January Revel

After the disappointment of not being able to get to 12th Night in Northwoods last weekend, it was fun to have such a nice revel today. We had a great turnout, up near the top numbers we've had in recent years, with 24 during the day and 22 dining.

In keeping with our current practice, we had our Shire Council during the meal. Still seems strange to me, but it appears to be a pretty good idea. I noticed some of our members were a trifle bored by the half-hour meeting, but most people didn't seem to mind the captive audience idea. We got some decisions made, at any right. This is a concept that was adopted during my absence in the summer, and I'm content to continue to try it. Certainly the dedicated business meetings on a weeknight once a month weren't working all that well.

Before the meeting, I convened an officer's meeting to get everyone caught up with their duties, since we had had a good deal of turnover. We used a PowerPoint presentation I compiled yesterday to guide the discussion, and it seemed to work pretty well. After I tweak it, we'll put it up at Stormvale's website. Which makes me think that other presentations might be useful: how to put on an event, for example, or more detailed presentations for how to get started with a particular office. Or a run-through on how to get started in armored combat.

I've noticed something in recent years - January is always an unusually well-attended revel. I wonder if it's because the holidays are over and people are ready to get back at the SCA? If it's going to be a reasonably big deal, perhaps we should call it our 12th Night. Actually, I'd like to make each month's revel a little special, with a name or title.