[Artemisia] Grand Council discussions

[Catriona A. Morganosa]

Well, Theiron, Markus and I saw this discussion and did as requested: We
discussed it. Here's our take on it.

Theiron stated that it appears the only real reason to have a membership is
to designate boundaries for the purpose of group status. We can't be
determined to be a shire/barony/principality/kingdom if we don't have
memberships to count. Nearly everything in the kingdom newsletter is
available online. We acknowledge that not everybody has electronic access,
but everybody has access to an online connection through nearly any library
and everybody has access to human being who has access to a computer. If
someone is so remote, so cut off that they don't even have access to a human
being with a computer, they probably aren't all that concerned with the
goings on of the SCA. He feels there's no benefit to membership until he
attends more than 12 events in a year. Since there's no real benefit to
memberships, why should we have them?

Markus feels officers should have the memberships because it shows a
commitment to the organization at large. However, it's not like the
insurance covers the fighters if they get hurt, so charging people to strap
on the steel and get hit with a stick in the head like everyone else is a
little silly. The insurance doesn't cover members of the SCA anyway. It
covers the sites we use. The insurance isn't going to pay a single hospital
bill in the event that he gets a concussion, it will simply cover the cost
of the church having to replace those rose bushes he fell into. Thus, he,
likewise, feels having a membership doesn't actually offer any benefits. If
we got something like special access to Britannica Online for our
memberships, that would make the memberships worth the money.

My take on it is thus: I have a sustaining membership because I am a kingdom
officer and even when I manage to step down from a kingdom office, I can't
seem to stay out of the dang things for long because they keep offering me
cookies. (I'm a sucker for cookies.) I could see Markus' point of view and
nodded. Then, it occurred to me during this discussion that here I am, and
so is Liam and so is Ulric, etc, who are actually being charged *more* to
serve the kingdom as officers. This is not just the case on the kingdom
level, but ANY officer must be a sustaining member. So, we get to pay extra
for the honor of being an officer. Now, when I was kingdom herald, and
Guillaume was kingdom reeve, we got to pay the extra cost for the luxury of
risking imprisonment with the real world authorities if we screwed up the
financial records. So, an extra $10 with the "benefit" of monthly reports,
extra paperwork around the beginning of the year AND federal prison being
dangled over our heads if we miss a non-profit nickel on the financial
reports. Oh, wait, that's right, we ordered within the special time frame so
we get the added bonus item of having to fire an officer for NOT doing their
monthly reports and threatening the status of a barony. And all for only
$35/year. It would seem that an officer might be given a break on their
membership for the year they are one. I know that I can claim my travel to
and from events on my taxes as a kingdom officer, as well as site fees and
garb upkeep costs (yes, you can. Have your accountant look it up for you.)
But frankly, it's not WHY I'm an officer. I'm an officer because I like to
help the kingdom and this is a volunteer organization. Without those folks
helping, this place grinds to a halt. I love this place and I don't want it
to grind to a halt. So, I get up and do stuff. But dang! Wouldn't it be nice
if the SCA, Inc acknowledged that effort for those folks?

In the end, we weren't terribly certain the cost of memberships currently is
justified. Changing the structure to something tiered or "a la carte" maybe
be a reasonable choice, but again, it would need to be justified. Frankly,
the discussion regarding if memberships should change and, if so, how, seems
uncertain. For an organization this large, my biggest concern is that the
"request for discussion" is a ruse to make it appear that the SCA Inc cares
about what their memberships think, but in the end, the only change will be
a raise in prices for operating costs with the reason given that the
discussion was so varied and no consensus was reached in any direction that
the structure was maintained as is, with just a slight increase in
membership costs.

Stepana Catriona Morganosa, OP
 
"They can gnaw a man in half in 30 seconds."
"Ew! Who times that?"