Greetings all!
First of all, congratulations to our new Royal Couple, Roland and Jahanara, recently returned from the fabled hospitality of Eplaheimr, I am looking forward to serving in my office.
As part of my duties to the Realm, I had the pleasure of writing up a briefing as to the health of the Principality. This was ably assisted by the reporting provided this quarter by group seneschals, for which I am most appreciative.
Our numbers are steadily increasing in several areas, though a bit flat in others, however, we are sitting at 260 paid UK and Ireland CIC members, plus the numbers in Klakivirki, where they were pleased to report a successful demo at a local Fan Convention, gaining about twenty new contacts. There is a lot of industry across the Isles, with plenty of practices, arts and sciences, and events on a regular basis.
We are still experiencing teething issues with the insurance policy, however, the expansion of coverage to officers and also group equipment seems to have been appreciated. There is some concern regarding officer turnover and being worn out, but I am pleased to welcome Mistress Ariel as the new Seneschal of West Dragonshire, and Duke Vitus as the new Seneschal of Thamesreach. We have also seen Lord Kenneth step up as Flintheath Seneschal, taking over from the sterling efforts of Lady Becca.
Events Calendar 2024 - 2025
As Their Highnesses prepare for their reign, they will be looking for suitable events for their Progress in visiting the corners of their Realm. Please do consider running events great and small for the benefit of all. I have provided a short guide to the resources we have, ready and waiting to support beginner and veteran stewards alike. I have been running events for over thirty years now and am always learning something new. Situations evolve, legislation changes, new event formats emerge, the path of service in eventing is a fruitful one.
Please remember to keep your seneschal in the loop with your ideas – for an event to be official, they need to be sponsored by a group and the seneschal – or the person (likely you) they nominate is the one to write the contract for venue hires, etc. They also are in discussion with other seneschals and will need to know to avoid date clashes where possible (or negotiate a clash).
Events need to be on the calendar to be official. You can ask for help on submitting. This activates the event insurance policies and you need to meet those terms and conditions. For a Court to happen, the event details must be completed in full and to appear in Dragon’s Tale with at least TWO months’ notice. Deadlines are to be found in Dragon’s Tale.
I am continuing to push for events to be announced with as much notice as possible. This benefits your attendees who need to book their annual leave -sometimes as much as a year in advance, and also means you get to beat a pesky wedding to that awesome venue on your desired date, rather than having to accept what’s left.
New Edition of the Event Stewards Guide Available
Finally, many thanks to the Events Council and sundry editors for their suggestions and commentary on the Event Stewards Guide, now updated for the first time since 2004. Your experience and guidance was most appreciated.
Communicable Diseases Policy consultation
Staying with Events for a moment, I have launched a consultation on updating our health and safety where communicable diseases are concerned. COVID might have has centre-stage, but it is evolving, and also other illnesses did not go away and continue to haunt events. This policy, derived from multiple sources, and written by the Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion team, updates our approaches, provides advice on how to approach concerns, and addresses the need to be considerate to our friends’ health in order to maximise the opportunities for them to be able to access and enjoy events. It is not perfect, and our eventing is not perfect, but we can and should do better – being able-bodied and of good health is often a temporary condition. Please do provide comment on the usual email – seneschal@insulaedraconis.org
Positions Open
I’m still looking for potential candidates for Deputy Seneschal. I’ve received a couple of queries of interest, and am in conversation, though I would like to widen the number of candidates. All interested parties will be invited into a general team around this role as we continue to develop.
We are also looking for someone to be Social Media Deputy, providing support and oversight of how we are reaching out to our members and potential members. It feels like the majority of our contact with new people is online, so having someone to help with this would be marvellous.
That’s it for now. See you in the New Year, when I am hoping to impart some brilliant news!
Best
Guy