It has been a busy spring with the transition of two offices, College of Three Ravens, developing bids for our Baronial Champs event (May) and Pax (June), and a few changes to our Policies and Procedures.

Welcome to THL Athos, our new Thrown Weapons Marshal, and to our new Herald, Baron Fridrikr. I thank His Lordship Timothy and Her Ladyship Pleasance for their service in those respective offices.

Offices renewing in July are:

• Seneschal
• Fencing Marshal
• Thrown Weapons Marshal
• Steward

Please forward applications for those offices to me by the May business meeting.

Several changes to the Baronial Policies and Procedures were passed at our February Curia. These all came about as a result of my edit of the Policies and Procedures, and are all essentially housekeeping changes. These should appear in the new edition of the Policies and Procedures, to be released as soon as our Chroniclers/Webminsters can get to it.

1.3.4 Knight Marshal, 1.3.5 Archery Marshal, and 1.3.5.1 Thrown Weapons Marshal description of duties of the office:

Old text: Send non-member practice waivers to the kingdom waiver secretary on a monthly basis.
New text: Send practice waivers to the kingdom waiver secretary on a monthly basis.
Rationale for change: it’s not just non-members who might have to sign a waiver.

1.3.8     Minister of Arts and Sciences

Old text: Keep track of possessions of the Baronial Arts and Sciences office.
New text: House and maintain possessions of the Baronial Arts and Sciences office.
Rationale: To be consistent with language for the other offices.

2.6 Duties of Autocrats

Old text: Send a copy of all event-related correspondence to the Archivist for inclusion in the Event File.
New text: Send a copy of all event-related correspondence to the Seneschal or designee for inclusion in the Event File.
Rationale: We don’t have an Archivist. Plus, elsewhere in the document it says that the Seneschal or someone appointed by the Seneschal shall maintain this file.

I withdrew one proposed change at the February Curia because it was more substantial than a mere housekeeping change and people didn’t have much time to consider it. So I’m proposing it for the next Curia.

Old text: In the event of an emergency, the designated deputy may fill the office only until the Seneschal has accepted applications and the selection process has taken place.

New text:
In the event of an emergency, the designated deputy may complete the remainder of the term. Alternatively, the Seneschal may appoint a contingency officer and/or call for applications.

1.5.4.1.1 Contingency officers may complete the remainder of the term.

1.5.4.1.2 If applications are taken, the selection process shall take place but may be expedited if necessary.

I'm proposing these changes to make management of emergency situations more practical. Elsewhere in our Procedures it states that officers need to have a designated contingency deputy in case they can't fulfill the duties of their office. It's not very practical to have that requirement but then require a call for applications in the event they are called upon for duty. 1.5.4.1.1 is proposed to provide some flexibility. 1.5.4.1.2 I added the part about expediting the selection process because that whole process takes a while to complete from the time applications are called for, and sometimes we need an officer faster than that.

That’s all for now – happy Spring!

Peregrine