ANST - The BoD Incident?

[Tim McDaniel]

On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, -Jax- <jackson2 at apple.com> wrote:
> Well, I have been waiting and hoping that soeone would
> clarify, but no one has, so I'll ask: Just what was this
> infamous 'BoD Incident'

Erm.  How to summarize in a page or two what some call the
Milpitas Meltdown, and some the Recent Unpleasantness.

It started on a Saturday in January 1994.  The SCA BoD had
their quarterly meeting and said there was a major budget
deficit and low reserves.  Among other things, they raised
subscribing memberships from $20 to $35 and required paid
membership for people going to all SCA events
("pay-to-play").  It was pointed out at the time that the
deficit, and hence the crisis, was of the Board's own
making, and that they weren't re-examining their spending
plans.

Someone pointed out that the latter was against the SCA
by-laws, which required a unanimous vote to change.
Apparently, the Board afterwards met and the majority told
the two dissenting directors to repeal the by-laws provision
or they'd be removed (only requiring a two-thirds vote).

There was other unpleasantness around then: an egregious
waiver was one.  Also, there was a peaceful and good-natured
picketing of that meeting (against required membership for
fighters) and the board chairman told them to remove the
signs or he'd call the police.  Also, a non-SCAer, Tony
Provine, had been chosen as Executive Director (CEO,
really), and he had an autocratic background and little
sympathy for things medieval (barely got him into garb for
one revel).

Some kingdoms went ballistic -- West, East, Ansteorra, An
Tir, and I think Trimaris were the strongest and closest to
secession.  I suspect it was largely due to the particular
crowns.  The Middle and Meridies backed the Board, but I
dimly recall some squire bond between the Middle's king and
the Board chairman chairman, and Meridies' king had some
squire bond too.  On the other hand, Ansteorra's Inman was a
truly effective preacher against the Board.  (Somewhere I
have the One True Waiver he puclicly ripped up at Steppes
Warlord.)  On the other hand, An Tir had had problems with
the Board a couple of years previously, so they were
predisposed against them from the get-go.

Much of the uproar and organization against the Board was
helped by the Rialto, the rec.org.sca Usenet newsgroup.
Duke Frederick of Holland, a long-time Westie and one of the
protesters, posted his first Broadside of a Board Sunday
morning, and it was one of the most effective persuasive
pieces I've ever seen.

There were a few Board resignations, in one case due to
death threats.  The new people selected tended to be
"reformers", or those against the old BoD.  The last
recalcitrants didn't leave for a couple of years, though.

There was the Estrella [War] Compact, in which 11 of the
then 13 crowns (except Middle and Meridies) signed a treaty
recognizing each others' existance, titles, styles, and
awards, no matter what (i.e., in case there was secession).
They also issued demands of the Board.

Pay-to-play was repealed (in April?), but they instituted a
$3 non-member tax, $1 kicked back to the kingdoms (as a
bribe to get their acquiencence).  That helped the Board
some, since some kingdoms had non-member taxes already.

After Tony Provine tried to get the site to cancel the
Lillies' War contract the day before the war, the Board
finally "thanked him for his services".

A side note that swelled to become the major point: the
financials.  The Board at their January meeting had had
financial figures in front of them.  One member in the
audience asked to look at the figures and was refused.
Other members went to the SCA offices over a period of
months and were refused.  The problem with that is By-Laws
X, "The books of account may be inspected by any member or
member's agent, for any reasonable purpose at any reasonable
time.".  Eventually, the 17 of the Committee to Save Our
Society took SCA Inc. to court (Santa Clara County, CA --
Milpitas, the corporate headquarters, are there).  The SCA
counter-argument was ... well, I'll omit the details, but it
was thoroughly lame.  The plaintiffs won the writ of
mandamus that they wanted (forcing access to the books -- it
was NOT suing for damages).  However, the judge thought the
SCA's case was so bad that she awarded the plaintiffs their
legal costs, some $70,000.  Their total bills were quite a
bit higher, but that helped.  The SCA Inc. dragged their
feet about paying, until they were on the brink of a
contempt citation.  So, with the SCA's own legal expenses,
they wasted a lot of money unnecessarily.

(The plaintiffs *did* get the financials, but the two people
they got to look at them said the records were so confused
they couldn't get anywhere with them.)

Results: some reformers got on the Board.  Pay-to-play and
SCA-wide non-member taxes are dead.  (For now.)  The waiver
committee got some competant legal help and got a fiarly
decent one.  A Council of Crowns was formed and had some
solidarity, at least at the time.  There is a Grand Council,
with a lot of the reformers, to look at big issue, and an
advisory council for shorter-term ones, but they don't
appear to have done much (weak chairmanship in the GC's
case, with a lack of direction and leadership from the
Board).

And some of us are more wary of Milpitas and a little more
apt to split in the future.

Daniel de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work address.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.
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