Baroness Ursula von Bremen - SCA CV - [a work in progress]
I was able to verify most of the dates from memory, newsletters, the Baronial Timeline, the Atlantian OP and my blog. A few are my best stab. I've probably forgotten some significant bits, but this will have to do for now....
Current Focus [THIS SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION]
Communications and process improvement:
Projects in Progress:
* I submitted massive amounts of comment for the Windmasters website in mid-July (94 entries and counting). Still waiting two months later for even one to be uploaded, so I scheduled a meeting with a WordPress savvy friend tomorrow night to learn how to handle it myself. If that goes well, I'll take over the Ymir 50 web.
Projects - 2023-2024
* Created Windmasters Blog, including Windmasters History, 2.5 years of meeting minutes
* Transcribed Ancient Windmasters History (10 years) from PDF to Windlore
* North Carolina Zip code project - verified and updated NC zipcodes into a matrix to create an Excel zip code map. Shared info with Lord Owen Caerleon, who incorporated it into Atlantian maps.
* Windmasters' Hill Baronial Google Calendar - built from scratch on personal site and migrated to Baronial Google account. Contains insanely detailed info and links.
* Windmasters' Hill Baronial Google Map
Past Projects
* Barony of Windmasters Hill webpage - complete site overhaul with 85 subpages, very actively updated for 3 years
* House Bayard Banners - created eighteen 26 x 52" banners for household members, partners and friends of the house - loaned for demos
* Canton of Kappellenberg Sunshade - created a pop-up cover in the Canton colours with 40 eight-inch banners, with all Canton member heraldry, plus a few friends of the Canton and officer badges to form dags and double as an heraldic display.
* Canton of Kappellenberg banner
Canton Officer (Kappellenberg)
Mar 1992-1993 - Exchequer
Jun 1994-Aug 1995 - Chronicler
1993-1998 - Chatelaine (de-facto when the office was (often) vacant)
Baronial Officer (Windmasters)
2003-2006 - Websmith
2008-2009 - Seneschal
Feb 2022-present - Chronicler
Kingdom Officer
1993-1995 -- Central Regional Exchequer- reconciling all 19 North Carolina groups. Assisting with officer transitions, training, bank signature cards, balancing issues and ran the Exchequer meetings at Unevent and penned most of the Kingdom Exchequer letters in the Acorn for 2 or 3 years in a row.
Diplomat :-)
Mar 2022-present - SCAdian Ambassatrix to Clan Red Dreki (The Viking Experience NC)
Event Steward
July 1994 - A Windmasters Weekend Pre-Pennsic Camping Collegium (Windmasters)
Sep 1994 - Below the Salt Beside the Lake, An Uncommon Commoner's Picnic (Kappellenberg)
July 1995 - Cerberus Tourney (Kappellenberg)
Apr 1996 - Windmasters' the Gathering (Windmasters)
Feb 2005 - Ymir XXX (Windmasters)
Feb 2006 - Ymir XXXI (Windmasters)
Demo Coordinator
Feb 2002 - UNC Chapel Hill Carolina Club Demo
Mar 2023 - The Viking Experience (full weekend directing 12 staff)
Mar 2024 - The Viking Experience (full weekend directing 25 staff)
Sep 2024 - North Carolina Museum of Art Demo (Communications - staff of 28 in progress)
Mar 2025 - The Viking Experience (two weekends in progress)
Dance Leader
1994-1996 - Weekly Classes (Kappellenberg)
Dec 1995 - Atlantian University Dance & Dessert Revel (Kappellenberg)
May 2000 - Seven Trials of Love Torchlight Dance (Elvegast)
Feb 2005 - Ymir XXX (Windmasters)
Other Service / Teaching
Events: Typically kitchen cleanup, serving, and tear-down, site book design/production, communications
Demos: communications, publicity, websmithing, brochure design, signage, info table, dance
Teaching: Dance, Basic Heraldry, Banner Making, Garb 101, Sewing 101
Awards (Order of Precedence link)
1992 - Award of Arms
1994 - Kittyhawk (Baronial service award)
1996 - Kittyhawk (Baronial service award) (They didn't know I already had one. :-)
2004 - Don Quixote (Baronial service beyond reason award)
2004 - Baronial Award of Excellence
2006 - Baronial Award of Excellence
2007 - Golden Dolphin
2008 - Boreas (Baronial arts award)
2023 - Court Baroness
How I went Medieval
In the Fall of 1977 (A.S. XII) I saw some people on horseback dressed in Medieval garb, tilting at targets in a field next to my school in the boonies of Western New York. They told me they were with the Society for Creative Anachronism. I was stoked, but that was the last I would see of them for over half a decade.
At uni I joined the fencing club. Although we had no contact with the SCA, we had similar habits. Most of the club members had nicknames and personal insignia. We had a few weekend events either at someone's summer cabin or the college lodge in the woods, dressed up in makeshift fantasy garb. We took pictures storyboard-style. One of these ended up as a painting of me casting a fireball at a monster. The painter went on to work with George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic and among other things, was the creator of the two-headed monster in Willow (original movie).
Our student coach wrote to me over the summer about finding the SCA in his hometown just outside of Buffalo. From him I learned that the SCAdians I'd first encountered were from a group that started at my university and moved to Buffalo with their founder when she graduated, and became the Barony of the Rhydderch Hael. He related tales of his first Pennsic. I was fascinated, but car-less, busy and broke. I moved to Boston, and then Syracuse, where I saw an SCA info table for the Barony of Delftwood at a metaphysical faire. They invited me to their Feast of the Seven Deadly Sins, but it was too far away, and now I was studying accounting with two children in tow.
A few months later, we found ourselves in Chapel Hill North Carolina. Better weather and job opportunities, and with several decent universities nearby it occurred to me that there would probably be a nearby SCA branch. Sure enough, in our second week we encountered a Baronial fighter practice on a walk around the UNC campus with the beautiful backdrop of Forest Theater. I wouldn't be able to play with them right away, as I was hunting for a job. Their Seneschal (now Duchess Luned) gave me the address for the Known World Handbook, which I immediately ordered and devoured.
Meanwhile I settled into my job, became the pitcher of our company softball team "Fourteen Geeks and A Broad," disclocated my shoulder in a non-softball-related accident and got promoted several times.
When things settled down a year and a half after the move, I started attending the local SCA meetings nearly every week. A few months later, finally my first event. I already had garb - a Tudor gown which I'd hand-sewn when I was still in New York. I found some feast gear and a ride. I didn't have an SCA name yet. Nothing good had yet come to mind. When I arrived at troll, they said, "What's your SCA name?" And I said "It's...uh...Ursula." The name hadn't been on my radar before - it just jumped out of my face.
I picked my time period by going through a History of Costume book and bookmarking the garb that I liked the best. At the time the most votes went 14th century Germany, which paired well with the name. I wanted it to be von (something) because it sounded cool. To get the name to pass easily, I picked a town that existed in period - Bremen, from the fairy tale "The Musicians of Bremen."
I helped out in the kitchen at my first event for something to do and with demos whenever I had a chance. A few years later, with my chlidren in school, I was finally in a position to reliably hold an office. And it kind of got out of hand......
Modern Me
I'm a lifelong insomniac, which has gotten way worse in the past few years, currently averaging 0 to 4 hours per day. I get giddy imaginging what six hours of sleep in a row would be like. Totally not kidding. Yet somehow I was recently described as a "friendly tornado."
I have three grown sons of whom I'm very proud: Isaac (award-winning graphic designer / explorer / general Renaissance man based in Seattle, currently working in Amsterdam), Gavin (chiropractor / personal trainer / mixed martial artist and podcaster in Raleigh) and Connor (auditor / explorer / destroyer class gamer in New York City).
Born in Alabama, and raised in Western New York near the Canadian border, I've lived in Niagara Falls, Boston, and Syracuse, but have spent most of my life in the Chapel Hill/Durham NC area. In the past I've made my living as a radio DJ and engineer, and have written for and served as an editor on at least eight publications. I've also run a number of local non-SCA events and I love to write. I've been told that I dance and hula hoop reasonably well, and that I shoot a decent game of pool.
I made an exciting living as an Accountrix / Contract Specialist for an international health research organization, working with government contracts with colleages and clients in 35 counties. Five time zones, four languages, deadly serious resposibilities, and massive stress. But there was also frequent travel to Washington DC and even a few trips to Oxford, UK (Embassy Row hotels on the company dime did not suck) and valuable professional and life experience. This, along with family issues gave me less time and energy for the SCA, and turned into a 14 year hiaitus. Two corporate takeovers and re-brandings later, my job was finally sent to DC, and I opted not to follow. The next job was slightly less stressful with a 2.5 hour daily roundtrip commute.
Then came the Pandemic. Working from home gave me space to reassess. I walked away from the rat race, took six months off, then took on a challenging but less stressful local job (onsite at the moment) which will probably hold my interest through to retirement.
I'm just starting to feel settled in from moving out of my beautiful Dome house of seven years, downsizing two-thirds of my posessions (zero regrets), locating, cleaning, painting, reconfiguring and moving into my new home in January 2024. I just have to work on that sleep thing.
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