[Bordermarch] waterbearing

[Eric Gobel]

(Such was just posted on the Outlands list)From the President, Patrick Anderson:Earlier this year, I was asked by several people in the waterbearingcommunity to examine the various laws of states and countries related towaterbearing as an organized and official activity of the SCA, Inc.Various states have informed officers of the SCA, Inc. that while ouractivity does not directly violate the food codes or health regulationsof their states, if there were to be an outbreak of illness, the SCA,Inc. could be held liable for that outbreak. Several health careprofessionals and attorneys have reviewed this topic and agree with thisassessment.I was asked to examine the best way to both ensure a safe fightingenvironment for our fighters, and to comply with the various state andcountry laws. The relevant laws vary from state by state, county bycounty and country by country. I determined that the best way to do thiswould be to make “waterbearing” unofficial and unsanctioned by the SCA,Inc. and proposed this change to the Board. The only other option wouldbe to regulate waterbearing, and to regulate it such that it follows thevarious food safety codes of the various states and countries the SCAparticipates in. This would be unwieldy, impractical and expensive forthe SCA to do. Further, it is likely that waterbearers would not be ableto continue to serve our fighters using any of the current methods ofwaterbearing.The proposal put before the membership for comment would stopwaterbearing by any SCA branch or other official group. The SCA wouldnot have an office of waterbearer at any level. Marshals would still bepermitted to allow waterbearers on the field, but any waterbearing mustnot be done by any officially sanctioned or regulated groups of the SCA.Households are welcome to provide water to fighters, as are unofficialand unrecognized “guilds”. This does not bar groups from putting out the"serve yourself water coolers" at events. (In my Kingdom they areusually the big orange cylinders.)The Board and Corporate officers understand that many people have spenttime waterbearing within the official framework, and now hope that youcontinue to volunteer unofficially. This proposal has been brought toenable fighters to continue to have a waterbearing service provided tothem, without the extremely strict governance that official waterbearingwill require.The actual text of the proposed rule is below. This rule has not yetbeen approved by the Board, and is being sent out for comment here. TheDirectors request comments from the membership regarding this proposedrevision no later than October 1st, 2008. Please send them to:Corpora RevisionSCA Inc.Box 360789Milpitas CA, 95036email: comments at sca. orgThank you for commenting.Patrick AndersonPresident, Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.Proposed language to be added to Corpora:The activity of providing beverages to combatants and spectators at SCACombat activities is not regulated, warranted, organized, controlled, orsanctioned by the SCA, Inc. or any affiliate or subsidiary entity. Allwarrants, authorizations, or other formal recognition of this activityare by publication of this change revoked. This document does not eitheraddress or restrict such volunteer activity or the methods by which itoccurs.--Patrick AndersonPresidentSociety for Creative Anachronism, Inc.president at sca. org952-412-4112Comments are strongly encouraged and can be sent to:SCA Inc.Box 360789Milpitas, CA 95036You may also email comments at lists. sca.org.This announcement is an official informational release by the Society for Creative Anachronism , Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce this announcement in its entirety in newsletters, websites and electronic mailing lists.
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