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We will have our quarterly Members' Meeting and Board elections on Saturday, February 26th. It will be at 1:00 PM at the Lake Hiawatha Community Center; this is the same location as Wednesday Dance; it's in the newsletter. PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE FROM NOVEMBER MEETING; AND ALSO FROM PREVIOUS REPORT; THE REC CENTER CHANGED DATES ON US.
Up for election will be Vice President, Secretary, Quartermaster, and Company Rep.
“It is ordinary among some Plebians in the South of Scotland, to go about from door to door upon New Year`s Eve, crying Hagmane” (Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, 1693, Hogmanay). It’s thought especially lucky for the household if the first foot over the threshold at midnight belongs to a tall, dark man bearing certain tokens. Here in the environs of the Twin Cities, we wait until noon on New Year’s Day to begin Clann Tartan’s First Footing festivities. They open at Augsburg Park in Richfield, where everyone with a plaid lays it out on the snow for an airing, followed by marching and musketry.
Then it’s on to the four-course progressive dinner at the homes of various members. Come to all or any of the courses bearing a contribution to all or any of the tables. You need not be tall, dark, or male, but please do bring (a) a card listing all the ingredients for each of your dishes and (b) your own eating utensils. The latter is to prevent waste, of course, and the former to prevent potentially severe abreactions. Maps to the locations will be in the next newsletter [OR appear at the end of the newsletter]. RSVP to the members’ list so that we aren’t ALL bringing black-eyed peas or chocolate mousse.
12:00 noon. Airing of the Tartan and Drills in Richfield’s Augsburg Park, between West 70th and West 72nd Streets, Nicollet Avenue and the railroad tracks
1:30. Appetizers with Chris & Renee: 86 Riverwoods Lane Burnsville MN
3:30. Soup with Tamaye Ceannaideach and family; 718 Watson Ave St Paul 55102
5:30. Main course with Bruce & Julie: 4736 12th Ave S, Minneapolis 55407
8:00. Dessert at Mill City Hornworks: 1332 Marshall St. NES Mpls.
Driving Directions to Chris and Renee's subdivision: Cedar/77 south to Cliff Road Right on Cliff pass SuperAmericsa Left on River Hills Drive (Shell gas station, Blue Star doughnuts, Subway) down a little hill around a little curve (park land on the right side) Left at Riverwoods Lane (BIG WOOD sign, not brick, WOOD that says "The Villiages of Riverwoods" follow the curvy road and take a left into the number units that include 86 952.895.5487
Come to the Big Island Historical Fair in Albert Lea! Saturday, February 12, and Sunday, February 13, 2011 (times TBA)
Perry Vining announces the 17th annual trade fair at the Northbridge Mall in Albert Lea. “This is the start of our 25th season, so we are looking at having a lot of fun. I noticed that the Scottish Ramble is another weekend [see the next paragraph], so I hope that lots of you decide to come and enjoy the camaraderie.” It’s an opportunity to recruit for Clann Tartan and to strengthen our ties with the biggest event of our annual cycle, the Big Island Rendezvous in October. For the indoor show at Albert Lea in February, Clann does not provide food or housing, but there are eateries nearby, and it’s possible to make a day trip from the Twin Cities or to arrange a motel room. The Web site is Big Island Festival (that’s Perry in the photo).
Come and enjoy a Scottish Ramble! Saturday, February 19, 10 to 5, and Sunday, February 20, noon to 5
Held at the Landmark Center in St. Paul, Ramble is another great recruitment opportunity for Clann, as we put on a variety of demonstrations and these folks have an interest in all things Scottish. We will march and dance—though not both at once. Bring your muskets and swords, musical instruments and other craft materials, and extra plaids to decorate the tables. Lunch both days is on Clann, so you’ll want your own eating and drinking utensils as well. At this writing, producer Liz Michaelson tells us we will be in the north lobby as we were last year (when it was too hot) and in a prior year (when it was too cold). The advantage is that half of the Ramble audience will come through our encampment! Clann will also have a welcome opportunity to discuss our portrayal of the history of Scottish mercenaries. More information on that and on the schedule as we receive it. The Web site is Scottish Ramble.
Clann Tartan has been invited once again to fill a table at the Celtic Festival sponsored annually by the Fargo Park
District at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead. The 2011 date is Saturday, March 12. As noted last year, it's an easy
event: no tents, no pikes, and the show even provides us with hot lunches. But it is about 230 miles from the Twin
Cities, so people often get a hotel room or stay with friends on Friday night. The Web site for
the festival is
While Gaffneyis Trek, Johndezvous, and activities at Dun Gowan are on the menu for the summer months, what we don’t yet
have on the calendar are events we can count on to replenish Clann’s coffers. Old and new festivals are going under, and
lack of work, or work and school schedules, prevent members from traveling far. What can we do? We’ll talk about this more at the February members’ meeting. Do you know of any new-to-us festivals?
