From: whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Subject:  Board of Directors Meeting of 1-17-93
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 23:57:52 GMT


This is a rough summary of what--to me--were the high points of the 
Board Meeting of 17 January.  While any such account is going to be 
colored by the biases of the person writing it, I'm attempting to keep 
this as neutral as possible.  I'm saving my *opinions* for one or more 
other postings....

The meeting came to order just after 10 am.

The Steward reported that her work had dropped off to the extent that 
she was "only" working 43 to 45 hours a week--and that this felt like 
a vacation.

She noted that the rumors of putting Calontir into abeyance were just 
that--rumors.  She had pointed out potential results of not completing 
certain essential paperwork and some folks had run with that 
observation as an actual threat when no threat was intended.

There were three policy ruling issued by the Steward in the last 
quarter:

        1.  [paraphrasing intent.]  Groups (specifically, Kingdoms) 
can't be compelled to host events.  That is--if a group from one 
kingdom wants to hold an event within the territory of another 
kingdom--they need the 'territorial' kingdom's permission.  She also 
noted that this does *not* affect Pennsic.

        2.  The publications disclaimer is *not* meant for Office 
handbooks.  Those works *do*--if done right--delineate SCA policy.

        3.  Society publications should not undercut SCA social 
structure.  This was discussed as an issue of refraining from taking 
advertising that causes dissention among parts of groups.

The Treasurer is putting out a letter (or has put out...) for reports 
from all Branches.  Responses are due by March 15--and she means it. 

The Marshallate reported that the Fighter's handbook should be 
available by March and that the Marshall's Handbook is now in a 
consistent format on disk (this is to ease future revisions).  The 
Society Marshall is working on an SCA-wide set of Rapier rules.  
They're just about ready to go to the Kingdom Earl Marshalls for 
comment.

The TI Editor wants more material from SCA folk outside of North 
America.  [All you Aussies and Europeans--here's your chance.  She 
*wants* you to write articles.  --whh]

There are various A&S get-togethers coming up in the next few months.

The Chirurgeons report included sundry items including a couple of 
problems.

The Board Legal Committee has a Canadian and a European member.  
They're looking for an Austrailian member.

Under new branches, there is now a branch in Germany composed of 
Germans.  This announcement was well received by both Board and other 
attendees.

As you all know from other postings, the Drachenwald Kingdom Status 
petition was approved.  Along with this was a discussion of the 
proposed financial arrangements for the Dragon's Tail (their soon-to-
be-kingdom-newsletter) and an issue over suitable arms for Drachnwald 
as a kingdom.  the intent is for Drachenwald March Coronet to be held 
as a *Crown* lists, with their first Coronation in June.

The board approved this in spite of reservations by the Registrar as 
to how she is going to handle getting labels out, but it appears that 
the Board thinks the status change is important enough that some means 
will be worked out--whether the new Registry software is ready by then 
or not.

The April Board meeting is to be in Caid. 

The July meeting was set for 17 July in Salt Lake City.

Under Old Business, there was a *massive* discussion over the 
'priveleges of membership'.  The Board has acted to require membership 
for fighting (and possibly all other 'combat realted activities'--it's 
unclear to me from my notes and memory that these other activities are 
actually covered.  Check the official Board minutes if you care about 
the difference).  New membership and site waivers will be instituted 
independent of that decision.  The new waivers will include language 
covering fighting.  The decision will require SCA membership for 
fighter authorization, effective 1 Jan. 1994.  Neccesary changes in 
SCA governing documents are to be ready for Board action at the April 
meeting in Caid.  On this issue, the Board took a formal vote.  5 
members of the Board vote 'yes', and there was 1 abstention.  So far 
as I can tell, the Chairman did not vote.  The neccesary By Law 
changes will require a *unanimous* vote....

Landed Barons and Baronesses will be required to hold SCA membership 
at the same level as required for Lesser Officers.

The Registry will--when organized for it--start supplying selected SCA 
dcouments on machine-readable media.  Cost will cover media, shipping 
and handling.

A draft policy on BBS usage (that's *us*, folks) is being worked on 
for formal presentation at the April meeting.  Dave Thewlis has 
started low level circulation of the document for comment so, as he 
put, "I don't make a fool of myself in public."  That is--those he has 
commenting are asked to let him know if he's made any really *awful* 
mistakes in drafting it.  [Having known Dave for over 20 years, I 
don't think he'll put his foot in it--and he's likely to come up with 
a policy that *everyone* can live with,  --whh]

Membership was flat in 1992.  Given that the general economy was so 
bad, this was actually doing quite well.

The Editor of TI thinks that the Rialto has caused a decrease in 
letters to TI commenting on broad, SCA-philosphical questions.  She 
views this as a positive development--there's a forum where folks can 
be heard by a broad spectum of SCA folk in a timely and active manner.

The Board approved the separate incorporation of Kingdom Trust, Inc. 
and the transfer of West Kingdom Land Fund assets to that entity.  the 
opinion expressed from Board members was that this will protect the 
SCA from any legal actions that could be derived from owning the land.

Peerages....  This was a surprisingly (going in) mild discussion.  
Dave Thewlis did a good deal of analysis of the data.  The Board 
agreed that the questionaire, as constructed, was flawed--and noted 
that *they* didn't design it.  Thewlis has a stack of paper over 18 
inches high, if someone wants to go through it all to see if there are 
any common threads to the comments.  The general tone of the 
discussion was that 45% of the respondents want No Change.  14% wanted 
proposal 'A'.  33% wanted proposal 'B'.  6% wanted proposal 'A' *or* 
proposal 'B'.  2% want things to change, but didn't want either 'A' or 
'B'.  One point Thewlis made was that those supporting 'A' or 'B' 
(except for those saying 'either') were strongly opposed to the 
proposal they weren't in favor of.  That is--folks favoring 'A' 
opposed 'B', and vice versa.  Thewlis also noted that the folks most 
in favor of changing things are those that aren't Peers and wouldn't 
be directly [or at least, immediately --whh] affected. 

The Board decided that there is no popular mandate for changing the 
Peerages--at least at this time.  They have dropped the matter.  They 
also decided to have an article written for TI and to include 
interesting and pertinent comments from the leters they recieved.

TI is going to shift it's publication schedule, down one month.  That 
is--there will be an April issue instead of a March issue.  This is 
to ease production schedules--since TI sends galleys to authors to 
check over, it takes 5 months to produce an issue--and to permit 
corporate matter to get into TI without creating a schedule crunch.  
It was also specifically noted that this change will *not* cause 
anyone to not receive an issue they've paid for.  Current plan is to 
put out the issue slated for mailing in Sept. '93, in Oct. '93.  So, 
if your Fall issue of TI is late--you know why.  It was also noted 
that this schedule should also aid ad revenues, since the issue mailed 
in July can be a 'War Issue' and the one in October a 'Christmas 
Issue' so far as advertisers are concerned.

Note that this missive is *not* a complete set of all Board actions or 
discussions--just the things that I took notes on and still think are 
interesting.

        --Hal

        Hal Ravn, West Kingdom
        Wilson H. Heydt, Jr.,  Albany, CA 94706,  510/524-8321 (home)

Nothing in this missive constitutes an act or opinion of the Lord High
Constable of the Kingdom of the West unless otherwise explicitly stated.
-- 
Hal Heydt                    |    
Analyst, Pacific*Bell        |            You!
510-823-5447                 |    Out of the Gene Pool!
whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM    |
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca