Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 17:33:38 EST
From: greg@bronze.lcs.mit.edu (Greg Rose)
Message-Id: <9402242233.AA06881@bronze.lcs.mit.edu>
To: NORTH@bransle.ucs.mun.ca, antir@kwantlen.bc.ca, calontir@unl.edu,
        carolingia@bloom-beacon.mit.edu, e5@uriacc.uri.edu,
        jaymin@maths.tcd.ie, lgrant@lanczos.maths.tcd.ie,
        nordmark@ludd.luth.se, northshield@stolaf.edu, sca-reform@MIT.EDU,
        sca-west@ecst.csuchico.edu, scahrlds@pucc.princeton.edu
Subject: Message from HRM Inman

Unto the good gentles of the Known World does Hossein Ali Qomi send
greetings!
	I have been asked by His Majesty Inman of Ansteorra to post the
following message to the populace of Known World.

Hossein Ali Qomi
Baron, Lion of Ansteorra
(Gregory Rose)

*****TEXT FOLLOWS*****

Unto the Populace of the Known World comes greetings from Inman, by
Right of Arms, King of Ansteorra!

Since the January 22, 1994 Board of Directors meeting, there has been
a great deal of talk about what they did there.  Much of that talk
has expressed the legitimate outrage of the populace at the Board's
decisions.  Much of it has advanced our understanding of those
decisions and how those of us who oppose them can effectively do so.
Some of it has attacked Directors personally, and that is
unfortunate and I wish that it would stop.  I am convinced that some
of the Directors made their choices in good faith.  This matter has
gone far beyond personalities.  It is about fundamental principles. 
It is about differences in fundamental philosophy.

The Board of Directors believes that it must manage the corporation
like any other mundane corporation.  They believe that the concerns
of the corporation -- insurance, legal standing, legal counsel,
accounting, fiscal well-being, and maintaining the standards of a
modern, mundane business -- must come first.  The decisions on
January 22 reflect this.  They may have done the best job that corporate
managers can do, but they have forgotten that the corporation is not
the Society.

The Board was once merely our interface the mundane world.  Their new
corporate "professionalism" has changed this.  They now believe that
they must "manage" the Society like any other business.  They are to
be the managers, and we are to be the managed.  From a strictly
business perspective, this may be the wisest course.  But we are not
just a business.  It is why I must fight them in every honorable way
I know.

Many ideas have been put forth as to how we might win over the Board
of Directors, even the idea that we withhold monies from them until
we get our way.  Blackmail?  Or even the threat of it?  Where is the
honor in that?  I will not become my enemy in order to defeat him. 
This is not about us against the Board.  The battle is inside each
one of us.

I am a man, not an asset, not goods or money, and I refuse to be
treated as a chattel.  I am not merely an entry in the corporation's
debit or credit columns.  My worth and the worth of the people of my
kingdom cannot be measured by the bottom-line.

No one has the right to judge our character by whether we are paid
members or not.  Mundane corporations may exist by the sale of goods
and services.  We are not goods, nor are our services given save by
our leave.  Our greatest resource is our people.  Whether they
contribute by work in their local groups and events or they
contribute by paying money to the corporation, we still value them
and appreciate their contribution.  We will not turn our backs on our
friends because the corporation tells us to do so.  The people are
precisely what makes each kingdom unique.  The "legends" and the
anonymous, the loud and the silent, the easy and the hard-to-bear,
friends and enemies, and those who simply, quietly play their game --
all are woven into the tapestry of each realm.  All are valuable. 
All are welcome.  God bless each kingdom and its people.

I will not stand by and allow this to be "managed" away.  The
alternative to the Board's philosophy is free choice.  Are we free or
are we slaves?  Do we manage our own lives or do we require a
manager?  Are we competent or are we the Board's wards?  I resist the
Board's decisions because accepting tyranny and retaining self-
respect are mutually exclusive.  I have faith in the people of the
SCA that they will make the right choices.  

We need rules that serve us.  We will not serve the rules.  The SCA,
Inc. is here for us, not us for it. 

The coming days will show what must be done.  I pray that the Board
sees reason and accepts that they must put the people of the SCA
first.  Without us -- the people of the Society -- and what we stand
for, there is a very large and empty space in the world.

For the Society, and with Love and Honor,

Inman
Rex Ansteorrae