00:01:49.480We've got our folk in the Northern Plains region, folks from North Dakota and our Minnesota people already hard at work getting Baldershoff all set up, getting things cleaned and repaired and all suitable and nice for our AFA family and most importantly, for the shining sun of Odin for Balder.
00:02:09.180So, very excited about Baldershoff. Hail Balder!
00:02:19.160That said, I also wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about the amazing midsummer that we had.
00:02:26.820Since I talked to you guys last, we had our yearly midsummer at Odenshoff, and it was tremendous.
00:02:34.180We weren't sure how many people were going to come out this year.
00:02:37.040As you guys know, things have been kind of different this year with folks traveling and folks being able to get together.
00:03:16.300if i'm looking down as always facebook is weird so i get more of your comments on my
00:03:21.500phone than i do on the side of the chat over here so don't don't mind me i am
00:03:26.140paying attention i'm just trying to make sure nobody gets uh gets overlooked
00:03:33.180So at at Midsommar at Odinsoff, another thing that we did that I think was really special and and literally groundbreaking was we interred our first our first remains at the cemetery of Odinsoff.
00:03:52.180um gothi gothi thorgrin uh aden his uh him and his wife katie they put their daughter's remains
00:04:01.360to rest in the cemetery at odenshof and we are very very honored very honored to have her there
00:04:08.180um that was a really special thing i was honored to be there and be a part of
00:04:12.140and it's nice because no longer is that a theory or a something we can do one of these days
00:04:20.540we now officially have a place to bury the ashes of our dead and to honor them with with monuments
00:04:26.940um that's a really special thing in this time when so many folks around us are are tearing
00:04:32.860monuments down and destroying the afa has been building been erecting monuments having a place
00:04:38.940for our dead and we've been establishing two hofs so we're doing some really exciting things and i'm
00:04:46.220excited to to share that with you guys looking at the chat tonight um
00:04:55.100oh wow all right so gothy blaine qualls thank you and ulfheadnar clan so very much
00:05:04.060blaine just mentioned that the ulfheadnar clan has just donated one thousand two hundred and fifty
00:05:10.700to Baldershof. That is what it takes for us to be able to do amazing things like that. Thank you
00:05:19.540guys so much for your generosity. I want to bring everyone's attention. We've been able to do some
00:05:27.740really amazing things because you guys have been generous. As I said, this year, we've been able
00:05:33.160to establish two Hoffs. In order to have nice things and to do things, it takes money. It takes
00:05:39.620support and the support that we need quite often is financial um if you go to our website www.runestone.org
00:05:50.020and you click on the donate link link there we really appreciate anything you guys can spare
00:05:56.740to pay off these two hoffs and to to help us get in a position to to get more hoffs in the future
00:06:04.260we're trying to pay off these hoffs we like i said we got two this year you can choose to donate to
00:06:09.620thor's hoff or to balder's hoff and select that on there if you or if your kindred or your family
00:06:16.660would like to donate 500 or more then you'll get your name on a plaque whichever of those hoffs
00:06:22.580that you choose if you want to throw 500 at each you can get your name on each plaque but we do
00:06:29.220really appreciate anything you guys can give you know 500 is a big number we appreciate 20 we
00:06:34.740appreciate 10. whatever you guys can do it is much appreciated and i hope you guys see that
00:06:40.260it is going to good use so thank you for the people who've donated
00:06:51.620we have questions tonight does folks have anything you want to talk about
00:06:55.700anything you want to hear me talk about um anything going on we had one gentleman reach out
00:07:03.780to me by email a couple of days ago and he had a question about the use of facebook
00:07:11.620and i know a lot of folks are wanting to move to different platforms there's a lot of talk about
00:07:16.100me we and various different social media i know that facebook very often does not
00:07:21.300share our values and more than that they very often treat our values and treat us very unfairly
00:07:31.140and that's unfortunate i know a lot of folks are hoping that we you know make some big show of
00:07:37.940migrating away from facebook to these other platforms and i think what's really important
00:07:42.740is that we look at these things as tools and what we're trying to do i think when you look at other
00:07:47.060platforms as uh as a way to communicate with your in-group with your friends with perhaps other
00:07:56.180afa members certainly with afa members in your region with your kindreds i think there's a lot
00:08:01.060of different options that could probably serve your needs much better than facebook
00:08:07.140but the question is when will the afa get all the way off facebook and move to other platforms
00:08:11.860And I think the answer has to be when Facebook stops being the number one social media platform in the world by exponential factors.
