[Moo] [Announcements] July 2004 President's Report

[Lisa Mitchell]

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From: "Baron, Meg" <Meg.Baron at experian.com>
Reply-To: comments at sca.org
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 17:46:03 -0500
To: <announcements at sca.org>
Subject: [Announcements] July 2004 President's Report

PRESIDENT'S REPORT OF THE THIRD QUARTER 2004
SCA BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

Greetings:

This is the President's report of the actions taken at the SCA, Inc.'s most
recent Board of Directors meeting, held July 17, 2004, in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania (Kingdom of the East). This material may be freely distributed,
and those receiving it are strongly encouraged to share this information
with the general populace. Permission is hereby granted to reprint all, or
part, of this report in Kingdom, Principality, and local newsletters. It is
requested that the source of the information be identified as "from the
President's Report of the July 2004 Board meeting" and that, as far as
possible, exact quotes be used. Please note that this report is NOT the
official Minutes of the Board meeting. In case of any discrepancy between
this document and the approved Minutes, the Minutes are binding. Any
inaccuracies in reporting contained herein are my own.

Subscriptions to the Board Minutes are available from the SCA Inc. A
subscription includes this report in addition to the Minutes approved at the
meeting. Past approved Minutes are also available on the SCA website
(www.sca.org). 

The next Board of Directors meeting will be held on October 23, 2004 in
Dallas, Texas. The deadline for submission of agenda items is October 1,
2004.

Respectfully submitted,

Meg Baron
President, SCA Inc.

------------------------------------
Branch Status Changes

1. The Board took note of the following new branches:

Canton of Abertridwr (Perth, Australia)
Canton of Rivers Point (Richmond/Ft. Lee, VA)

2. The Board took note of the following routine changes in status:

Shire of L'Ile du Dragon Dormant (Montreal, QE, Canada) - to Barony
Shire of Vatnsdalr (Edmonton, AB, Canada) - name change to Shire of Borealis
Shire of Stonewolf (Cold Lake, AB, Canada) - name change to Shire of
Bordergate

3. The Board took note of the following branch dissolutions:

Shire of Nathair Airgid (Globe/Miami, AZ)
Shire of Earngyld (Juneau, AK)
Shire of Loch Thioram (Deming/Silver City, NM)

Old Business

A. Branch Status proposal

A proposed change to Corpora concerning the categories of membership that
count toward branch numbers had been presented to the membership for
comment. This change removes the word "subscribing" from the membership
requirements for SCA branches to form or advance in status.  The effect of
the change is that all types of memberships would apply toward a group's
status, rather than only Sustaining and International memberships.

Based upon commentary heavily favoring the change, the Board voted to allow
all types of membership to count toward branch population counts. The Board
elected to take no action at this time on an additional proposal to change
the number of members required for branch status.

B. Sanctions Proposal

The Board presented a set of proposed changes to the Governing Documents
regarding sanctions. This proposal grew out of work originally done by the
Grand Council.

This proposed revision is designed with several goals in mind:
· To give additional options to Royalty faced with the challenges of
imposing appropriate sanctions.
· To gather the assorted sections of the Governing Documents concerning
sanctions together and ensure compatibility between them.
· To make the rules on sanctions clearer and easier to understand.
· To codify the methods by which administrative sanctions can be applied and
appealed.

The Board ordered this proposal placed before the membership for comment,
with a commentary due date of October 1, 2004.  (Note: The Board has since
extended this commentary deadline to December 1, 2004.)

New Business

A. Pennsic War Waiver Variance request

The Board approved the modified waiver for use at Pennsic War XXXIII (August
2004).

B. Peerage Resignation - John Bostwick (Arik Altun)

The Board took note of the resignation of John Bostwick (Arik Altun) as a
Master of Arms.

C. SCA .- SCANZ Affiliation Agreement

The Board approved the Affiliation Agreement between the SCA, Inc., and the
SCA - New Zealand, effective immediately.

D. Society and Corporate Officers' Handbook

The Board accepted the Society and Corporate Officers' Handbook as
presented.

Officers' Reports - action items and policy decisions (note: officers not
mentioned here had no action items or policy decisions to present for Board
review)

President

The Board ruled that the President has the authority to sign warrants for
Kingdom officers when the appropriate Society officer is unavailable or
unable to do so.

Society Seneschal

During a review of the Governing Documents it became apparent that Corpora
Section IX.A.5 contains a discrepancy with existing youth combat programs.
It reads:

"No person who has not attained his or her sixteenth (16th) birthday may be
authorized in armored combat or the marshaling of armored combat. No person
who has not attained his or her fourteenth (14th) birthday may be authorized
for any form of Society combat-related activity...."

The Society Seneschal recommended that this be addressed by changing the
wording to read "...No person who has not attained his or her fourteenth
(14th) birthday may be authorized for any form of Society Adult
combat-related activity."

The Board ordered this proposal put before the membership for comment.
Commentary shall be due by October 1, 2004.

Vice President of Corporate Operations

The Corporate Office is currently researching the feasibility of scanning
and storing all paperwork onto CDs or other electronic storage format.  To
ensure our members' sensitive information is securely disposed of, we would
either purchase an industrial shredder or contract with a professional
shredding company. 

Compleat Anachronist Editor

The Compleat Anachronist editor has revised and updated the Author's
Guidelines document for that publication. The revised Guidelines shall be
made available on www.sca.org.

Society Exchequer

The topic came up regarding closed parties and SCA funds. It was determined
that the 'common knowledge' was that SCA funds for Royalty dinners, etc.
were not permitted. The only cited reference was in the Exchequer handbook,
which isn't policy. Therefore, the Society Exchequer presented the following
policy for the Board's review:

Society Branch Financial Policy VII.E (new)
"SCA funds may not be used to reimburse expenses for events or meetings
closed to the general populace unless the events or meetings have a business
agenda which requires limited attendance, such as officer staff meetings,
kingdom councils, and event planning meetings. Kingdom Financial Policies
may have additional requirements for reimbursement of these expenses.

Expenses solely incurred for Royalty-only and order-only meetings are
specifically ineligible for reimbursement. The Society Chancellor of the
Exchequer may grant variances to this policy on a case-by-case basis, based
on written requests received no later than 7 days prior to the event or
meeting date."

The Board upheld this policy.

Revised financial policies for the Kingdom of Caid and for Estrella War were
approved.

Chief Information Architect

The Chief Information Architect requested funds to either travel to his
successor's location or bring that person to his location for a weekend to
work on the migration from the old server to the new server, as this will be
the best way to bring them up to speed on the server setup.

This item was remanded to a future meeting pending appointment of a
successor to the office.

Laurel Sovereign of Arms

In a joint effort of the Office of Herald and the Office of the Exchequer,
all of the heraldic Kingdom Colleges of Arms are being required to have
written financial policies that follow the guidelines set down by the
Exchequer. It is hoped that all the Kingdom Colleges of Arms will have
written policies in place by the Fourth Quarter 2004 Board Meeting.

The Board returned this policy for further work and input from the Society
Exchequer.

Society Marshal

After exhaustive debate, this office has revamped the construction rules on
fiberglass spears.  This was in an effort to provide a uniform standard for
both safety reasons and commerce in the shafts.  The combined marshals felt
that a slightly modified version of Ansteorra's existing ruling would be
best. To wit, the following change to the SCA Marshals' Handbook, Fighter
section, section VII.G.:

"Fiberglass spears shall be constructed with pultruded fiberglass shafts
with an outside diameter of no less than 1 1/4 inch and no greater than 1
5/16 inch. Wall thickness shall be uniform at all points on the
circumference and shall be no less than 3/32 inch and no greater than 5/32
inch. The thrusting end of the fiberglass shaft shall be capped with a PVC
cap either taped in place with fiber tape or permanently glued in place,
while the butt end of the shaft shall be capped with an easily removed PVC
cap, or plug, or taped over to facilitate inspection of the interior of the
shaft. No metal is allowed in the construction of a fiberglass spear. No
other substance will be added to the interior or exterior of the fiberglass
shaft to change the weight, balance, or flexibility of any fiberglass spear