ANST - Money needs (was Kingdom membership)

[leigh- at primenet.com]

At 03:07 PM 02/16/2000 -0800, Willow wrote:
>I would like to comment on something. Back when we were becoming a
>kingdom a member of the board came down and told us that they were
>increasing the cost of membership. Not because we needed more running
>money but because the members of the board wanted to be paid. Over and
>over again the board has spent the money on themselves. Right now being a
>board member is looked at as a free travel card. If we saved a dollar on
>insurance it would go into the  benny hole.  The local and kingdom
>organizations don't get any benefits from our  national dues. Our money
>comes from the donations of the people. People are our wealth. Most of
>our chapters support our activates from our site fees. If we make the
>site fees less more people can come. If more people come there is a
>greater chance that the event will be fun. Young, poor people often have
>more energy than richer older people. If we have more fun, more people
>come making more money.
>Yours Willow
>

Greetings Willow,

While I have no knowledge of the board wanting to be "paid" I will take
exception to a few of your statements.

1. Kingdom newsletters are funded to a greater or lesser extent by
corporate funds. This is, one assumes, a benefit to the kingdom paid for
out of national dues. Understand that if members actually paid for their
newsletter totally dues could conceivably be as high as $60/year just to
cover the newsletter...

2. All official events, from the shire get together and fighter practices
to a kingdom level war or tournament or A&S event, are covered by the SCA
insurance policy. This, too, seems to indicate that not only kingdoms but
local groups are deriving benefit from national dues. So, add another
$15-50 per membership, depending on how many members there are in your
kingdom to split the costs with.

3. Unless the SCA as a corporation covers some, if not all, of the travel
expenses of the board members you will lock out scores of dedicated people
who want to serve _your_ interests and leave the running of the SCA totally
in the hands of those who can afford to travel cross country three or four
times a year. Somehow this doesn't sound to me like it would be in the best
interests of the group as a whole...

Laetitia


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