00:08:27.000Right now, one of the reasons that we stay on Facebook, and it depends what you want to do.
00:08:30.760But Facebook, and the reason that I'm talking to you on Facebook right now, is that it reaches the maximum number of people with the minimum amount of effort.
00:08:42.760I'm all for the AFA using all the platforms that we can, but if we only get one shot or if we have one opportunity to talk to you guys, Facebook is the way to reach the most of our AFA family, the easiest.
00:08:54.760And what's also very important is it's the way to reach outside of that.
00:09:00.160One of the hardest things for ALSATRU in general is to reach outside of our circles.
00:09:06.100We all have a few narrow circles that we run in with certain commonalities we have.
00:09:12.860But getting outside of that circle and letting other people know that this that we all enjoy is here and bringing our folk home, which is the mission of the AFA.
00:09:22.740it's most effective to complete that mission by reaching out to the largest audience that we can
00:09:28.260on a platform that's gonna gonna get to those folks so that's why we still stay on it i have
00:09:33.940nothing against branching out trying to use other platforms as well but right now we've got to ride
00:09:40.660the tiger a little bit and not cut off our nose to spider face so i hope that answers that question
00:09:51.780Trying to check on my phone here and do a little refresh to make sure I'm getting anything that maybe you guys are saying that I haven't seen.
00:15:26.720Francesco Morrissey in Italy has stepped up, and he brings a lot of experience.
00:15:34.120I believe he's been in Alistair Trues since 1993, and he brings all that experience to
00:15:39.520serve our folk in Europe, to build that area, to make that area strong.
00:15:44.960last couple of years we've had a surge of european membership and it's very exciting to see and
00:15:51.920francesco is is really going to do great things for us over there and i'm excited to see that grow
00:15:58.400i'd also like to mention connor norris who stepped up in vancouver washington
00:16:06.880the northwest region the astro folk assembly has been growing tremendously in the last last year
00:16:13.120but really hard in the last six months great things have happened there and they're building
00:16:18.400a really strong team and connor is really going to add to that team so i'm very excited to have
00:16:22.800him join or have him join the ranks of full builders
00:16:28.560Well, other orders of business, I guess, to talk about this evening.
00:16:45.200I mentioned that here on the 18th, we're going to do the dedication for Thorshoff.
00:16:49.480I'd also like to mention that the idea, and this is tentative, but the idea is November
00:16:56.740for us to view the dedication at Baldershof in Minnesota. So if for some reason you can't make
00:17:04.800the dedication for Thorshof, if you can make it to Murdoch, Minnesota to celebrate the dedication
00:17:10.300of Baldershof in November, I would love to see you there. Also, if you're in that neck of the woods
00:17:17.240Coming up in September in Minnesota, we have Fall Fest. Fall Fest is a really special event. It is an event that was met with struggle and controversy in its initial year, and it was really special to be there because we bonded over that and have built that into one of the best events of the Astro Folk Assembly.
00:17:40.500The hospitality of people in our Northern Plains region is amazing.
00:17:47.220I look forward to that every single year.
00:17:49.720I'm very excited to see folks there at Fall Fest.
00:17:53.820Go through Blaine Qualls and our folk builder and our kindred coordinator, Jason Gallagher, have put so much heart and soul into making that happen.
00:18:05.540If you guys haven't been to Fall Fest, you're missing out, and I really hope to see you there this year.
00:18:09.780Crystal, yes. Fall Fest is slated to be its regular location this year, but I think once
00:18:18.720we have Baldershof up and running, next year we may change that location and try to center
00:18:24.100that around Baldershof. That's the plan. We're still working out the logistics on it right
00:18:28.800now. Johnny, I see the wheels are turning. Hopefully you can make it out to Baldershof
00:18:36.940in november that goes for everybody out there i think it's going to be a really special
00:18:41.100really special time and i hope you guys can all join
00:18:50.940so looking at stuff and I hope I'm not missing questions if there's questions out there
00:19:06.980again this is kind of kind of a clunky interface I hope Facebook gets it figured out or
00:19:13.860hope I get it figured out on my end I'm trying to answer everybody who's uh who's asking if I
00:19:19.560don't get you. It's not, uh, not intentional. I'll go back, go back on it. Apparently my wife
00:19:25.600is seeing questions that I am not seeing. So, uh, maybe by the team of us, we'll get these
00:19:32.100questions covered, but it is encouraging that questions are getting asked, even if I'm not
00:19:37.160So, you know, no, it's we said this a lot.
