I spent the weekend (and change) collecting my thoughts and deciding where to go forward with Dinthwaite.
One of the important things to do in this situation, once the sulk is over, is to thoroughly evaluate the experience for information on how to improve. There was always going to be a disconnect between what people want and what can be offered at these initial stages. I am not prepared to abandon the goal of making the village low-to-no cost. However, the money still has to come from somewhere. While I hope to engage sponsorship and grants for a majority of it as much as possible, those can only be pursued after the incorporation stage.
The investment based self-funding model is a goal, but perhaps cannot be a fundraising goal. I am not sure enough people understand how it can work, or don’t believe it can. In the interim I am developing a membership component which will help to build said nest egg. But, as I joked a bit during the campaign, there’s nothing sexy about spreadsheets. Everything is on paper, it’s conceptual, it’s all that work that goes into doing something well before the effects are visible. It’s why people quit work out programs and taking up new artistic hobbies, because they want the fun, the cool, the effects – now. Delayed gratification is not in vogue, and while I value the support I did receive for this stage of the project, the wider appeal was clearly lacking.
And so I mulled for quite a while on what I could achieve within the constraints of the resources available to me at this stage. It is appealing to look at what I raised on Kickstarter and assume that’s a reasonable “budget.” Of course, it is unreasonable to assume I can expect a dollar for dollar equivalency. It’s the same fallacy as assuming if there are 10,000 reenactors in the world, then I should be able to rely on a certain percentage of them to give a certain dollar value and spit out an assured amount of financing on the other side. This Kickstarter is enough to prove the math doesn’t come out so clean. Scale is also against me, as many pledged expecting rewards which are more difficult to fulfill at the same price point when working with a tenth as many people. And I am not sold on using Kickstarter again. But, over the weekend only about a third of the people who backed on Kickstarter have migrated in some way or another to Facebook or the email list.
Brace yourself for some math. I went over my plans to see what could be trimmed down to make the first step, already a small step, even more of a baby step. The funding goal on Kickstarter was $24,450. Abandoning Kickstarter already saves their fees and taxes and built in “margin of error” calculations which added thousands onto the original funding requirement and brings me to $20,000. While I think it is ultimately a superior compartmentalization of projects to get Dinthwaite its own web-space, I already have the Turnip of Terror website, and Dinthwaite can have a web presence there for a while, dropping the goal down to $10,000. A post office box is a need, but also something I can remove today, bringing everything down to $6,500. This is officially under what was raised on Kickstarter.
While I think it is important for the business to be able to stand on its own feet and cover its only essential expense, the annual filing fee, if being completely cutthroat I am happy to donate that, leaving only the cost of estimated legal fees, which I was told would not exceed $5,000. This also inherently cuts out any funding for printing the Letter Patent. But, incorporating the foundation is still the necessary first step, which cannot be ignored as it is the gateway to money which are not crowd-funded related. And while it is easy to balk and say it does not cost that much to incorporate a business (many have already said that) trying to do something unusual, from a legal standpoint, is not. It means bespoke legalease and examining obscure areas of the law. I cannot rely on boilerplate forms copied from templates online. Codifying the correct culture into the incorporation documents will take time and attention in an area which no one has prior experience.
Once incorporated, I will have access to grants, sponsorships, and I can pursue non-profit status which would make donations tax deductible, effectively a requirement for future fundraising efforts. If I can get the attorney to do this under budget, then everything left over goes towards printing the Letter Patent, all the goals I’ve had to cut, and towards getting the land. And once incorporated, that sets the gears in motion for fundraising, grants, and program efforts.
For the next two weeks I am accepting donations toward the incorporation legal fund. I am limiting the time frame because those who are committed enough to support at this early stage still deserve their exclusive recognition and praise. The reward will still be similar: immortalization as a founding member on the website, record in the village’s histories, physical display on site when built, lifetime membership to the Confraternity of the Star (which will ultimately become the paid membership aspect of the site referenced earlier,) and the Letter Patent as soon as I can get it printed.
Article Roll
Dinthwaite Medieval Village Foundation
I have been working quite steadily on a very important project to crowdfund the beginnings of a new chapter in medieval living history and reenactment. The Dinthwaite Medieval Village Foundation will be a reenactment first village dedicated to the hobby of interpreting and recreating the middle ages.
Our Hobby is Without a Home
In America, at least, we lack dedicated spaces which cater to the look, feel, and particulars of a medieval environment for our events and meetings. Many of us get the most immersion in woods and fields, the rest of us make do with parks, and at worst we ignore the visuals of gymnasiums and convention halls. The spaces that do exist with a medieval vibe always have a different purpose which our community has to work around. Ren fairs are for profit businesses, not playgrounds for immersive living history. Open-air museums often accommodate living history better. But, they have to balance their school groups and public hours. They are often unable to afford to shut the public out and close off clashing modern aesthetics. It does not need to be this way, and I am here to change it.
A Reenactor-First Medieval Village
While there are reenactment or living history groups, no organization focuses on creating, establishing, and maintaining the space for reenactment groups to perform their activities. Likewise, it is difficult to find spaced to conduct long-term experimental archeology . These are all the types of activities enjoyed by those with access to land of their own. Having land is a luxury. While many groups have benefited from “knowing a guy” spaces, these are notorious for their unreliability. Many a reenactor has sunk hours of time and countless dollars into physical spaces which they had to abandon because they no longer have access.
The answer to these issues is to build a medieval village and its trappings from infrastructure to material culture. This village has the the express focus of serving the medieval living history and reenactment community. It will not be an open air museum or a medieval fair or a medieval themed amusement park. Immersion events will not have to fit in around the other business. The village will focus on living history and reenactment events and projects.
Living history is also more than events; it is about recreating and reliving elements of the past. The site will incorporate “open hours,” not for the public to tour, but for reenactors to use the space for immersion purposes. Examples include exploratory experiences, working on crafts, and enjoying garb in medieval ambiance. Not everything requires the pressures of goal oriented events. To this end, the site will be a home for enduring living history projects and experiments. The kind of projects we can only conduct in an authentic medieval environment. Projects such as agriculture, building construction, and tactics exploration. The first step is creating the legal entity which can achieve this goal.
Enter the Foundation
This first step, before buying land or breaking ground or scheduling events, is to create a legal entity which can be set up to run this endeavor. Dinthwaite Medieval Village Foundation will be a not-for-profit nonstock corporation. Corporations must follow and adhere to their bylaws and articles of incorporation. This first fundraising campaign is for the costs of establishing and perpetuating the corporation. Far larger sums of money will be required in the future for buying land and constructing buildings.
The not-for-profit nature of the corporation prohibits anyone involved from enriching themselves with your money. A nonstock corporation cannot issue stock, and will provide no member interest. There will be no external influence to make profit instead of making an accessible and low to no cost resource. The articles of incorporation and bylaws will force the Foundation to follow fiscally conservative financial planning. They will keep the project focused solely on the medieval living history and reenactment community’s benefit.
Location
The intended area of this village is a rural area of Kansas in the American Midwest, outside the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. This area is suited for a project of this nature as it is centrally located to the entire contiguous US. It will be near the expanding Kansas City International Airport. It is close to the intersection of many interstates, including I-29, I-35, I-49, and I-70, making the area accessible by both air and vehicle travel. Unlike western Kansas, where the jokes about endless flat terrain are truer than humor, the area along the border with Missouri still has an abundance of wooded and hilly areas. This makes “hiding” the village feasible. The climate of the area also varies from snowy and cold to arid and hot. This allows for the exploration of a variety of different cultures based on climate throughout the year.
Financing
As a not-for-profit community focused project, the Foundation commits to providing access to its services at little to no cost. This is achieve through a variety of internal controls at the foundation of the corporation. This included the not-for-profit status, volunteerism, and minimizing or eliminating expensive executive compensation. Another key to achieving this goal is pre-financing many of the unavoidable expenses of basic operations through self sustaining investment budgeting. We will be using 3% as our guiding principle, as this is well below long term average returns. Years where the market are healthier will add surplus for future projects as well as buffer for years with weaker return.
For example, Kansas’ cost of filing annual reports is $40. Taking $1,400 and investing it in account(s) which return at or more than 3% interest provides the business $40 a year. This Kickstarter seeks to raise enough to cover the cost of having an attorney review the articles of incorporation, bylaws, and waivers. It will pay the initial filing fee and cover future annual reports. It will establish and pay for a domain and website and secure a postal address.
Incorporating: A Vital First Step
The value of incorporating before anything else cannot be overstated. Once incorporated the Foundation can begin to explore fundraising, financing, grants, and other avenues of fundraising. Many of these are open exclusively or preferentially to business entities. Though a simple first step, it is fundamental to the process of establishing the village. It will be key to and providing the living history and reenactment community the haven they deserve.
I May Never Visit, And I Will Still Contribute
Correct decision! We live in a technological era where even distant locales are as close as the phone in our hand, if people are willing to put in the effort. I will be making this project accessible to the world through liberal leveraging of technology, offering a wide variety of virtual access through live streams, such as lectures and presentations, behind the scene videos, photo and video updates, live Q&As, virtual tours, interactive 360 photography, video hikes, and more. By the time you make it out in person it’ll already feel like a second home.
Still A Ways To Go
We have a long road ahead to finish funding. Please support on Kickstarter. Rewards begin as little as $25, and for a small investment now you can create a huge change in the future of our hobby.
Arms & Armor Aunlaz Dagger Review
I am please to release my review of the Arms & Armor aunlaz dagger. Also, I have a transcript of the video.
“Today I am going to be reviewing the Arms & Armor Aunlaz Dagger.
Introduction
The Aunlaz dagger is a unique and identifiable style of dagger notable by the shape of its hilt and pommel. Known by other names also such as antennae dagger, it’s referenced as the quillion dagger by the Royal Armories. It has an aesthetics that is vaguely reminiscent of anthropomorphic Iron Age weapons. The guard and pommel sweep away from the grip, making this distinct curl at the end of each bar. Similar in profile to basilards, aunlaz daggers were often found with this curl here wrapped around another piece of metal, such as more steel, or copper, or latten. Though this forward sweeping curl to the crossguard reminiscent of many different types of daggers, the Aunlaz is very distinct for having a pommel that is nearly symmetrical and opposite the design to the quillion. It has a double edged flattened diamond blade which tapers to a strong point. Visual and archeological finds place this dagger in use as early as the 12th century and goes until the end of the 14th when its popularity declined.
Physical Review
This dagger came out of the box clean and shiny, with the finish that you see here. I have done nothing extra to it. As I said, it’s not to an edge, you can’t shave with it or cut paper. I have no expertise with steel types myself, but I am assured it will hold an edge if applied. Make no mistake, it’s still a functional dagger of solid construction and it can hurt or kill anyone you stab with it. So, here’s your general disclaimer: don’t stab people. This is not a toy and it’s not a sparring tool. This dagger is held together with a handsome wooden grip. None of it wiggles or feels loose. Though this blade is no pocket knife when it comes to length, it’s really not a terribly large dagger, especially in comparison to descriptions we have of some extant daggers which really blur the line between a long knife and a short sword. Even more noticeable really, is how short this grip is. While I accept that I have large hands, don’t even get me started on trying to find gloves at Tractor Supply, it really is a bit snug when gripped in hand. Handling it in a gauntlet is absolutely impossible. Now, in comparison, it’s much more roomy in the hand of my wife. In actual dimensions it is about 13.5 inches overall, with a 9 inch long blade, its 3 and a quarter inch long handle. The handle and the blade are all about an inch wide. The whole dagger is 3 inches wide at the quillions which more or less matches the dimensions on the website.
Reenactor’s Application
This dagger is not out of the box a nobleman’s dagger without modification. It could accept decoration that would elevate its status, but out of the box it is appropriate for a commoner impression, or that of the simpler yeomanry. It seems to be more popular in the 13th and 14th centuries based on manuscript imagery. It’s not a utilitarian knife, it’s much more suitable for impressions with a martial angle to them. So, think of an armored impression, but of the simpler man at arms or maybe a peasant levy; this could also be worn on the camp impressions of somebody on campaign in a war setting; it could also be used as part of a para-martial impressions where you think there might be a tussle such as a forester, or someone traveling on dangerous roads. And then think of something you might grab in response to the hue and cry. Things like that. As I mentioned a few times before, this is a functional dagger, and so all the care and consideration is required when wearing this dagger, such as not wearing it with an impression where some friendly combat is expected to happen. Don’t use it as an ornamentation in a HEMA tournament where you could confuse it for a sparring applicable dagger. The same thing if you’re doing, maybe, like a live battle demonstration. This version of the aunlaz dagger is not the best choice.
Final Thoughts
Overall I am incredibly happy with this dagger. I was fortunate to have won it as part of a Swords Without Borders fundraiser, years and years ago now, but if I were to have purchased it today, and received what I have now, it would have been entirely worth the money spent. It has definitely confirmed, to me, the Arms & Armor’s company reputation of high quality, care, and service. Thank you for reading.”
The Real Story Behind Almond Milk
Almond milk is not a modern invention, and in many cases it had a real popularity in the middle ages which has only waned over time, with various upticks in modern interest. Among the nobility and peasantry it was a widely adopted drink and the medieval people we purport to represent with our reenactment or living history impressions would be intimately familiar with the product both as a drink and as a cooking ingredient in medieval dishes and recipes.
October Newsletter 2021
Routine Maintenance and Upkeep
My most important task, keeping the links clean and unbroken, is complete. I did a touch of updating the summaries and descriptions in places where it was needed. The next big update will be an upgrade to the site, and I plan to start adding in plug-ins for some of the more advanced features which I’ve been hoping to access, but have been biding my time for. I suspect I’ll spend much of the winter working on the complete upgrade, so keep an eye out for interesting developments over the next few months.
Site upgrades, and the entire project, is made possible by the support of those committed to making this space a tangible reality. I am honored to add Dominique J Knight to the rolls as a supporting member through Patreon. If you have derived any value from the use of this website or the informative and entertaining content, please consider joining on Patreon, I offer incentives to include early content and creative control over future work whenever possible as an added benefit, and you will be contributing to what makes this the best medieval corner of the internet.
Continue reading “October Newsletter 2021”August Newsletter 2021
Routine Maintenance and Upkeep
Broken links have been removed or repaired. Unfortunately there are some entries in the morgue, hopefully we can get them resolved this month. There have not been many updates to the website this month, but my “background notes” of entries I want to add have grown. I tend to fiddle with them offline, do my research, get my verbiage straight, find the iconography I want, then add them at the very end.
Continue reading “August Newsletter 2021”Episode 34 – Mini Episode Five (Personas w/ Matt)
Episode Audio
On today’s bonus episode join Matt as he takes you down some of his thoughts expanding on the ideas of personas.
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Apologies
I was going through and updating the website with back-episodes of How Two Medieval which I had not put up before. And I completely forgot it sends emails every time I post a back-dated episode. My sincerest apologies for flooding your inbox.
How Two Medieval Episode 33 – The Anthropology Perspective with Madeleine Smith
Episode Audio
Join Matt and me as we talk to special guest Madeleine Smith of the Actually Interesting History podcast about the insights anthropology can lend to the study of the past and by extension living history impressions.
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Show notes:
Continue reading “How Two Medieval Episode 33 – The Anthropology Perspective with Madeleine Smith”How Two Medieval Episode 32 – H2M Reacts to The Green Knight and Last Duel Trailers
Episode Audio
Not only do Matt and I share our initial thoughts on these two films based only on their trailers, but we spend sometime discussing the complicated relationship between the medieval living history community and medieval themed movies produced by Hollywood.
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