Message-Id: <AhMO2Vu00WB=QVg2kL@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 1994 23:27:13 -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, calontir@unl.edu, e5@uriacc.uri.edu,
        sca-reform@MIT.EDU, MMS6824@tntech.edu
Subject: INFO: An Info Packet Cover Ltr

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SCA INFORM: MARION01.TXT                                          02/15/94
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                  INFO PACKET COVER LETTER by Marian Greenleaf            
                                                                          
==========================================================================

This is the finalized version of the cover letter for an information
packet which has been mailed out in the East Kingdom.  The packet was
sent to all Royalty, all Kingdom and Principality officers, and all
local Seneschals.  It contained many items of information which have
been previously posted to the various SCA electronic lists.  Those
items are identified under "Enclosures:" at the end of this cover
letter.

Permission is hereby granted to duplicate this letter IN ITS 
ENTIRETY, throughout the Known World.  Please feel free to do so!  
(This announcement is being posted to all known SCA electronic lists.)

If you'd like a copy of the entire packet please send a 9x12 self-
addressed envelope with 75 cents postage (or enough for 3 oz. postage
for mailing to foreign countries, if applicable) to the address given
at the end of the cover letter below.

This letter may be of some use to those who are working on similar 
projects in other Kingdoms.  Anyone who wishes to excerpt this letter, 
or quote it at length in other missives, should send mail or email to 
the address in the letter below to obtain permission.

[start letter]

Unto the Royalty and Officers of the East Kingdom and the 
Principality of AEthelmearc; the local group Seneschals of the 
Eastrealm; and most especially the People of the East: Greetings 
from Mistress Marian Greenleaf in these troubled days.

Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, and all the fair folk who read 
these words, I ask you, of your courtesy and generosity of heart, 
to give due consideration to the missives here enclosed. I write 
as a representative of a group of longtime members of the Society, 
who are distressed by the recent actions of the Board of 
Directors. Some of the other members of this group are listed 
below as co-signers of this letter. We have chosen to work 
together to gather information about the current crisis and its 
underlying causes, and to make that information as widely 
available within the Known World as we can. As individuals, we 
hail from every one of the 13 Kingdoms; many of us are Peers, and 
many are not. We differ in our views of "what ought to be done" to 
solve the problems facing the Society. What we share is a 
commitment to uncovering the facts, as best we can, and to the 
intelligent and constructive analysis of those facts.

Enclosed with this letter is a package which contains the fruits 
of our efforts. We have been working on collecting, verifying, and 
analyzing this information for three weeks. Along with the data, 
we have included some commentary, reflecting a variety of views. 
We have made an effort to be balanced in our presentation; we feel 
that the facts speak for themselves, yet we also want to share 
various reactions to those facts. For this reason, along with 
budget figures and analysis of those figures, you will find in 
this package the responses of the Crowns of the West, and of 
Ansteorra, to the Board's actions; an eyewitness account of the 
January 22 Board meeting (unedited, and we think it is the most 
objective of the several accounts which have been circulating via 
email); and commentary by Duke Cariadoc and various others. There 
is also insurance information, copies of relevant parts of the By-
Laws and Corpora (which are the legal governing documents of the 
Society), and information on how to write to the Board of 
Directors.

The Board has recently mailed a letter to the paid members of the 
Society offering its perspective on its recent actions. We urge 
you to read it carefully and hope you will be struck, as many of 
us are, by what is not there, as much as by what is. We feel that 
our work can help fill this gap.

The contents of our information package are based on a variety of 
sources, including discussions with people both inside and outside 
the SCA: Board members, accountants, lawyers, some Corporate 
Officers of the Society, SCA members who attended the January 22 
Board meeting, and insurance specialists. We consulted the Board's 
mailing to the membership, past years' financial statements (as 
published in T.I. and in the Board Minutes), California law, 
federal law, the Corpora and By-Laws of the SCA, and various books 
and articles on the management of non-profit corporations in the 
U.S. and abroad. We have done our best to be accurate in finding 
out what the Board has decided to do, what their stated reasons 
for it are, and what the implications of these actions are, for 
the local groups, the Kingdoms and the SCA, Inc.