00:19:49.880One of the really special things to watch at our at our events, especially at our national events, the families participating has been tremendous.
00:20:04.000the number of kids. And that's really special to have the children involved and have watching
00:20:12.060the older children help the younger children bring them up within the AFA. We did a ritual
00:20:18.040welcoming in a baby girl into our AFA family at Midsommar, and she is a third generation AFA
00:20:24.660member. And that's something really special to be able to say that three generations of that family
00:20:31.140so far are members of our AFA family. That's really what we're trying to build. This year,
00:20:37.900we started our ninth year of that awakening, empowerment, and immortality cycle that our
00:20:45.320founder, Steve McNallan, started nine years ago. We're continuing our focus on immortality,
00:20:54.380but this is the final year of that cycle. We're focusing on the ruin ensues and on listening to
00:20:59.740the gods, listening to the Aesir, listening to the All-Father, and, excuse me, opening
00:21:06.560ourselves to that, paying attention to the signs, to the synchronicities, paying attention
00:21:13.420to the voice of the gods in our lives and in our hearts as we develop and as we grow.
00:21:18.800And by doing that, I think that we've really taken a big step as the Astro Folk Assembly
00:21:23.620towards some of that immortality, certainly as a church, as an organization.
00:21:27.960um this year's been a big leap forward in that because now we have we have baby namings we
00:21:37.400welcome babies into the world we have a womb blessing even before baby namings and now finally
00:21:43.140with the cemetery at odinsoff we have a place on our holy ground to inter the ashes of our loved
00:21:49.420ones. So throughout the entire life of our AFA family, there's a place within the AFA.
00:21:58.240And it's really a special thing. But with the increase of our Hoffs, and I've said it before,
00:22:05.060but I'll keep saying it because it's really a special thing to me. My daughter will never
00:22:09.780know a time that there wasn't Hoffs to honor our gods. And it was a huge thing to get that
00:22:14.860first Hoff to get Odin's Hoff. But as long as we just have one of something, we're only one away0.88
00:22:21.180from not having anything. One disaster, one calamity, one bad slip of fortune. Now we have
00:22:30.280three Hoffs. That's so much closer to a tradition that's going to be around for our children,0.59
00:22:38.740for our grandchildren, for our grandchildren's grandchildren. I'm really excited to be a part
00:22:43.180laying those foundations and having you guys with me to lay those foundations.
00:22:58.760So I've got a couple of questions on the side. The next big upcoming holiday that we celebrate
00:23:03.820in Ausitru is Freyfaxi in August. And usually that's kind of the start of our end of summer
00:23:12.700harvest season, and that's usually at the end of the month. I also have another question
00:23:19.080over on the side about how I would recommend talking to folk that aren't of our faith and
00:23:28.260explaining our, our Volkish beliefs without the other party shutting down the conversation
00:23:34.520or being closed-minded. We live in a very polarized world. I can't guarantee any audience
00:23:45.060you talk to is not going to shut you down or dismiss what you have to say or resort
00:23:52.240to name calling. We live in a world that has been very, very conditioned. The enemies of
00:24:00.520our folk have used name calling and humiliation to make our people ashamed of themselves and
00:24:07.800ashamed of allowing any pride or any spark of pride to develop and take root in their heart.
