Greetings Drachenwald,
As you may have seen, the SCA Board of Directors has issued a Suspension of In-Person Activities through January 31, 2021 for North America. The Kingdoms of Drachenwald and Lochac are exempt.
This resolution was issued in response to a request from the Crowns of many North American kingdoms to formally suspend in-person activities for an extended period due to the uncertain Covid-19 situation in their regions. It gives Kingdoms more flexibility in dealing with Royal successions during the suspension period.
Before the Board resolution was issued, I had discussed the request with Their Royal Majesties Drachenwald and later with the acting Society Seneschal. After review, we all concluded that while the request was a good one for North America, it was not necessarily needed in Drachenwald as modern country reopening from Covid-19 restrictions within Drachenwald has been progressing well. This is why Drachenwald requested to be exempt from any Board action on this topic. We believe that groups within Drachenwald may begin meeting safely in-person in different modern countries if they follow the Covid-19 meeting guidelines within their country or region. This is not to say that groups within Drachenwald must hold in-person meetings, but may do so.
Guidelines for holding in person events or meetings is also a topic that the Kingdom Regional Seneschals and I discussed over the past few weeks. We found it was very hard to have a “one size fits all” event and meeting policy for our Kingdom, as there are different Covid-19 safety rules among our modern lands. This is especially true for overnight events where each venue may wish different social distancing and other safety precautions followed.
However, we felt that a set of general event and meeting guidelines were needed and have created one. They are available on-line here. These guidelines will be published in the September Dragon’s Tale and will be available for download in the Kingdom Seneschal’s area of the Drachenwald website. Group seneschals or event stewards can extend these guidelines to fit the event type and any regional or local Covid-19 restrictions.
I realize that it can be confusing to know that to do about in-person events over the next few months. So if you have any questions about these event and meeting guidelines or about the recent SCA Board Resolution on in-person activities in North America, please contact me at seneschal@drachenwald.sca.org. I am happy to set up a time to talk or chat about these topics.
Yours in service (and stay safe),
Margaret de Mey (Margaret Menzies)
Drachenwald Kingdom Seneschal