ANST - money for this or that

[Galen W. Bevel]

>
> The percentage of profit from a Kingdom level event that is sent to
>Kingdom is "customarily" 30%, but it is not mandatory.  There is no legal
>requirement that the money be sent at all.  Of course, as it was put to me
>by a former Kingdom treasurer, it is also not required that the group who
>does not donate a good amount be granted another event.
>
>
>
> Alys D.
> Steppes


Upon checking Kingdom law, I find that this is indeed the way it is worded.
It says that "A branch which hosts a Crown Tournament, Coronation, or
reoccurring Kingdom event will be _asked_ to contribute 30% of that event's
net profits to the Kingdom" (emphasis is mine).   I checked because when
this policy was instituted that was not the way it was at all.  The Kingdoms
finances were sickly, and we had several upcoming expenses.  We looked at
how the Kingdom financials were handled and it was enough to make a business
person cringe.  With no regular income, we had no way to budget for the
future.  The Kingdom had  _nothing_ that brought in money on a regular
basis.

What some people don't realize (although many do) is that the Kingdom is a
separate and complete branch of the SCA, entirely capable of hosting events
without another sponsoring group.  In other words, if the Kingdom wanted to
host Crown itself, instead of giving it out to a group, it would be entirely
within its rights to do so, and keep 100% of the profits.  Instead, it has
always been the tradition of Ansteorra to "spread the wealth" and pass the
Kingdom events out to local groups to allow them to generate  some income.
So it was decided that since the Kingdom was in a bad way monetarily, it
needed some of its income back.  Instead of giving its events away free, it
started requiring 30% of the net profits back, 50% if it fronted the money
for the event.  Note that  was net profit, not gross.  That way a group
would not lose even more money if the event was a loss and _could_ make
money, even if it put none into the event.  They certainly deserve it in
return for their effort in hosting the event.

Of course financial situations change, and we are much better off than we
were then.  Kingdom and Society financial policies have all been overhauled
and improved.  I am glad to see that the policy has been relaxed when the
need has been reduced, proving that our Ansteorran government perhaps does
have the good of its people in mind.......

Galen K.

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