00:24:15.080That's what we're fixing. We're doing a great job. We're fixing it together,
00:24:18.760but it's hard when you have a conversation with these other people. What I've always contended,
00:24:23.720alexandria is these people need to get to know you as a person first if they know that you are
00:24:33.640a good person are an honorable and noble person they know that you're not mean-spirited you're
00:24:39.960not cruel you're not hateful when they learn those things about you and they've accepted those as
00:24:47.800being true then when you want to talk to them about our our stance on focusness and on race
00:24:55.160they're much more open because there's a there's a disconnect between
00:25:02.120what they've been told they have to think about somebody who is proud of their race or a white
00:25:07.560person who's proud of their race and who you are so when you know their their conditioning makes
00:25:14.840them want to call names or or see something negative and hateful they already have the
00:25:21.000precedent that you've said of being a good person so they're willing to hear what you have to say
00:25:25.640the other thing that i would point out is try to make the connection between your beliefs
00:25:30.920and how it's helped you in your life your beliefs and how it's made you a better person
00:25:36.280um i think that goes a long way is connecting connecting our core values
00:25:43.640to something that's actually beneficial in your life and that they can see and maybe that they've
00:25:48.200noticed in your life and i think those are the inroads that i would make to try to avoid
00:25:53.480them shutting down on you and i think the more polarizing the world is the more people are
00:25:59.000tearing down the statues the more uh people are kissing the feet of other races of people in
00:26:09.000humiliation I think that presenting our focus view is going to be easier and easier to to
00:26:15.080some people that have really been marginalized um so yeah that's that's my advice
00:26:30.760um we have a question from Michael about uh he's seen discussions about
00:26:35.640baldur's hof and how we can make a smooth integration into the community and wanting
00:26:40.440to know how that relates to experiences we've had with the other hofs well so far we don't have a
00:26:46.120lot of experiences with thor thor's hof thor's hof is still very new uh we announced that in april
00:26:52.280and we are going to dedicate that here in about 17 days so we're still feeling that out a huge
00:26:59.640thing that helped us at odinsoff um and and rightly so when we enter you know we go to a community
00:27:09.160most people have never heard about us and have no idea that this is a thing they have no idea that
00:27:16.120there's serious people that worship our gods so they have to deal with that and then you know if
00:27:23.800they hear other things about us or they hear about our focus viewpoint there's a lot of things that
00:27:28.360are preloaded for them to think so that's a challenge when we go places um things that have
00:27:36.280helped us are looking like reasonable regular people the more we interact in a community the
00:27:43.880more we support support their local economy the more we interact with the people there and show
00:27:49.560them that we're good folks that were honorable folks and the more we help out then the more
00:27:55.400we're going to make a good inroad and a good integration in the community a huge thing that's
00:27:59.800helped us at odin's office when we were approached to do the uh the food bank and now usda food
00:28:07.080giveaway um to distribute food to the people who really need it there has helped out tremendously
00:28:13.640and it juxtaposed us to other houses of worship in that town because us being you know this this
00:28:21.880weirdo you know this weirdo thing up there that nobody knew about they went to all the christian
00:28:26.600denominations first those people turned them down they came to us and we embraced it we jumped right
00:28:34.760in said sure how can we help and that attitude of hey how can we help did a world of good for us
00:28:41.640there and a similar attitude at thorshoff and at balgershoff i believe is going to yield good
00:28:47.720results for us as well so we're looking for charitable opportunities there the food bank
00:28:52.600may be a really important thing for us there maybe it's not maybe those communities have different
00:28:56.920needs so we're looking into that but i think that that's a huge thing just like i said on how to
00:29:02.600start the conversation with you know a friend or family member without them shutting down
00:29:07.320how to start that conversation with the community is them to see us as good people first and then
00:29:12.920they'd be open to our beliefs then they're open to you know thoughts that we have that maybe you
00:29:18.120know they're not used to and uh so i think the key is to set that example to look good to act good
00:29:26.360to treat them well to be kind once they like what they see once they like us
00:29:34.360then they'll be open to hearing what makes us who we are
00:29:42.920I got a question from Don. Do I ever hide my Thor's hammer away in certain company or certain circumstances?
00:30:00.980And Anna mentioned that he felt like it would be prudent to do so when interacting with a DMV.
00:30:07.780No, I don't. I never find it okay to hide my Thor's hammer. I'm proud of who I am and what I believe in. I'm proud of being Alcitru. And like I mentioned earlier, by seeing people behave well, act honorably, conduct themselves in a noble way, and wear their Thor's hammer.
00:30:33.460It's funny, I'm hiding my Thor's hammer right now because I didn't pull it out when I put the shirt on.
00:30:41.100But seeing folks wearing this and seeing those being good, honorable people, that's what's going to change those perceptions.
00:30:53.340That's what's going to move us all forward.
00:30:55.800Now, unfortunately, that may mean the first couple of people that do it take a hit and people prejudge them.
