GUILD MEETING AND AGM 2019
March 2019: There will be a Guild meeting and AGM at Rowany Festival, April 2019. Details are still being arranged, so please check the event timetable for details – https://festival.lochac.sca.org/festival-2019-timetable/activities/day-view
ROWANY FESTIVAL FOOD FIGHT 2019
March 2019: It’s time once again for the Annual Festival Food Fight!* (not an actual food fight – there will not be any food thrown).
HOW IT WORKS:
Space will be provided in the tavern on the day of the Food Fight. Bring along your food and a container to hold voting tokens. The populace of Lochac will be provided with 3 voting tokens each. They then taste each dish and may cast votes for up to 3 dishes (or they can give all their tokens to the same dish). At the end of the competition (officially it will go for an hour, but the previous 2 have gone for much longer) the votes will be tallied and the person with the most votes wins. The winner will receive the prize hamper, a toque which may or may not be Taillevent’s actual toque (supplied by last year’s winner) and bragging rights.
TO ENTER:
Bring along a single dish with documentation that will allow at least 20 people to have a small taste (remember, the more people taste, the more votes you’re likely to get!). Small taste means a reasonable sized mouthful.(Note: single dish could include a roast meat with sauce. But it does not include a roast meat with sauce and a side dish of bacon.)
The Food Fight will be run early – at this stage its scheduled for Thursday and that is unlikely to change. You do not have to accompany your entry – space will be provided for you if you send it with someone else, though please provide good documentation so your entry can be judged fairly. You will also need to provide a contribution to the prize hamper to be given to the winner. This can be any small but extremely useful kitchen gadget or any pantry item you think will be valued by a SCA cook (eg, pepper, spices etc.) You will also need to provide your own serving plates, utensils and cooking space and equipment if required.
NEW GUILD MISTRESS
September 2018: Please welcome Mistress Leoba of Lecelad as the new Guild Administrator.
Transfer of records etc. will take several months, so please be patient.
AGM AND FESTIVAL MEETING 2018
COOKS GUILD MEETING FESTIVAL 2018
Meeting opened at 2:05pm.
Present: Leoba of Lecelade (Christine Lawrie) (chairing); Marit the Wanderer (Marit Warlow); Ragnhildr Freysteinndottir (Helen Brinsmead); Gilluean ua Tomaltag (Stephen Drane); Mathilde Hastings (Kat Watson); Isabella de Bordeaux (Lyn Rudd); Tatianitska Iaroslavna (Tina Ryan)
Apologies: Sigvald (Alex Selth); Leonie de Grey
• Indications of rank:
o Would be good to have something, preferably recognised by the College of Herald s
o Order of Wooden Spoon (Ragnhildr)
o Love Spoon (Ragnhildr)
o Burning/engraving the device in the bowl of the spoon (Tatya)
o Masters of Guild would get a pewter pipkin token – funds from Greater Kingdom Fund (Ragnhildr)
o Small wooden spoons or sushi paddles
• Holly planning to step down as administrator – Administrator duties were read and explained (Printed below)
The Guild Administrator: The administrative head shall be known as the Guild Administrator and may be of any rank. The Guild Administrator must maintain a current file of members and reply to their correspondence.
Each member’s rank and progress must be recorded and filed. It is the duty of the Guild Administrator to notify members of their change in rank as it occurs. He or she should maintain and augment any Guild resources or index.
The Guild Administrator reports to their Highnesses, the Lochac Minister of A&S and the Lochac Seneschal prior to Twelfth Night. The Guild Administrator may appoint deputies and assistants as necessary (including, but not limited to, a newsletter editor and Web minister) and may appoint a substitute to run the Annual General Meeting if unable to attend)
The Administrative Head of the Guild should hold office for not more than two years (unless no other acceptable candidate is available. If this occurs, the administration position is renewed for a further six months until a replacement can be found). The Administrator will select their successor based on merit and ability, and shall notify the Guild members in writing of change of administration details. If possible, the Administration position is to be passed to a Guild member from a different geographic area, ensuring Kingdom-wide rotation of position.
In the event of proven incompetence or mismanagement, an Administrator may be removed from the position by a majority vote of all active members.
o Marit noted the duties statement needs to be revised as it still refers to “their Highnesses” rather than “their Majesties” (highlighted)
• Issues: people having to fill out forms to join the Guild– is there another, easier way for people to join the Guild?
o Possibilities:
Online form
Joining FB group (this is essentially what happens in WCoB – Embroiderers’ Guild)
o This also pertains to recipe submission – is there a different way to submit recipes and comments?
Online – may be able to a template on the WordPress blog and people can submit their own
The recipes currently aren’t disseminated – having the recipes online would mean there’s a bank of recipes, and also the recipes can be assessed for different levels of rank
• Mastery and rankings
o One major issue that was discussed was concern over the rankings – a candidate “gets the boxes ticked” and gets Mastery, there is no examination of a person’s skill level
o Would also like to encourage breadth and depth – a person should be able to novice, apprentice, master in one field if they want rather than having to fulfil all categories (Ragnhildr – gave the example of pastries; a person should be able to do a simple pie as an apprentice and then take on a much more complex pie as part of achieving Mastery)
o There needs to be the ability to specialise in 1-2 fields.
o It is also technically possible to achieve Mastery without actually being able to cook – all you dishes can taste awful but if you “tick the boxes” (ie get 3 people to taste and comment) you have fulfilled the criteria.
o It is also technically possible to achieve Mastery with recipes that are not really good representations of period food – eg substitution of ingredients and methods, or use of made up recipes with little justification
o There needs to be review of candidates– it’s possible to achieve Mastery with no original work, copying someone else’s redactions and none of your own.
o TAKE HOME: THERE IS A FEELING THE RANKING SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE REVISED.
