[Northkeep] State of the Investiture address

[Rebecca Minton]

T-minus 22 days until Investiture. We'll get the official announcement of the Crown's decision in a matter of hours. We can make personal adjustments then, but for the moment, here's where we stand and what I have so far:

Feast: The tentative menu from Ceara
"1st course: Bread, Flavored butters, Cheese, Spiced pears
2nd course: Cheesy meatballs, Potato cakes, Green beans
3rd course: Alloes of beef, Minestra di carote, Cinnamon rice
4th course: Celtic Shortbread, Strawberry soup, Pudding pie
Lunch: Meat (probably summer sausage type), cheese, some sort of bread or roll, some fruit, and probably cookies all tied up in a square of fabric so they can take it and go. Perfect for a non-sitting lunch."

It may change slightly depending what she finds on sale. No, I don't know the exact details on each dish, or even exactly what some of them are, but she's an awesome and highly experienced, feastocrat and I totally trust her. A lot of you may know her, she's the redhead who did the lampwork/beadmaking class at WinterKingdom. She has asked for about 5 people to be kitchen staff. Sophie has graciously agreed to be Kitchen Liaison, so if you're interested in helping prepare feast, please contact her. She will be the go to person for the kitchen and the feastocrat. She is also working on feast tokens, and could probably use a volunteer or 2 to help out with those as well. So please jump in there and help us out. 

Franziska will be our decoration coordinator. I will find out from the site how soon we can go in on Friday to get started with set up, and let everyone know. I know we can for sure have the site by 5pm, but if we can have access to it earlier then we can get a jump on it, and get more sleep the night before the big day. 

Thorvald has agreed to plan the fighting and martial activities. It's a very laid back event and a day of relaxation, so we won't have any formal tournaments, but personal challenges should be a lot of fun, and maybe some "Bottle Jousting." I have the equipment for that and will bring it. He may need some help setting up the field so volunteers there would be appreciated.

There will be an A&S blitz challenge with about 12 stations, documentation, and supplies. Teams of participants will have a set amount of time at each station to follow the documentation and make/do what it says with what's provided. I saw  this on another group's website and it sounds great, so we thought we'd try it here. There is also a track for kids. The person handling this has already left for Steppes, so I will post the details later upon their return.

The site token molds have arrived and Ainar has them. I leave it to his expertise as to how much assistance he may need when he's ready to make them. He'll let us know when he's ready. He has fire and knows how to use it, so we don't want to get in his way. 

Angus Gunn has agreed to be the Brute Crew leader. He will need people to help with things like Hanging/removing banners and decorations, Setting up/breaking down the thrones, Moving tables or such, Help carry stuff in for the royals, barons(esses), feastocrat, etc. Will also need some members to be runners for various things that arise (taking a glass of water to her Majesty, running extra pens to troll or a fire extinguisher to the feastocrat. etc) . Brute crew will need to be on site before and after hours for setup and breakdown. Please contact Angus G. if you are available and able to be brutish..


These are the positions I still need volunteers for:

Sheriff: I'm not sure if that's what this officer is called here or not. Basically someone who can Post the signs directing members to the site, Place butt cans outside, 
Coordinate with Brute crew to set up/breakdown wash station outside feast hall, and to block off unused areas of the site, Minor site security – examples  - asking people not to smoke in non-smoking areas, please climb down from there, please wrangle your child, etc., and Coordinate with Nastycrat about trash collection and removal. That kind of thing. Please let me know if you'd like to do this.

Nastycrat: I'm pretty sure this is SCA universal, but just in case it's not..The nastycrat is the one who would Keep bathrooms stocked with handsoap, toilet paper, and paper towels, Coordinate with Brute crew to set up washing station outside feast hall where members can wash their feast gear outside and not in the bathrooms/kitchen. Keep the wash station stocked with Soap, and clean water. Coordinate with Sheriff and Brute crew about trash collection and removal, and butt cans.

Publicist: Coordinate with autocrat and seneschal about writing site booklets, Printing booklets and signs (keep out of kitchen, restricted area, A&S room, Baronial room, prop room, zombie closet, etc)  or arranging to have them printed. Posting event flyers to local lists, cross-posting as necessary. I'm only on this one list and still so new to the kingdom that I don't know how site booklets are typically done here so I need to delegate that to someone who does. Somebody who is eloquent and well connected would be great for this job.

Head Troll: I don't know if troll is automatically the Reeve's department here or not. In GA, event officers are most often completely different from group officers, I make no assumptions here and if Judy has this part handled, then that's great. However, I don't want to dump it in her lap without asking her. Either way, the head troll will need volunteers to help out. Since it's a one day, I don't know how many people we will need or how many "shifts" per say, but I'm guessing about 3-4ish.

Waterbearers: Not necessarily waterbearing on the field like we're used to, but someone who can keep the coolers stocked for the people outside, take drinks and such to the stationary staff like troll, and take lunch to their majesties and our 2 sets of Baronets.

Hall Steward: This gentle would essentially be one running the main hall. They would assemble a team of feast servers, whatever entertainment is planned during feast, and possibly set out a few period(ish) games on some of the tables. (If anyone has things like a 9 man morris board, or would like to play period card or table top games, please feel free to bring them). The hall steward would coordinate with the brute crew when it's time to arrange the tables for feast, etc. 

Site heralds: This should be self explanatory. Need about 3-4 people with good lungs.

Royal Liaison: Someone to work with their majesties and take care of  their minor needs, and to communicate greater needs to the appropriate staff member.

I am also in need of some minstrels or musicians. If you know of anyone or have SERIOUS suggestions, please let me know. 


Here are some things I am NOT planning on doing:

Merchanting. This is meant to be a laid back event for everyone, and a lot of times merchants never get to participate in the event because they have to man their booths. Lets not worry with booths, tables, tax verifications, and such. Let's just have a good time. Yes, I have authorized the bake sale, but as I understand it, that's a fundraiser for the barony. 

Additional fundraisers. The bake sale is fine, and it always does well. You may have noticed the lunch menu above. Lunch is included with the troll fee. It was part of the original bid and budget, the feastocrat is putting it together, and site/feast prices were adjusted accordingly. We are not planning a formal sit down lunch, so she prepared something easily portable that can be eaten at a table, outside, or anywhere food is allowed. 

All day children's activities. I am not asking anyone to spend all day with the children or running a track of children's classes. There is a children's track of the A&S blitz, but parental supervision may be required at the discretion of the gentle running it. 


I will be on site until their own cleaning crew arrives to ensure that everything is clean to their standards, and that we prevent and misunderstandings about the state of the building. Basically, I'll go room to room with them to make sure our reports are the same. 
This is a hugely long post, so if you would like to reply to it, please trim the post by cutting out all previous text below your reply. This will help avoid confusion and make it easier to read. 
   Thanks A Million!!!
      Rebecca