00:31:02.440but if we don't if we aren't willing to do that small act to show pride in ourselves and what we
00:31:10.440believe makes it very hard for us to ever make any of those inroads so no i don't ever find it
00:31:16.520appropriate to hide my thor's hammer the only instance i think is appropriate to hide your
00:31:20.280thor's hammer is if you're doing something you ought not be doing so uh you know if you're being
00:31:27.240shady or someplace you shouldn't be or you're not proud of what you're doing
00:31:30.920then by all means hide that horse hammer better yet change what you're doing
00:31:44.920looking for other questions here i really appreciate uh appreciate my wife mandy looking on
00:31:51.640on her computer apparently she's seeing a lot of stuff that i am not so i appreciate her
00:31:59.000checking in and making sure we're getting to everybody
00:32:05.560the thing with the thor's hammer that you mentioned i think it's extremely important
00:32:09.240for people to see it because it raises awareness and i've noticed in the time that i've worn
00:32:15.480my thor's hammer uh i'd say over the last last 20 years a lot more people recognize it for what it
00:32:23.080is a lot more people won't even refer to it as a thor's hammer but will refer to it as mjolnir
00:32:30.520and will some people will even understand what it is to be also true or to be an odinist
00:32:38.280and those are really good conversations it's one of our only ways you know people seeing that hammer
00:32:45.240can strike up a conversation you see that and you know hey maybe this person is also true as well
00:32:51.960and that opens doors for a lot of conversation um i think that's really important i've seen that
00:32:59.240happen to uh to steve mcnalen a lot um weird is really working through him to bring those kind of
00:33:06.360people to him but people will notice his hammer he will notice their hammer and conversations ensue
00:33:14.520almost, you know, seems very, very often with Steve. And I think a lot of the time those
00:33:21.940conversations wouldn't happen if we didn't see, you know, each other's hammers. So if you have
00:33:27.420the opportunity, if, you know, assuming there's some special rule against it with a uniform at
00:33:32.100work or something, I would encourage everybody to wear your hammers.
00:33:44.520James, you mentioned those two guys discharged from the military a while back.
00:33:57.240Some of that's fake news. Some of it's legit.
00:34:02.620But don't always believe the hype. Look into those stories. That story that you read is only half true.
00:34:09.700And very often those things are half true.
00:34:11.760So I'd encourage you to look out, you know, and reach out to the people that events allegedly happened to and ask them what really went down.
00:34:20.020Because I think that adds to the story a lot.
00:34:38.000I wasn't accusing anybody of living in fear on it.
00:34:40.720I think we all try to figure out what's prudent and what's not.
00:34:44.240And in the world we live in today with all the crazy things we see going on in the street,
00:34:49.540I think it's always up in the air on what's prudent and what's not.
00:34:53.360And, you know, we all got to figure out the best tactics that are going to work for us in a given situation.
00:34:58.140all right guys we've got any more questions out there tonight
00:35:10.080appreciate so many of you joining me I look forward to these
00:35:14.580special to get a chance to talk to you guys every month like this
00:35:19.380just checking on here to see if i've got other questions i'm not seeing to answer
00:35:29.520yes indeed 17 more days i'll be at thor's hof making an official dedication of that hof
00:35:44.160to Thor and sharing that time with our AFA Upper South family. And we're going to do a land taking
00:35:53.320ritual. It's going to be really exciting. I think we've got some folk builder oaths. We've got a
00:35:58.160baby naming. We've got some really good things planned. As far as people who are, you know,
00:36:12.160am i okay with somebody using an alternate facebook when interacting with the afa to avoid
00:36:18.080controversy i'm okay with it i don't recommend it i use mine i'm in a unique uh i'm in a unique
00:36:25.840circumstance though you've got to figure out what's going to be best for you and your situation
00:36:30.880you know who you've got as your facebook friends be it work or family or whatever and that's a
00:36:35.520choice that that you're going to make and uh you know i don't think it's the end of the world if
00:36:41.040If you've got an alternate account, one account for your house of true people and one account for work people or whatever, I would encourage you the closer you can to unify the circles in your life.
00:37:00.960The more authentic you can live your life and be who you are, the better.
00:37:05.960Now, again, we've got to do what we got to do to get by.
00:37:09.880And I don't think there's anything wrong with, you know, practicing a certain amount of discretion when dealing with the outside world so that you can accomplish what you need to for you and your family.
00:37:20.460But the closer you can be to living your life holistically and authentically in all aspects of your life, the closer you get towards a lot of mental peace and towards some of the nobility that we all strive for.
00:37:34.140But again, you've got to do what you got to do. And I know a lot of folks are in that boat.
00:46:15.800AFA stickers. No, we don't currently have a stock of AFA stickers.
00:46:22.800Send a message to the AFA store of sticker ideas you'd like to see.
