn’t be a goal it is something that happens – as we said before, each new baronage brings different perspectives and themes to the group with the leadership change, and one should have a plan.
Our goal as officers, baron & baroness notwithstanding, is to increase engagement. According to the last census, there are a lot of members of the barony who we never see. There are more who we will sometimes see, but who, for one reason or another, do not engage with baronial activities, be they events, practices, or social gatherings. So – how do we get these people active locally? It involves: 1) finding out what activities they want to participate in; 2) figuring out times and locations that are the most inclusive to all corners; 3) taking the initiative to seek out and ask if people want to participate, rather than assuming they will do so on their own 4) working with those who feel they have been silenced or ignored and gave up on the group as a result. The long term goal is to have people as officers, event staff, and participants who are not “the usual suspects.”
On a more personal front – expect there to be a lot more thrown weapons, and more social potlucks. Frequently both. Because we enjoy pointy things and feeding people, and if we get to combine the two, all the better.
Mark Gwenllian says: We would like to see the barony have a “signature” event. While we have a few great events, we would love to be known for an event everyone talks about and wants to bring their friends and family to. Since the end of Simplefare, we don’t think we have an event that raises the Barony’s profile in the Kingdom. (Although Artifacts of a Life is getting a lot of attention and growing still) Steps toward this would begin like planning any other event: discussion, assessment of resources, etc. We have heard there are some people who have stopped being involved because they don’t care for some things that have happened during the last few years. We feel we can help heal some of the hurt feelings through our current relationships with some of those people and move toward bringing those folks back into the fold. We plan to do that by reaching out to those folks to see what we can do to facilitate the healing process.
Khazariyya and I feel our mark has already begun on our barony. We firmly believe that a title is not needed to get where we need to go. Everyone can make a difference.
We started with only the desire to bring more activities to our area, with our main focus at the time being a Youth Heavy Practice for our son Rhath. I began Fencing, throwing weapons, and archery and worked for my marshalate in 2 of those activities, achieving Fencing marshal for adults and youth as well as Thrown Weapons marshal for adults and youth. I also began, and still am, an MIT for Youth Heavy.
I used these marshalates to open the first youth practice in BBM in many years as well as an adult Fencing and Heavy combat practice site. Circumstances made the Youth Marshal for heavy in our area unavailable, so it now continues at the Middlefield practice with the adult Fencing continuing in East Haddam. We are, again, looking for a site to accommodate Youth Fencing.
Khazariyya helped along the way using her connections in the town she owns her business as well as her experience with marketing to find and secure a place and advertise it. She also has held several sewing days as well as a very successful monthly bardic circle at our house.
I guess you can say our main focus is the increase of activities including more for youth to get involved in.
Another idea we have is to offer a proposal for term limits on officers. 2 year term with the possibility to re up after 2 years to a 4 year term. This will prevent burn out as well as stagnation. We would propose it through a change of Baronial custom at a business meeting.
This Barony also has many great A&S artisans. We would also like to bring back having an A&S Champion. Another proposal.
Khazariyya and I have attended many events over the years and have stayed for court participating and/or watching depending on whether we are serving the current royals or not. Khazariyya makes it a point to pay attention while in court to their proceeding and awards, converse with the neighboring barons after about their system, and gathers information and new ideas to incorporate into our own Barony Beyond the Mountain. One of these ideas was a youth specific award. She picked up the idea of a Youth specific award while at Bridge and broadened it while in court at Concordia of the Snows. The result is a Youth Award, she is mulling with Order of the Sapling, with 3 different colored backgrounds. One color for A&S, one for service, and one for marshal activities. If the Youth receives all 3, they will also receive a scroll. This method encourages the kids to get involved with all the avenues of the SCA. This will also be accomplished as a proposal in a business meeting.
This has already begun, but we would like to continue meetings held in all areas of the state.
We would also like to strive for at least 4 events per year in all quarters of the state. We have an idea to try to turn Summer Solstice Shoot into a weekend camping event where all of the championships will be held and, this too, will be proposed at a Business Meeting.
That covers it for now, but we are always looking for new ideas from any populace member who has one to help create more fun for Barony Beyond the Mountain.
We are listening, and we do hear you.
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GrimKaz says:
It has been brought to our attention that there is a misinterpretation with our wording about the Middlefield youth practice. We were not taking credit for the Middlefield practice site. We were speaking of the Colchester youth practice, which we started April last year, as it’s own separate entity, which is currently not available. We were then trying to give credit to Middlefield practice as to where youth is currently available, as well as it’s own entity. We bring our own son there and they are doing a fantastic job.
Khazariyya and I feel our mark has already begun on our barony. We firmly believe that a title is not needed to get where we need to go. Everyone can make a difference.
We started with only the desire to bring more activities to our area, with our main focus at the time being a Youth Heavy Practice for our son Rhath. I began Fencing, throwing weapons, and archery and worked for my marshalate in 2 of those activities, achieving Fencing marshal for adults and youth as well as Thrown Weapons marshal for adults and youth. I also began, and still am, an MIT for Youth Heavy.
I used these marshalates to open the first youth practice in BBM in many years as well as an adult Fencing and Heavy combat practice site. Circumstances made the Youth Marshal for heavy in our area unavailable, so it now continues at the Middlefield practice with the adult Fencing continuing in East Haddam. We are, again, looking for a site to accommodate Youth Fencing.
Khazariyya helped along the way using her connections in the town she owns her business as well as her experience with marketing to find and secure a place and advertise it. She also has held several sewing days as well as a very successful monthly bardic circle at our house.
I guess you can say our main focus is the increase of activities including more for youth to get involved in.
Another idea we have is to offer a proposal for term limits on officers. 2 year term with the possibility to re up after 2 years to a 4 year term. This will prevent burn out as well as stagnation. We would propose it through a change of Baronial custom at a business meeting.
This Barony also has many great A&S artisans. We would also like to bring back having an A&S Champion. Another proposal.
Khazariyya and I have attended many events over the years and have stayed for court participating and/or watching depending on whether we are serving the current royals or not. Khazariyya makes it a point to pay attention while in court to their proceeding and awards, converse with the neighboring barons after about their system, and gathers information and new ideas to incorporate into our own Barony Beyond the Mountain. One of these ideas was a youth specific award. She picked up the idea of a Youth specific award while at Bridge and broadened it while in court at Concordia of the Snows. The result is a Youth Award, she is mulling with Order of the Sapling, with 3 different colored backgrounds. One color for A&S, one for service, and one for marshal activities. If the Youth receives all 3, they will also receive a scroll. This method encourages the kids to get involved with all the avenues of the SCA. This will also be accomplished as a proposal in a business meeting.
This has already begun, but we would like to continue meetings held in all areas of the state.
We would also like to strive for at least 4 events per year in all quarters of the state. We have an idea to try to turn Summer Solstice Shoot into a weekend camping event where all of the championships will be held and, this too, will be proposed at a Business Meeting.
That covers it for now, but we are always looking for new ideas from any populace member who has one to help create more fun for Barony Beyond the Mountain.
We are listening, and we do hear you.
It has been brought to our attention that there is a misinterpretation with our wording about the Middlefield youth practice. We were not taking credit for the Middlefield practice site. We were speaking of the Colchester youth practice, which we started April last year, as it’s own separate entity, which is currently not available. We were then trying to give credit to Middlefield practice as to where youth is currently available, as well as it’s own entity. We bring our own son there and they are doing a fantastic job.
We would like to see the barony have a “signature” event. While we have a few great events, we would love to be known for an event everyone talks about and wants to bring their friends and family to. Since the end of Simplefare, we don’t think we have an event that raises the Barony’s profile in the Kingdom. (Although Artifacts of a Life is getting a lot of attention and growing still) Steps toward this would begin like planning any other event: discussion, assessment of resources, etc. We have heard there are some people who have stopped being involved because they don’t care for some things that have happened during the last few years. We feel we can help heal some of the hurt feelings through our current relationships with some of those people and move toward bringing those folks back into the fold. We plan to do that by reaching out to those folks to see what we can do to facilitate the healing process.
We fought over this question in our house – Rumhann maintains quite strongly that having a goal of “making your mark” as baron and baroness is antithetical to being of service to the populace. Sisuile is of the opinion that while it shouldn’t be a goal it is something that happens – as we said before, each new baronage brings different perspectives and themes to the group with the leadership change, and one should have a plan.
Our goal as officers, baron & baroness notwithstanding, is to increase engagement. According to the last census, there are a lot of members of the barony who we never see. There are more who we will sometimes see, but who, for one reason or another, do not engage with baronial activities, be they events, practices, or social gatherings. So – how do we get these people active locally? It involves: 1) finding out what activities they want to participate in; 2) figuring out times and locations that are the most inclusive to all corners; 3) taking the initiative to seek out and ask if people want to participate, rather than assuming they will do so on their own 4) working with those who feel they have been silenced or ignored and gave up on the group as a result. The long term goal is to have people as officers, event staff, and participants who are not “the usual suspects.”
On a more personal front – expect there to be a lot more thrown weapons, and more social potlucks. Frequently both. Because we enjoy pointy things and feeding people, and if we get to combine the two, all the better.