St Aldhelm’s College Seneschal

As of the 4th August, and for the rest of 2008, college meetings will be held on the first Monday of each month. Any special or extra meetings will be posted to the Aldhelm’s mailing list. The change is partly because other commitments prevent most regular members from coming every week, and will make it easier to plan more structured activities during meetings. Suggestions for future college meetings include having classes on making silver rings, doing SCA research, and shoe-making.

The college also plans to hold a second semester newcomers’ feast on the 7th September. This is Baronial Sunday, which means the college can utilise the potluck feast which occurs on that day. The feast will be advertised as $5 for dinner and costume hire (the standard cost of attending Baronial Sunday potlucks). As the potlucks are a regular event, the event will not require a great deal of extra planning, and the college will not have to pay for hall hire.

Finally, the next movie night is scheduled for the 29th August, and we plan to show Cadfael and A Knight’s Tale.

While ICW is the main news from the last few months, the college has also been planning movie nights, both because they’re fun and as a means of raising our profile within the university. The movies we plan to show will be either set in period or SCA classics. The first movie night was held on 27th June (which was the end of the exam period) and had a pirate theme - we booked one of the Manning Clark theatres and screened Pirates of the Caribbean and Muppet Treasure Island. Future nights will be held about once a month during semester.

Of course the main news since I last posted is this year’s college war, which is now over, ending with St Ursula’s as the victor and St Aldhelm’s a close second. St Bartholomew’s came third. The College of St Ursula won a painted silk banner of their device, and the other two will receive pennants. Each college could win points not only by winning the war, but by competing in heavy and fencing tournaments and entering the A & S competitions. The A & S competitions had an astonishing number of entries, including lovely blackworked pieces, some *interesting* brews, and a bardic circle. The combined colleges initially dominated the war battles thanks to their greater number of archers before agreeing to a heavy/light swap, thus making subsequent battles fairer and more entertaining for combatants and spectators alike.

This was my first college war and I personally enjoyed it immensely, as did everyone who attended. For this thanks is due to a number of people. I cannot name everyone whose help made the event a success, but I wish nevertheless to name a few individuals. Gabrielle of the Marshes and Mathilde Hastings were excellent event stewards who ran the event extremely well, leaving me with little to do. The cook, Bastian, performed the extraordinary feat of satiating over thirty students’ hunger over a weekend, with the help of several people who consistently volunteered for cleanup after each meal. Crispin Sexi and Joan Sutton spent most of a day judging A & S entries, and His Excellency Alessandro offered his services as marshal for the entire war day, after which Her Excellency Isobel judged the bardic circle competition entries. On behalf of my college, I thank these people and everyone else who contributed to the event.

Our college website is up! It has meeting times and contacts as well as ICW information - visit it at http://www.sca.org.au/st_aldhelm/index.html. I’ve also added a link to it on the right. Many thanks to Mathilde Hastings, who spent many, many hours putting it together. All your work is much appreciated, and the site looks fantastic!

I am exceedingly happy to announce that the College now has an operational bank account. Many thanks to Alice verch Owain for accompanying me throughout the looong application process.

The cost for ICW has been fixed: $85 for the whole event (four days fully catered). Thanks to Sui for offering to help with war scenarios and his Excellency Alessandro for volunteering as marshal.

Finally, the college website is almost complete. I hope to be able to post a link to it within the next fortnight.

Inter-College War XIV and a half is scheduled to run from the 10th to 14th of July. Caloola Farm has been booked as the venue, and a list of competitions is available - see the link on the right. No alliances or enmities have yet been officially determined, although there is historic enmity between Aldhelmites and Ursulans.

The College is officially on hiatus until the end of the teaching break. Meetings will resume on the 28th April in COP G029 (now that the evenings are getting cold and dark).

Finally, I have received the official affiliation letter from the ANUSA, and my deputy and I are working on regaining access to the College’s bank account.

Festival has happened. Most of the college (such as it is) attended. We made much profit on market day, due especially to the efforts of Elizabeth and Mathilde. The site for ICW has been chosen.

More details shall be forthcoming when I have survived next week.

The College of St Aldhelm had successfully bid to hold college war this year. Gabrielle of the Marshes (Jenny McInnes) will be stewarding the event, which will be held in Politarchopolis in July. A list of competitions has already been posted to the colleges mailing list. Further details will be announced as I get them.

One of the College’s main events of the year, Newcomers’ Feast and Tourneys, has come and gone. The event was held at Corroboree Park, Ainslie, on the 8th March. Approximately 40 people attended. Congratulations to the winners of the rapier and heavy tourneys, Don Francois Henri Guyon and Duke Sir Cornelius von Beck. The feast was attended by almost everyone who came to the tourneys, and at its conclusion their Excellencies Alessandro and Isobel held court, during which the Baronial Guard was changed over and the position of College Seneschal passed from Elizabeth Beaumont to me, Lefquena filia Juliane.

I thank everyone who attended this event, but a number of people deserve to be mentioned by name. Mathilde Hastings spent the entire event, and much time before it, working as the feast steward, and was assisted by Alex, Elizabeth and Fiona in the kitchen. I cannot adequately express my gratitude to Joan Sutton and Crispin Sexi for their assistance to two novice stewards, but be assured it was much appreciated. One of our newcomers, Kieran, spent a fair amount of time at his first event helping set up the hall, along with Orianna. Sir Philipe du Lac organised the tourneys, and he, Cornelius, Kitan and Alesia did much of the tourney field setup. As the populace was overwhelmingly generous in offers of support I may have unintentionally missed some names, but I do offer sincere thanks to everyone who made the event a success.