00:46:29.800Talking about like bumper stickers or decals for the back of a car window.
00:46:35.800Sean, if you've got ideas on that, go ahead and send those to the AFA shop and we'll talk about getting some AFA stickers in.
00:46:42.800Daniel I've got to admit uh runes from the woodpile I'm not familiar uh when we get off
00:46:55.100of here tonight I will I will look it up and and uh see see what that is and the author and
00:47:03.080I don't take a look and see what you're talking about but I've got to say I'm not familiar with
00:47:06.640that um so edrid is a universalist isn't he was the question i'm or the statement i'm responding
00:47:21.780to i wouldn't say that he's a universalist he is certainly not as folkish as i am he's
00:47:30.240certainly not as focused as the Austria folk assembly. Um, I think to say that he's full
00:47:36.560universalist would be kind of a stretch and I don't want to just use name calling a lot of
00:47:41.880respect for the guy, but his runic interpretations certainly aren't, um, colored by liberalism and
00:47:50.320covered and colored by the uni mindset. Um, seems like in a lot of his earlier stuff,
00:47:57.400He was more folkish than he tends to be in his later years.
00:48:02.040Again, like I said, I don't wholly endorse Edred for his philosophy, for his religious practice as the greatest human being that ever lived.
00:48:47.520She has been keeping me on top of stuff over here on the side.
00:48:50.860she is sharing questions that everybody's asking that facebook has conspired to make sure i can't
00:48:56.220see um so if if i have answered your question there's a good chance it's because mandy sent it
00:49:02.380to me oh of course i'm happy to answer anything you guys uh ask i'm just looking for the questions
00:49:18.380and you ask them I'll do my best to answer them. Let me reload here again. Every time I reload
00:49:26.840more stuff pops up so hopefully I'm not missing you guys. I'm going to assume all those hearts and
00:49:34.660love reacts are from my daughter. Can't blame you because she is she is pretty amazing. My wife and
00:49:41.620I have been extremely blessed with with that little girl and having her in our lives. Fussiness
00:49:47.900side we're very glad we have her and uh yeah when she when she smiles it's it's the most beautiful
00:49:57.640thing I've ever seen. All right, so the tartan thing and the kilt thing. We have an official
00:50:19.300AFA tartan for those of you guys who don't know. It is beautiful. It's amazing. We're
00:50:24.720to get some kilts made and it's going to be fantastic um trouble is kilts are a little bit
00:50:30.800pricey and because we have to have our own fabric made to get the kilt made the minimum order is
00:50:39.760more than i was able to get people signed on for um so we're doing some things one of the things
00:50:46.800we're going to we're going to work on our finances to make sure we're responsibly paying off
00:50:55.260um paying off debt so that we're squared away for uh or for Baldrishoff and Thorshoff we want to
00:51:01.920make sure we pay those off it's a really big investment to uh to get the AFA kilts I'm sure
00:51:09.540that they'll sell I'm sure we'll do great I had talked about a price point of fifty dollars for
00:51:14.280kilt I think realistically we may be looking at closer to 60 70 now that I look at it um but I
00:51:22.620think they'll be really beautiful I want to get them made um as soon as the finances are looking
00:51:27.920right for it we'll move on that and uh I'm sorry that's taken too long to get going because I'd
00:51:34.140love to have those I'd love to represent our AFA family in that way and uh kilts kilts are great
00:51:40.760Raffinol, no, we have no plans or desires to make AFA tunics.
00:51:49.480We don't, AFA doesn't do a lot of dressing up in that way.
00:51:58.980I know some folks used to do that in the past, and that was kind of a thing.
00:52:03.500If that's something you want to do, if you feel like that connects you to the gods, go for it.
00:52:08.180But officially, as the AFA, we don't we don't do that.
00:52:15.180One of the reasons is we we want very much to be taken seriously.
00:52:19.180And some of the the period dress gets taken the wrong way by folks.
00:52:24.180And a lot of the time it takes us out of being being a relevant faith in today's world.
00:52:33.180And it relegates a lot of people's minds to this being an anachronism or a reenactment of something in the past.
00:52:40.840And it's very important to us that this is something that's present, that's viable, and that's real for today and not just aping practices of our ancestors.
00:52:50.680Um, yeah, we have no real plans for our next official platform for the AFA.
00:53:05.780I'm all for using all the platforms we can find, but that requires volunteers.
