Welcome to the Online Clann Tartan Newsletter for August 2010

Gasoline Reimbursement/Mileage Reimbursement

How to request a reimbursement for your gas expense. Fill your tank at the start of the trip, record your name, the date and the odometer reading on the gas receipt. Fill your tank again at the end of the trip when you return home, again record your name, the date and the odometer reading on the receipt. Submit both receipts to the treasurer, Bruce Yoder, for reimbursement. If you had to purchase gas during the drive there or back, include that receipt also. You will be reimbursed for your fuel purchased other than the initial fill at the start of the trip. This will represent your actual fuel used. Requests for reimbursement should be submitted within thirty days of the event. You are not required to request reimbursement. However if you need reimbursement in order to attend shows, by all means, please do so. Your attendance at the shows is the key. The board thanks you if you do not need to be reimbursed and remember that non-reimbursed miles are deductible as a charitable contribution on your Federal Income Tax return if you itemize deductions. Please car pool if possible.

How to request mileage reimbursement if you haul the trailer to an event. Record your odometer reading when leaving the garage (or other departure point)and again upon the return after the show. Calculate the miles driven and submit a request for reimbursement at 48 cents per mile. As a alternative, you can submit a Mapquest or other similar mapping report that shows the miles from the departure to the event and back again.

If you carry regimental equipment in your vehicle to an event at the request of staff, you can follow either the procedure for gas reimbursement or for mileage reimbursement at 22 cent per mile, whichever is greater.

Requests can be given to me in person at events, or by mail to my home at: 4736 12th Av S, Minneapolis MN 55407. Or by email if you scan the receipts and submit them as attachments. I would not trust carrier pigeon, (we have cats) or delivery by trebuchet (accuracy issues)

Bruce Yoder
Treasurer.

Muster has been Called

For a write up on muster, see http://clanntartan.sitesneakpeek.com/manual/muster%20levels.html

Muster is our opportunity to make ourselves better interpreters.

Be there, or be less good at what we do than you could be!

Dun Gowan Work Weekends

Gaffneyis Regiment, through the kindness of member Don Chesney, has its own historic site in Fredenburg, near Duluth.

Dun Gowan is an ongoing project wherein we are building a 17th century village. We have built a small garrison fort there, and have been working on the first house for several years now.

Dun Gowan is the site of our annual Tactical, and when we have more buildings up we can host immersion weekends, where the public - or other reenactors, living historians, and the like - could come live in the 17th century with us for a weekend. If we do it right, it could be a wonderful addition to our annual events, focusing as it would on living history.

We need help building! If we get enough workers up there this season, we should be able to erect the frame of the first house before the snow flies. We are nearly done with hewing the timbers, after which we will cut the joints, assemble the components, and then have a house-raising party!

No experience is neccessary - just bring a willingness to learn.

The weekends scheduled for this year are:

Aug 20-22
Sept 11 & 12
Oct 16 & 17

The more the merrier, and the sooner we have a house up there.

If you can attend attend any of these weekends, or if you have any questions, please contact Captain David at baethan1630 at yahoo dot com or 612-378-1973.

Thanks!

p.s. Another group that has built their own site is Skjaldborg, the Viking group from Omaha that we have often played with at the various Iowa events we have done. Their website is www.skjaldborgedu-tainment.com/ and their site, Vikinghjem, can be viewed at vikinghjem.skjaldborgedu-tainment.com/

I look forward to working with you!

Mary McKinley

Discover the Manual

A lot of valuable information is in the current Clann Tartan Manual.

Wanted!

Deadline for articles to go in September's newsletter will be the 15th of August.

Board Minutes

Meeting brought to order at 10:20 AM.

Minutes from May 18th Board meeting approved as amended.