• Competitions: Guild competitions at events a great way to encourage interest in cooking, and also for people to present dishes they have tried. Leoba’s idea for Food Fight considered good, flexible, means people from different geographical locations can compete.
o Issues: Got pre-meeting feedback from Baroness Leonie – the initial proposal needs to be tightened as it could be read as entrants having to provide a full serving for 20 people rather than just a taste, also implied that only participants could vote, rather than the general populace.
o Also concerns about scoring
o TAKE HOME: LEOBA TO RE-WORK PROPOSAL, FURTHER DISCUSSION TO TAKE PLACE WITH GUILD MEMBERS
Meeting closed 3pm (and we had to vacate for the company of archers or we would have kept going.)
FESTIVAL APRIL 2018
A Guild Meeting will be held at Rowany Festival on Wednesday at 3pm in the hall.
Master Drake will be teaching two classes at Festival this year-
* Saturday at 11am – Allergy Management for SCA feasts.
* Sunday at 10am – Wafer Making over an open fire…
Post-Rowany Festival, Master Drake plans to have (every week or two), guided sessions about feasting. Either on the logistics or the food side. His plan is to have these sessions eventually recorded and notes available online.
The idea is Lochac Cooks are geographically diverse, so this can bring us together. More details to come.
FEBRUARY 2018
A Guild Meeting will be held at Rowany Festival at 3pm on Wednesday. Details of venue to be advised.
JUNE 2017: Congratulations to Lady Thomasina Coke who has attained MASTERY within the Guild!
April 2017: GUILD MEETING AT FESTIVAL
Proposed Business:
Continuing Business
* A reminder that Facebook Page Membership does not confer Guild Membership. Members need to fill in a Membership form.
* The updating of Guild records and development of the website is continuing.
* Members are encourages to message/email Admin if they have recipes/research/news or photos of local activities that they would like put up on the website.
* The Guild Badge is available for all members to use and display. They are encouraged to make banners displaying the badge for their groups.
* Signs of Rank: do we want this? If so, how will we display rank? Some suggestions include coloured aprons, embroidered Guild badges with N/A/J/M embroidered on the pot to show rank. What does everyone think?
New Business
* Are Members happy to have mundane names published on website or prefer to stick to the current method of listing by SCA name?
* In line with the review of and potential changes to the way the Kingdom A&S Championship is run, it is worth reflecting on the Guild submission and ranking process. Currently Members must submit 13 dishes in 13 categories plus research, plan and cook a feast and publish an article orcgive a class. Under the current system, no distinction in rank is made between members who redact their own recipes and make multiple attempts at dishes and those who submit their first attempt at a pre-redacted recipe. Is it worth considering an extra ranking category for those who are prepared to put in hours of extra and extended research and development? Something similar to Guildmaster rank in the Embroidery Guild? I.e. Member submits extensive research, documentation & experimentation in say, 4 f the submission categories.
* How would it be judged?
* What name would this select group have?
* How could their rank be displayed?
* I would like to start running cooking comps at Kingdom events (Crown Tourneys & Coronations) and will soon be advertising for a Competitions Deputy. The suitable person will be able to attend the majority of Kingdom events and delegate when not able to, liaise with event steward/A&S Officer, run the competition and manage the paperwork. More details and advertisement will be released soon.
* Is there interest in a Kingdom level award (separate to competitions) to recognise commitment to and excellence in the Culinary arts? This would allow people who choose not to compete in competitions or submit to the Guild but always run feasts etc. to be recognised. What are the thoughts on this?
Reminder- 10am-12noon Sunday – Northern Reaches Campsite
Class: An introduction to the Mongol Cookery of Yuan China and Central Asia
By: Drake Morgan and Natalia Vladimirova’doch
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October 2016 – I am very pleased to announce that the Guild badge has been registered!
ONLINE SURVEY TO VOTE ON PROPOSED CHANGES TO LCG CHARTER
Thank you to those who participated in the online survey to discuss issues raised at the 2015 General Meeting.
100% of respondents voted to include the option of listing mundane names on the WCoB Guild ranking list when the updated version goes online.
100% of respondents voted to change the section of the Charter which relates to meetings and voting. The change will be: “A General Meeting of members will be held yearly- either at Rowany Festival (Easter) or at a mid-year Crown event. Changes to the Guild’s Charter may be made by a majority vote of Guild members (in person or by electronic means). Agenda for the proposed meeting will be available online for commentary and voting by Guild members, as well as being available for discussion at the General Meeting.”
100% of respondents voted to change the section of the Charter which relates to ranking and the submission process. The change will be: “Guild members are required to submit one dish in each category (in no particular order). More than one recipe in each category may be submitted, but only one will count towards ranking progression“.
100% of respondents voted to change the section of the Charter which relates to recipe categories and add an additional category called “Rice, Pasta and Starches“. This means that all members under the rank of Master/Mistress Cook participating in the ranking process will need to submit a recipe in this category also.
85% of respondents voted in support of the addition of the option of being able to wear something to indicate rank within the Guild. (This would be in addition to being able to wear the Guild badge which hopefully will be passed by the College of Heralds very soon.) There were no suggestions in relation to what form the indication of rank might be, so this will be something that will be added to the proposed agenda of issues to be discussed at the time of the next General Meeting and survey.
The Charter will be adjusted to reflect these changes.
Congratulations to Lady Gabriella Borromei who has completed her LCG journey to Mastery, recently becoming a Mistress Cook within the Guild!
The College of Blessed Herman guild members are continuing with their successful cooking workshops. This week they experimented with delicious Middle Eastern doughnuts – recipe to follow soon!