CalonCon 2016 Notes

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Vox Dei, Belton, MO

16 November 2016

Kingdom has free hosting for local groups - eg. heraldshill.calontir.org, good platform albeit with flaky email.

There is code now to automatically pull info from the Kingdom OP onto local group pages.

There is a "new" Calontir Web Minister Handbook as of January. Please read it and send feedback.

Kate is the Social Media coordinator for the Kingdom. "Don't be assholes. Facebook isn't private - be civil. Let her know if anyone is being a problem." Apparently, she's supposed to be an "admin" on all our "official" Facebook pages. Kate Poore.

Interesting fine point of Social Media etiquette - if the Facebook group is "open", officers can be fired for inappropriate remarks. If the group is "closed", that doesn't happen.

Logan Munro asks that we are all handicap accessible - navigable without a mouse? good contrast?

www.w3.org has a page to help with that.

Giovanni also mentions making sure they're mobile-friendly. ( Ours seems to be.)

Giovanni has a page for his group that automatically updates when the Seneschal posts a certain email (that also automatically sends to the various communication platforms).

Web Minister:

Put short officer descriptions on the officer's page.

Shire Google calendar ID: lhncpfl1s606bs52qhn22pgbt4@group.calendar.google.com

Unofficial Calontir Google calendar ID: Calendar ID: 58kvund2c5kj43duhkh2hlf948@group.calendar.google.com

HERALDS

Going well: 

  • collegiality is good.
  • visibility of heraldry in the kingdom is good - pre-court schtick, consistent consult tables, competent field heraldry, a good deep bench of court heralds, etc.
  • report is decent - required reports are generally coming in on time
  • Heralds Retreat is amazing
  • Stuff is getting through in a timely manner, things aren't getting excessively lost (like checks), etc. The internal mechanics are good.

Projects for the next 12 months:

  • reporting could be even better - if local heralds miss two consecutive quarters they need to be replaced and the time span may be decreased. If you have an attack of life you can designate someone else to do a report if needed. Heralds-at-large feel free to report, too.
  • Don't contribute to the reputation of the heralds being "pedantic jerks". Don't act happy when something you don't like bounces or if you bounce things. 90% of what gets submitted at Laurel is registered.
  • Ponder - who benefits from the service of heralds... the clients vs. the kingdom. Heralds in period were ambassadors... think about it.
  • How do we help the Kingdom see us and appreciate our service? (Electronic submission is coming - currently being tested by Laurel, but electronic payment... It will be allowing direct submissions via OSCAR to Saker, so we'll need to have a transition team.)
  • A place for the on-line (Virtual Consult Table) help form to be useful?
  • Heraldry as customer service. The first thing they hear, should never be "no".
  • Have people write their SCA name in the memo on the check to make sure it stays with the paperwork.
  • Uji will be absent from this universe the last week of July due to mundane life (yay, finishing law school!).
  • Submission prices are going up by a dollar at SCA (from $3 to $4), so Kingdoms can absorb the difference if we like. We had been discussing our prices at Kingdom anyway... The big budget item is the travel of Gold Falcon to Known World. Will coordinate/research costs with Exchequer. Where is the rule about who keeps what money in Kingdom? How do our prices compare to other kingdoms? Do a occasional "purple light" specials? Will we have more technological needs to budget in the future i.e. the Archiving Project part 2?
  • Known World next year is in Knoxville, TN at the end of June (after Lilies).

Open Forum:

  • Heralds retreat theme - "Heraldic Trousers: Even drunk we're good at this."
  • On-line Commentary Group - open to 10 commentors, but open streaming for on-lookers
  • New OSCAR commentors are welcome.
  • For Heralds Reports don't need to try to track down which of our local groups people are submitting directly to Saker. OSCAR does not let us make it clear what group submitters are from.
  • Remember, SCA activities translate onto resume bullets as real volunteer work. Cultural Affairs Officer, Event Coordinator, Chapter President, etc.
  • Grapes are good for voices. There is a Chinese herb thing that professionals use.
  • Natalya Vasilova requests help with consultations at Cattle Raids.
  • Also recruiting for Crown Tourney for tourney heralds.
  • Johan will need help with voice heraldry at Bardic Bedlam/Valor.
  • More on good customer service:
    • Be careful translating commentary to clients. Don't name names of commentators to maintain confidentiality.
    • Don't make any promises about respectability, or make any statements that sound like promises
    • The new Calontir Heralds policy - free resubmissions for 5 years after return (was one year). [need to update the Handbook]
    • "This is something above my pay grade..."
    • "Has been returned for further work... these are my ideas to fix it."
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