In October 2010, Tracy and I went to Detroit to
attend the American Society’s Annual General Meeting. While there, many
Americans came up to us and told us how much fun they had had at the 2004 Joint
Canada-US Branches Conference and Annual General Meeting, which the Canadian
Branch hosted in Toronto. On the way home, Tracy and I decided to see if it was
possible to host a second Joint AGM in Toronto. We approached the American
Branch and our own executive with the idea and plans were made for the Joint AGM
to be held this past October.
In the months leading up to the Joint AGM, Tracy and I
met several times, spoke a lot on the telephone, and we shared our progress on
the event plotting, and planning through our blog.
The Second Joint Canadian-American Branch Conference and
Annual General Meeting was held the last weekend of September in Oakville at
the Hilton Garden Inn Toronto/Oakville, where most of the attendees stayed for
the event.
The Joint AGM was attended by 46 registrants, including
Canadian members from as far away as Regina and Montreal. In total there were
19 Canadian members present. The 27 American members came from as far as
California to attend.
The Joint AGM formally began with registration at the
hotel on Friday at four in the afternoon. Attendees were given a cloth bag with
a logo especially designed for the Joint AGM. Inside the bag were white
chocolate roses, a hand-bound AGM conference booklet with a pig-shaped
paperclip on it, a pen from the British Consulate, and, if the person were one
of the first 36 registrants to sign up, they got also got a mug from the
British Consulate.
That evening, we invited people to gather at six in the
registration room for a light buffet dinner. Usually attendees are on their own
for the first meal of an AGM, but we thought it was better to have everyone
together to allow people to see old friends and make new ones. The buffet was
so popular that the delay in showing The
Name of the Rose that night was hardly noted.
The next morning we had two speakers. The first was a surprise
for our attendees, David J. Brunelle, who spoke about A Soldier’s Life - The
War of 1812. Tracy had arranged this talk as it was the bicentenary of the War
of 1812, the war and our Joint AGM both involved Americans and Canadians, and
the War was fought nearby. David brought replica costumes and weapons from the
War, which people were allowed to handle. Attendees were very receptive to the
talk, which was a lovely way to begin the day.
Next was Arlene Okerlund, a Professor Emerita of English
and member of the American Branch, who spoke about the enigmatic Elizabeth of
York, wife of Henry VII and niece of Richard III. Arlene has written several
books, including one about Elizabeth, which we had copies of to sell after the
talk. Her subject proved so interesting that we actually ran out of the copies.
After lunch, we had Susan Bond, a freelance
classical production dramaturge, who gave a talk about Richard III as portrayed
in modern theatre. Susan looked at the recent revivals of Richard III, such as
the production by Kevin Spacey and several Toronto-area productions, some of
which Susan had taken part in.
Our final speaker of the day was Ariella Elema, who had
just completed her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto, who presented a paper on
"Teaching and Learning Swordplay in Late Medieval England," which
discussed the current state of knowledge on the subject of English
swordsmanship between 1250 and 1500.
After Ariella’s presentation, the two Branches separated
for their own AGMs. Following the AGMs, members of the Canadian Branch assisted
with the sorting of the silent auction items. We had many donations for the
auction, the majority of which were books, and had bids on most of the 140
items.
Then, attendees had some free time to relax or change for
our banquet dinner. Dinner was at six and diners were entertained with the
music of Hurly Burly, a medieval and renaissance musical group from
Peterborough, ON, who performed during the meal.
Dinner attendees were given a bookmark, sugared almonds
(a medieval treat) in a bomboniere bag with a white rose hand sewn on it, a
white origami boar, and a York rose brooch, all handmade, along with a scroll with
the dinner menu printed on it. The table (in a u-shape, with people sitting on
both sides of the arms) also had eight white rose centrepieces and six manners
cards featuring a quote from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales describing the dining conduct of the Prioress.
After dinner, tickets were drawn for the Americans’ raffle
and the silent auction winners were announced and given their prizes. Then, the
remaining guests played Ricardian-themed games, such as Ricardian bingo and
pass-the-parcel; the latter was won by our treasurer, Doug Woodger.
After a long day, our attendees headed back to their
hotel room or to home for some much-needed rest and relaxation.
On Sunday, we gathered, some a little worse for wear, for
our last speaker, Jonathon Hayes, who had become the Chair of the American
Branch the day before. Jonathon spoke about François Villon, the 15th-century
French poet, who was the original “bad boy.” The paper was not only an analysis
of his poetry, but also an attempt to bring to life the lower strata of 15th-century
society.
At the end of Jonathon’s talk, the Joint AGM was closed
by our Chair Tracy with a few gifts given to people who had assisted with the
event and a few well-chosen words and wishes for safe journeys home.