Is there an imaginative history teacher at your children’s school or your own? Have you heard rumors of a small
Renaissance Fair somewhere in Wisconsin? Could we venture to put on a day of living history ourselves or in
collaboration with other re-enactors? Bring your ideas to the meeting, or contact the staff and we’ll investigate them
with you. The practical distance is about 250 miles, although a spectacular opportunity farther away
(such as Fort William, Ontario last summer) will not be dismissed. Gentlemen Pikemen - It has come to my attention that some of my more slothfull troopairs are knowne
to have been sticking their pike heads into the ground to remove rust, rather
than properlie polishing them. This is unwholesome for the pikes. It can bend over the pointes were the head
to strike a stone. It can crack the joint between the blade and the socket.
And it invariably scratches the metall, which itself encourages rust. Henceforth, any troopair caught engaging in this foule practice will be placed
on pioneer duty until the Captaine sees fit to restore you your armes - with the
cutt in paye that being a pioneer entayles.
Want to quit smoking? Lose weight? Sleep better? Deal with other issues? Your good Auntie/Cousin Mairi is
opening her hypnotism clinic! For more information or to schedule a session, contact me at Mairi2 at juno dot com, or via cell at 651-307-2977.
Mary McKinley
ON THE OTHER HAND
Orders from the Captaine
ADVERTISEMENTS
Reasonably priced, accurate 17th century shoes, boots, and other leather items,
are available from member Pegeen Rozeske. 320-493-6163
A lot of valuable information is in the current Clann Tartan Manual.
Clann Tartan Board Meeting
The November Members' Meeting was held on Nov. 6, 2010. Present were board members Karen Bastien, Anthea Cross,
Mia McDavid, Julie Yoder, David Vavreck, and Laura Swenson. Other members present were Rich Mueller, Mike McCarty,
Hellen and Eric Ferguson, Glenn McDavid, and Sarah Shaftman.
The Minutes of October were accepted as presented.
The Vice President had no report.
The Treasurer was absent and left a report; our financial position is as expected.
The Quartermaster commended Mia McDavid for enhancing the camp with wool waulking and luceted cord.
Hellen Ferguson, after many many years faithful stewardship of the newsletter, is stepping down, with the profound thanks of the membership. Her duties will be assumed, at least for a while, by the Secretary.
Camp and Company reps had nothing to report
Guild reports:
Recorder practice may move. Mia has invited the Fiber Guild for Second Sundays. Sword guild is still waiting for usable practice swords. Historic Site is under snow. We completed major work on a house and will erect it next year.Drill for November will have a camp drill activity of oiling all the kitchen wood. Anthea will present; she had not yet selected a topic. December drill will NOT be held on Christmas day or at all.
First Footing: We have three courses and are looking for a fourth. At the time of writing we have openers and soup at Chris and Renee's, main course at Yoders; and dessert at Mill City Hornworks.
We need shows! Ideally close enough and untaxing enough that members will actually go to them. We also need a fresh and enthusiastic contracts rep (says the old and ineffectual contracts rep).
Announcement:
The Chinese 1602 World Map is at the James Bell Museum along with other interesting maps and docs. The museum is at the West Bank campus.Elections:
There was discussion on whether we continue to require a Chief of Staff. Members voted in favor.Goodwives and Corporals who stepped forward at the meeting were Laura Swenson, Eric Ferguson, and Karen Bastien.
Rich Mueller was elected Lieutenant. Anthea Potter was elected Assistant Head Camp Follower, and the HCF was adjured to actually avail herself of this assistance. Sarah Shaftman was elected Chief of Staff. All voting was by show of hands.
Sarah will get a note to the Newsletter Editor about the thrilling fun of working on staff.
Someone suggested that we check college theater departments as well as history departments for recruits. Anthea volunteered to check Normandale College; Sarah will approach Tapestry to see if she can find any dancers there who want to join Dance Guild, and Karen volunteered to get in touch of 4H.
Member meeting in February. The President wants a progress report on recruitment at that time.
The Captain's Award went to Mike McCarty.
Second Level muster has been achieved by Carl Swenson, Anthea Potter, Margaret Kirkpatrick, Mike McCarty, and Laura Swenson. We discussed possible occasions for awarding cockades.
Respectfully submitted,
Mia McDavid
Secretary, Clann Tartan
Present: Rich Mueller, Ann Peters, Margaret Kirkpatrick, Karen Bastien, Glenn McDavid, Sarah Shaftman
Reporting by E-mail: Eric Ferguson
Some of this issues that came up at the meeting were amplified, corrected, clarified, and occasionally even resolved in subsequent e-mails. In the interest of making a more useful document, the results of those discussions are included here.