While we have made every effort to be accurate, we all share the 
position that we find the actions of the current Board to be 
unacceptable. Some of the articles herein may seem inflammatory to 
some; the same articles will appear mild to others. Some of us 
feel that the current Board members, or some of them, should be 
impeached. Others among us disagree with that position, and 
suggest other courses of action. 

We wish to explain that many of us hold to an underlying 
philosophy of the way the Society functions that can be summarized 
as follows: At every level of the Society, the upper levels exist 
in order to facilitate the activities of the lower levels. This 
means that your local practices and events exist to facilitate the 
learning, growth and recreation of the individuals who participate 
in them; that the local group exists to facilitate those 
practices, events and other activities that the people of that 
group wish to engage in; that the Kingdom level exists to 
facilitate all of that both directly, by supporting a set of 
Royalty, and indirectly, by providing some necessary governance to 
support the existence of the local level; and that the SCA Inc. 
exists to support the Kingdoms, the local groups and the 
individual participants. In our medieval structure, we regard 
ourselves as in service to the Society, and often that commitment 
takes the form of service to the Crown. Nothing in the philosophy 
outlined above conflicts with this view. We serve each other; 
people, and local groups, serve the Crown and the Kingdom; the 
Crown and the Kingdom serve the local groups, giving focus and 
rich color to our medieval activities.

In some non-profit organizations, there is an assumption that the 
people at the top are there to give direction to the resources 
flowing from the people at the bottom. This is exactly opposite to 
the way the SCA works best, and since the way we work best simply 
reflects our underlying philosophy, this is a poor way to 
implement that philosophy. In other non-profit groups (such as the 
Boy Scouts), the structure of the organization is modeled on a 
philosophy closer to our own. Most of the activity takes place on 
the local level, and the cost of membership tends to be low. The 
effort of running those organizations is undertaken largely by 
local volunteers.

Most of the work of the SCA is done at the local level, and what 
makes that work happen is the efforts of volunteers. That is the 
true wealth of our Society--the effort that we put in on the local 
level; it is our gift to each other, and our gift to the world we 
live in. Many of our volunteers have paid dues to the Corporation, 
but others have not--and those others cook feasts, label 
newsletters, put up, take down, clean up, teach, haul equipment 
and other people to events and practices, create scrolls, make 
armor, provide crash space, entertain, make garb, all the things 
that keep us going--without sending money to California. 

A Corporation that understands the positive value of their 
contributions to the local groups will not seek to exclude these 
"non-members". It will, instead, seek for ways to keep its own 
needs small, and its financial burden light, so that those who 
want to support the Corporation directly, and can afford to do so, 
can meet its needs for money and for volunteer service at the 
Corporate level. If it needs every SCA participant to sign a 
certain kind of waiver, it will find ways to do that which do not 
penalize or exclude any adult volunteer. In this way such a 
Corporation supports the activities of the local groups without 
impeding the way those groups operate. That, we believe, is the 
legitimate role of the Corporation. 

This letter is not an attempt to refute the explanation which the 
Board has provided of its actions. Instead, we refer you to the 
documents enclosed with this packet. That information should allow 
you to draw your own conclusions. 

Ideally, we'd like the information in the package to be available 
to everyone in the East who would like to have it. That is why we 
are sending it to you. Everyone who receives this packet belongs 
to a local group (we all do!) We urge you to read the enclosed 
documents, to share them with other SCA people in your area, and 
to talk about the Board's decisions and what we all can do to help 
the Board understand how we feel about what they've done. Discuss 
the facts; analyze our analyses, critique our critiques. You are 
encouraged to copy this information freely and to distribute it 
widely. We urge you to write to the Board of Directors, and to 
write to the Eastrealm Royalty. Tell them what you think, and why, 
no matter what position you decide to take. 

