From: dagoura@MIT.EDU
Message-Id: <9402252114.AA08049@primavera.MIT.EDU>
To: 72303.433@compuserve.com
Cc: groff@epee.enet.dec.com, zkessin@cs.brandeis.edu, dagoura@MIT.EDU
Subject: A Census and a Domesday Book for the EK
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 16:14:56 EST


THIS EMAIL FOR SCOTT AND TERRY HEIST; IF RECEIVED BY SOMEONE ELSE,
PLEASE RETURN TO SENDER AND DISREGARD.
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Your Majesties, Lady Tibicen Blackmane commends herself to You:

Since my last letter to you, I have further investigated taking a
Census of the East Kingdom, and have further planned to this end.
This letter is to inform You of my plans thus far, and explain some of
my reasons and policies.

I had originally thought to offer to do this as an official project
for Your Majesties and the Kingdom.  I have recently been informed by
Lord Tibor of Rock Valley, a reliable source for Corpora and By Laws
information, that if I were to do so, anything which I turned over to
You would immediately become the legal property of the SCA, Inc.,
which defeats the purpose of this project.  So I plan on doing this as
a individual, and shall work under the aegis of no institution.
Nevertheless, I would please me to have Your blessing in this, and
where appropriate Your help, and above all I wished that You would
know that this work is being done.  Let me explain further....

I have three immediate goals for this Domeday Project -- and
publishing what is usually know as "a Domesday", a phonebook, is not
one of them (though that may well happen afterwards!)  Those goals
are: 

(1) Trying to construct a means of contacting ALL subject of the
Kingdom of the East, regardless of whether or not they be paid unto
Milpitas.  This will become even more relevant if/when the Board
decisions are implemented and potentially large numbers of people both
drop from the SCA, Inc.'s registry, and are barred from those
happenings which were their source of SCA information (Hilary, while
Steward, made a policy decision which said that all meetings of SCA
people which are publicized in the local group are considered to be in
the definition of "events"; we don't know if the Board will interpret
"events" the same way, but it might.)

(2) Trying to enact a Census of the East.  Thereby we will actually
have a vague sense of how many people are paid participants, and how
many or not; how long and how recognized both classes of people are;
and get testimonials of how many (and which) people would leave should
"pay-to-play" and the rate hike be enacted.  This way, You, and indeed
all of us, would have some sense of the constitution of the East and
the ramifications on the Kingdom of these recent Board policies.

(3) Most importantly, To break the monopoly of the mailing list.  Let
me explain this in detail:

Currently, the war for control of the fate of the Society is being
waged on one front: liability insurance.  The control of liability
insurance is equivalent to control of whom may hold a event, which is
also control of income and recruiting for most groups.  This is where
a majority of energy is being spent, because to a large extent, if we
didn't need the Corporation for insurance, we could simply ignore
their rulings.  There is some movement on a second front: money.  The
control of local groups' bank accounts and capital possessions (e.g.
the regalia, etc.) has yet to be challenged, but should the SCA, Inc.
declare bankruptcy those assets will probably be seized; likewise the
SCA, Inc. has it in its power to punish a group by de-recognizing it,
and seizing its assets.  We are all aware that if we push the
Corporation too hard, we could loose all we have worked so hard to
make and accumulate.

But there is a third front, more important even than money, and about
as powerful as insurance, towards which the Board has made only a few
small subtle moves: the mailing list.  It is the glue which holds the
Society -- the *people* -- together.  Right now, the Corporation has a
legal monopoly on the only means You have of contacting Your subjects,
or anyone has of contacting the entirety of the East Kingdom (and, of
course, all other Kingdoms).  

This means that should the Board choose to, it could devestate the
East simply by refusing to furnish the mailing labels to Your
chronicler.  While some might claim that the Board would never do such
a thing, I have no such faith; they have already used tactics I would
have preferred to consider beneath them.  Should they, in a fit of
future paranoia, decide that You, or Your chronicler, or even the
entire Kingdom was seditious, they could break the East into a hundred
shards, simply by halting Pikestaff.

This also means that should You choose to seek independence in a
Mundane court, and incorporate seperately, You would forfeit all right
to the mail list.  This monopoly also means that should the Mundane
authorities step in to right the Corporation -- which is currently a
realistic outcome of an attempt to impeach all six Directors -- the
ownership of the mail list passes to those authorities, and in their
ignorence, they might well let the Kingdom newsletters lapse as a
tactic to assuage our financial problems (for the Kingdom Newletters
are not the official organ of the Corporation, _TI_ is), and they
would be under no compuction to release the mail list to You or any
other individual.

I mean to break this monopoly.  I mean to reconstruct the Corporate
mailing list -- and more, for I mean to include anyone who will reply
to the querry, not merely those who paid Milpitas.  The control of the
mail list is the high ground in this battle, and I want to seize it
before the battle is joined.

