From: SN=SMITH%GI=CAROL%IN=CL%Monsanto@mcimail.COM (SMITH)
Subject: SCA Use of Modern Management Techniques
Organization: The Internet
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 21:06:00 GMT

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Application message id:  STLEDD 921113150619107711
Importance:  Normal
Grade of Delivery:  Normal

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    Greetings unto the gentles having fun around the Rialto from
    Caroline! Bertram asked:

I know that Carolyn and a few others might be interested in discussing
the SCA in light a various management philosophies.  Would anyone else
like to add their comments?

    As Bertram knows that I recently received a Master's degree in
    Management, he thought I'd like to comment. Below are my
    thoughts. I'd like to preface them by saying I have been a local
    and Kingdom Seneschal in Atlantia. Your personal experience and
    opinion may differ, so please share them if you like. In general,
    the Society does a number of things that current managment theory
    says is good. We also do things that are silly, IMHO, like wanting
    to centralize the fighter authorization paperwork process. I
    welcome the comments and clarifications of the gentles here, in
    the hopes that we can use what we know works and doesn't work in
    the real world to make the SCA run better.

    First, I think the Board is trying to put modern management theory
    into better practice now. Having Liz/Ysabeau on the Board
    definitely helped in that regard (she has a Master's degree in
    non-profit/public managment), and many other members have
    management experience.  Some corporate officers are not good at
    delegating authority down to the lowest levels, but this will
    change with time. The Kingdom seneschals, as a whole, are good at
    delegating. I know I tried, and I'd be interested in hearing how
    the other current and former Kingdom Seneschals on this forum did
    that.

    Does the SCA do a good job at decentralization? (currently seen as
    A Good Thing) Yes, overall.  There is central coordination, but
    kingdoms and local branches can, more or less, play their own
    variation of the game.  There should be experimentation into
    other, period, ways of doing things like Crown Tourneys, but
    overall it's not bad.

    Does the SCA have lots of levels of bureaucracy/management?
    (currently seen as a Bad Thing) Maybe too many, but this varies
    by Kingdom and office.  Smaller kingdoms would help, since at 45
    branches I was about stretched to my personal limit. (I had no
    regional deputies and no staff. Just me and an occassional friend
    to help me stuff envelopes to do mailings.) The heralds have many
    levels and checks(some may call this a bureaucracy), but seem to
    have their processes down to a flowing science of paperwork.  The
    marshalls don't seem to require the levels of communication that
    the heralds do. The A&S ministers don't seem to communicate much,
    and this may lead to reinventing the wheel (maybe literally!) on
    occasion. The lists officers seem to do OK, overall, but the
    effectiveness of this office was recently under discussion by the
    Board.

    Electronic communication (Good). It would be great to require that
    all officers have email to talk to each other and do reporting
    online, but that won't happen for quite a while. Most kingdom
    chroniclers accept electronic submissions, and at least 1 tried a
    bulletin board system to keep the calendar, but this is not going
    to be widespread for some time.

    What other modern mgt. theory could Bertram mean? A good kingdom
    officer does management by walking around by going to lots of
    events (a good thing--read "In Search of Excellence" by Peters and
    Waterman), the herald's office is thinking about doing business
    process redesign (good) on the submissions process, and we
    organize into ad hoc "teams" (good) to run events. So, I think we
    do OK, without realizing it.  Of course, (in the spirit of
    continuous improvement--a good thing, look at Japanese car makers)
    we could do better.  But we could also be doing a lot worse.

    (Business Process Redesign means taking what you do now and
    rethinking it on a very high level to make it more efficient--some
    of us are doing this at our real jobs right now!)

    Forgive my long-windedness. Such topics are quite interesting to
    me.... I invite your comments, good gentles.

    I remain, ever convinced that the running of the Society should
    not take so much time as to get in the way of us having fun,

    Caroline
    **************************************************************
    Carol L. Smith                 !Caroline Forbes of Oxfordshire
    Business Systems Consultant    !          (insert office here)
    The Agricultural Group of Monsanto!     Three Rivers, Calontir
    St. Louis, Missouri            !"Just this chick from Atlantia
    557-3321@mcimail.com           !                via the East."
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