Reports

Vice President: not in attendance
Treasurer: we have income from Scottish Fair and Woodville
Secretary: nothing to report
Quartermaster:
Cannon: work is delayed due to other urgent matters, steel has been acquired for the cannon, might be slightly smaller than the original, this is OK No swords yet
No news on the musket
Herb now has access to the garage and will install heads on the Virginia pikes (all but one, which needs repairs and will be retired to another use)
The cook’s fly needs repairs after high winds at Scottish Fair. Leather grommets will be installed at a cost of $70, expenditure approved. ACTION: the cook’s fly will be taken in for repairs by ??? (whom?)
Camp Rep: not in attendance
Company Rep: nothing to report

Guild Reports

Music: No one came to recorder practice last time. Anyone interested in the recorder group should contact Mary McKinley to get on the yahoo groups list. At the monthly music guild meeting, attendees memorized the 'Peat Fire Smooring Prayer' for use when banking or dousing cooking fires in camp. Dance: collections for St. Christopher room are now keeping up with need.
Fiber: waulking at Scottish Fair was very successful. Guild meetings are suspended for the summer.
Sword: Mia and Glenn have acquired four practice swords. They each need a protective hilt or crossguard. Herb and Mike will work on installing these. Herb has found some dusacks that can be used for sword practice.
Historic Site: work dates are June 19 & 20; July 10 & 11; Aug (TBD); Sept 11 & 12; Oct 16 & 17.
Garden: Margaret’s is doing well.

Events

Camp/Company Drills: next is June 26. We will work on sarks, and David will present on boats. On July 24, Cindy will present on the care and feeding of Highland infants in our period. Work project TBA.

Thunder Bay: Concerns were raised about whether we can mount an appropriate event that meets Fort William’s expectations. Due to the conflict with Tactical, several women plan to go, and only one man. We will not be able to do military drills, and dance will be compromised. There are also concerns about setting up and tearing down camp with mostly women. We do not yet have a signed contract from Fort William. ACTION: Mia will contact them and make sure they are aware that Clann will not be able to do military demos this year. Mia will also contact US and Canadian customs to inquire about taking Clann and personal weapons (knives, etc.) across the border.

Tactical: Laura will be Head Camp Follower.

Old Business

Holy Land products (hummus, etc.), have a voucher on the package for 25 cents donation to the non-profit of your choice. Bruce is collecting these, and will turn them in to Holy Land when he has a sufficient number.

New Business

Clann Tartan will have no stage presence at Convergence. We will have a hospitality room for a recruitment party on Saturday afternoon from 2-4:30.

Deer River is under new management. We will enquire about Clann’s potential participation in the White Oak Rendezvous (August 6-8) if there is sufficient interest from the group. Action: Margaret will send out an e-mail to members to gauge interest.

Mia will look into Wausau and other Wisconsin rendezvous to see if any would be appropriate for Clann Tartan. (Would the Wausau one be Little Bull Falls Logjam Festival, August 14-15? http://www.logjamfestival.org/)

Captain’s helmet is at Betsy’s and needs repair.

Discussion begun of whether all Clann mailing lists should be moved to yahoo groups, in anticipation of website overhaul. Decision on the matter was tabled until the next member’s meeting to allow members time to register comments. Meanwhile, Eric, Cindy, and Bruce will look into the yahoo groups features.

Board & Staff

If you need to contact someone associated with Clann Tartan, here is where you find out how. If you are unsure who to contact, you can always email us at: info at clanntartan dot org

Guilds

Contact:
David Vavreck
baethan1630 at yahoo.com
612-378-1973

Music

The Yoders have graciously offered to host music once a month. We will meet at their house at 4736 12th Ave S, Minneapolis, from 7 - 9pm the 4th Monday of each month.

To contact the Yoders, call 612-825-4519 or email to Julieyoder at juno dot com.

To contact your Music Chair, call David at 612-378-1973 or email to baethan1630 at yahoo dot com

Thanks, and I look forward to making some noise with y'all!

David

We have a yahoo groups email list for the guild that we use for reminders about the meetings and topical discussions. If you want to be on the email list, request an invitation to join from Bruce at bruceyoder at juno dot com.

Gaffneyis Recorder Consort

The first Monday meeting is at Margaret Kirkpatrick's home, 2636 17th Ave S, Minneapolis and the third Monday meeting is at Mary McKinley's home, 1363 Jefferson Ave, St Paul.

