[Ansteorra-archery] Current TI

[Dewart, Charles R. --G3 Contractor (Anteon Corp)]

Break out the party hats!!!

:)

We're not that far off the beam on more things than folks might think.  You
just say it better.

Gilli

-----Original Message-----
From: Eadric Anstapa [mailto:eadric at scabrewer.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 3:44 PM
To: ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra-archery] Current TI



Actually (and I know this will shock people) Gilli and I almost agree 100%
on
this.

I have had a paid membership for 17 years now.  For the frist 5 or so of
those 17 years I was poor broke college student you realy couldn't afford a
membership yet I managed to scrape up the money to pay for at the very least
an associate membership.  Basically by the time you consider site fee, food,
and transportation the membership didn't cost any more than attending a
single event so perhaps I had to skip an event or two to afford my
membership
but I made sure that I had my membership.

I also think that if you can not afford the membership then you in all
likelyhood cant afford to play.  we dont need to go nearly as far as doing
the math and equating to a cigarette a day or a beer a week.  Armor,
weapons,
archery equipment, garb, etc all cost money and if you are buying those then
you should have the money for a membership.

I get somewhat miffed that for years my money and the money of other people
dedicated enough to purchase memberships has paid for the infrastructure
that
makes the SCA happen while there are others that I have seen at events for
years who have never purchased memberships as our infrastructure costs rise
the percentage of the burden shouldered by the paid members also rises.

The last three events that our branch has hosted I have looked at the gate
sheets very carefully and at each event apparently between 25 and 30% of the
attendees have not had memberships.

I am not sure that I am completely an advocate of pay-to-play but I get
closer every year.  I am certainly in favor of a mandatory non-member
surchage. (or membership discount)  We are the only not for profit
corporation of this scope (meaning 25k+ paid members and an international
presence) that I have ever been involved with that didn't require
memberships
for continued participation.

I dunno that I would advocate moving the corpporation out of California (as
someone else suggested) to avoid litigatioon because Americas a whole has
grown to become an overly litigious society.  However, there are many other
places in amercia where the cost of living and going business is far less
than it is in the San Francisco Bay Area.   I do beleive that SCA could save
some money if it's corporate offices were located elsewhere.


Whatever the answer to the SCAs funding delimma turns out to be it will
certainly not be an easy one.  It will certainly displease some portion of
the people(but bow many of those people are paid members).  I for one will
still be here with a paid membership doing my part to support the SCA.

Regards,

--
Lord Eadric Anstapa
Coastal Regional Archery Marshal, Ansteorra
eadric at scabrewer.com


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