Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 16:05:20 EST
From: greg@bronze.lcs.mit.edu (Greg Rose)
Message-Id: <9403112105.AA19242@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: Where We Go From Here

Unto the good gentles of the Known World do Hossein Ali Qomi, Baron,
Lion of Ansteorra, and the Committee to Save Our Society send greetings!

On Tuesday evening last the Board of Directors elected three replacements
for those Directors who have resigned.  The Board now has a quorum and
can conduct business.

The Board has not yet answered the demand for accountability and
representation made by the Crowns at Estrella.

The Board has not yet rescinded the January 22 policies.  Mr. Tatro put
forward a motion regarding compulsory membership at the previous conference
call meeting, but that was tabled to the April Board meeting and no text of
that motion has been made available to the advisory membership.  We do not
know how much or how little of compulsory membership Mr. Tatro proposed to
rescind.  We do know that the Board was unwilling to act on it last week.

The Board has not yet rescinded pay-to-fight, nor even accepted a motion
proposing such a thing.

The Board has not yet published a detailed budget or a full accounting of 
its expenditures over the past two years.  The Board has not yet opened the
books to the advisory membership, nor taken any action to reveal exactly
what the alleged financial crisis is.  The Board still stonewalls and keeps
us in the dark about what it has done and proposes to do with _our money_. 
As a result, we still have no clear picture of the corporation's financial
standing.

The Board still plans to proceed with the membership rate increases.

The Board still plans to keep its minutes secret and provide only a
summary of what it wants the membership to know in TI.

The crisis which faces the SCA is a crisis of confidence in the corporate
institution.  The real issues are accountability, representation, and
the refusal to disclose information.  The crisis, including the policies of
January 22, arose precisely because these issues have never been addressed.

We have said all along that this struggle was not about personalities 
or individuals.  The resignation of three directors changes nothing.  
The appointment of three new directors is a positive step only if the
Board becomes committed thereby to real reform.  The fundamental 
problems are still there and the Board has said nothing about them.  We 
did not oppose the Board because they are bad people.  We opposed the 
Board because it is part of a bad system.  That system is accountable to 
no one, represents no one, and conceals vital information from the people 
who are most affected by the Board's policies -- the membership.

We truly hope that the new Directors will persuade those who remained on
the Board that the Board _must_ address the fundamental issues, _must_
move immediately to accountability, representation, and full disclosure.  
A solution to these problems cannot wait.  

We believe that John Fulton (Duke John Bearkiller) will be a positive
force on the Board and we applaud his selection.  However, we are less
sanguine about the Board's decision to reappoint two former Directors.
The system is flawed and it makes little sense to recruit two people
who were comfortable with that flawed system in order to reform it.
Eric Mohr (Count Cire) has made no public statement on the crisis and
we hope that he can be won to the cause of reform.  Elizabeth Johnson
(Duchess Ysabeau) is more problematic; she was chairman of the Board
at the secret August 1992 meeting in Dallas where the policies enacted
this past January were first planned by the Board.  It is difficult
to understand why one of the authors of these policies should be
chosen if the Board intends to rescind them.

Some say that the Board members will need time to learn about the crisis.
The new Board members may need time to discover how the Board has brought
us to this crisis.  They need no time to recognize that the crisis is
upon us.  They need no time to recognize that accountability, 
representation, and full disclosure are the only way out.  Accountability,
representation and full disclosure are not "facts" to be learned, but
values to be held.  If they don't have these values now, then nothing
truly has changed.

The Board must answer the demand made at Estrella.  

The Board must institute accountability to the membership.  

The Board must give the kingdoms representation on the Board.  

The Board must make full disclosure.  

We must keep the pressure on for real reform.

Spread the word.  Write to the Board and the Crowns.  Let them know that
you want accountability, representation, and full disclosure _now_.  Keep
circulating the petitions to impeach -- three Directors who brought us to
this crisis are still on the Board.  If they continue to block reform, they
must be impeached.

We will not give up.  We will fight as long as it takes to gain
accountability, representation and full disclosure.  The struggle is not
over.  It has only begun.  Now is not the time to rest.

In Service to the Society and for the Committee to Save Our Society,

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

Please send replies to greg@bronze.lcs.mit.edu or post to individual
lists.  I have no desire to clog everyone's mailboxes.