Welcome to July, Altavia! We hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and are getting to go on fabulous vacations like His Excellency or enjoying time with your families in and out of the SCA.
We’ve only had two events since the last meeting, Lyondemere Anniversary and this past weekend’s Coronation/Privy Council two-for-one. LyondemereAnniversary was a nice day full of many events for everyone to participate in. There was a silent auction, a snow cone booth, several arts & sciences classes, a bardic competition, and , or course, martial championships. Congrats to Altavia’s Taliesin (also known as Son of Santa 😉) for his win in the bardic competion and to Don Nathanial Longbow for his win over Papa Colwyn in the Rapier tournament. Thank you to all who helped with set up and tear down and kept us company in the baronial dragonwing.
This past weekend saw the peaceful transition of power from Valrik and Drada to Adam and Staeina. Thank you to everyone who attended and especially those who provided largesse for the royal couples. We had manywonderful things for both outgoing and incoming Royals and, with the help of Amabel, started HRM Staeina’s dice collection with a lovely set of golden rose dice! Saturday also saw Baroness Tezar step up as Kingdom Lists Officer and, at Privy Council the next day, Master Laertes was officially announced as deputy Kingdom Seneschal. He will take over from Sir Tiberius as Seneschal at Twelfth Night in January. We thank these and all Altavians that step up to serve not only the barony but the entire kingdom!
Coming up this weekend is Consort’s Champion Armored/Rapier in al Sahid. It’s going to be a warm onebut we’ll have the dragonwing for shade and will bring much cold water to share with all. I believe the shire will also have its misters out to help keep both combatants and spectators cool. The following weekend is an early-morning CC Ranged out in Starkhafn. Pennsic follows shortly and we wish Christof and Cecilia and any other Eastward travelers a safe journey and a great time! Finally, the first week in August is Darach Pirate Tourneyand I, for one, can’t wait to actually participate in their famous tavern and ship battles as a combatant for the first time this year!
We’d like to close out this month’s update on a couple of notes about service. As we reminded folks earlier this week, we are accepting Letters of Intent from those that wish to serve as the 9th Baron and Baroness of Altavia through Saturday, August 13. At the September council meeting, we encourage everyone to attend and ask questions of the prospective barons and baroness that have thrown their hats into the ring. We are looking forward to seeing the next generation of leaders for Altavia begin their journey.
Speaking of leaders, if you know anyone who is looking for a way to get more involved with the barony or you think needs a nudge to get more involved, please let myself, His Excellency, or Sybilla know. We are always looking for deputies to back up our officers and eventually step up into the officer role. We often hear that it’s the same few people trading office back and forth (this is NOT a problem limited to Altavia as we heard at privy council) but it doesn’t have to be that way. We know there are people out there that want to help but they just might not know how. We’re happy to chat with folks and point them in the right direction!
Have a great month, everyone, and try and stay cool!
Yours in Service to the Dream,
Baron Nikolaos Phaistos
Baroness Briana MacCabe
