[Moo] [Announcements] Chairman's Quarterly Letter to the Membership

[cwymarc at comcast.net]

-------------- Forwarded Message: -------------- 
From: "Jason Williams" <jwilliams at director.sca.org> 
To: <announcements at sca.org> 
Subject: [Announcements] Chairman's Quarterly Letter to the Membership 
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 14:48:02 +0000 

Chairman’s Quarterly Letter to the Membership 

During my earlier days in the SCA, I recall thinking that the Board of 
Directors was this mysterious entity that served an unclear purpose. "We 
must need one," I thought. "It wouldn't exist if we didn't." But how it 
affected my enjoyment of the SCA was entirely puzzling to me. 

So why does the Board exist, what does it do and how does it affect your 
participation in the SCA? 

First a little background. The SCA was incorporated in its early days in 
1969, and filed as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation in the State of 
California in 1971. This move was needed because the SCA was growing by 
leaps and bounds, and some sort of organization was required to allow the 
"game-side" activities to continue, while creating a management structure 
to handle increasing business and legal demands from the modern world. 
State and Federal laws require all non-profit and for-profit corporations 
to have boards of directors. They exist to provide governance for the 
corporation and to ensure that it meets its stated purpose. 

The SCA's Board of Directors is unique in that it serves dual functions: 
we ensure that the SCA meets all of its legal and financial obligations 
mandated by applicable legislation, and we also serve to support the SCA's 
game-side activities so everyone can have a good time. No matter which 
function we happen to be serving at a given time, the foremost question we 
have in our minds when we consider any action is, "how will this benefit 
the SCA's membership?" 

Managing the Corporate side of the SCA requires a number of officers, 
including a Board of seven Directors. One Director serves as Chairman, and 
another as the Vice Chair. Generally, Directors are elected by the Board 
every six months and serve three-and-a-half-year terms. However, there are 
occasions (such as when a Director must step down before the regular term 
is over) when elections must occur out of sequence and terms are shorter. 
In extreme cases, a Director's term can be extended by up to six months. 

All volunteers, the Directors work in three primary ways: we meet once a 
quarter in various locations across North America; we hold at least one 
conference call between the regular meetings; and we converse via e-mail 
on a daily basis. 

The Board establishes the rules of the SCA's historical recreation 
activities and sets up minimum administrative requirements for officers 
and branches. The Board is also the final arbiter of the interpretations 
of these rules made by the SCA's officers. While the Board may delegate 
management of the day-to-day operations of the SCA to other officers, we 
are still ultimately responsible for the decisions they make. 

Among the larger tasks the Board is faced with are the following: 

* Budget management 
* Oversight of Corporate and Society officers 
* Sanctions review 
* Review of the Governing Documents 
* Final resolution of game-side conflicts and issues 

An annual budget of approximately $1.2 million sounds impressive at first. 
But it's amazing how quickly that money gets eaten up. Publications and 
insurance account for almost half of that figure. At budget-planning time, 
a lot of hard decisions need to be made. Do we raise membership costs? How 
can we cut office expenditures? Is it time to hire professional IT 
support? Because the bulk of our revenue comes from membership fees, we 
have to make decisions that will directly or indirectly benefit the 
members the most. 

There are about 14 Corporate and Society Officers and standing committees 
that report directly to the Board. For the most part, these individuals 
and groups work autonomously, but their rulings and advice still need to 
be reviewed by the Board. Each quarter, they file a report detailing the 
activities of their office's or group's activities. The Board must ensure 
that policy decisions are in line with the Governing Documents and that 
the decisions do not have any unforeseen consequences. 

A sad reality of the SCA, and perhaps the most trying, is the need to take 
disciplinary action against certain individuals for their behavior. This 
can take the form of anything from a temporary suspension of rank and 
title to a permanent ban on participation in any SCA activities. Almost 
all requests for sanctions come from the Kingdoms. These requests are 
thoroughly reviewed and investigated by the Society Seneschal's office 
before being brought to the Board. It is our job to verify that all 
procedures were followed properly and to go over the information presented 
by both sides, without bias, before rendering judgment. 

The Governing Documents of the SCA are what codify how the Corporation 
does business, and, together with the various Officers' Handbooks, 
determine how the historical re-creation activities of the SCA work. As we 
grow, changes need to be written into to these documents to make them more 
effective. Frequently, a small change in one part can affect other parts. 
In conjunction with the SCA's President and the Society Seneschal, the 
Board carefully reviews any proposed changes for consistency and 
unintended results before putting the changes out for comment by the 
membership. 

Sometimes, issues arise within a branch of the SCA. Most of the time, 
these issues are resolved in house, without any involvement from Board. 
And that's just the way we prefer it. But despite the best efforts of 
those involved, there are instances when the Board is asked to step in. 
This is usually a last resort, and the results seldom come out completely 
in favor of anyone. Much like reviewing sanctions, the Board must examine 
large amounts of material related to the matter and make a final ruling. 

>From reading the above, it may seem as though the Board is largely a 
reactive body. While that may be true to a degree, we have lately made it 
a point to become more proactive. We recently held a long-range planning 
meeting to discuss ideas that will take the SCA into the future by 
improving both Corporate operations and the game-side experience. 
Additionally, we dedicate a portion of every quarterly meeting to 
long-range planning topics. Ideas currently under consideration include 
improving the SCA's flagship publication, Tournaments Illuminated, 
releasing a revision of the Known World Handbook and offering more 
benefits with paid membership, just to name a few. 

There are a great many other tasks that the Board manages on a daily 
basis, most of them administrative in nature. But the lion's share of what 
we do supports the membership so that everyone can continue to enjoy the 
benefits of being part of the largest historic re-creation group in the 
world. The Board makes every effort to do what is best for the SCA to 
ensure it will be here for another 40 years and beyond. 

Jason Williams – Chairman, SCA, Inc. 
(Duke John ap Gwyndaf, KSCA, OL) 
chairman at sca.org 

Next quarter: myths, misconceptions and answers. 


Jason Williams - Chairman, SCA, Inc. 
(Duke John ap Gwyndaf, KSCA, OL) 



Comments are strongly encouraged and can be sent to: 
SCA Inc. 
Box 360789 
Milpitas, CA 95036 

You may also email comments at sca.org or reply to this message. 

This announcement is an official informational release by the Society for 
Creative Anachronism , Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce this 
announcement in its entirety in newsletters, websites and electronic mailing 
lists. 

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