Message-Id: <khVFJxe00WB251vbdO@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 1994 20:55:09 -0500 (EST)
From: David Schroeder <ds4p+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Outbound News <outnews+netnews.rec.org.sca@andrew.cmu.edu>,
        antir@kwantlen.bc.ca, sca-west@ecst.csuchico.edu,
        carolingia@bloom-beacon.mit.edu, e5@uriacc.uri.edu, sca-reform@MIT.EDU
Subject: NEWSLTR: RefInfo #1
Cc: OJID.Wbst845@Xerox.com

==========================================================================
REFORMATION INFORMATION: Spreading News on Reform to the Society  03/14/94
==========================================================================

Greetings gentles!  This is the first issue of REFORMATION INFORMATION, a 
semi-weekly on-line flyer to help keep people around the Known World up to
date on what going on with the movement to reform the Corporation and make
the Board of Directors more accountable to the people of the Society.  It 
will be published electronically on Monday and Thursday evenings, at least
at first, for the duration of the current situation.  I hope that people 
will print RefInfo out and take it along with them to practices and events
to help keep those who do not have electronic access up to date with the 
progress of the reform movement. The flyer is designed to be 60 line pages
of no more than 74 characters in a monospaced font like Courier so that it
may be easily edited and printed on a few sheets by almost any computer 
system. Please feel free to pretty it up if you'd like before circulating!

RefInfo is always looking for news about how things are going with the 
various efforts on reform.  If you have information to share about any
activities in your area, please send it along!  We can all coordinate
our efforts better if we know what other groups and areas are doing.
Please send information, comments, etc. to my email-id, noted at the end.

Many thanks, friends.    My best -- Bertram of Bearington, Editor: RefInfo
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

WHAT STARTED THINGS?
The Board of Directors of the SCA Inc., at their regular quarterly meeting
on January 22nd, 1994, declared a state of emergency and unanimously voted
to change our ByLaws without first consulting the rest of the Society as
required under normal, non-emergency conditions. Unsubstantiated
financial 
problems were given as the reason for the emergency. The SCA's ByLaws
were changed to allow requiring mandatory membership in the Corporation
and new policies were approved to enact a so-called "pay-to-play" policy
across
the organization.  The Board also decided to raise sustaining membership
fees to $35, associate membership fees to $20, and to lower international
membership fees to $15.  The minutes of future Board meetings, it was 
decided, would no longer be available except for a short summary in TI.  
A week or so later the Board -- at a cost of around $20,000 -- sent out 
a letter to the SCA's entire mailing list that presented these changes.

WHAT HAPPENED ONCE PEOPLE FOUND OUT?
A loosely organized movement to protest these changes grew quickly.  An
information campaign, protest petition drives, impeachment petition drives
and a massive letter-writing campaign were off the ground in a few days.
Many Crowns held gatherings specifically to discuss the Board's actions
and to listen to what Their people had to say about what had been done.
At the Estrella War in mid-February the Crowns of 12 of the 13 kingdoms
met and 11 of 13 of them--all save the Midrealm and Meridies--agreed to a 
document, the Estrella Compact, that binds the kingdoms of the Society
together in friendship and mutual recognition no matter what the future
actions of the Corporation.  A second document, the Estrella Statement, 
was signed by 10 of 13 Crowns--all of the previous signers except for TRM 
of Drachenwald who were not present.  The Estrella Statement issued a call 
to the Board to implement the changes necessary to install a pro-reform 
majority on the Board (by temporarily increasing the number of slots on 
the Board to 13, one-per-kingdom, so that the decisions of January 22nd 
could be reversed without forcing the current members out). The Crowns' 
put teeth in their call by threatening to use the powers granted them by
Corpora to impeach the entire Board if they did not enact such changes.
HOW DID THE BOARD REACT?   << This goes at the top of Page Two >>
The Board reacted to the reform movement by talking about how tiny details
of the implementation of their policies would make everything turn out OK.
They also stonewalled attempts by ordinary members to examine the SCA's
books--as required by our governing documents--or even members' attempts
to see federal Form 990's which the IRS requires all organizations to
make freely available to anyone on demand. The Board reacted by reminding
those who wrote to them that the Board was in fact not answerable to the
ordinary members who pay the bills.

On March 3rd, after a conference call Board-meeting the previous night
where Randall Tatro proposed reversing the decision on pay-to-play (which 
was tabled until the regular April quarterly Board meeting), Tim Moran,
the Chairman of the Board and President of the Society resigned, citing 
unspecified problems with other members of the Board.  A few days later,
Victoria Tisdale (Society Treasurer), and Karen Hatten, also resigned.
On March 8th, in another conference call meeting, the Board selected three
new members to bring their numbers back up to six.  These new members are
Duke John the Bearkiller of Meridies, Count Cire of Greymoor now of An Tir
and formerly of Calontir, and Duchess Ysabeau Cameron now of Atlantia and
formerly of the East.  Both Cire and Ysabeau are former Board members.  So
far the Board has not responded to the Crowns' calls for accountability.

WHAT ARE PEOPLE DOING?
People in favor of reform and a Board accountable to the membership are
still hard at work around the SCA.  Information packets, made up mostly
of materials first circulated electronically, have been mailed to almost
all the local seneschals of all the kingdoms.  Many kingdoms are holding
more comment and planning sessions along with their Kings and Queens to 
help their Royals gain a better sense of the will of their people.  These
meetings have also been opportunities for people to support or restrain 
their Crowns in their actions to make the Board more accountable, and by 
far the sentiment appears to be "push hard for true accountability." The
Impeachment petitions are still being circulated and sent in on schedule.

WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?
Get informed.  Help others get informed.  Counter unfounded arguments from
the other side with hard facts.  Circulate impeachment petitions. Write 
your King and Queen to tell them you share their commitment to reform or 
hope that they will soon become committed to reform and making the Board 
more accountable. Write the Board. (Their addresses are below, *=New).

 A. J. Riviezzo, 2323 South Troy #210-D, Aurora, CO 80014 (CHAIRMAN)
 L. Jane Richards, 2925 South 7th Street West, Missoula, MT 59801-2021
 Randall Tatro, 164 Everest Road, Milton, VT 05468
*Elizabeth Johnson, 7875 Wintercress Lane, Springfield, VA 22152
*Eric Mohr, PO Box 59821, Renton, WA  98058
*John Fulton, 2494 Hollins, Memphis, TN 38112
   The SCA, Inc.   * Renee Signorotti, Corporate Secretary
   P.O. Box 360743 * Milpitas, CA 95036-0743

HOW CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION?
If you are able to use a retrieval program called 'ftp' you can get copies
of a large number of documents pertaining to the current crisis from an
anonymous ftp site:  nimbus.gp.cs.cmu.edu  directory: /usr/kvs/pub/BoD/ .
If you can't get copies via ftp you are welcome to send mail to the editor
of RefInfo and he'll send back a collection of documents.  Contact him at:
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Bertram of Bearington * Dave Schroeder * dschroeder@cmu.edu * 412/731-3230


   ** Postscript -- if anyone not on the usual mailing lists     **
   ** where RefInfo is posted would like a copy sent by personal **
   ** email, just have them drop me a note at the address above  **