SCA politics

[cellio]

Last month, the officers of my local SCA group proposed changing the way we hold elections to restrict who can vote. The proposal was controversial and they had to have know that. I wrote then about why I thought this was a bad idea.

Last night was the next officers' meeting, where these changes were to be ratified. As it turns out (I'm failing to surpress cries of "I told you so"), the notion that these restrictions were now required by the kingdom and/or corporation was baseless. Someone got a ruling from the kingdom seneschal that our open policies, as they stand, are fine.

In addition, many officers (and other people) present spoke in favor of retaining our current policy on this point. Almost everyone in fact voted that way. One officer voted to restrict voting anyway.

My estimation of a couple people who were involved in this has dropped (not surprising). One of them is probably saying the same about me, but that's not my problem. At least that bit of ugliness is over now. (And hey, my estimation of some other people has risen, so it all balances out I guess.)

Now, onward to getting the officers to agree to structure events in such a way that the new, objectionable corporate tax can be avoided. (Early signs on the group email list are leaning positive, but there is also correlation between those who support the corporation in this matter and those who are email-averse, so that doesn't necessarily mean much.)

Comments

[alienor.livejournal.com]

A few random comments (I'm meeting with my advisor in a few minutes).

I guess I don't understand the NMS/membership cost as a barrier to entry in the SCA because I've been a college student for 4.5 years now, and only in the SCA for 3 years (last weekend in October is my anniversary). I bought a membership in April, after I went to my third event and decided that the SCA was really neat and something that I wanted to do more of. The biggest barrier that I had entering the SCA was dealing with my local group (I don't play with them anymore, go to the next town over) and there were NEVER any financial difficulties. I said, perhaps it's a difference in dynamics between here and there, but the majority of college students I know will spend $40 on dinner and drinks for an evening without a thought. A $20 membership or extra $3 a weekend is next to nothing.

Even worse, it's very hard on the fringes.

This is probably another difference between our groups: we don't have much of a fringe. The old used peers by and large don't exist (I can think of 3) and the new comers don't sit in the fringe long, they either join us or leave within a year. And for those that want to stay, they view the NMS as 'normal operating procedure for clubs' and use it as incentive to join.

Worst of all, it's dreadful on an economic and philosophical level. It essentially says that paying money to Milpitas is the single most important way to contribute to the Society -- after all, it's the only thing we actually require.

That's not true. We REQUIRE that attendees wear garb to events (and this has been the source of our local drama, the NMS has mostly gone by unremarked). By making a big deal of this and ignoring the NMS we seem to be telling our newcomers that the single most important thing that they do is contribute to the atmosphere of events (or fail to detract, either way).

I do agree that the Board isn't handling things well, so won't remark on those points ::grin::

Our groups seem to be structured differently, and that may be the source of our different views on the subject. Nearly all of our active members are officers, and so they must be members. This is because we have 2 cantons within an hour of each other, a barony over us (and two other cantons), and just enough active people to fulfill the offices.

Thanks for taking the time to explain you're views on the matter to me, I do appreciate it.

[jducoeur]

This is probably another difference between our groups: we don't have much of a fringe.

Yes, definitely different -- the social circle that surrounds the Barony is large and rather vague. I mean, consider my monthly poker circle. It includes myself, a relatively senior and active Knight, a semi-active Count who attends an event or two a year, a former Baronial Seneschal who went to only very slightly active while his kids were small but has now come back in a big way, and another former Baronial Seneschal who claims to have dropped out entirely but still shows up at occasional events. Folks drop in and out all the time...

Nearly all of our active members are officers, and so they must be members.

Yeah, again quite different. Carolingia is both old (30+ years) and big (anywhere from 150-300 participants, depending on your definitions). Turnover is quite high, on the order of a couple dozen people a year. So we are quite passionately concerned with anything that affects recruiting negatively...