[Ansteorra-announce] [Announcements] from the Society Exchequer

[Baron, Meg]

Greetings to the SCA populace from Susan Earley, Society Chancellor of the
Exchequer.
  
You may have seen in a forwarded post a notice regarding the Ansteorran
Credit Card Event Payment System (ACCEPS). I want to make it clear that
ACCEPS is currently in an experimental phase, and also explain why we have
some policies currently in place preventing branches from doing similar
things at this time. I've already seen some misinformation posted, and I
want to clear things up.
 
There is a policy in place that we CANNOT use PayPal or other on-line bill
payment systems, or personal credit card accounts, for doing SCA business.
This policy has been in place for several years, was included in the latest
version of the SCA Exchequer's handbook, and is available at
http://www.sca.org/docs/finpolicies/SocietyExchequerPolicies.pdf.  The
relevant policy states: "Use of online credit card acceptance companies
(Paypal, Billpoint, etc.) by SCA groups is not permitted until further
notice. SCA groups are NOT to use the personal credit card acceptance
account of a member under any circumstances, as this violates our policy of
no commingling of funds. (Requested by Carolyn Richardson, approved July
2000)" This policy was the result of research into the use of these systems,
showing there were significant issues with security and our requirements
that could not be resolved.
 
Anyone using PayPal (or other on-line payment system) linked to an SCA
account is instructed to stop immediately and disconnect the SCA account
from the service.
 
Anyone using personal or merchant credit card accounts to take reservations
for SCA events is instructed to stop immediately.

Gulf Wars 2004 used on-line credit-card registration with the permission of
the Board as a pilot test of the concept. The concept was successful, but
the setup and implementation had some issues that need to be improved.

Currently, ACCEPS is the ONLY credit-card event registration system allowed,
and it is still experimental. IF AND ONLY IF it is successful in the pilot
phase will it be allowed to expand to branches in Ansteorra.

A longer announcement with more background information is being sent to the
Kingdom Exchequers, as well as the SCA-Exchequers list at yahoogroups.com,
with permission to forward to the Kingdom email lists. It will also be
available on the SCA's website at www.sca.org.

Please be assured that I'm watching this very closely, and am VERY
interested in ACCEPS, or something similar, being a successful tool for
autocrats throughout the Known World. If you have further questions or
comments, you can direct them to me at exchequer at sca.org.
 
Susan Earley
Society Chancellor of the Exchequer
Comments are strongly encouraged and can be sent to: 
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas,  CA 95036

You may also email comments at sca.org or reply to this message.
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