Baronial Status

By Master Killian Carrick
While talking with Don Andrew at May Crown it became apparent that Ambergard is going through many of the same problems as Dregate.

They are experiencing officer burnout and new members are few and far between. Both shires have also hit a plateau as far as energy levels go. With depressed economies and high gas prices, this has also lead to few numbers at local events and less interplay between branches.
Ambergard is actually close to not having a core of officers and going into abeyance. It concerns me that Dregate might be heading the same direction.
After the event I did some research on the kingdom and society governing documents where I found the following from the SCA Corpora:

A branch or contiguous group of branches may petition for baronial status at the members' option, subject to the approval of the Crown if the resulting entity meets the requirements listed below:
- At least 25 members.
- A set of officers acceptable to the Crown
- A name and device registered with the College of Arms.
- Consensus favoring advancement in branch status. This consensus is determined by kingdom law and custom.
- If the branch is to be a barony, arrangements shall have been made with the Crown at the time of application for baronial status to select and appoint a Baron and/or Baroness in accordance with kingdom law and custom.
- A strong record of activity in a variety of fields of Society endeavor.


After carefully checking the state map, I found that we do indeed share about a mile of border with Ambergard at Banks Lake. This means in theory the two branches could combine numbers to form a barony! This lead to more research and some phone calls. I asked Andrew what he felt about the idea. He was positive and brought the idea up at Ambergard’s general meeting to see how the branch would feel about the possibility of looking into the matter further; they were unanimous. Andrew thought it wise to consult Cranehaven as well about the idea and so far they are intrigued with the idea and are
willing to look into the matter further.

Let me be plain: This isn’t a headlong push for a barony. This is just to let everyone know that there is a way to possibly accomplish this if the populace of Dregate and the Kingdom are willing.

Here is the downside to a Barony:
Choosing a Baron and Baroness. Sometimes with other branches this has lead to hurt feelings/ bad politics. Please remember that although polling is conducted for support, it is the privilege of the Crown to choose the Baron and Baroness.

More land to manage. This will mean more travel. Officer meetings could be conducted via teleconference to save travel (less medieval but more practical). Monthly meetings would need to travel around the barony to be fair to the populace. More travel would be needed to support events.

Convincing the Kingdom Seneschal/ Crown this is a good idea. When you look at a map of what the barony would look like, it is almost 20% of Washington State! We would need a good argument to persuade them that we could manage such a large chunk of land.

Here is the breakdown of the benefits to a barony:

A Barony has a Baron and Baroness as representative of the Crown. As such they can give our local awards (shires can only give out tokens).
The Baron/Baroness can also hold court at local events. This would give more of a Royal presence at events if the Crowns do not attend. This has been a problem with the Ambergard feast. When no Royals show, the gate count is low.

The Baroness can also recruit Sergeants (heavy fighters), Yeomen (archers), Gallants (fencers), Lancers (equestrians), and Courtiers (Arts and Sciences) to represent the Barony. These can be local or people from out side the geographical boundaries of the barony. They petition the Baroness and a test is conducted periodically for new
members.

Having more land and members means that we could move events around to prevent burnout or increase the gate by hosting an event at a site that might promote more travel by outside players (such as a Crown closer to I 90). This also opens up more potential sites to be used for events.

More members: This would mean more hands to spread work around, more potential officers and new blood.

Something new: We have hit a rut locally. There is nothing new for us to do, no bars left to rise. This would give us years of newness.

So since there was no general meeting this month I felt I needed to get this out. So what do you think? Should we peruse the possibility of a barony?

I see that many people have viewed this topic but there have been no comments. What do you think? Yay or Nay! Why or why not?

As per Kingdom ruling last year, we no longer have a Patron. If we want pageantry we can create it for ourselves. Sargents trials have always drawn and inspired people.
Will it be work? Yep. Will it be fun? If its not, it's not worth doing.

