I am keen to host a craft day / weekend to do some outdoorsy things but when would be best for this? I assume beginning of term so its not too close to exams but it would be warmer if we waited.

Do we want to have separate feast and fire one almighty fireast?

What else do we want to do?

Another possibility is a film night. I am not sure if Wychwood has seen these before but my suggestions would be the Sword of Xanten (although it is quite long), Viking Women and the Sea Serpent or The Vikings.

Is anyone else interested in doing the same? In particular, this might be of interest to couples/others who've had some particular house in the past which they think needs some fixing. (And of course be inspired by what the Poles did to theirs (the one slightly outside the village)!)

Just to remind you, I think the dates are 1st - 6th of April (Thursday - Tuesday over Easter), and so Jemma and I are planning to go up on the 30th of March.

Pppppppppppppp

I've had a sneaky peek and see that the fire is on the 30th October. Don't suppose I could be a-borrowing some floorspace that night to allow me to come along, get happily merry and shout "BEAR!" at various moments throughout the singing?

Pros:
- In my opinion at least, Freshers' BP is an excellent first event and if you do it right it can show all aspects of WW (i.e. make people come in shiny kit with weapons and possibly doing brief kit presentation in pub + drinking…)
- It is before the freshers may have forgotten all about us
- It means freshers get more BPs in their term (and if we keep freshers BP as first event, but shift it to 2nd week, then more of everything else too)
- It means less no re-jigging of the termcard to acommodate craft day etc

Cons:
- Paul Witty may not be able to come (woof!)
- We don't get to go to Hastings on the Sunday/if we do go on the Saturday we might be very tired

Freshers' BP on Sunday of 2nd week

Pros:
- We get to go to Hastings whenever we like, or at least when Ferny likes.
- Might possibly mean freshers are less busy? But who can genuinely say they better things to do on any Sunday afternoon than swordfight?
- We (probably) get Paul Witty

Cons:
- If we keep the other freshers events where they are we'll need to make a massive effort to keep people. Generally I think we might lose some of the fighters who just want to get into it straight away. Crafty people are usually more patient. Also, all freshers may have forgotten we exist by then
- Messy re-jigging of termcard last minute causes new committee lots of stress

Some alternatives
- Create a new uber freshers event - but this has to be uber - so we can go to Hastings.
- Have Freshers BP on Saturday of 0th
- Forget any of this ever happened…

So I know this is not an exhaustive list if you can think of anything that needs to be added, add away… Also if you can give brief indications of the way you may be going that would be good. Sorry if this is being too organisey for an ex-president but I think we need to decide by tomorrow (Thursday) at latest. If there is no decision by then, the committee will just have to decide.

P.S. Last year DAS Murton Park clashed with Freshers' BP. I told everyone they couldn't go. This is not necessarily the solution for Hastings but I'm just saying don't be afraid to just make a decision.

Note that some events at the end of term (Punting and Brewing and Pub Invasion) might be moved round, depending on when people finish. Especially Sam for the Brewery, as it's his idea! Also, brewery will need drivers…

Can people tell us their dates of last exams?

http://www.oskorei.co.uk/spring-banquet

I'll be going up on the Saturday morning via public transport - if you want to do the same, I could meet people at Bristol Temple Meads.

The trip will only happen if enough people want to go (say at least 5), but I think it will be ace. So read the
info, and see if you can come along!

Dates: 8-10 May 2009.

https://www.yha.org.uk/find-accommodation/heart-of-england/hostels/St-Briavels/index.aspx
http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/default.asp?id=6&lang=placestovisit

Total cost of the trip should be £70-£80, which includes two nights B&B (Friday and Saturday), weekend pass for CADW sites (CADW = English Heritics
in Wales), minibus & fuel. Plus a few quid each for self-cook suppers. We can make supper on Saturday into a mini-feast by wearing kit!
Alternatively they are doing a medieval banquet in the castle but it would be an extra £15 per head…I kind of fancy saving my money for BEER but it's
up to you!!!

The hostel is licensed, so while we can't bring our own booze into the hostel, we can buy local beer and cider there. Also there is a pub just by
the castle.

We have provisionally booked some beds but we need to give them more definite numbers by 7th Feb, and put down a 25% deposit to secure the
places. After that, there may or may not be spaces available so if you want to come, it's best to book in by 7 Feb! The hostel is likely to be full that
weekend so we need to bag our places well in advance.

There is a £3 per night surcharge for beds if we are not members of the YHA: a group membership would cost £25 so if there are 5 or more of us,
that's the cheapest option and would also allow WW to do additional YHA trips to later in the year.

