Who's in charge of this project to 'go barony'?

The three shire seneschals (or representatives) are working with the ID seneschal and her deputy to get the process going:

• Lord Caohmin MacAindru (standing in for Lady Valeria) of Mynydd Gwyn
• Lord Raphe Cuthbert of West Dragon'shire
• Lady Genevieve la flechiere of Thamesreach
• Baroness Mary ferch Thomas, ID seneschal
• Master Etienne Fevre, ID deputy seneschal

This process is not theirs alone though - they're just doing the paperwork. If you, as a resident, want to be involved, please say so!

How come I've only just heard about it?

The idea has circulated for over a year, but the process is relatively new.

In late December 2006, Genevieve circulated a note among the seneschals suggesting we get the process going, otherwise it would just remain a good idea, and we'd just keep talking.

That message led to holding a meeting at January 2007 Coronation in Ireland. See Master Plan and Process agreed to so far.

Why call it Longwhitney? What kind of name is that?

See LongWhitney, the Name for an explanation.

It took ages to register the heraldry for the existing groups - do we just throw that all away?

Nope - group names and arms stay with the kingdom, in case we want to use them in future. See What happens to the shires' armory.

What happens to the local groups?

Essentially, the local groups keep going, doing whatever they normally do.

Local fight practices, armouring sessions, scriptoria and meetings can, and should, still take place. Hopefully we enjoy all these things enough that we'd do them anyway!

Having regular scheduled gatherings is also an effective, non-threatening way of pulling in newcomers. It's much easier to suggest 'Hey, come to our next dance practice in 2 weeks to meet a few people' than 'Glad you want to join. Our next event is in four months from now, in Winchester'.

The Society is very much a do-it-yourself hobby. If you want to organize a local gathering like a stitch-n-bitch, armouring weekend, dance practice, or scriptorium, then you should.

Generally, you only need permission from your group's officers if

• You want to spend the group's money
• You want to host an official event, that will need the whole group's support to run successfully

Locally, the roles that will remain the most critical are:

• local marshal - fight and fencing (and archery) practices require a warranted marshal, regardless of where they're held
• local 'contact' person - someone like a deputy chatelaine, who meets and greets new members and refers them to current activities.

What happens to our money?

We pool our funds into a new account, with multiple signing authorities - ideally, having at least a couple of people in each region, so getting cheques signed isn't too painful.