Board Report: -

Report from the Grand Council: Quarter 2, 2011, respectfully submitted by Baroness Bianca the Inquisitive, Grand Council Secretary

* A copy of this report in .doc format to be submitted to directors@sca.org, renee@sca.org, president@sca.org, and list@lists.sca.org
* Report uploaded to Grand Council website: http://grandcouncil.sca.org/gc_rpts.php?y=2011&m=July
* Link to google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jnqHvpoBTN4IN_MltXngsOe9xT24715GOoOS1ENSfak/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CPvT5rQD

A. COMMITTEE ACTIVITY

The Grand Council was asked to produce a minimum of 10 more actionable recommendations regarding communications best practices. Also, we were asked to note everything that needs to be changed in current policies for each recommendation.

B. COMMITTEE STATUS AND COMMENDATIONS
None

Other Changes

Resigned:
Berengaria de Montfort de Carcasson - At Large - AnTir

Change:
Elections were held and the new officers are:
Therasia von Tux - Chairman
Saito Takauji - Vice Chair
Bianca the Inqusitive - Secretary
Stephen Godwin fitz Baldric - Clerk

Retired:
AshaHito Large - At Large - Atlantia
Mitchell McBain - Kingdom Appointee - East Kingdom
Kat MacLochlainn - At Large - Ansteorra
Kevin Eriôl - At Large - Meridies
Elias Gedney - At Large - East
Flanna Dunwalton - At Large - West
Hrothgar the Smith - At Large - Calontir
T'ressa Margarite - At Large - Northshield

Additions:
Lawrence Thornguard - Kingdom Appointee - East Kingdom
Aedan mac Suibne - At Large - An Tir
Aspasia Jeanne Cartier - At Large - Trimaris
Caointiarn - At Large - Artemisia
Dafydd Gwynfardd - At Large - Caid
Dulcia MacPherson - At Large - Trimaris
Giovanna Adimari - At Large - Middle
Ii Saburou Katsumori - At Large - West
Svanhildr Karlsdottir - At Large - East

Open Positions:

Kingdom Appointee:

An Tir

Artemisia

Atenveldt

Caid

Calontir

Gleann Abhann

Middle

** NOTE: The Grand Council notes with sadness and great regret the passing of Daniel Thompson, known in the Society as Roger of Belden Abbey of An Tir, who was our Chairperson from June 2006 to May 2007, and extend our sympathy to his family and friends.

C. PUBLISHABLE SUMMARY

We are being asked to produce a minimum of 10 actionable recommendations per quarter, each of which the board will look at and probably request commentary from other sources. Also, we were asked to note everything that needs to be changed in current policies for each recommendation.

These are the best practices recommendations for SCA communications from the Grand Council for 2nd Quarter 2011. We present these as general guidelines and not as rules with which to beat people over the head.

1. All corporate, branch and officer communications should use clear language without jargon, clarifying any terms not found in standard English dictionaries. Note: Be aware that the international English-speaking community, including non-native English speakers, does not have a defined
standard for English. As such, localisms (jargon, slang, regional expressions and phrasing) should
be avoided where possible.

The committee has found no current policies that conflict.

2. Communicate plans, possible changes, new rules, etc. well ahead of time, preferably six months or longer, if possible.

The committee has found no current policies that conflict.

3. Make sure that temporary measures are clearly communicated as temporary measures, and are indeed temporary.

The committee has found no current policies that conflict.

4. All corporate, branch and officer communications should allow for the use of any available communications method. No policy should require a particular method or ban a particular method unless there are clear legal reasons for doing so. In the case of legal issues, the policy should be
stated to do as legally required rather than stating a required method since legal requirements can change rapidly.

No direct conflict with policy. Certain electronic methods of communication are specifically not recommended because of their commercial or public nature.

5. Communication should not be considered official (and thus binding to SCA, Inc.) if it does not derive from an officer of the corporation. Officers include not only Society Officers, but also properly warranted branch level officers. This does not include communication from non-warranted positions,
such as the heads of polling orders, organizers of individual activities, non-warranted event volunteers, etc. unless it is authorized by an appropriate, warranted officer of the SCA, other than event autocrats.
Casual mail and similar personal communications should not be signed using the titles of a person's SCA office. For example, an email about who is doing the dishes in camp at an event should not be signed "Lord Ronald MacDonald, Knight's Marshal of the Barony of Baconburger," nor should a letter to an authorized fighter regarding a violation of the rules of the lists signed "your pal, Donny."

Corpora currently defines "official" communication in the Governing Documents: X. POLICY ON ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS and I.c.5. Communications with the Board of Directors. It does not contradict what we wrote, but the BoD may wish to reexamine these
based on our suggested best practices.

6. All announcements from the Corporation (Board, Officers, etc.) should be written in the light of the international nature of the society, and appropriate qualification should always be given as to the applicability of the announcement outside of USA legal jurisdiction.

No obvious conflicts, though some policies may be written with a US audience in mind. Attempts at this are already there in the documents (e.g. both Imperial and Metric systems are often used; and there are cases where policies dealing with US law are spelled out as dealing with US law).

7. All corporate, branch and officer communications, no matter the purpose, should be written in a way that is respectful of all involved parties and readers.

The committee has found no current policies that conflict.

8. Communication should be encouraged in both vertical (e.g. Branch to Kingdom, Kingdom to Corporation, etc.) and horizontal (e.g. branch to branch, Kingdom to Kingdom, affiliate to affiliate, etc.) dimensions.

Almost all of the corporate level handbooks stipulate reporting only in a vertical fashion - so this recommendation would change these policies. Also, some information can NOT be reported horizontally, e.g. chirurgeonate injury reports are not shared horizontally because of confidentiality concerns, although redacted injury information is allowed to flow to the marshallate on a need-to-know basis.

Also, horizontal reporting between kingdoms would involve a change to the reporting requirements in the Governing Documents, which currently stipulate vertical reporting channels but no horizontal ones.

Due to the potential legal ramifications from improper data handling, extreme caution and due diligence should be taken to ensure all appropriate care and consideration are employed when sharing information, vertically or horizontally. (i.e. privacy laws, patient confidentiality, etc.)

9. All communications-related policies should be reviewed by the Seneschal on an annual biennial basis for compliance with legal requirements, compliance with other corporate policies, compliance with Kingdom Law (as appropriate) and with an eye toward making communications easier and less
burdensome on volunteers in the various branches of the Society.

This entails a change (i.e. addition) to the job description responsibilities of seneschals.

10. The Society should create and/or expand, as well as maintain, a glossary of general SCA terms, abbreviations and acronyms. Individual kingdoms and branches should consider creating an addendum to the general glossary for specific terms, abbreviations and acronyms used locally. This glossary or links to it should be placed in an area readily accessible to newcomers and first time visitors (e.g. in an "About Us." or "Welcome to the SCA." page).

The committee has found no current policies that conflict.

Voting Breakdown:
40 GC members voted - three members did not vote.

Results are as follows:
Item 1 Weighted value of 71
YES: 31
yes: 9
abstain: 0
no: 0
NO: 0

Item 2 Weighted value of 62
YES: 22
yes: 18
abstain: 0
no: 0
NO: 0

Item 3 Weighted value of 68
YES: 28
yes: 12
abstain: 0
no: 0
NO: 0

Item 4 Weighted value of 57
YES: 25
yes: 11
abstain: 1
no: 2
NO: 1

Item 5 Weighted value of 53
YES: 15
yes: 24
abstain: 0
no: 1
NO: 0

Item 6 Weighted value of 68
YES: 30
yes: 9
abstain: 1
no: 0
NO: 0

Item 7 Weighted value of 68
YES: 28
yes: 12
abstain: 0
no: 0
NO: 0

Item 8 Weighted value of 62
YES: 22
yes: 18
abstain: 0
no: 0
NO: 0

Item 9 Weighted value of 47
YES: 18
yes: 16
abstain: 1
no: 5
NO: 0

Item 10 Weighted value of 34
YES: 10
yes: 23
abstain: 1
no: 3
NO: 3

D. CONFIDENTIAL
Nothing to report

E. DISCUSSIONS

F. PREVIOUSLY APPROVED DISCUSSION TOPICS, TO BE ADDRESSED AS TIME PERMITS
There are no such topics at this time.

G. SUGGESTED FUTURE OR ON-GOING DISCUSSION TOPICS
None

APPENDIX A: LIST OF COUNCIL MEMBERS CONTRIBUTING TO THE DISCUSSIONS

SCA Name	Kingdom Rep/at-large	Kingdom
Aedan mac Suibne	At Large	An Tir
Alan Culross	At Large	Middle
Alysoun Jeuneterre	At Large	Trimaris
Ariel of Lindisfarne	Kingdom	Drachenwald
AshaHito	At Large	Atlantia
Aspasia Jeanne Cartier	At Large	Trimaris
Berengaria de Montfort de Carcasson	At Large	An Tir
Bianca the Inquisitive	At Large	Meridies
Caelin on Andrede	At Large	Ansteorra
Caointiarn	At Large	Artemisia
Catalina OroSol	At Large	Lochac
Cathal mac Edan na faeled	Kingdom	Meridies
Charles the Grey of Mooneschadowe	Kingdom	Ansteorra
Chiara Francesca Arianna d'Onofrio	At Large	An Tir
Conal Mac Nachtan	Kingdom	Outlands
Dafydd Gwynfardd	At Large	Caid
Daniel de Blare	Kingdom	West
Dulcia MacPherson	At Large	Trimaris
Eilis o'boirne	At Large	West
Elias Gedney	At Large	East
Elizabeth Turner de Carlisle	At Large	An Tir
Flanna Dunwalton	At Large	West
Galleron de Cressy	At Large	East
George Anne of Aethelmearc	Kingdom	Aethelmearc
Giles Leabrook	At Large	Lochac
Giovanna Adimari	At Large	Middle
Heather Shea	Kingdom	Ealdormere
Helena Bryenissa Raoulaina	At Large	An Tir
Hrolf Herjolfssen	At Large	Lochac
Hrothgar the Smith	At Large	Calontir
Ii Saburou Katsumori	At Large	West
Ixtilixochitl de los Indios	At Large	Middle
Jason Griffiths of ShadowHyrst	At Large	Caid
Jehanne le feu du Christ	At Large	Atenveldt
Kane Greymane	Kingdom	Lochac
Kat MacLochlainn	At Large	Ansteorra
Kevin Eriôl	At Large	Meridies
Lawrence Thornguard	Kingdom	East
Mitchell MacBain	Kingdom	East
Morgan Etienne ap Gwalchmai Gwynedd	Kingdom	Trimaris
Orla Carey	Kingdom	Atlantia
Raphe Cuthbert	At Large	Drachenwald
Rebecca with the Greyhound	At Large	Gleann Abhann
Saito Takauji	At Large	Calontir
Simone Marruin Ui'Dunlaingh	At Large	Ansteorra
Sine Gunnsdottir	At Large	An Tir
Stephen Godwin fitz Baldric	At Large	Trimaris
Svanhildr Karlsdottir	At Large	East
Therasia von Tux	At Large	Ansteorra
T'ressa Margarite	At Large	Northshield
Tristan von Eisig	Kingdom	Northshield