Alcohol policy

[James Crouchet]

> >That is the policy recently enacted and only now being publicized forbidding
> >the sale of alcohol by SCA groups in the USA and its territories.

[snip]

> >I suggest that we begin our discussion by having each US member of the GC go
> >to a selection of recent autocrats and find out what effect such a policy
> >would have on the normal functioning of events in their area, and how
> >difficult it will be to adapt to such a ruling.

The liquor laws are so restrictive and fraught with hard to understand 
twists in Texas that, to my knowledge, I have never seen a Texas group 
selling alcohol. We do sometimes rent sites where the OWNER or a 
third party VENDOR sells alcohol, but I would assume they take the 
liability in that case.

Here's the rub. We DO sometimes give alcohol away. This ranges from 
putting booze out for general tasting at A&S contests to 
providing a free keg for workers or the general populace. I suspect 
that WOULD be the SCA's liability. Yes, the BoD said SELL, but given 
their reasons it seems that this would be included.

Individuals giving away their booze is another question altogether, 
but this does not work well as a dodge here in Texas. Thus if *I* was 
to provide a keg for all the workers at an event the TABC would 
probably look at the overall effect and say that by allowing me to do 
so, and considering that I was doing it to the event's benefit, that 
effectively the event was giving away the booze.

People have tried selling cups and giving the beer away free, 
charging admission to a site and giving the beer away, and even 
requiring folks to be members of a group or club before they could 
get beer (or other booze). In each case the TABC has ruled that they 
were selling alcohol. We will not have any better luck finding a 
loophole.

My best guess is that someone should contact Jeremy and get his legal 
opinion on all this. 

M. Dore