Master John McGuire

The vast number of guilds and groups encourages people to play in every area that they find of interest and is one of the greatest strengths of this Barony. Travel to other baronies and listen to their activity list, most of which occurs on one night and includes fighting/fencing and dance and a bit of sewing on the side. The do not have the wealth of knowledge and activites that we do. Revel in the fact that we do have this many activities!

To encourage the various martial arts, I would like to see a little more flash for the Baronial champions and guards as well as for the Baronial fighters. The recent fighting tabards and blue and gold shirts worn by the fighters are serving tabards and LARP garb that I made around the time of my entry to the Barony. They sat in storage, for a while but still they are almost a decade old and were never designed for that activity.

I would like to bring back some of the flash of the CRC, but spread across all of the martial activites.

I would like to make the Baronial court and processions a bit more colorful with more banners, better costumes and a bit more dramatic air. Well, I am a costume Laurel, what did you expect. :) While I want things to be more impressive, I would like to keep the approachable air that Johanna and Aquel maintained.

Barring that, declare a war on you neighbors at least once a year and lead a horde of troops against them. Or ally against yet a third Barony. This greatly improves interbaronial relations... :)

(The Hotline... The process for the last election... etc.)

We appear far more distant and unaproachable than we are.

We are usually quite well dressed and scurrying from one group of friends to another trying to say hello to all the people we know at an event and sometimes miss the new people who we have already intimidated due to the quality of many of the local outfits, foods, activities, etc. We need to make a bit more effort to notice and welcome new and out of Barony folk.

I would like to add a bit more of visual pomp and flash to events.

More and bigger banners, well dressed courts, better disguising of more modern features of halls. We have been improving for years and we still have a way to go.

Unfortunately we run the risk that people will get used to others cooking and cleaning for them. I have cleaned up after Carolingian and out Barony events lately and I was apalled at how much garbage was being left around and how few people were staying to help. Are we just at the stage that through sheer numbers we are leaving more cruft and people just assume that someone else will voulunteer or are they getting used to a cleanup staff...

I am vaguely in favor, particularly for college students or those on a limited budget, but would like to encourage more uncomped volunteer efforts.

What little bits I have control over, I try to keep as period as possible. If I take an apprentice, we have a contract and I follow that. I do not give a green belt. When my apprentice has mastered the basics and has reached the point that they are researching and starting to create their own works and start to teach others the basics, I promote them to Journeyman, particularly if they have done an initial masterwork.

I prefer to be slightly early rather than too late. Someone who feels that it is slightly early is often revitalized and tries to live up to the award, but if you are much too late often the person is slightly burnt out and does not appreciate it as much. Better late than never though.

No, much of politics is benign or well intentioned. Unfortunately many are not aware of how their good intentions can be and are interpretted differently by others.

The end came far too soon though... After a frantic moment of trying to figure how to warn the amorous couple who had just walked up the hill to another of the Xs, that they were not alone... I remembered that I still had a cold coke with me... A single "Pop", was followed by instant silence and a quiet scurry.

The traditional Baronial Champions will stay the same, I just may dress them better.

I will make certain that I am as approachable as I can and will try to be as approachable as the current Baron and Baroness.

I will keep courts as interesting as possible.

I will continue to support the arts and all other activities in the Barony.

I may build a new set of thrones... The current ones are nice, but too big and a lot of work.

I have considered restarting the Carolingian encampment at pennsic for all of those people who do not have a household.

I will not be the judge of brewing competitions. Sorry, I am allergic to alcohol. I will instead appoint an official "Food Taster" at events that require such judging. :)

On the Mundane side: The Baron/ess is the voice of those who for whatever reason do not feel represented by the council. As a figurehead some people will approach you who will not otherwise approach others. You act as a lighting rod for complaints and kudos. It is your duty to speak up for those people.

It is also your duty to address the Council or the Sceneshal if you see them about to do something that would reflect badly on the Barony. Once you have spoken up, it is then your duty to step aside and let the Sceneshal and the Council do as they please.

It is your duty to approve events and to make every effort to attend all Baronial events/councils and a reasonable sampling of guildmeetings so that all Baronial members have the opportunity to approach you.

I would like to find a way to inspire more pomp in the Baronial court and activities. One of the things that worked well in the past was the CRC and the uniform of the matching cloaks. I am tempted to revive a version of that where the Fencers would once again don blue half cloaks, heavy list would don 3/4 length cloaks or winged tabbards and the archers would don shoulder length hoods. It would make processions interesting...

At minimum I would like to outfit the Baronial champions and the baronial guards in this manner, but it would be nice to be able to do so for any Baronial member who is willing to pledge fealty to support the barony. I personally can probably swing the base cost and patterns to start, but would look for some assistance from the community to see how much support the idea has.

Each weapons discipline would have a captain, a champion, one or two possible lieutenants and the rank and file members. How to decorate for each position would probably be similar to the CRC method.

It would also add a bit of ceremony to court as the various Carolingian martial orders called in new candidates and bestowed cloaks/hoods upon them.

Yes there will still be friction between groupd, but as all members will be pledged to the betterment of the Barony, and there will be an overlap, hopefully the friction will be kept to a minimum.

