From: schuldy@progress.COM (Mark Schuldenfrei)
Subject: Re: Aluminum Armour (was Re: HELP WANTED RE KINGDOM AWARDS)
Organization: Progress Software Corp.
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 14:28:23 GMT

Doctor Perigrinus asks:
  [ . . . ] has mentioned "the bounds established by the governing bodies
  and documents of the SCA" as the ultimate arbiter of authenticity
  required.  May I ask exactly what those limits are?

  [ . . . ]

  So, would somebody who has Corpora and other appropos documents please
  be so kind as to tell us what the rules actually are?

You can't imagine what a pleasure it is for me to try to serve you,
Doctor.  Here is an old document I wrote on the topic, some time ago,
with appropriate quotations. The order of the quotations follows
the order of importance of the Governing Documents of the Society.
Doctor, I think you will find a thumbnail answer to the question
"What are the absolute requirements" to be "almost none".  When
reading below, please note the difference between "aims" and
"requirements".

Also, the section on Corpora is amusing.  According to to Corpora,
while a person is required to attempt pre-17th century dress, officers
may act only when a there is a danger to the Society.  Civil law,
however, allows much more action than is listed here.  This is being
done in a bit of a hurry, so I may have been less than exhaustive in
combing through Corpora.  But memory says that this is all there is
on the matter.

	Tibor

   -------------------------------

By-Laws 1989.

ARTICLE III: OBJECTIVES AND PURPOSES

The Society shall be dedicated primarily to the promotion of research
and re-creation in the field of pre-17th-century Western Culture, as
stated in greater detail in Article II of the Society's Articles of
Incorporation.

   -------------------------------

Articles of Incorporation 1989.

II
    This corporation is a non-profit public benefit corporation and is
not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized
under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for charitable pur-
poses. The purposes for which this corporation is formed include:

    a) Research and education in the field of pre-17th-Century Western
Culture.

    b) Generally, to engage in research; publish materials of relevance
and interest to the field of pre-17th-Century Western Culture; to pre-
sent activities and events which re-create the environment of said era,
such as, but not limited to, tournaments, jousts, fairs, danced, classes,
et cetera; to acquire authentic or reproduced replicas of chattels
representative of said era; and to collect a library.

    c) This corporation shall have and exercise all rights and powers
conferred upon non-profit corporations under the laws of the State of
California, provided that all activities shall be incidental to and in
the furtherance ofthe purposes set forth in II.a. and b. above.

   -------------------------------

Corpora 1989.

II.  SOCIETY EVENTS

   D. REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPANTS.  Anyone may attend Society events
provided he or she wears an attempt at pre-17th century dress, conforms
to the provisions of the By-Laws and Corpora, complies with any other
requirements (such as site fees or waivers) which may be imposed by the
Society, and behaves as a lady or gentleman. However, the responsible
officers may exempt attendees at business meetings and informal classes
from the requirement to wear pre-17th century dress.  

   E. DUTY TO ENFORCE REQUIREMENTS.  The officers (and presiding nobles,
if any) of the sponsoring branch shall ensure that each event operates
according to the rules set forth in the governing documents of the
Society.  If transgressions occur which seriously compromise the
integrity of the event or endanger the health and safety of the attendees,
the responsible officials shall correct the problem immediately, if
necessary by closing down the event.  If they cannot or will not do so,
the Kingdom Seneschal or senior Seneschal present, or (in cases
involving the Rules of the Lists) the Earl Marshal or senior Marshal
present shall do whatever is necessary to end the transgressions, up to
and including removing Society sanction for the event and notifying the
responsible officers and the owner of the site or the owner's agent that
the Society will no longer be responsible for the event. [Consequences
of doing so, deleted by Tibor]

   -------------------------------

Also, while in no way the law of the Society, I will quote from one of the
articles included in the organizational handbook.

SCOPE OF THE SOCIETY: PERIOD AND CULTURE

The Society is based on the landed nobility of the European Middle Ages
and Renaissance. Their dress and music, their literature and sports,
and above all the chivalric ideals of their period, all serve to unify
our events and activities...

     ...The people we've chose for models were fond of play-acting
and pageantry; they would happily base tournaments and revels on
ancient history and distant lands, so we can use themes from outside
medieval and Renaissance Europe, as long as we keep our main period as
an anchor. They also reached remote parts of the world, despite the
limits of their technology, and people born to other civilizations
travelled too, so we can allow for individuals and information from
almost anywhere. The task is to weave all this together, so that the
events we sponsor are recognizably our own.

For Society members, most of the world can serve as a source for personal
research. However, the further afield you go, the less the environment
we offer will resemble what somone of your time and country would find
natural or homelike. The Society's organized activities reflect the
courtly life of the Middle ages or Renaissance. If we hold a Roman
games [sic], the particpants are assumed to be period Europeans playing
at Ancient Rome; you can try to act like a real ancient Roman, but you
can't complain if the atmosphere is not what you regard as authentic.
Likewise, you can be an Asian or African guest at a European court, but
you cannot recreate your homeland outside your own houshold - like any
long-term visitor to a foreign land, you are the one who will have to
adapt to the customs you find around you.
--
Mark Schuldenfrei (schuldy@progress.com)
[I'm just showin' you my opinions: this ain't a gift]