there must have been a better way to do this...

[cellio]

The following from the corporate seneschal's report of the latest SCA board meeting left me scratching my head:

Motion by Gabrielle Underwood to revoke and deny the membership of Clarence Womble (Eoin Mac Lochlainn) effective January 26, 2007. Seconded by Jeff Brown. In favor: None. Opposed: Jeff Brown, Heather English, Tom Hughes, Hal Simon, Gabrielle Underwood. Recused: Shawn Reed. Motion failed.

Motion by Gabrielle Underwood to revoke and deny the membership of Clarence Womble (Eoin Mac Lochlainn) effective January 27, 2007. Seconded by Jeff Brown. In favor: Jeff Brown, Heather English, Tom Hughes, Hal Simon, Gabrielle Underwood, Opposed: None. Recused: Shawn Reed. Chairman Williams exercised his option to vote and did so in favor of the motion. Motion carried.

I had to read it a couple times to spot the difference. They changed the effective date. That's all. There has to have been a better way to do that, no? Doesn't standard parliamentary procedure permit both amending and withdrawing a motion on the table?

When I read the first one my reaction was "wow, the case for this was so weak that even the person making the motion recanted". But (and noting that we do not have access to the actual discussion), that appears not to have been the case.

Comments

[dragontdc.livejournal.com]

I went and looked at the proceedings. I was astonished at the volume of banishments being handed down. Back when I played they were rare and awesome things. Looks like they're business as usual now.

Makes me glad I decided to quit. I can't imagine so many banishments NOT being political.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

Sad to say, but at least in the case of banishments we can track down the reasons for, all too often they are not political, but rather caused by serious infractions (like misappropriation of funds or crazy-type harassment of other SCA participants). Of course, the Board isn't allowed to say the reason for R&D, so mostly you have to do some research to find out the reason why, but in every case save one where I've taken the trouble to research the why its been clear that its the banishee that caused the action.

I suppose its a function of the growth in participation - once it was a family, now its just a club.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

I agree that "the Board isn't allowed to say the reason for the R&D" but I vehemently disagree that it must be that way. The way you structure laws and regulations is that you say "we declare this to be a Bad Thing, and if you do this Bad Thing this will happen to you". Drive drunk, lose your license. Embezzle funds, spend X years in prison. Fail to wear a tie, be prohibited from getting seated at my fancy restaurant. Don't return your DVD, pay this fine. But no, the SCA's rules say "you will do this thing". So when you don't, there's no clear path to a penalty. And if you do a *bad* thing, it's entirely up to a Star Chamber to say *that* it was bad, and make up a punishment on the spot. It would be entirely reasonable for the BoD minutes to say "Mr. Thusandsuch, known as Lord Soandso, a member of the Kingdom of Ruritania, has been R&D'd for violations of Corpora Chapter 395, section 842, regarding private inurement of Society funds." Note that there is nothing here about mundane crimes such as "violation of 21USCxxx.yyy, embezzlement" so the banishee can't scream libel: he's gone before prescribed club procedures and has been duly judged guilty of violating this club rule, the club penalty for which is XYZ, and that punishment has been meted out. What's the problem?

[cellio]

They have certainly become more common, and disproportionately with growth in membership so far as I can tell. Part of it is probably that there's more money in group and corporate coffers now, so more of an attraction to those inclined toward financial misappropriation. I have the impression that financial misdeeds account for a non-trivial portion (but still a minority) of banishments. As for the rest, I'm not sure. This state does not make me happy.