Aquel and Johanna have started getting into having an entourage (for court, processionals) which is quite different from how Patri and Barbara did things. Do you think you would want to "do entourage" in some fashion?

Having an impressive court -- one with an honor guard, attendants, heralds, pages distributing largesse, and more -- allows those who see it to believe that the people at the center of it truly are a baron and baroness. Further, that they are a baron and baroness of an important and wonderful barony. It's our hope that by having elaborate court processions, we can make the populace proud to be Carolingian.

Having an impressive court -- one with an honor guard, attendants, heralds, pages distributing largesse, and more -- allows more people to participate. More people participating, more people enjoying themselves at SCA events, is good for the barony and for the SCA at large.

The issue is partly one of expectations. Aquel and Johanna have been developing a tradition of Baronial Champions, very much cognates to the Royal Champions. And I think everyone sort of expects that parallel to continue -- just as the Royal Champs always attend Their Majesties in court, so everyone sort of expects the Baronial ones to do the same. And to be fair, we don't really provide the Baronial Champions with anything *else* to do as the duties of the post.

I suspect that Caitlin and I would try to move away from this sort of business-as-usual mode of retinue, although rather gradually. We're very interested in finding other ways of doing things -- I generally find the SCA cooler and more interesting when it's being imaginative. I do think it's important that Champions and such have some sort of duties, so it's more than just a hollow award, but there may be other avenues to explore.

That aside, the only *necessary* member of the Baronial retinue is the herald. I suspect having one or two others available is generally useful, but like I said, I'd prefer that it not turn into a mob...

But not that we want to increase the level of pageantry, processional, and precedence. On the contrary, there would definitely be times as well when we want to be informal and approachable, and a good way to signal that would be to release the entourage.

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.