From: cctimar@athena.cas.vanderbilt.edu (Charles)
Subject: Re: Why have the SCA, Inc.?
Organization: Vanderbilt University student of numerology
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 23:26:42 GMT

To all upon the Rialto doth Charles the clerk send his greetings!

There has been some discussion of splitting the Corporation into twelve
corporations or more.

It seems better to me to simply push to decentralize the existing one.

It was mentioned that the Corporation currently provides several
useful services.  Among these are the College of Arms, the Knight
Marshall, the Stock Clerk, and the publications.  The CoA is already
self-sufficient, and works more or less independently of the
Corporation.  There is no reason why the other useful bodies could
not become similarly autonomous.

At the same time, greater autonomy would have to be given to the
Kingdoms.  In particular, each Kingdom newsletter ought to support
itself.  When I was in Scouting, I believe I paid my fees to the local
troop, which sent some portion of this up the hierarchy (I was a little
too young at the time to worry about the details.) I think we could
easily be giving our money to the local Barony, which would send part
of it to the Kingdom, which would send part of that to the
Corporation.  I would prefer this slightly feudal arrangement to the
current one.  (I recognize that it increases the risk of embezzlement,
but there are possible safeguards to control this risk.)

Consider allowing any group to be a Kingdom, if it contributed a
certain amount (say, $2500 + $7/subject) to the Corporation.

The remaining functions of the Corporation appear to be to provide
insurance, to act as a highest court within the Society, and to
produce legislation to standardize practices throughout the Society.
The last of these we can do without.

Long complaint begins:

For example, suppose the West decided to start letting the Coronets
select the Crowns, the Middle decided to select their Crowns by having
the two finalists meet in a field battle, and the East decided to keep
selecting theirs by elimination tourneys.  How would this lack of
standardization harm the Society?  In period, did every kingdom use
the same method to determine the succession?  (The first two methods
I list are approximations of methods that were used in period, the
third is the one dictated by the Corporation.)

What if Calontir declared that its period would be strictly 1000-1400,
and they wanted a higher enforcement of authenticity?  We would probably
find that neighbouring kingdoms would acquire shires in what was
traditionally Calontir territory, and Calontir in theirs.  In many areas,
you could then choose which rules you wanted to play by.  Why should the
Corporation interfere?  As long as Calontir continues to contribute to
the insurance policy, and accepts the authority of the Colleges of
Marshalls and of Chirurgery, they are having no negative effect on the
Society.

What if Trimaris decides that they want to specialize in the Orient?
What if the Outlands decide to be Klingons?  I wouldn't go to events in
the Outlands, and I would pressure my Kingdom or Barony to establish
some minimum garb standards, but that's all that needs to be done.

End of complaint.

To summarize, I think the ideal would be to have a single Corporation,
but to devolve as much authority as possible onto the Kingdoms, the
CoA, and a few other offices and colleges.

Now, what is the most effective way to accomplish this?  Nominate
sympathetic people to the BoD until we can get two or three voices
there?
-- 
    -- Charles, student, in Glaedenfeld, Meridies
From: Ruth.Woodring@f4229.n124.z1.fidonet.org (Ruth Woodring)
Sender: FredGate@ocitor.fidonet