I suggest a discussion be scheduled into Revel's schedule, and hearty invitations to gentles from Dregate, Ambergard and Cranehaven, to hear their opinions, questions and concerns. I volunteer Killian to moderate the discussion if he's willing.
Friends from existing Baronies who attend can also be asked to contribute the pro's and con's they've encountered in their processes.

~my two cowrie shells worth~ Oso

As one of the "Burned out" officers of Ambergard I too am open to exploring the question of combining groups to make a Barony. I am not sure how to go about all this logistically. I understand the concept of many hands make light work. I am also involved in other organizations (what? SCA is not my whole life? )And have seen that in every group, no matter what the numbers, always a core of people end up doing most of the work. It's easy to say if it's gonna help let's do it but we don't know that. I guess this post did not really say much but I do think we need to talk more and explore.

Archos Bacchus of Ambergard

PS is it ok that I got on your forum?

Of course it's okay you are on the forum . This subject affects a lot of people and not just Dregate. Companion Oso wishes to have a meeting at Dregate's September Revel. Absolutely everyone on the planet is invited and we hope they all make it (though our feastocrat may not agree). Any points you would like to make are welcome here and will be passed on if you cannot attend. This is a new forum so we are not loaded down with users..yet.. but we will be.
Thanks for taking part and I hope you continue
In Service
HL Cerdic Stuart

So I have a couple questions.

1. So if we were to become the largest Barony in the State can we support that with members?
2. If all three groups combine to form a Barony what happens to each groups Traditional events? Yes more hands make light work, but more people bring more opinions and now an event that might of happened up at Lost Lake for the last 10 years is now happening in Wenatchee..
3. If the Baron and Baroness were to be in Moses Lake is every one ready to do more traveling?
4. With such a large piece of the state now our Barony what makes Okanogan county appeling for a site?? When Wenatchee or Moses Lake are available?

I don't know if I am for or against the idea, but I know many of us probably have alot of questions that need to be answered in order to make a informed decision.

Each group is still going to need to find new members, rally the troops and get people motivated and I am sure we all need to do that now as well if we were to become a Barony, that will never change. Travel will always be an issue for many, for the ones that can travel, great! For the ones who can not, I do not believe they will be any more involved than they are right now and maybe even less.

I hope that if we do become a Barony that there will be a huge rush in everyones blood to get involved and make it the greatest Barony ever, but if we do not work on making our local groups strong now we will not be strong than and when the newishness of a Barony wears off, where will we be?

If we decide to join together into a Barony, there is an excellent chance that we can convene distributed meetings for minimal cost using the ITV equipment at Wenatchee Valley College, WVC Omak, and Big Bend CC. That would save some gasoline on routine business-type meetings. There are also ways to do multi-point connections through cameras on our personal computers. ("Medieval times as they should have been!")

If we choose to join together to form a barony, we might want to come up with a new name for the combined region.
A new entity that bears the same name as one of the existing units might give some groups the feeling that they were being swallowed up. But if the combined entity has a brand new name, all three of the original units could feel like they were making a step forward into something new and larger, with new energies and new opportunities.

At Harvest Feast in Ephrata on Oct.23 we are going to have an hour set aside at 4 pm for a discussion.

I think that Baronial Status is a great thing to aspire to. Pageantry in the SCA is part of what makes it fun. Having a Baron and Baroness would make the Crown "ideal" physically present at events and thus more in mind as we go about our business at events. More hands make light work.

Things will change if we go for Baronial Status and I think they would change for the better.
It is the nature of life to constantly change and wanting things to stay the same is in our human nature.

I say, "Take the risk, trust in your friends"

I fee that this could be a very good thing we all play together so much now we could be one big group , Yes i know it would mean alot of extra work for us all but as a team we could all do it and have fun at it and i agree with compainion Oso if we can not make it fun it would not be worth it
mondu

Hello-

After some arguing with the discussion board it has finally decided to let me log in.


Killian