[Northkeep] 1/24 Joint Fighter Practice

[Seneschal of Northkeep]

 Bonjour, all!

A couple of important notes/announcements about today's practice and the
next few practices:

   1. I know it was posted on Facebook and mentioned in Her Excellency's
   weekly activity email but I'll throw it out here again for good measure:
   Tonight's fighter practice will be held indoors at the O'Brien Park
   Community Center
   (6149 N Lewis Ave Tulsa, OK 74130).

   2. The elephant in the room:
   Yes, it's doing all kinds of Winter things outside and all around the
   Northkeep metro... (Un?)fortunately not IN the metro. I'm keeping an eye on
   the radar during breaks at work and right now nothing looks too terrible
   but of course there's a lot of time between now and 6:00, especially when
   you think about it in microwave, hockey, or American football minutes. So
   that everyone has a chance to act, one way or the other, Their
   Excellencies, the marshallate, and I will make a final decision in the
   3-4:00 hour and let everyone know here.

   3. A few house rules for the site:
   a) The site requires athletic, or at the maximum, soft-sole period shoes
   to protect their flooring. I don't think that's really an issue for anyone
   around here but I felt it was very much worth mentioning as it's a hard and
   fast rule for the community center.

   b) The site closes at 8 and that's also, effectively, when the workers
   get to go home. I don't imagine they're going to chase us out forcefully
   but we're really trying to make a good impression here so let's not mess
   with them too much. Kind of like at the library, we'll be making some
   announcements for 30 and 15 minute warnings. Please heed them based on how
   long YOU know it takes to take off and stow YOUR gear.

   c) This is a family community center and we're a family organization.
   Let's all, as always, try to keep that in mind with our interactions as
   we'll be in more close quarters than usual here and are likely to have
   observers from both the staff and community over the next month.

   4. Speaking of this being a family community center... This one is also
   a big one but it's more a favor to me, Their Excellencies, and in a way the
   SCA:
   I'm sure we all know that, despite how we sometimes play, we are an
   educational organization. It's what our mission statement and effectively,
   if not literally, what our 501c3 status is based on. With that in mind, the
   staff and administrators of the Tulsa County Parks and the O'Brien Park
   Center are very interested in that mission statement and goal and have
   offered us this site with, at the minimum, reduced rental fees in an effort
   to develop a sort of long-term "partnership" with the Barony. And that's
   where the favor/request comes from:
   I'd like to invite all the members of the Barony to try and come to all
   fighter practices at this site for the next month and hang out if you're
   well and able. Bring a project or just come to be social and even come in
   garb if you can. The folks with the Parks administration that I chatted
   with are very interested in seeing what we're about so they can pass it up
   the chain when they're working on cutting us a deal at the end of this
   trial period and the best way to make that happen is to give real-time
   examples. Remember, we are all hospitallers, even if that isn't with a
   capital H, and we all have a part to play in retention and growth of this
   Society we hold so dear.

Anyways, that's all I've got. I know nobody is shocked but I apologize for
getting a little long-winded regardless. I think I managed to get all my
thoughts out.

Can't wait to see folks tonight, as long as the weather holds out.

-- 
In service,
Centurion Alexandre Crane
Northkeep Baronial Seneschal