From: schuldy@progress.COM (Mark Schuldenfrei)
Subject: Re: Time period
Organization: Progress Software Corp.
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 18:24:24 GMT

Aryk wrote:
  I am sure I recall reading a Governing and Policy Decision in about 1985 in
  which the Directors allowed "visitors" from places which did not have sig-
  nificant contact with Europe, and from Europe after 1600.

Perhaps you did.  However, there is no such G&PD in the most recent
Organizational Handbook, nor is there a reference to a previous
G&PD that might apply to.  There is a section on that in the Handbook,
in the Article "Scope of the Society", but is specifically is not
one of the governing documents.

The Governing and Policy Decisions in the Handbook are:
  1. Publications Disclaimer Statement
  2. Role of Corpora
  3. Courts of Inquiery and Chivalry
  4. Enforcement of Membership Requirements
  5. Rapier Fighting in the SCA
  6. Policy on Religion
  7. Policy on Legal Agents
  8. Membership Requirements for Receiving Awards
  9. Roster System
  10. Revocation/Denial of Membership
  11. Policy on First Aid at Events
  12. SCA Combat-Related activities
  13. General Membership Waivers
  14. Policy on International Growth
  15. Response to Actions Endangering the Society

The actual Scope of The Society article, and any possibly relevant
material from the Governing Documents, are below.  Are any of those
what you remeber, Aryk?

	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.

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

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)