Above all, please, when writing, uphold our society's ideals of 
courtesy and chivalry. The Board members are people just like we 
are, and they are trying to do their best in a difficult 
situation. Perhaps they have not thought through the results of 
their actions; perhaps they need to hear suggestions about other 
ways to fix their problems. In any case, they need to hear how 
their decisions are going to affect YOU, and your local group.

This letter and packet were put together with volunteer labor. 
Volunteers wrote the contents, double- and triple-checked the 
facts, spent many hours poring over old T.I.'s, asked for personal 
favors from friends who are mundane professionals, formatted the 
articles and letters, and addressed and stuffed the envelopes. 
Other volunteers in other Kingdoms are doing the same. You, in 
your turn, are active volunteers in your local groups. We hope 
that you will choose to help this material reach a wider audience. 
We greatly appreciate your efforts!

In service to the people of the Known World,


Mistress Marian Greenleaf, Pelican, CSC, CM, etc., 
14 Februrary A.S. XXVIII
(m.k.a. Marion Kee, 5615 Hobart St., Pittsburgh, PA 15217-2115)
INTERNET: kee@cs.cmu.edu
Signatories: 
(All signatories are current or former subjects of the East Kingdom.)
Baroness Achren, Companion of the Gold Comet [BMDL]
Alexander of Kiev
Arval Benicoeur, Companion of the Pelican
Master Bertram of Bearington, Pelican, Dragon's Heart, Keystone
Mistress Caitlin Davies, Pelican, CSC, CDS
Duke Cariadoc of the Bow, Knight, Laurel, Pelican
Lady Carolyn Forbes of Oxfordshire, C. Golden Dolphin [Atlantia]
Don Danulf Donaldson, OSC, OGR, King's Champion of Fence, CPer 
Mistress Dorigen of the Grey Gate, Laurel, CM
Lady Elsbeth Anne Roth, CSC, Leaf of Merit [West]
Mistress Ellisif Flakkari, Pelican, CSC, OM, etc.
Etiene d'Agurienne
Lord Fiacha MacNeill of Glencar, JdL [AnTir], ex Sen. Carillion
Lady Fiametta Adalieta
Lady Finula McCaul
Lord Gareth of Stonemarche
Lord Hrothgar Hrolfsson
Lady Irene von Schmetterling, CSC, CDH, CBT, APF, C.Gold Comet
Justin de Coeur, Companion of the Laurel
Lord Kale Harlansson, CSC, CM
Sir Magnus de Cnoc an Iora, CSC, CTC, etc.
Lord Rolf Schwarz, CSC, Golden Alce
Lady Rowena ni Dhonnchaidh, CSC, CM, CBT, etc.
Thora Sharptooth, Companion of the Laurel
Lady Tibicen Blackmane
Duke Vissevald Selkirkson, Knight, CSC
Lord Yaakov HaMizrachi

Enclosures:
- Letter from TRM of Ansteorra, Inman and Athena
- Justin de Coeur's Open Letter to the Board
- Angharad's "What Happened"/"Why Some of Us Object" 
- Sean MacKay's "How to Write to the Board"/BoD Member Addresses
- Countess Linda's Eyewitness Account of the BoD Meeting 
- Corpora on Impeachment/Arval's Letter on Courtesy
- Public Letter from Cariadoc
- Notes on King Stephan's Meeting
- The West Petition/Q&A on Insurance & By-Laws 
- Revised Budget Figures
- Cariadoc's Budget Comments
- Hossein's Budget Commentary "Where's the Beef?" 
- Impeachment Petition Cover Letter
- Petition to Impeach 4 Directors 
- Petition to Impeach 6 Directors 
- Filks:  "The Board It Will Be Changin'" & 
          "Welcome to the Current Muddled Ages" 

Permission is hereby explicitly granted to reproduce this cover 
letter and all its accompanying enclosures, for purposes of 
distribution to the participants and friends of the Society for 
Creative Anachronism.  No part of this letter or its enclosures 
may be altered.  Each of these documents may be duplicated 
independently of any other, but any document may only be 
duplicated in its entirety.  Anyone who seeks permission to 
excerpt or to use lengthy quotes is encouraged to contact the 
individual authors.

[end letter]