Administrative Duties
The administrative head of the Guild 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 the Crown, the Lochac Arts and Sciences Minister 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 a 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 the change in Administrative 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.
Annual Meeting
A General Meeting of members will be held yearly, either at Rowany (Easter) or a mid-year Crown event. Changes to the Guild’s charter may be made by a majority vote of the Guild members. Agendas for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) are to be dispatched to all active members no later than one calendar month prior to the meeting. Mail voting forms are to be included with the agenda, allowing for voting participation by all members regardless of ability to attend the General Meeting.
AGM 2015 Minutes
Annual Rowany Festival Meeting 2015 -Minutes
Attendance: Olivia deeMedice, Eva of the Ox, Petronilla Fairwif of Horsford, Milisandia Verch Llewwlyn, Gabriella Borromei, William de Perham, Eurgain of Whitby, Brand de Louden, Guillaume de Musgrave, Urtatim al-Qurtubiyya (visiting from West Kingdom), Leoba of Lecelade, Natal’ia Vladimirova ‘doch, Drake Morgan (Patron).
Minutes from Meeting Rowany Festival 2014: Minutes were not seen by all in attendance, so it was decided that the minutes would be published on the website and Facebook page. A vote will be taken after to pass the minutes.
Continuing Business:
1. Guild Badge: A vote was taken on the Facebook site throughout the year to decide on the badge design. Not all members were aware of which badge won the contest. It was decided that the badge should be included in the minutes (below). The badge has been submitted and we are currently waiting for approval to use it. Once the badge passes, there is a need to produce the badges. It was mentioned that we could get them produced by an outside company but the Patron, Master Drake, suggested that he has the equipment to produce them at home and would be happy to do so after Great Northern War.
2. Website: The website needs to be updated but there have been some technical issues in doing so. Master Drake has volunteered to assist with the website update and will contact the Guild Mistress about this.
3. Problems: There are no current issues within the guild.
New Business:
1. Categories of Dishes: It was suggested that there are a few food items (such as pasta) that do not fit easily into the current categories of dishes. A new category was suggested that would be listed as follows:
Starches: Including pasta, rice, and other starchy dishes; but does not include breads.
The vote was unanimous in favour of the new category.
2. Submission Process: There were some concerns with the submission process. It was brought to the attention of the meeting that recipes might not be being seen once they are sent into the Guild. Some of this is likely due to the website needing updating; however, a brainstorming session came up with the following suggestions. Perhaps a box on the submission form giving permission to publish the recipe on the website, then a scan of the recipe could be uploaded. This would allow all of the Guild members to see the work being done by others. Also, it has been found that getting comments can be difficult. This subject needs to be explored with the Guild (perhaps on Facebook).
3. Food Allergies/Intolerances: Much of the meeting was spent in discussion of food allergies and intolerances. The main issues seem to be people listing food dislikes as food allergies and people not informing the cooks of food allergies/intolerances or other dietary needs before the day of the feast. The suggestions were that a matrix of common food causing allergies could be produced for the tables (Drake has a good one and will be posting it on the Facebook page) thus allowing the people at the table to decide what they can and cannot eat. Bookings Officers need to be made aware that they need to find out about food issues at time of bookings and the severity of the reactions. Perhaps list what allergies the feast will be catering for and that anyone who has additional needs could be offered a reduced price to eat off board (bring their own food). Require all bookings for the feast two weeks in advance and then make the menu based on the food needs of the group. It was noted that careful consideration must be given to additives in modern foods. Some of these additives might bring on allergies when it seemed like it should not. Be careful of listed items that are indistinct (like ‘spices’). Also, there are diet related issues that Cooks need to keep in mind such as low sodium, low fat, low GI, and sugar related issues. Additional suggestions to make feasts easier included: setting a kitchen guard (someone to keep the populace out of the kitchen).
4. Location Lists: In hopes of getting members of the Guild together more often, it was suggested that we put together a list of membership and location and then pin it to the Facebook page. This would, hopefully, increase the number of cooks getting together to learn from one another and eat good food.
5. Recipe/Redaction ‘Tourney’: It was suggested that it might be fun to hold an online event of sorts where people wishing to participate would send in a redaction to the list. Then one or more people would take that redaction, cook it, and give feedback to the original person who did the redaction.
6. Great Northern War Cooks Guild Challenge: There is a need for more interaction with the Guild and its members at wars. In an effort to address this, the Guild voted to hold a cooking challenge. In this challenge, a set of period recipes would be given to the Guild members. The members who wished to participate, would then select the recipe they would like to do (there would be at least one for people attending the war and at least one for people not attending the war who still wanted to take part). The Cooks would then redact the recipe and then make the food. Then a time would be made to have a tasting of the results. Drake will be working on this over the next few weeks and will get back to the Guild.
Other Business:
1. Copies of the Red House’s Guide of Feasting for Their Serene Majesties were handed out. This is the pamphlet that Master Drake and Lady Natal’ia put together for the King and Queen on Mongolian feasting in the Yuan Dynasty. The pdf of the pamphlet can be found on http://mongolmusings.weebly.com/
Time Meeting Opened: 10:05am
Time Meeting Closed: 11:00am