REPORT FROM THE GRAND COUNCIL: QUARTER 1, 2010
This report is respectfully submitted by Her Ladyship Elizabeth Turner de
Carlisle, stand-in emergency Secretary, with great aide and assistance from
Master Tibor of Rock Valley, Master Elias Gedney, Viscount Daniel de Blare,
and His Lordship Brendan ap Llewelyn.
A. COMMITTEE ACTIVITY
Prior to the SCA Board directed topic, the Grand Council was discussing the
following self-motivated topic:
1 - Thoughts on the SCA's financial revenue model
The committee discussed the following SCA Board directed topic:
1 -Actionable recommendations for how the SCA, as an organization, could
better promote participant retention at the local group level
B. COMMITTEE STATUS AND COMMENDATIONS
First, I would like to thank Therasia for her hard work on many subjects
this quarter. A large amount of our work was made possible by her well
thought out ideas and conclusions.
Second, I would like to thank all those who will be leaving the Grand
Council on May 1st. A committee is only as successful as its parts, and we
have needed each and every one of you.
Special thanks go out to my Vice Chairman, who picked up the ball when I ran
off to Estrella and learned the ropes. I hope he considers running for
Chiarman in the upcoming elections.
Finally, this will be my last report as Chairman, as my 6 years comes due on
May 1st. I've had a lot of fun and hope I contributed somewhat to the
smooth operation of the GC and the SCA as a whole. There are a lot of
people I should thank, but I would be writing this for an hour if I did so.
Some of the ones I have found especially helpful include both Ombudsman I
have worked with, Duke Fredrick of Holland, Tibor of Rock Valley, Renee
Signorotti, and Patrick Anderson. This list also includes many others who
have made my term as Chairman fun and rewarding.
I'll be sticking around on the list looking over the shoulder as it were,
but I'll be looking for new challenges and new places to help the SCA as a
whole. Thank you for a wonderful run.
HL Brendan ap Llewelyn, Chairman
C. PUBLISHABLE SUMMARY
The Grand Council examined two specific topics. The results of these
discussions can be found in Section E . Three votes were conducted: one
regarding Core Competencies, one regarding actionable recommendations and
one regarding membership requirements.
D. CONFIDENTIAL
Nothing to report
E. DISCUSSIONS
TOPICS: Thoughts on the SCA revenue model and actionable recommendations
for how the SCA, as an organization, could better promote participant
retention at the local group level
The Grand Council discussed several alternate revenue streams for SCA-US,
but came to no firm conclusion as to which would work best. Several members
from SCA-affiliate groups reported how their BoDs seem to handle finances,
with significant success, but it was not conclusive as to how effective
implementing these would be for the SCA, Inc.
Initial discussion of the board-directed topic was wide ranging - including
calls for more data, discussions of what makes the Society attractive at
all, and so forth. The focus quickly became questions on what makes local
participation attractive, and there seemed to be universal agreement that
activities at the local level (events and otherwise) were critical, and that
whatever harmed the local level was injurious to retention.
We also discussed how the current global recession is making participation
more difficult, since the SCA is competing for scarce resources in the lives
of participants. A variety of topics on the level of "make the local group
more pleasant" also came up.
Several days into the discussion, guest commenter Goedjn (Pete Rose) made an
observation that became a repeated theme in later discussions: "I really
don't think that there's much that the corporation can do to affect local
participation, except in the negative. It's far easier, at the distance
the corporation must operate, to drive people away, than to keep them."
This was echoed by member Elias (Jeff Gedney) who wrote: "[I]n nearly any
situation what will prompt retention at the local level is applied and
practiced at the local level."
At that point, the conversation shifted to ways that the Corporate level can
assist local groups more. Ideas began to be shared, and collated.
