[Artemisia] Input needed, please! [long]

[Theodora (AKA Rachael)]

Greetings, everyone.
I am hoping this message will come through clearly. Please let me know if you would like it sent to you individually, as I sometimes have problems with my posts to the Aerie.

For those who don't know, the Grand Council is a standing advisory committee to the Board of Directors. Topics are brought up for discussion, and members solicit input from the populace of their home Kingdoms. Sir Conrad von Zuberbuhler is the Kingdom appointee for Artemisia, and I have recently been selected as an at-large member of the Council. 

The following topics are being presented to the Board of Directors as topics that the Grand Council has found worthy of further discussion. Your input is needed on any or all of the topics listed below. You may post them here, if you think they are of general interest, or you may send them to me privately. Please send your comments no later than one week from today. That will be August 15, 2005. Your comments will be compiled and forwarded to the Grand Council email list.
 
Your input is highly valued and of importance regardless of how long you have been in the SCA or even if you are a paid member.  The SCA is for all of us, and this is one way to make your voice heard. If you are not comfortable answering all the points, please feel free to answer only those that you wish.  

The topics are:

1. STRUCTURAL REVIEW: 
a)  We are seeing increasing growth overseas [and in Canada], but we still remain functionally dominated by a US-centric corporation and point of view.  How can these disparities best be addressed?  How should our organizational streucture change to better serve an increasingly international population?
b)Is it a good thing or a bad thing to only allow one SCA branch in each geographic location?  Why?  

2. MEMBERSHIP GROWTH:
a)  How can membership rewards/responsibilities be tweaked for maximum participation?  
b)  How can membership benefit per dollar paid be improved?
c)  What is the "target market" of the SCA and how do we better reach it?  Does this mean changing our core product?

3.  RULES REVISIONS
a) Should there be a review of the Banishment process, sanction process, and investigation process?  Why or why not??
b) There appears to be a rise in SCA discipline issues and legal fees and expenses, rising faster than the number of participants.  Why is this, and is it a trend that can be reversed?
c) Would you like to see the Board of Directors be more or less accountable to the populace?  Do you think the Board meetings should be available more easily (IE via webcast or some similar fashion)
d) Sunset Clause:  [In public policy, a sunset provision or sunset clause is a provision in a statute or regulation that terminates or repeals the all or portions of the law after a specific date, unless further legislative action is taken to extend it.]  Do you think all rule sets (including Kingdom Law and all Society rules regarding combat, arts and sciences, etc) should expire on a regular interval with a reversion to Society minimums?  The thought is that this would require Kingdoms to really look at what is necessary law, rather than just amending and modifying existing words.  



That is the summary of the questions on the table before the Grand Council.  I appreciate the time you have taken to read through this.  Please remember - your contribution is valuable!!

Thanks,
Thea
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
THL Theodora of Trebizond
At-large member of the Grand Council



"You are all learners, doers, teachers." -Richard Bach

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