Welcome to the Online Clann Tartan Newsletter for March 2011

BOARD ELECTION RESULTS

At the Members' Meeting and Board elections on Saturday, February 26th, Karen Bastien was re-elected as Vice President, David Vavreck was re-elected as Quartermaster, and Mia McDavid elected as Secretary (she had previously been filling the position as an interim appointment by a grateful Board). The position of Company Rep. was not filled.

Glenn McDavid will be assisting Mia as Newsletter publisher and general web lackey.

FARGO CELTIC FAIR

Clann Tartan has been invited once again to fill a table at the Celtic Festival sponsored annually by the Fargo Park District at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead. The 2011 date is Saturday, March 12. As noted last year, it's an easy event: no tents, no pikes, and the show even provides us with hot lunches. But it is about 230 miles from the Twin Cities, so people often get a hotel room or stay with friends on Friday night. The Web site for the festival is Fargo Parks Celtic Fair; you can view the physical location—which is worth a visit by itself—at Hjemkomstcenter.

Discover the Manual

A lot of valuable information is in the current Clann Tartan Manual.

Wanted!

Deadline for articles to go in the April newsletter will be the 15th of March.

Present were Julie, Bruce, Karen, David, Mia, and Margaret representing the Staff.

Minutes for December were approved as modified.

No Vice President report.

Treasurer: We ended November on a deficit of $390. In December after spending $180 on rent and taking in $7 on interest the deficit is $565.

The Secretary: Anthea is not up to date in the Roster and this needs to be fixed.

Quartermaster: The cannon carriage making event has been postponed. No progress on the musket.

No report from camp or company reps.

David suggested that as guilds are poorly attended between Thanksgiving and Christmas we might want to cancel meetings in that period next year.

David found some good lumber from Craigslist for historic site walls. This should be a line item for Staff budget.

Lunch will be provided for attendees at the Big Island History Fair.

Staff might make posters for Ramble saying where we are and what we have going on.

Mankato: Contracts for this show are due out soon.

Twig has been cancelled this year.

The sandwich board was left at the Skunk Works at Jack's; David is to retrieve it. The other two are illegible; we discussed having something appropriate printed on computer and laminating the sheets to the boards.

Members' meetings announcements are required. We need a time and place for May.

New Business: Someone tripped a burglar alarm at David's workshop during First Footing and the police came out. If there is a charge the Regiment will pay since this was regimental business. We discussed how to prevent this in future.

Coalition of Clans has asked for parade participants at Aquatennial and at Richfield on the Fourth of July. There would be no cost to us; we want to have camp followers handing out membership leaflets.

We discussed having a Board meeting in February since the Members' meeting is so late and are going to do this.

Respectfully submitted,

Mia McDavid
Secretary; Clann Tartan

Staff Meeting Minutes — February 10, 2010

1. Contracts and Upcoming Shows

   • Big Island Historical Fair, Sat., Feb. 12, 10–6, and Sun., Feb. 13, noon–4

   Arrangements were made at dance practices on Tuesday, Feb. 8.

   • Scottish Ramble, Sat., Feb. 19, 10–5, and Sun., Feb. 20, noon–5

     Margaret will bring the minatures. Mia will bring the pikes. David will bring the muskets.

     The building will be open early on Saturday for set up.

     Liz needs a list of our participants in advance.

   • Fargo-Moorhead Celtic Festival (March 12):

     • Lunch is provided by festival.
     • Timing of first call. Next week or just after Ramble
     • There will not be much space (layout is four or more tables in a U).
     • We need to arrange transport of the pikes, muskets, and minatures.

   • Siege of Woodville, Friday, April 29

     We need to have a lead organizer, since Laura's schedule prevents her from doing this. Laura agreed to get Sarah a list of the tasks that need to be accomplished to make the event happen. We will need to work with Jake at the school. If any of our demos have have special requirements we need to arrange for those. We will make a request for a lead organizer at the Feb. 26 memberhip meeting. We also need to arrange trailer haulage.

   • Minnesota Scottish Fair & Highland Games (Saturday, May 14)

     Katherine Grant will not be available to lead the waulking. If we want to do it, we are on our own for the music, unless we can find another leader soon. If we do it, we will need to have some fabric for waulking. Looks like we will not have anything freshly woven, but Rich and David both have fabric that could be used.