Member Therasia (Cat Clark) wrote a 5 part magnum opus, which collated her
thoughts on retention, and which became a great portion of the balance of
our discussion:
"I believe there are several different things that could be changed that
would help retention and mitigate against attrition. They are:
1. Reporting Requirements for Local Officers
2. The Proliferation of Offices
3. Loss of focus on the SCA's core competancy
4. Care and feeding of newcomers
5. Accountability and responsibility."
This was widely acclaimed as providing a great framework for discussion, but
was lacking in actionable recommendations. Further, Therasia asked for
anonymous off-list discussionsof the SCA's core competency, and managed to
spark a very serious discussion as a result.
Member Tibor (Mark Schuldenfrei) posted, rather late in the game, a repeated
recommendation that Council members read a report written for another hobby
of his on social retention in that group and in general. [
http://www.21stn7th.com/resurgence_web.pdf]
Tibor also shared, in a letter he later described as pugnacious:
"To repeat: each participant finds value in the SCA according to their own
natures, and leaves when they no longer find value (and comes to realize the
lack of value). The SCA itself provides little value directly, and does
almost nothing useful in providing value to its volunteers, and does little
to encourage that they provide actual value to the participants. (What we do
provide, we do as much by luck, skill, and continuity, and not by focused
effort, I opine.)
[...]
If we are providing as much ongoing personal value to participants as
possible, and that value relates to our core mission, we'll retain as many
people as possible. And the ones we lose, we really OUGHT to lose.
Mission + Value + Support = Retention."
This set of ideas seemed to become the accepted center of discussion from
thence, forward. Identify the core competency of the SCA, then work to
provide that core competency to the participant by driving value for them.
After much discussion, the Council voted on the following as a core
competency of the SCA. (Note: this is not a mission statement - the two are
different.)
*SCA Core Competency*
The Society (as distinct from the Corporation) has 4 core competencies:
1) Holding Medieval- and Renaissance-themed events
2) Educating participants in Medieval, Renaissance and SCA traditional
history and culture through "living-history" classroom and private venues
3) Providing a unique social and cultural atmosphere based on chivalric
conceptions of courtesy and civility towards one another
4) Providing an inclusive atmosphere in our approach to all aspects
ofpre-17th century European-related history, where one can attempt and
incorporate activities which are in keeping with our "majority-theme" events
of tourneys, feasts and revels.
The SCA, Inc’s core competency is providing the support framework within the
modern world that allows the Society to exist.
*Commentary*
During the Grand Council's discussion on the retention of SCA participants
at the local level, the Council members explored what attracts people to the
Society and keeps them coming back. In management science, this concept is
often called the “core competency” of a business, i. e., the products,
services or activities which essentially define a business [1]. In the case
of a non-profit, its core competencies are usually its purpose, activities
and/or intended results [2]. For example, the core competency of Ford is the
manufacture and sale of cars and the core competency of the Southeastern
Idaho Food Bank is the distribution of food to people in need.
When comparing core competencies and mission statements, the core competency
describes what an organization does and the business mission statement
describes how to do it. In the case of the SCA, the core competencies
define the nature of the Society while the mission statement describes how
the SCA Inc. supports, preserves and enables the Society. Within the
context of the discussion on participant retention, defining the core
competencies was germane but a business mission statement for the SCA Inc.
was not.
The Council identified four interrelated core competencies that define the
Society. These four items appear inseparable. Exclude even one of them, and
the "product appeal" of the Society changes in ways that would make it less
appealing to the participants. Excluding any of the four would morph the
Society into some other unrecognizable organization.
*Exposition*
The most important of the four core competencies are the Society's unique
events. Council members either chose events as the sole core competency or
identified events as the most important of several core competencies.
The second core competency is education. While one could make a good case
that education is just one aspect of Society events, enough people mentioned
education that it was apropos to acknowledge it separately. All
"living-history" type activities are innately and implicitly educational. As
one Society wit once quipped [3], history was often one of the most boring
subjects in many American high schools - so don't scare people off from the
Society by pointing out that they're having fun learning history!