And, yes, maybe I will publish a phone book, too.  But that's a
separate problem entirely.

Here's the catch.  As I said earlier, I can't do this as the
representitive of any institution, not even the Crown, because that
institution would have claim to the resultant Domesday Boke.  So I
have to do it as an individual, completely independently. 

I developed the following policy of just who gets access to the
Domesday Boke, and who gets access to the use of the mail list (two
entirely different things).  

                   The Distribution and Access Policy

  I am well aware of the issues of privacy which this Boke raises.  I
  cannot guarantee absolute security, but I will be limiting access to
  this information. 
  
  I will not relinquish the Domesday Boke to anyone save my successors
  and deputies in this endeavor if I so choose to appoint them.

  I will not give use of the Domesday Boke entire to anyone except the
  Royalty of the East, so long as there is such, though I do not
  guarantee that I shall permit such use.
  
  I will not permit any individual, group or institution the use of
  any data, such as the mailing addresses or phone numbers, in the
  Domesday Boke for the sale of commercial products or services; I
  will not permit any other organization or organization's
  representative to use the Boke's data for the purpose of soliciting
  for donations.  I will not permit use of the Boke's data by any
  organization which is not a Medieval or Renaissance "living-history"
  or recreation group.
  
  BUT, I may in the future permit the Boke or its data to be used by
  organizations other than the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
  Thus, should the East Kingdom incorporate separately from the SCA,
  Inc. that new corporation may still have access to this contact
  list.  Likewise, any splinter groups which form might be permitted
  access to the Boke's mail list.  All such access to the Boke for
  contact purposes shall be at my, or my successors', discretion.

  No publication of any material in the Domesday Boke shall happen
  without the permission of the individual(s) to whom the information
  pertains.  Submission of information to the Domesday Boke shall be
  considered permission for that information to be included in the
  Domesday Boke, and agreement to distribution and access policies
  here set forth.  Submission of information to the Domesday Boke
  shall NOT be considered permission for republication beyond the
  policies here stated, especially the publication of phone books or
  address lists for the general public.  Any such publications would
  include only those records which contain explicit permission to be
  included in further publication.  All such further publication would
  be done at my, or my successors', discretion.

That's the policy; I hope it makes clear to You (and all) that I am
taking the inherent issues of privacy seriously, and I hope You find
this policy good in that it both permits powerful use of this
information and yet is respectful of all gentles' privacy.  If You see
any loopholes or if anything is unclear, let me know!

I'm still working on exactly which questions we'll have in the Census,
but here's the current draft:

  SCA Name:             [1]
  Titles:               [2]
  Awards and Offices:   [3]
  Region: (ie Barony/Principality/Canton/shire etc)                 [4]
  May the above information be published in an EK phone book? (y/n) [5]
  Mundane Name:         [6]
  Address:              [7,8,9]
  Phone #:              [10]
  E-mail:               [11]
  May the above information be published in an EK phone book? (y/n) [12]
  Will you leave the Society when "pay-to-play" and the rate hike are
    implemented? (y/n/m)                                  [13]
  Have you ever been a paid member of SCA, Inc?: (y/n)    [14]
    If yes: Currently? (y/n)                              [15a]
            Membership number:                            [15b]
            How long were/are you a paid member:          [15c]
  Number of events you plan on attending this year:       [16]
  When did you first attend an SCA event:                 [17]

I hope to distribute this four ways:

  (1) By getting volunteers in as many local groups as possible to go
      to group meetings and events and solicit for submissions.
  (2) By publishing a paid ad in Pikestaff with a Census form in it,
      and possibly by requesting space in local newletters.
  (3) By publishing the Census form over the electronic forums, such
      as the Rialto.
  (4) By getting local Domesdays (phone books) and calling all listed
      people and asking their permission to include them in the EK
      Domesday. 

My plans for the actual compilation of data have been vastly
simplified by Your Champion of Fence, Don Danulf Donaldson, who has
volunteer the use of a relational database and a computer on the
internet, and has volunteered to do be the database builder and
maintainer.  I already have a number of volunteers for data entry and
other work.

But I am going to need a vast number of volunteers.

I'm waiting on going public with my call for help, because I believe
it would be a great boon to be able to say that while this Census is
being done completely independently of Corporation and Crown, it is
commited with the foreknowledge and approval of Their Majesties of the
East.  If you are so willing to say so, I would be greatly in your
debt.

Please contact me either by email or phone:  
Internet -- dagoura@mit.edu
Phone -- 617/643-3443  Feel free to call collect, round the clock;
10pm to midnight is best.

Your subject,

Lady Tibicen Blackmane, Companion of the Moon

mka Vanessa Layne
10 Palmer St.
Arlington, MA  02174