From: schuldy@progress.COM (Mark Schuldenfrei)
Subject: Re: Pennsic Land Allocation
Organization: Progress Software Corp.
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 18:15:35 GMT

Carolus talks about "taxes" at events, because An Tir
is reported in tough shape financially.

He reports suggesting:
                               So I stood up and suggested a head
  tax on event attendance. 1$ per person, per event they attend.

And, he was told:
  Apparantly corpora forbids a kingdom to "tax" for revenue.

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The relevant section of Corpora (1989) is:
VI. BRANCH ADMINISTRATION

A. ROYALTY

  1. General

  g. Royalty and Law (See also V.A.1.h, V.A.2.h, VI.A.1.i, and
VI.C.2.a.)

    4) No law may require members or branches to make don-
  ations to the treasury of the realm. Laws which discuss voluntary
  donations are acceptable, as are those which mandate reasonable
  fees for events and services or discuss financial arrangements
  for the realm's main events sponsored by local branches.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

What this says to me, Charles, is that the Kingdom can require
local branches to pay 1$ per head attending Kingdom events, but
not events in general.  This does not seem out of line to me,
either.  It does seem to rule out the "event tax in general"
that your words imply.  So, the basic idea is flawed.

There is nothing in Corpora that prevents your barony from
self-imposing such a tax on its own events, and challenging
others to do likewise.  Well, if you lived in the East, I
would be wrong, since the rules and charters of local groups
in the East are specifically considered non-binding:

East Kingdom Laws, AS XXVII:
  Part I: Concerning the Laws of the East Kingdom.
  A. All laws not listed in the Great Book of Laws are repealed. Only
     those laws listed here along with the By-Laws and Corpora of the
     Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. are in effect in the East
     Kingdom.

But, in practice, your Barony could lead the charge.  But, the
Kingdom can't make you do it.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Carolus also mentions that he doesn't understand why events cost
as much as they do.  In all honesty, Charles, $15 for a day event
is quite steep, but $15 for a weekend event is not.  If you have
questions, why not ask your local exchequer to let you browse
the event reports some day?  Or, browse them at the Kingdom level,
instead?

I recently wrote a letter to a local autocrat, and went over the
budget for one upcoming event.  The site is $300 dollars (a little
steep for one day, but we got nailed by the site). That's let's
say, $3 per person (100 people) for the site.  Lunch
and dinner are included.  Given the menu, it will cost about
$4.50 per person to feed everybody.  The event will also be
providing written materials to people, call the book another
two dollars.  Add postage costs, and what not, to round to the
nearest dollar, and the event should cost $10 dollars.  Note,
though, how sensitive this event is to the number of attendees.
If we get half as many people (50), the cost per person will be
$13 dollars.

If you were the autocrat, and had to predict what price to
set for your event, with no way of knowing now what the attendance
will be then, how would you set the price?  It's a tough call.
Now, factor in children's prices, off-board, early reservation
discounts (if any), membership discounts if any.  What price should
this autocrat charge for the event? (This is a rhetorical question.
The price is already set, the autocrat did not ask me to make
this a Rialto issue. On the other hand, really unique insights
would make this a learning experience.)

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Carolus also wrote:
  Sounds to me like we need to change corpora, or stop sending
  our membership cash to the people in milipitas.

I've sometimes wondered what the SCA would be like, if instead
of sending money to California, you joined whatever local group
you liked, and they in turn tithed upward to their Principality,
Kingdom, and the Corporation.  It would let you belong to any group
you wanted, without dealing with Zip-Codes.  You could even belong
to no group, and send the money straight to your Kingdom, or some
other Kingdom.

It would be one hell of a mess.  But, an interesting mess to think
about, yes?  For one thing, the newsletters wouldn't need to
funnel through CA anymore, but the political issues could be a
nightmare.  On the whole, I think I prefer the current method.

	Tibor
--
Mark Schuldenfrei (schuldy@progress.com)