Eric got the permit for firing muskets at the park. There was some discussion firing a mortar as well, but that is is not going to happen: The mortars are in the garage, access to which is now blocked by snow. The muskets and supplies had been stored at the Yoders, but they were not returned there after Mankato [as we learned later]. Presumably the Captain has them.
Tamaye will host the soup course.
Sarah will gather and disseminate course menus, unless in the interim she can find another victimvolunteer.
Margaret had the paper goods. Sarah took them home and has reorganized them. Annie will transport a small supply of them between courses along with a demo singlestick (see below).
As of the meeting we had no indication that this event was going to happen, but on December 6 we received an e-mail from Perry Vining:
The 17th Annual Historical Faire at the Northbridge Mall will be held February 12-13, 2011. This is the start of our 25th season so we are looking at having a lot of fun. I noticed that the Scottish Ramble is another weekend, so I hope that lots of you decide to come and enjoy the "camaraderie"
We will discuss this at the January meeting.
Status of contract? Sarah will write an article for the January and February newsletters. Rich would like to hold a marching drill with pikes on both days. We don't know how many of our events will be on the official schedule and how many we can schedule on our own. Since the meeting Liz Michaelson has emailed us:
As things are coming together it looks like CT will again be in the north lobby. I would really like CT to provide a presentation in Courtroom 326 about the history of Scottish mercenaries as portrayed by CT. We've not done that in a very long time. Final schedule not yet complete. I'm waiting for confirmation of performance times from the pipe bands and also kirkin' details from SAS. I'll have more as it becomes available.
We have an offer. Board approval pending. We will discuss it at the January meeting.
Captain: Absent
HCF: No report
(draft due to board 12/21, final version 1/18/2011)
There was a consensus that we need at least an inventory of equipment and supplies in the Spring. Glenn has sent Sarah a copy of the inventory from 2006.
CaptainLieutenant: Pending the inventory, we have plenty of powder and can probably
cut the budget line of $350 in half. Bruce agreed that we have plenty of powder, and noted that we cannot
get nearly as good a price if we order less than a full case (25 cans). He suggested that we not
include any power in the 2011-2012 budget and wait until Spring 2012 for another purchase. Sarah asked
David and Rich to make a complete inventory of the powder we have, just in case we are short of a
particular variety. The cannon is a big unknown. It will certainly run up powder consumption.
It is scheduled to arrive this Winter.
HCF: We need more candles but $80 seems excessive. Margaret will revise that figure. We could use some pottery, esp. pitcher and bowl for a washing station. Jas.Townsend or Smoke & Fire may have something. Jay and Tracy Henderson might be a better choice.
From the Quartermaster:
We need about 50' of quarter-inch hemp rope and 100' of marline to serve the ropes for the new leather tent grommets at about 18" per grommet. We usually buy rope from wherever it happens to be convenient; tarred marline is available from GreenBoatStuff.com, American Rope & Tar, or Sailrite.
Serving a rope is wrapping the ends with marline (tarred hemp string) to prevent unraveling.
Cook's Tent: There was some discussion of brass grommets for the ridge pole holes. They would not be easily visible from the ground outside except by NBA players. After the meeting the Quartermaster said that these would not be period and he will not approve an expenditure for them. In any case there is a question about whether the fabric is strong enough for any kind of grommet. We will check on the state of the tent when we open up the garage in March or whenever the weather permits (note for February meeting).
Johndevous will need to be budgeted. It was not on the original list of events. Expenses are food for three days, outhouse rental, and trailer hauling to Lewiston.
If we can get non-members to pay to participate there may be some income to partially offset this, but we need to be concerned about the additional workload on the kitchen. Two or three extra, no problem, but twenty extra would be a lot of additional work.
Budget history: In 2008 trailer expenses were 118.68 and food was $216.43. Seventeen members were listed as attending for a per Diem food cost of $4.24. In 2009, we paid $114.78 for trailer hauling and $169.47 for food. Attendance at Johndezvous 2009 was(at least) 17, based upon photos of the event on Marcia's Facebook.
Bruce suggest that we might ask members to contribute something for the food and Johndevous, and perhaps also at muster. If they pay something for the weekend, it makes the event more important to them.
Sarah has been working on the budget and is sending drafts to David, Margaret, and Bruce for their feedback.
Mike McCarty is working on armor repairs, e.g. replacing leather straps.
Still with John O'Duggan.
Rich will check with Mike, who worked on these at Big Island.. We do not have enough pike heads for all of the Virginia pikes. We could buy more, but do we need to do so now? We cannot field enough pikemen to use all pikes with heads that we have. Bruce has the contact information for the metalworker who made our last four pike heads.