We have seven members already, and are working on a bit more refined style of music than we do in our regular music meetings.

Contact your music chair (David) if you are interested in joining up.

baethan1630 at yahoo dot com or 612-378-1973

Dance

Change in location for Aug 4th and 10th, both the rec center and the church have scheduling conflicts for the first two weeks in August, so we will dance on the Yoder's front lawn

It is at the corner of 27th Av S and E 44th Street. Both streets are one way. That block of 44th between 28th and 27th Avenues is one way westbound and that block of 27th Av between 44th and 43rd Streets is one way northbound. You must enter turning west onto 44th St from 28th Av and exit from 27th Av onto 43rd St.

2nd & 4th Tuesdays
Saint Christopher's Episcopal Church, 2300 N Hamline Ave. in St. Paul.

It is at the northeast corner of Highway 36 and Hamline Avenue (Hamline is between Snelling and Lexington). The church is actually encircled by the highway entrance ramp.
The Dance Guild gathers weekly from 7PM-9PM to learn and practice historic Scottish country dances.
For more information call:

Mary at 651-699-6853 or Julie at 612-825-4519

It's a great place to meet people!

We have a yahoo groups email list for the guild that we use for reminders about the meetings and topical discussions. If you want to be on the email list, request an invitation to join from Bruce at bruceyoder at juno dot com.

Fiber Guild

Historic Site

Calendar of Events

The following is a list of the dates of the events that are currently on the schedule for this year. The staff has met and decided to keep this running list of events in the newsletter to give you a chance to get an idea of what is going on this season as well as keep you updated to changes in the schedule.

The column titled status will include the following information.

Tentative- this means that an event organizer or Clann has expressed a strong enough interest in doing this event that it warrants reserving space on the calendar for the event.

Pending- this is the next stage of an event. This means that the Contracts Administrator has entered serious discussion about Clann doing an event but we are still not committed to the event. You should however if possible think about whether or not you may be able to attend this event.

Scheduled- this level means that the board and staff have approve the event and we are committed to providing manpower to making the event happen. When an event is assigned this level please let the HCF know as soon as possible if you can or can not attend this event.

Canceled- This means that for various reasons an scheduled event has been removed from the current season. We will try and give as much notice as we can prior to canceling an event.

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact staff regarding this matter

Thanks,
Your Staff

Maps

1st and 3rd Wednesday Dance Lake Hiawatha Neighborhood Center 2701 E 44th St., Minneapolis	Map to St. Paul location St. Christopher's- Dance
Map to Bruce and Julie Yoder's Home Music and Board & Staff Meetings 4736 12th Ave S, Minneapolis 55407	Map to Glenn & Mia's home Hosts for staff meetings 340 Brooks Ave Roseville, MN
Ellis O'Rourke Host for Fiber Guild 1638 Arlington Ave Saint Paul, MN 55106

Event Maps and Notification

DIRECTIONS:

From Duluth, Minnesota- Take US Highway 53 northwest out of town - take a right turn on the Ugstad Rd./Lavaque Rd. Bypass, and travel north about ten miles. Take a left turn on the Fish Lake Road, and travel west about 3/4 miles. At this point I am the only house on the right hand (north)side of the road.

From Mineapolis/St.Paul, MN- Travel north on Interstate 35 out of the Cities for about two hours or so. After you pass the Esko/ Thompson exit, but before you get to Duluth, take the Midway Road exit. Turn left on the Midway road, which will head you north. Continue north on the Midway Road for about 12 miles or so; crossing three stoplight intersections, and then you will come to a stop sign. Turn right there onto County Road 9, the Martin Road. Travel east on the Martin road for three miles and take a left turn onto the Lavaque Road. Travel north on the Lavaque Road, for about 7 1/2 miles until you come to the Fish Lake Road. Make a left turn there, and travel west about 3/4 miles. At this point I am the only house on the right hand (north) side of the road.
5261 Fish Lake Road. Large grey garage, small grey house.

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