00:53:10.600It becomes difficult for us to use Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and MeWe and Gab and VK and, and, and, and, especially for our members, the older that folks get, it becomes really, really hard to spread everything out that far.
00:53:30.560I'm all for people individually wanting to go to those platforms.
00:53:34.000I'm all for AFA volunteers taking AFA's message to those platforms.
00:53:39.280But there's a limited capacity of what we can do.
00:53:42.260And Facebook is exponentially the biggest bang for our proverbial buck.
00:53:48.360And when I say that, we don't spend any money advertising on Facebook.
00:53:51.760I don't want to give those folks a dime.
00:53:54.760But as far as a free platform, we get a tremendous benefit out of using it for advertising.
00:54:00.560and out of having discussions like we're having at night we've got any more questions tonight
00:54:14.560you guys have been great we've had some really good questions come in on the side
00:54:18.000bandanas or headbands uh Daniel you are the first to ask about an AFA bandana or headband
00:54:40.080um I'm curious I'm curious what ideas that you may have on that or or whatever again if you send
00:54:46.080message to the AFA shop, we can talk about that. Not opposed, just not really sure design-wise
00:54:52.140what we do on it, but yeah, I'm open to talking about it if you'd like to.
00:55:02.420Perifinal, when you talk about traditional dress being sacred, I think that means different
00:55:07.700things to different people. Dressing in Viking period clothing is not particularly sacred to
00:55:20.460the Austro Folk Assembly. It may be sacred to you. You may have an outfit that you feel like
00:55:26.120connects you to the gods or you've done some ritual with that has a value to you. And I don't
00:55:32.160to diminish that but no dressing in in period clothing isn't sacred to the astro folk assembly
00:55:39.760dressing in traditional clothing clothing is but i think that means different things to different
00:55:44.480people i think for some folks you know there's very that's a dirndl or a or a lederhosen or a
00:55:51.360kilt but there's things that are traditional to our folk to wear those are fantastic but dressing
00:55:58.160to emulate a certain period of time like for example the viking age
00:56:02.240that that isn't something that the afa places a lot of stock in
00:56:14.560well uh we're glad that we've got uh irene we're glad we've got somebody from ireland with us um
00:56:20.960I hope that you saw that we have a folk builder now in Ireland, Fiona Edgar.
00:56:29.620She is working for us over there and doing great things.
00:56:33.400So hopefully we're going to have some big things happen in Ireland.
01:02:24.860Our AFA family is growing all around, and it is beautiful to watch these new lives sprout up in the AFA and grow and develop as part of our family.
01:02:37.500It's really, really a special thing to be able to watch.
01:02:54.860ah so an idea for uh afa button downs with trihorns uh embroidered on them i think that's a
01:03:09.880really nice idea as well that's something i would absolutely look into i don't know the best best
01:03:16.000deal on that it's it's it may be odd to wear button down with a with a logo and a tie i don't
01:03:24.100how that works but i would like to look into it because you know that sounds really nice and that
01:03:28.580gets a good look out there i think mandy make sure you're getting getting in touch with uh
01:03:39.060the birdzels about uh josh's message he's gotten there congratulations by the way
01:03:54.100Well, Sean, if you want to see a presence grow in Nova Scotia, then I need you to stick
01:04:02.500around and tell your friends and try to help us make one happen there.
01:04:06.520Your folk builder, Adam Hudak, would love to help you with that.
01:04:10.880I'd love to see more presence in Canada.
01:04:13.500We've got people in Canada, but they tend to be spread out.
01:04:16.200So I would love to see some folks in Nova Scotia got to reload this constantly so I
01:04:26.420can see all of you guys questions by appreciate y'all being so interactive and being patient
01:04:30.680with me on answering these questions Glenn we're getting things going in Mississippi
01:04:41.920we've had several people apply in the past few months from Mississippi
01:04:45.360and Lane and Trent are going to make sure stuff happens there.
01:05:11.920All right. So looking at questions here, tell us about the new kindred in Brazil. We have new kindred in Brazil. I opened with that today because one of those kindred members was one of the was the first person watching tonight as of today.
01:05:30.920And this is the first kindred that's gone through our our probationary period.
01:05:36.220We wanted to make sure that our kindreds have some time to be AFA members to make sure they're comfortable with who we are and make sure we're comfortable with who they are so that we're fully united when we have a kindred become an official AFA kindred.
01:05:52.860And yeah, the fighter, fighter, folk kindred in Brazil.0.95