   • Fort William Celtic Fair, Sat., July 23, and Sun. July 24

     It looks like this will be a 2-day event in 2011. It is a long drive, so attendees will need to take Friday and Monday off as well.

2. Reports

   • Captain: Nothing new.

   • HCF: Nothing new.

3. Staff Budget for 2011–12

   • Copies of the proposed budget were distributed to staff. There was some discussion and revision of the price for some items. We would like to have more kiddy pikes and some dummy muskets for drill.

     The income figure for Fort William is a very rough guess.

   • Corporate vs. private (O'Duggan) sponsorship for Johndezvous

     The issue is how to open it up to non-members without insurance issues.

4. Monthly Drill Planning

   • Feasibility of carrying muskets in city park

   • Low attendance at drill

     Eric reported on his survey of the members. Some of the responses cannot be addressed at the Staff level. Location and reminders are two issues that we did discuss. Location could be addressed by having drill move to different locations. The problem then is that members might get confused about the location in any given month. As for reminders, drill is announced in the newsletter at the beginning of the month, but happens late in the month when members may have forgotten about that. Email reminders a couple days before drill would be helpful. Dance does this automatically, but the current general membership e-mail list does not have this kind of calendar system.

     Two general proposals were made:

     1. Expand camp drill to include coverage of specific muster requirements. Hopefully the desire to meet some of those requirements will encourage more members to attend.

     2. Scrap monthly drill and the weekend muster. Replace them by several "mini-musters" through the year at various locations. These could last all day or be as short as two hours. Each would be presented as a unique event, rather than a regular drill. Military drill, camp drill, and muster requirements would all be included.

     These will be presented to the membership at the Feb. 26 meeting.

     Some other ideas:

     • We should have more drill at events, especially outside of public hours.
     • We need to explain to the membership that good drill is essential to our credibility as a military reenactment group.

   • February 26

     Drill has been replaced by the annual membership meeting. Perhaps we could also have a marching drill.

   • March 26

     Clothing: Bodices or cut hose. At Yoders'.

   • April 23

     Library. Also presentation/discussion on writing a character (muster requirement). At Margaret's.

   • May

     Serving ropes.

5. Membership Meeting Planning (in conjunction with Board)

   • Recruitment

     There is a brainstorming session tentatively scheduled for February 24.

     From what Sarah has seen (personal experience, conversations with others, and dead internet links), volunteer participatory organizations of all sorts are having membership problems now. We are not unique. Members who stay on consistently cite the friendships they have developed in the organizations as a reason for their continued involvement.

   • Event development

     • Fort Snelling: The problems are that they do not do anything for our period, and that they do not pay

     • We might send a delegation to Military History Fest (formerly Reenactor Fest) in 2012. This would not be a paying event (quite the contrary), but it would be a good opportunity to network with our counterparts in other groups.

   • Other old business

     • Equipment repairs: Based on the success of refininishing the wooden ware at the January meeting, we could have a similar session for polishing armor. For this a garage would be more suitable than Julie's pristine dining room.

       We should oil the leather at the end of every season, before it goes into the garage for the winter.

     • Calendar crowding: We have a busy calendar, and our attendance issues may be somewhat correlated to the sheer amount of what is going on. Dance practice four times every month dominates the schedule. It still seems to be better attended than the other events.

   • Next Staff Meeting

     7 PM. March 3, 2011. Location: Margaret's house.

If you need to contact someone associated with Clann Tartan, here is where you find out how. If you are unsure who to contact, you can always email us at: info at clanntartan dot org

Guilds

Contact:
David Vavreck
baethan1630 at yahoo.com
612-378-1973

Music

We will sing and play music of many styles and places from our period. Bring your voice and/or your instrument(s). Neither need be period correct.

The Yoders have graciously offered to host music once a month. We will meet at their house at 4736 12th Ave S, Minneapolis, from 7 - 9pm the 4th Monday of each month.

To contact the Yoders, call 612-825-4519 or email to Julieyoder at juno dot com.

To contact your Music Chair, call David at 612-353-1237 or email to baethan1630 at yahoo dot com

Thanks, and I look forward to making some noise with y'all!

David

We have a yahoo groups email list for the guild that we use for reminders about the meetings and topical discussions. If you want to be on the email list, request an invitation to join from Bruce at bruceyoder at juno dot com.

