ANST - Re: ES - Heal Thyself first

[Matthew Saroff]

On May 24, 23:49, Vicki Marsh wrote:
> Subject: ES - Heal Thyself first
> Baroness Xene here,
>
> It is my belief that the discussion of declining memberships and pay-to-play
> are just a symptom of a greater problem within the Society for Creative
> Anachronism. Like any group, we are bound to have some internal strife and
> factionalism, but it has become the mainstay and topic of discussion in most
> of the groups throughout the Known World.
	With all due respect, I think that declining corporate memberships are
due to a number of more tangible mundane issues.
	The first is that over the years the Board of Directors has
increasingly been perceived as closed and unresponsive.  I know of no one who
has not been a board member who would argue with this.  This is an artifact of
the method of selection and operational procedures of the board, but no one in
a position to take actions to make the SCA more responsive on a corporate level
is interested in making changes.
	A significant portion of the people who play see the a membership of
very little value.  For a membership one receives:
*	An insurance policy which is written to protect the SCA from
participants in its activities (ordinary SCA folk).
*	A corporate newsletter that is of minimal use (TI), and by virtue of
its role cannot be a place for either significant corporate dialogue or
historical study.  It is necessarily an inadequate survey, particularly since
the BoD has for years had the general policy that it is the sole arbiter of
policy in the society.
*	A kingdom newsletter.  The only useful part of the membership to the
individual user, but one needs a full membership to get this, so in a family
where one might want to have two copies for planning, one needs to buy an
additional full membership, as opposed to just a sub for another family member.
	The Board of Directors, for reasons that are still not clear, seem to
be intent on building a large professional staff.  As evidenced with the first
executive director, this does not provide members with additional services, but
rather with interference with ordinary activities and higher costs.
	The Board of Directors is perceived as being incompetent and/or
corrupt, with a long history of poor spending decisions, lack of fiscal
transparency, MANY insanely stupid computer/IS purchases, and a history of
self-dealing.
	None of the above are problems with the games that we play, they are
real mundane structural problems with a corporate structure that should kept to
a minimum to allow a game to be played.
	The SCA is not dying as a group.  The corporation may be suffering, but
this is a natural response to incompetence indifference, and corruption.  These
are problems inherent in the current board structure, and will not change until
dissatisfaction reaches a level where change is required for the immediate
survival of the corporation.

--
--Sfi Mordehai ben Yosef Yitzhak, Aka Matthew G. Saroff

This is not the Dream.  This is what I do on weekends to have some fun.

The Dream involves 4 sets of identical twins, 2 gallons of Cool
Whip, 5 quarts of chocolate syrup, 2-1/4 pounds of strawberries,
satin sheets, a magnum of champagne, a trapeze, and a python.
Check http://www.pobox.com/~msaroff, including The Bad Hair Web Page
Good luck Mr. Gorsky
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