The long (Virginia) pikes have been headless since their acquisition. 15 were were purchased in the mid 1990s for use at a battle reenactment in Virginia that didn't allow pikes with metal points. We may need headless pikes for another such event.
The QM would like to see the pike heads on the current oaken pikes transferred to the Virginias. Currently 4 of them have heads. It would be good to verify how many of the original 15 we still have.
(see also Membership meeting). One should be brought to First Footing and to the February membership meeting so that craftsfolk can examine it with a view toward making hilts so they can be safely used for practice. They are at David's and will need to be transported to those events.
We will examine all the tents in the Spring to see what repairs are needed. Rich know someone who repairs tent canvas.
Historically Clann Tartan has expected members to purchase their own tents after their first couple years in the regiment. The consensus of the meeting is that this requirement is no longer realistic given the current economy and the low recent attendance at events. No sense in discouraging members from coming to events. We will continue to need some trooper tents for sleeping and for storage. In particular, Rich wants to keep the smallest trooper as a powder tent. Check #5 for possibility of repair.
We will make an inventory when we wax/oil the woodware (see January drill).
Check with Bruce, who has evidently been taking home tables and benches and resealing them a few at a time. (Attempts to organize work parties for this purpose were foiled by weather.)
Three of the folding benches are missing. We should get replacement seating. There was a couple at Big Island who make the same model: Wind River Trading, Lynn and Lucinda Nelson, 21949 Lake Hook Rd. Hutchinson, MN 55350. Phone 1-320-587-9278.
After the meeting Quartermaster advised us that the design of those benches is not period and the replacements should be more historically accurate.
Since in period the army did not provide seating, perhaps members should be encouraged to bring their own. The trick is to make sure people do not buy furniture that is wrong for us.This would also help keep the trailer load down. Such stools would be a good Johndevous project.
David summarized the requirements:
Given that we moderns are wimps and whiners by comparison to the people we represent, however, we do allow some furniture.
And as we portray our marquis tent as a tavern, we allow furniture there, too.
If we are going to continue allowing furniture in our camp, what we must do is take into account both modern and period requirements.
Modern requirements include that it is both collapsible/packable, and affordable - individual members can choose to give up 2 or 3 cubic feet in their own vehicles to have an awesomely accurate joint stool, or to spend as much as they choose to, but we do not have those luxuries with the Colonel's trailer or budget.
Period requirements include that it represents furniture that might be used by our class (working) in our time (1630) and in our place (a military camp in northwestern Europe). It should be based on as solid documentation as possible - design, material, construction.
As stated above, though, documentation for soldiers using furniture in camp is lacking. Any furniture we do allow, then, must at least reflect the other period requirements - our class, location, and era.
Glenn reminded staff of this image from 1637. Since two type of stools are being used as improvised missile weapons *, such designs should certainly be light enough to meet our needs.
Attendance is down. What can be done to get more people there? Additional pike drill is important, especially if we will be using the Virginia pikes, which are more difficult to handle. Some suggestions were made for the Captain to review:
It was also noted that attendance at fiber guild is down. We have a very busy calendar, perhaps too busy for our current small membership.
Oil woodware; presentation by Anthea?
Library
Clothing: Bodices and/or cut hose?
See what hilts/guards have been made by our craftsfolk.
This is very important. A particular issue is that there are very few members with a vehicle that can haul the Clann trailer
We need to have a new brochure and business cards. Karen asked if we have any testimonials.
What do we do that attracts attention?
We need to break the recruitment work down into small tasks that can be delegated. Karen and Rich will work on developing such a list of discrete recruitment ideas.
The economy hurts.
We have a gap in our summer schedule. With White Oak and Perham gone there is nothing in August. Sarah will do a newsletter article inviting members to look for possible events. There are constraints on the schedule, notably that in September school is back in session, limiting the availability of families with children. Furthermore, the shorter late summer days limit the time for setting up camp after a long drive.
Hudson is a very nice event. We need more like that. Perhaps we can find more school gigs like Woodville, although that, being by a definition a school day event, is a problem for some members.
Scribal work, e.g. ink making, could be a possible muster activity.
Rich says the phone number previously listed for him in the newsletter is not correct; his is (651) 583-4264, and Dave Olson's is (612)290-0375.>
Sarah noted for the record that our stoneware supplier is Jay Henderson Artifacts
Next Staff Meeting: Thursday, January 6, 2011 at Sarah's house.
(linked from above)
*Since the stools were being thrown in protest against the catholicizing tendencies of the 1637 Anglican Book of Common Prayer, they could also be called anti-missal weapons.