Education and events are so strongly linked that many people are unaware of
it. This passive connection may be behind the common misunderstanding that
the SCA must hold demos to justify our non-profit educational status to the
IRS. Many believe that our educational nature must be displayed overtly
where demos are one of the ways to do that.
The third core competency identified by the Council was the Society's unique
social culture - or "counter-culture" as some would say, and not without
some justification. The social atmosphere of the Society is a huge
component of SCA life and it's one of the biggest reasons that many keep
coming back to SCA events and activities. The social draw of the Society
was something that many mentioned during the core competency discussion.
The Society's social culture is hard to define because it is diverse.
Regardless, many of us came into the Society because of the
knight-in-shining armor aspect and because it looked like a heap of fun. But
in the long run, the social scene and the Society's unique culture is the
main reason that many of us have kept playing. For this reason alone, it
behooves us not to skip over this. While intangible, the Society's culture
is real and unique and it is part of the Society's appeal. And, like
education, it is also a factor which is *implicit* in our living-history
style venue of events. Hilary of Serendip, former Steward of the Society,
called it "playing at what you can become." Who you are outside the SCA is
unimportant once you walk through the Society's door, put on the
funny-clothes, don the armor, and wear the favor. What matters is the
knight errant or the lady fair you become at events. The event venue
enables the culture. We're here because chivalry appeals to something in our
souls.
The fourth core competency is the inclusive nature of the Society. We are a
"big tent" group because we are inclusive about activities and about our
allowed time period. During the Council discussion, some former and current
reenactment players pointed out that most reenactment “living history”
groups are usually strict and rule-bound to the point of “enforcing period
practices right down to nose-blowing.” Reenactment groups are also narrow in
both activities and time-period. In contrast, the appeal of the Society is
that can we explore so much more of our broad historical time period and
activities thereof. As guest commenter Duke Cariadoc (David Friedman)
pointed out during the Council’s discussion, our inclusive nature as a group
can be one of our weaknesses through trying to do too much – but without our
inclusive "big tent" character, we would not be the Society but some other
group. Our breadth of activities and time period is what distinguishes the
Society for other living history organizations.
Our tolerance for breadth in exploring historical periods and activities has
greatly influenced our friendly, endeavor-permissive and somewhat
laissez-faire culture. But the most important characteristic of our breadth
is its impact on our osmotic educational character. Assuming that someone
joined some tourney group with a focus on the tourney societies of the 15th
century, then that person would learn a lot about 15th century Western
European cultural history pertaining to the gentry and nobility of that
time. But because of the inclusive nature of the Society, SCA participants
can learn much more than that.
*Summary*
Four things form the Society's core competencies, i.e. those items which
comprise the Society's appeal as a group: events, education, social culture
and breadth.
*References*
{1} "The Core Competence of the Corporation," by Prahalad and Hamel [Harvard
Business Review, May-June 1990 issue].
(2) _The Management of the Nonprofit Organization_, P. Drucker, p. 140.
(3) Conversation with Hilary of Serendip as recalled by Therasia von Tux.
The final vote was:
51 value points were accumulated.
YES (2 points): 21 (42 points)
yes (1 point): 10 (10 points)
abstain (0 points): 1 (0 points)
no (1 point): 1 (-1 point)
NO (2 points): 0
Total: 51
This vote led to more spirited discussions that would generate actionable
recommendations to the Board.
The Council voted on the following 13 propositions, which can be taken a la
carte by the Board. These are crafted in terms of what the Board can do, as
opposed to what local groups can do. Please note that each item in the
proposal was voted on separately, and that individual recommendation varied
in support.
*Actionable Recommendations to the Board*
1) The Board should look into training materials for members of the Board,
including what would be good training techniques and materials appropriate
for operating and growing a non-profit volunteer organization, as well as
motivation of volunteers and other topics related to the operation of
bottom-up volunteer organizations, making such materials and training
available to Directors on a forward going basis.
2) The Board should take every opportunity to impress upon Society officers,
Kingdom officers, and the Crowns of the Known World what the Core
Competencies of the SCA are, and that all activities should be in
furtherance of these Core Competencies.
3) The Board should continually keep the health of the local groups in mind
when making decisions, creating new policies and/or changing old policy.
Criteria include:
· Supporting in general of the Society Core Competencies
· Encouraging the running of quality local events
· Whenever advisable reducing the burden on local officers and
volunteers
· Clearly explaining the utility and importance of any new burdens
on local officers and volunteers
· Working to improve communication with local volunteers and
officers
· Working to increase resources and information available to local
volunteers and officers
· Providing more infrastructure to assist local events, volunteers
and officers
· Offering suggestions over mandates whenever possible, and
· Working to increase local education and activities outside of
events through encouragement and information.
4) The Board should increase transparency at the corporate level:
· Including better financial reporting to the membership/subscribers
· Removing the secrecy policies around sanctions to whatever extent
is possible (possibly simply stating a general reason for the sanction
without details, i.e. "for violating Society financial policy", "due to
criminal conviction", etc.
· Reinstitute the President's report of the happenings of the
meetings, to be published immediately after the completion of the meeting
(with a disclaimer that it is not to be taken as the official minutes of the
meeting.)
5) The Board should report to the participants at least annually and via
newsletters and electronic media, on the state of the Society, both positive
and negative; on ways that it has improved value to participants; and on
ways in which it intends to do so in the future; thereby establishing a
greater appreciation for itself amongst the members.
6) The Board should direct all Society-level officers to create training
materials and programs for those aspects of their office that apply
Society-wide, with material suitable for all levels of the society, with
specific information suitable for the local level officers as well as the
Principality/Kingdom level officers.
· Said material should cover basic operations of the offices,
reporting criteria and conflict and complaint handling and escalation.
· Training materials should be made easily accessible to interested
parties, hopefully taking advantages of current publishing technologies.
7) The Board should direct all Society-level officers to direct their
Kingdom counterparts to develop supplementary training materials for the
local officers in their kingdom, with particular attention to additional
requirements and local customs or activities not covered in the training
produced by the Society officer.
· Said material should cover Kingdom specific information on the
operation of the offices and Kingdom specific reporting requirements.
8) The Board should enable a project to create training materials for those
who are running events and feasts, including how to budget, pre-event check
lists, how to calculate required space, etc.
9) The Board should examine all offices at all levels of the SCA for
necessity:
· With an eye toward streamlining and reducing them
· Making as few as possible required
· Making as many as possible local options of Kingdoms or groups
· With a deadline that each Kingdom perform its own similar review
within one calendar year of the SCA's completion of its own review.
10) The Board should review the Greater Officer / Lesser Officer
designations to determine if they serve a useful purpose, and if they do,
should review which officers are designated as which to see if the
designation is correct for that office, with an eye to removing redundancy
and making appropriate positions optional at lower levels.
11) The Board should direct all Society-level Officers and their Kingdom
counterparts to streamline and reduce reporting requirements, making them
more efficient, simpler and more open.
· With a goal that superior officers always send useful information
DOWN the chain to supervised officers.
· With a goal that superior officers share useful ideas and
information from local reports with all their supervised officers.
· Preserving useful information from reports in an open and
transparent manner wherever possible.
· Using the principle that more and more information is not a
substitute for the right information at the right time.
12) The Board should direct all Society-level officers who do not currently
do so to hold a Symposium at which all corresponding Kingdom officers have
the opportunity for face-to-face training, Q&A, and interaction with the
society Officer and with each other. These Symposia may be held
concurrently with that of another office if desired, as is currently done
with the Kingdom Seneschals and Exchequers Symposium. (Face to face
meetings and training is preferred, but video conference meetings would also
be an option and allow inclusion of lower level officers if appropriate.)
13) The Board should review the current media and publicity policies to
ensure they are oriented toward providing materials and assistance to create
publicity, rather than being oriented towards restricting media access at
the local branch level. The policies must be clear, written in plain
English to reduce confusion and misinterpretation.
Final vote tallies were varied, and they are listed below as they apply to
each individual item of the proposal. 32 Grand Council members voted.
YES equals 2
yes equals 1
abstain equals 0
no equals -1
NO equals -2
*Ballot 1*
Item 1: 47
*The Board should look into training materials for members of the Board...*
Item 2: 44
*The Board should take every opportunity to impress upon Society officers...
Core Competencies...*
Item 3: 48
*The Board should continually keep the health of the local groups in mind...
*
Item 4: 49
*The Board should increase transparency at the corporate level:*
Item 5: 47
*The Board should report to the participants at least annually...*
Item 6: 44
*The Board should direct all Society-level officers to create training
materials...*
Item 7: 45
*The Board should direct all Society-level officers to direct their Kingdom
counterparts to develop supplementary training materials... *
Item 8: 37
*The Board should enable a project to create training materials for those
who are running events and feasts...*
Item 9: 36
*The Board should examine all offices at all levels of the SCA for
necessity...*
Item 10: 28
*The Board should review the Greater Officer / Lesser Officer
designations...*
Item 11: 46
*The Board should direct all Society-level Officers and their Kingdom
counterparts to streamline and reduce reporting requirements... *
Item 12: 25
*The Board should direct all Society-level officers who do not currently do
so to hold a Symposium...*
Item 13: 44
*The Board should review the current media and publicity policies...*
A separate proposal was also made to change membership requirements.
*Proposal to Modify Membership Requirements*
*Summary*
a) Amend the governing documents as follows, to allow non-subscribers
with equivalent access to appropriate information to be officers.
b) Amend the governing documents as follows, to allow individuals who
share the same address to purchase family memberships if one of them holds
an associate membership, as an alternative to the subscribing membership now
required.
*Points in Favor*
a) SCA newsletters are no longer the sole or best way of communicating
with officers. These days most offices in Kingdoms also have and use
supplementary online means of communication, which provide additional speed
and clarity. It is possible for Kingdoms to provide officers with all the
information they need to serve the Kingdom without requiring the Kingdom
Newsletter.
b) Currently, family memberships are only available if one person at
that address is a subscribing member. This creates an artificial incentive
to subscribe even when the subscriber thinks the newsletter is worth much
less than it cost the Society to produce and distribute. For example, a
participating couple at the same address can purchase two associate
memberships for $40. For $5 more they can purchase a sustaining and a
family membership, so the rational decision for them is to do that even if
they think the newsletter is only worth $5 a year. However producing and
distributing each newsletter costs the Society much more than that. The
cheapest option for three people in a family who wish to be members is one
subscribing and two family memberships, even if the newsletter is discarded
unread.
Since Kingdom Newsletters are only marginally profitable to Milpitas, and
often subsidized by local Kingdoms, the net change in revenue is likely
negligible overall. It is anticipated that many current subscribers will
continue subscribing even if the requirement is relaxed. (Financial analysis
is available in Appendix A.)
Lowering participation cost without reducing participation benefits should
improve retention and recruitment.
*Changes Required*
A. Officers
*Corporate Policy*
Amend II.C. as follows:
Officers at all levels of the SCA must be natural persons and members as
defined in I.B.1-4 above, and must have immediate access to the corporate
newsletter for their area provided by a subscribing membership at their
residence, or have access to an alternative approved as acceptable under
Kingdom or Society law.
*Corpora*
Amend Corpora V.C.2.a: as follows:
Eligibility for Office. Officers at all levels of the SCA must be members
and must have immediate access to the corporate newsletter for their area
provided by a subscribing membership at their residence, or have access to
an alternative approved as acceptable under kingdom or Society law.
(Alternate access arrangements may be made on a case-by-case basis for
people with post office boxes and for International Members.) This standard
also applies to deputies designated as successors to officers subject to
this provision, or assigned independent administrative duties. Deputies who
only assist with specific tasks are exempt from the newsletter access
requirement.
Amend VII.K.3 as follows:
Before a proposed officer can be placed on a roster or warrant, they must
meet all officer requirements listed in the SCA’s Governing Documents.
B. Family Memberships
*Corporate Policy*
Amend I.B.4 as follows:
Family Membership extends the privileges of Section I.B.1 to the immediate
family of a member defined in paragraphs B.1-B.3 of this Article, who live
at the same physical address as the member. This type of membership is not
considered a subscribing membership.
*Voting Results*
A: 6
*Amend the governing documents as follows, to allow non-subscribers with
equivalent access to appropriate information to be officers...*
B: 32
*Amend the governing documents as follows, to allow individuals who share
the same address to purchase family memberships if one of them holds an
associate membership...*
F. PREVIOUSLY APPROVED DISCUSSION TOPICS, TO BE ADDRESSED AS TIME PERMITS
G. SUGGESTED FUTURE OR ON-GOING DISCUSSION TOPICS
The suggested topic for the next quarter is to return to the discussion
regarding SCA revenue streams since the discussion this quarter did not
result in tangible results.
H. OTHER UNASSIGNED TOPICS DISCUSSED
APPENDIX: A
*Financial Impact of Membership Requirements*
The difference between sustaining and associate membership is $15. There
were, on the average, 16,594 sustaining and international members in 2009.
At $15 each, that comes to $248,910. In 2009 the SCA also took in $5,445 and
$1,775 in additional 3rd class subscriptions and first class upgrades, for a
total of $256,130. The kingdom newsletter stipends totaled $228,628, for a
maximum profit of $27,502, or $1.66 per subscribing member.
Now, there are some additional costs at the Milpitas level, not large, but
not zero either: mailing labels need to be sent out and updated, changes of
address need to be dealt with more frequently, etc.
But there are also additional costs at the kingdom level, since a
significant number of kingdom newsletters cost more than the stipend.
Looking only at Milpitas costs and revenues overstate the net value of
subscription revenue to the Society, and it may well be negative.
Charging a subscriber $15 extra and making the average kingdom spend
something on top of that to get a net of less than $1.66 to Milpitas makes
no sense if the subscriber is being forced to buy something that isn't worth
$15 to him.
On the other hand, if it is worth at least $15 to the subscriber, they will
continue to pay for it without a mandate. Some members do see value in the
newsletter at the current pricing, since there are some that pay extra for
newsletters from other kingdoms and for the first class upgrade, which is
entirely voluntary.
APPENDIX: B
*
*
*Members Who Participated in the Discussion and Votes*
AElfwyn The Needleworker
Aleksandr Vasilevych Lev
Alysoun Jeuneterre
Ariel of Lindisfarne
AshaHito
Berengaria de Montfort de Carcassone
Bianca the Inquisitive
Brendan ap Llewelyn
Caelin on Andrede
Cathal mac Edan na faeled
Chiara Francesca Arianna d'Onofrio
Conal Mac Nachtan
Daniel de Blare
Eilis O'Boirne
Elias Gedney
Fiskr Hammondson
Flanna Dunwalton
Fridrikr Tomasson av Knusslig Hamn
Gabriel Kalothetos
Galleron de Cressy
Giles Leabrook
Helena Bryenissa Raoulaina
Jason Griffiths of ShadowHyrst
Johannes von Narrenstein
Kat MacLochlainn
Kevin Eriol
Madog Maelgwn Llewelyn
Mitchell MacBain
Orla Carey
Rebecca with the Greyhound
Simone Marruin Ui'Dunlaingh
T'ressa Margarite
Therasia von Tux
Tibor of Rock Valley
Tristan von Eisig
Wulfred Hansard of Richmond
APPENDIX: C
*Vacant Positions*
An Tir Kingdom Appointee
Artemisia Kingdom Appointee
Atenveldt Kingdom Appointee
Caid Kingdom Appointee
Calontir Kingdom Appointee
Ealdormere Kingdom Appointee
Trimaris Kingdom Appointee