Also, what dates would be convenient? Obviously term time trumps holidays. Hauksby trumps museums. DAS would be a potential conflict. Exams might worry some people (like me), although they persistently don't seem to bother Hauksbians. Dates/range required.

Ferny

Hopefully:
Hannah
Zack
Bunni
V (el presidente)

I'll update this list as people email me, or if you post below.

Ferny

I haven't been able to find a place for Sam's brewery trip but if anyone has any ideas how we can fit it in please do tell me.

Could people like Witty (with regards to hard crafts and coppicing), Ferny (with regards to coppicing) and Shelagh (with regards to Mystery trip and lots of things) especially give feedback.

Also Pppp because he's German and fun

Hi, I hope this is the right contact! Are the Wychwood Warriors still active and do you support local fetes?
The Shipton under Wychwood fete next August 29 is raising money for a new children's playground in the village and a dark ages re-enactment would be a marvellous attraction for the younger (and older ) members of the community!
We are based in the Wychwoods, hence the interest, and I'm sure we can come up with a historic local conflict worthy of recreation!
Please let me know if this is a possibilty and how we might organise something with you.
Mike Watson

so who's interested? I am.

I've been playing with bits of paper, a ruler and a compass (always fun for the Nump), and have reached the following conclusions;
Standard ply sheets are 244mm by 122mm
They cost £20 from B&Q; probably cheaper from Jewsons.
You can get 3 big (just under 800mm diameter, my big white shield) from one sheet, as well as 6 bucklers (400mm diameter). So £5-6 for a biggie, 50p-£1 for a small.
You can also get 6 small (640mm diameter, a bit bigger than Robyn's) along with a couple of large bucklers (460mm). So £3-£3.50 each?
You can also get 5 medium (780mm diameter, about my brown shield) plus a couple of bucklers. So about £4 each.
We would also need hod-loads of fabric- about £4 per metre for cotton or £5-6 for linen, which does seem to last better (pers. obs.). So add somewhere between £2 and £5 for fabric.
10l of PVA glue will set you back around £13
Doggy chew- prob best left to individuals as quite time consuming, and best done when all dry (glue and paint).
I'd aim to get all blanks cut and covered, and leave painting and doggy chew as homework/next 2 weeks.
So total cost in the region of;
Big shield- £12
Medium shield- £9
Small shield- £6
Buckler- £4

Still to buy- paint, Doggy chew (£3), tin tacks (or sew it on!), Boss (£6).
Total cost £20-£13

I don't know what Wychwood has in the way of paint, but I think it has some. A tin is around £6. If a couple of people wanted Hwitmearum colours instead, we could probably donate the paint. Hint hint. It's still the green, matches Freya, and gives you two sides for shows!

Hope it all makes sense and is useful. Does WW still have a jigsaw? If not, can anyone check the Quatermaster's stock-list inventory to see when/where it went?

I reckon it would be good to strengthen this link. Apart from it being a good social, we might be able to tempt more people to the society.

This may become a thread to organise, but atm it's just to announce the possibility. It would prob be best organised with one person delegated to liaise with rpgsoc.

ferny

This is the castle in Wales that we could go to. Do we want to go this term? Or later in the year? Do we want to go for the Feast?

Will this be too much this term for the freshers?

Discuss, discuss

Yes, I've been thinking about the Wychwood horn, which I think at the moment is currently in the possession of Ferny. I believe the possessor is supposed to be the person who can drink the most (i.e. the horn is the prize of a drinking contest). I think therefore, that it would be good if we could have a drinking competition every year between the Freshers (probably in Hilary or Trinity when they are more integrated and permanent) to decide on the new owner. Also this would mean more people got a chance of having the horn - let's face it if we did a competition which included the whole of wychwood then Dom would win it every year…

Good idea? Or bad idea?

• Clash of fire and NLHF – this poses problem for wood cutting, as it will be dark when we get back. Could do wood cutting on Friday or swap fire and pub invasion.
• Clash of TORM and Walesby – Walesby is not a wychwood event, but anyone from wychwood is welcome. We could ask Shelagh (or Paul?)if she could take a minibus to Walesby stopping off at TORM. Other people could make other arrangements if they want to go; TORM runs Friday-Sunday (see termcard for link).
• Feast in 8th week – this is the 20th anniversary feast. Shelagh can’t make 7th week and we’d like to have her (WOOF!) However, people (including me) are probably going to be moving out on the Saturday which means that they will be needing to pack/see lesser friends.

If you have any views or potential solutions to these problems (or notice any more problems) please discuss.

anyone likely to come down for the annual re-enactment ?