In a seperate set of questions, I stated that I wanted to encourage the martial activities a bit more and to add a bit of pomp for them as the CRC did for the fencers. A small number of people from the various martial activites, chosen acording to event and inclination to for a small entourage would encourage pomp, without burning anyone out.

K.P. If the cooks can handle the extra volunteers.

Free time.
The ability to skip a local event.
I do not expect to have as much time for projects.

Affect Other Activities:

Increase attendance at order meetings...
I am more likely to participate in martial activites.
I expect I will be doing more regalia and Baronial based projects.

I have a great deal of patience and am willing to deal with everyone including those members of the Barony who occasionally rub others the wrong way.

I can organize fairly well and can motivate people to participate in projects. I will take the initiative to help make the barony look good. I am still learning about delegating, but I am getting better.

I treat people well and do my best to encourage them

I am willing to listen and to act upon good suggestions. I can recognize people who know more about a topic than I do and know when to defer to their knowledge.

I can store, transport and assemble the thrones myself... :)

My ego is large enough to withstand constructive criticism, while still being small enough that I feel no need to dominate a discussion or activity.

I have a fairly strong group of people who will provide support and assistance so that I can do the job of Baron well, without burning out.

My weakest area is heavy list, where while I attended practices for a while in Dragonship Haven I never qualified. Not having a helmet that fit, I could hit my opponent, but I couldn't see their sword until just before it impacted. (I died a lot. :)

I have a new apprentice, Gisele who is a long distance apprentice in any case. I expect that there will be no difference in that relationship, other than I will still reccomend that she move back to Boston. I may ask her to help as a retainer at an occasional event, but that will depend on her being local at the time..

Boroughs tend to have people that show up, learn, participate and then leave within 3-4 years. In the Boston area, many stay longer, but many are only here for that long. If the borough people are active and helpful and worthy of an AoA or other award the Baron and Baroness need to write the Crown with reccomendations early enough and make the crowns aware that the awards are time critical, so that they are still given while the borough member is still living in Barony.

The Baron/Baroness are are there to make the event feel more medieval and to add a little more to the magical feel of an event. In Court, or just around the event you should encourage that feeling for all participants, without making yourself distant. You have to appear regal and commanding without scaring away people who are new and uncertain. Johanna and Aquel did a good job of this and as did Patri before them. This is pretty much a case of knowing when to look aloof and commanding and when to crack a smile or to utter words of encouragement.

For all of the above, I would follow the examples of those who have gone before me, and try to live up to the examples set by Patri, Johanna and Aquel.

The Baron/Baroness are the figureheads of the Barony, they have to be visible, look resonable and always act in a welcoming and courteous manner. They have to encourage all of the arts, all of the services, all of the marial activities and all of the new people who come in not knowing about any of them.

Assisted my former journeyman Lucretzia with the Renaissance Clothing Workshop at Mitguard. Brought two machines and helped students make shirts.

I assisted a number of individual borough members make patterns and clothing.

I have a standing offer of teaching anyone who asks, and I repeat that offer in email or at council several times a year. I usually get a few new college students following up on that every year.

As Baron I would be a bit more circumspect and have someone else approach them and introduce them to gold key and mention that the Baron and a few others are happy to teach. As Baron a comment on garb could be more intimidating, and thus I would avoid making it.

When is any martial group ready to produce a champion? If you have a relatively stable population, are respected by the Barony and the group feels that they want to put forward a representative for court it may be time. If you are holding successful theme events where the draw is thrown weapons, then it is probably long past the point the point that you should have a champion.

If you can average 8-10 people a week at your practices during the summer and/or around 15-20 at events then it is probably time to push for a champion. If you are lower you might want to wait longer unless you believe that having a champion will encourage more people to join thrown weapons.

The problem with a Champion is that you have to attend the same courts as the Baron, but you just stand there. While this may be interesting for a reign or two, it gets old quickly. If you do not have a large enough and fluid enough base of people to draw champions from, the same small core of people will keep becoming champion and that can become boring and can be a disencentive to people participating.

I would welcome a Champion, so long as the activity base is large enough to support one and keep them fresh. I however would not want to have an event four or five years from now when all the main members have been champion and no one wants to compete and do it again...

I fondly remember the pomp and enthusiasm that the CRC added to Patri's court. I would like to bring back some of both.

While I have not fenced since College, (2.5 years), I have made fencing outfits for a number of people over the years and still intend to make some for myself, it is just that other projects keep having a highter priority.

Who knows this might finally be the impetus I need to finally make the fencing doublet from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion.

I will at least die, looking the part. :)

I wold like to make them more noticable as a group and have them under take a few tasks at the kingdom level. A group in livery (see below) showing up to escort the Queen of the East at Pennsic for midnight Madness or some other activity , or showing up as a group in livery to assist with list marshalling during battles, as well as acting as Baronial supporters during local events and Baronial sponsored activities at major wars.

I want to make the Carolingian fencers visible as a group, being helpful and getting noticed. If that can be done without boring or burning them out then I would like to do so.

I see a role for the Fencers in the pomp and circumstance within the Barony, see [the "structure of marshal activities support question].