The Dance Guild gathers weekly from 7PM-9PM to learn and practice historic Scottish country dances.

1st & 3rd Wednesdays

Dance will meet at Lake Hiawatha Neighborhood Center, 2701 E 44th St Minneapolis.

It is at the corner of 27th Av S and E 44th Street. Both streets are one way. That block of 44th between 28th and 27th Avenues is one way westbound and that block of 27th Av between 44th and 43rd Streets is one way northbound. You must enter turning west onto 44th St from 28th Av and exit from 27th Av onto 43rd St.

2nd & 4th Tuesdays

Saint Christopher's Episcopal Church, 2300 N Hamline Ave. in Roseville.

It is at the northeast corner of Highway 36 and Hamline Avenue (Hamline is between Snelling and Lexington). The church is actually encircled by the highway entrance ramp.

For more information call:

Mary at 651-699-6853 or Julie at 612-825-4519.

It's a great place to meet people!

We have a yahoo groups email list for the guild that we use for reminders about the meetings and topical discussions. If you want to be on the email list, request an invitation to join from Bruce at bruceyoder at juno dot com.

Fiber Guild

Historic Site

Drill will be on the fourth Saturday of March and April. After that, we will be replacing the current monthly camp and company drills by "mini-musters". Watch this space and the members' list.

12 NOON Military drill, for soldiers and campfollowers alike, Minnehaha Parkway green, 12th Av S at Minnehaha Parkway.

1 PM Camp Drill, work on projects and discussions of relevant topics.

Calendar of Events

Be sure to contact your staff if you plan on attending a show event. Try to give at least a ten day notice when possible. This allows proper planning for the feeding of our members, and in some cases is required by event organizers to allow entry as a participant.

You can call any of the staff members listed, or send an email to staff at clanntartan.org.

MARCH 2011

SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
		1	2 Dance Lake Hiawatha Neighborhood Center	3	4	5
6	7	8 Dance Saint Christopher's	9	10	11	12 Fargo Celtic Fair
13	14	15 Deadline for articles for April newsletter/ BOARD MEETING 7PM @ Yoder's Home	16 Dance Lake Hiawatha Neighborhood Center	17	18 Night at the Pub 7 PM at Merlin's Rest 3601 E. Lake St. Minneapolis	19
20	21	22 Dance Saint Christopher's	23	24	25	26 Drill 12:00
27	28 Music@7PM Yoder's Home	29	30	31

APRIL 2011

SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
					1	2
3	4	5	6 Dance Lake Hiawatha Neighborhood Center	7	8	9
10	11	12 Dance Saint Christopher's	13	14	15 Night at the Pub 7 PM at Merlin's Rest 3601 E. Lake St. Minneapolis  Deadline for articles for May newsletter	16
17	18	19 BOARD MEETING 7PM @ Yoder's Home	20 Dance Lake Hiawatha Neighborhood Center	21	22	23 Drill 12:00
24	25 Music@7PM Yoder's Home	26 Dance Saint Christopher's	27	28	29 Siege of Woodville Woodville, WI	30

Event Schedule:

Hello all,

The following is a list of the dates of the events that are currently on the schedule for this year. The staff has met and decided to keep this running list of events in the newsletter to give you a chance to get an idea of what is going on this season as well as keep you updated to changes in the schedule.

The column titled status will include the following information.

Tentative- this means that an event organizer or Clann has expressed a strong enough interest in doing this event that it warrants reserving space on the calendar for the event.

Pending- this is the next stage of an event. This means that the Contracts Administrator has entered serious discussion about Clann doing an event but we are still not committed to the event. You should however if possible think about whether or not you may be able to attend this event.

Scheduled- this level means that the board and staff have approve the event and we are committed to providing manpower to making the event happen. When an event is assigned this level please let the HCF know as soon as possible if you can or can not attend this event.

Canceled- This means that for various reasons an scheduled event has been removed from the current season. We will try and give as much notice as we can prior to canceling an event.

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact staff regarding this matter

Thanks,
Your Staff

Maps

1st and 3rd Wednesday Dance Lake Hiawatha Neighborhood Center 2701 E 44th St., Minneapolis	Map to St. Paul location St. Christopher's- Dance
Map to Bruce and Julie Yoder's Home Music and Board Meetings 4736 12th Ave S, Minneapolis 55407	Map to Margaret's Home Host for staff meetings 2636 17th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN