The Board has taken no position for or against the proposal, and asks for your comments before considering it further.
Please send comments to the Directors at the Corporate PO Box or to directors@sca.org,A more detailed version of this proposal is posted here or is available by e-mail from Galleron at mclean1382@aol.com. You are both welcome and encouraged to post or reproduce this proposal, provided you do so in full without alteration.
Members of the Society in non-US jurisdictions have found it necessary to form a number of corporations, apart from the Milpitas based SCA, Inc.. Current SCA governing documents do not deal with this reality well. Where local corporations exist, Society officers must often hold dual memberships. Only SCA, Inc. memberships count towards branch totals. Corpora demands procedures that are either pointless or illegal in foreign jurisdictions. Growth outside the US is hampered by a real or perceived US centrism. And the Board is badly overworked by its many responsibilities.
A. SCA governing documents revised. Document called the Great Charter defines the elements of medieval recreation common throughout the Society. Lesser Charters, defining medieval practices specific to particular realms and controlled by the people of that realm, would also be permitted. Modern administration defined in other documents.
B. Recognized corporations or other mundane governing bodies that agree to follow the Great Charter would control modern administration within their jurisdiction. They would make payments to support international SCA rulemaking and support bodies.
C. All resident subscribers to local Kingdom or Principality newsletter to count towards population requirements for branch status, regardless of whether or not they are members of SCA, Inc.
D. A new body, the World Council, would control the Great Charter and the recognition of SCA corporations. Each Kingdom and Principality may choose one representative to that body.
E. Review, appeal and jurisdiction issues.
F. Proposal to be phased in gradually, with World Council and World Review Panel beginning as advisory bodies to Board.
G. The most significant cost of this proposal might be $10,000 a year for World Review Panel travel costs. Some revenues and expenses would shift from SCA, Inc. to other corporations. Savings are likely for international members.
In many countries a local corporation must exist before the Society can be legally recognized or function within that country. In others, only local non-profits qualify for important benefits. Often, the Board as agreed that these local SCA corporations are desirable to meet the needs of the Society, and recognized them on an ad hoc basis. However:
The Board could develop a formal procedure for recognizing affiliated corporations, give them control of mundane administration within their jurisdiction, and rewrite Corpora to allow members of those corporations to be considered members of the Society for purposes of satisfying branch membership totals. While desirable, this would not fully address problems 3 and 4. The following proposal attempts to outline a more complete solution.
The governing documents would be recast so that Corpora no longer mandates details of mundane administration, such as the appointment of financial officers and the administration of local branches. Details of modern administration would instead be contained in the bylaws and policy documents of SCA, Inc., and other SCA corporations. To avoid confusion with current Corpora, this proposal refers to the document that defines the common elements of medieval recreation throughout the Society as the Great Charter.
Kingdoms and Principalities might also have lesser charters, specifying medieval practices not contained in the Great Charter, but more permanent than kingdom law. Unlike kingdom law, lesser charters could only be changed by the manifest consent of the members of the realm.
Where corporations bodies have been recognized as meeting the needs of the Society, they would be given authority to determine details of mundane administration within their jurisdiction, provided they do not conflict with the Great Charter. They would control the appointment and removal of their officers, and requirements for holding office.
Such corporations would make contributions to support the body that coordinates SCA activities worldwide. This would initially be SCA, Inc., but eventually a successor body, as described below. SCA, Inc. could provide TI and CA to these corporations at a reasonable price. Alternatively, the production of SCA worldwide publications might be spun off to a separate organization at a later date.
All resident subscribers to the local Kingdom or Principality newsletter would count towards population totals for branch status, regardless of whether or not they are members of SCA, Inc. Members of recognized SCA corporations would qualify equally for membership discounts, if any, and in their voice in the international SCA body.
Individual corporations might, within the limits of the Charter, have other categories of membership, and might set membership requirements to take part in their activities or hold office.
Eventually, the power to interpret and amend the Great Charter, and to recognize corporations as part of the Society, would be shifted from the Board of SCA, Inc. to a new body, here called the World Council.
Every kingdom and principality (excluding crown principalities) could choose one representative to the World Council, by any method demonstrably agreeable to the members of the Kingdom or Principality. Kingdoms could not dictate the selection method to be used by their Principalities.
The Council may need a small amount of administrative support.
This proposal could be phased in gradually. Changes A,B,C, and E.1 would probably be made first, with the World Council and Review Panel starting as advisory bodies, and eventually being given independent authority once they had proved their practicality.
Most of this proposal could be implemented at little added cost to the Society beyond the time and trouble to develop an implementation plan. The main cost and revenue implications would be:
Since this would replace direct payment to Milpitas for those foreign members, their total membership charges could be about $26,000 less than they are now. They would pay less because the new structure would more fairly reflect support given to Society operations by their corporations, because the wasted effort of overlapping memberships would be reduced, and because their corporations are less dependent on paid staff.
The change would be less financially favorable for SCA, Inc.. Continuing the somewhat extreme assumption that all international members shift to other corporations, workload at Milpitas might be 10% less. This is probably not enough to eliminate a staff position, although it would postpone need for additional staff. During the transition, non-subscription revenues to SCA, Inc. might drop by as much as $26,000, with a net reduction in expenses of $3,000. This includes added expenses for the World bodies. Once the transition was completed, revenues might fall by a further $10,000. Thus net revenues to Milpitas would eventually be $33,000 less.
While $33,000 is less than 4% of the 1997 SCA budget, it is not trivial. The revenue shift could be covered in several ways. Stock Clerk prices might be raised to more fully cover Stock Clerk expenses. Or, once the operating reserve is funded, the $40,000 a year earmarked to build the fund would be available.
Currently, the Board budgets the equivalent of about $725 per person per meeting, mostly for travel and lodging. That figure also includes some money for conference calls between regular meetings.
Assuming, conservatively, that each quarterly meeting of the review panel was face to face, three member sub-panels of a nine member Review Panel, meeting quarterly (that is, three members meeting each quarter), would cost $8,700 per year.
Travel costs for representatives from outside North America would be more expensive. If one of the members of the above panel was from overseas, he might attend one or two meetings a year. If the average cost of his ticket is US $1250, or $750 more than the average travel cost for American members, that might add $750-1,500 to the cost, for a total cost of $9,450-10,200.
1600 international members and 700 foreign associate and family members now pay about $36,000 to Milpitas in membership fees, not including the amount allocated to subscriptions. Probably not all would shift to other corporations, at least for some time. However, to the extent that they did, Milpitas would lose this revenue. It would also lose some expenses: perhaps $7,000 in phone and credit card charges, office printing and postage, and at least $5,000 in international insurance expense, (or would receive equivalent compensation from other corporations for coverage by the Milpitas insurance). Milpitas registry workload would be 10% less: not enough to cut a position, but enough to push the need for more staff at least two years further into the future. The Milpitas share of new World expenses estimated earlier would be about $9,000. So if all current non-US members shifted to other corporations, net revenue to Milpitas would decrease by $33,000.
Non-US SCA corporations might have costs similar to the Swedish and Australian corporations. Aside from publications and insurance, both of these corporations have costs equivalent to $2 or less per member (of all types). The Swedish corporation has not found insurance necessary, the Australian one pays about $2 per member for insurance, a cost similar to that paid by SCA, Inc. If all the international members listed above shifted to this structure, they would pay about $4,600 in non-subscription costs, plus about $5,600 for insurance and their share of the World bodies' expenses. Net non-US costs would decrease by $26,000.
If there is a transitional period, during which foreign corporations handle their own operations, but SCA, Inc. maintains control of Worldwide oversight and game issues, the foreign corporations might make payments to SCA, Inc. to support this function. Since these functions would primarily involve only the Board, Executive Assistant, and Society Seneschal, a payment equivalent to about $4 per member seems reasonable.
The above calculations assume 200 current members of non-US corporations, other than the Australian one, are not now members of SCA,Inc.. Since they are already paying members of non-US Society corporations, the only effect they have on these calculations is on the amount paid to support World bodies.
For more information on the SCA, see the SCA Home Page
Last changed: 3-Apr-2006