Message-Id: <8hgrGOO00WB6R7a4hp@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 02:05:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: David Schroeder <ds4p+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Tom R Courtney <vis@world.std.com>
Subject: Re: Unofficial Event Kit
Cc: 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

Excerpts from mail: 19-Apr-94 Re: Unofficial Event Kit by Tom R
Courtney@world.std 
> > When did you become a secessionist?
> > 
> >                                       ---=  Morgan
>  
> I don't know the day Dave became a secessionist, but I certainly know the 
> day I did - it was the day the Society Marshall butted into how the 
> kingdoms run their fighting and banned hardwood spear shafts. 
>  
>    <<< details omitted >>>
>
> I am a secessionist in that I think the corporate structure is here to 
> serve us, and not contrariwise. If it turns out tomorrow that the 
> structure doesn't meet our needs, and we can't change it because the 
> rules got screwed up while we were napping, I'm all for walking, starting 
> over, and trying again.
>  
> Dave currently thinks the corporate structure doesn't serve him. 

  More like "I think the current regulatory environment is overkill..."


> He put out an announcement asking for help, which, if he gets it, 
> will come from 
> like-minded or sympathetic people. How does that make the situation 
> worse? Either he will be successful, and the national level of our 
> organization won't be responsible for so much, or he will fail, and we 
> will see that finding alternatives is harder than one would first 
> suspect; or he may be partially successful, and folks can think about 
> whether all the trouble is worth all the effort.
>  
> Rather than make things worse, I think it would be worth knowing how much 
> the rank and file think of decentralization. If they start holding 
> unofficial events in droves, then we will have learned a lot (for 
> starters, that we are overinsuring ourselves, if nothing else.) If Dave's 
> efforts die on the vine, we'll also learn a lot (though of that I'm less 
> confident. I find it strange that folks aren't taking a hard look 
> publicly at what the failure to generate enough petition signatures means.)
>  
> There are lots of things I think Dave has done recently that are 
> ill-considered, but trying to provide knowledge, information, and 
> alternatives are not amongst them.
>  
> Tom Courtney
> aka Vissevald Selkirksson

  Hi folks!  

  I don't see my notion of establishing an Unofficial Event Kit
  as seccessionist.  It's merely an attempt to use "market forces"
  to help folks avoid what many consider an undue burden, an unfair
  "overhead" of paperwork and hassle needed to run an event that is
  sanctioned by the Corporation these days.  Since the Grand Council
  is the primary body to be charged with fixing the _problems_ that
  are found in the Corporation-as-it-is-now, and since the Grand
  Council's time frame for reaching a consensus is twenty-four
  months or so, I'm encouraging people to help "play test" 
  unofficial alternatives in the context of unofficial events.
  With luck, what we learn from the process will help the Grand
  Council see how a simpler system might function.

  I have *NO* intention of starting a separate corporation, formal
  organization, or the like.  I anticipate we will be using other
  organizations' umbrella insurance policies, like the Living
  History Association's and possibly others.

  If a group of fighter-types in the Boston area decide to hold
  unofficial fighter practices, without waivers, without the 
  Society's insurance, then I must assume that the Right to Assembly
  still holds in the Constitution and the Corporation has no say in
  the matter so long as they don't represent themselves to be the
  SCA -- though individuals in the group could certainly state,
  if true, that they are, as individuals, SCA members.

  If a collection of people in Memphis decide to have a get-together
  with a medieval and Renaissance flavor and contract with the LHA
  to provide the insurance and are even mentioned in the local SCA
  newsletter as a courtesy -- just as a local mundane Madrigal Dinner 
  might be announced -- then what business is it of the Corporation's?

  We live in a free society.  Certain rights are guaranteed.

  Some autocrats have announced that they're less than happy with
  the prospect of holding events given the new rules.  Cariadoc has
  encouraged us to consider holding more unofficial events.
  What's wrong with helping people who want to autocrat with
  fewer burdensome regulations by providing them with some 
  tips on how to do so?

  I'll be more than glad to discuss this at greater length.
  I'm sorry my original presentation wasn't as clear as it
  could have been.

          My best -- Bertram