[Bordermarch] Fw: waterbearing

[tessa]

Thank you Lord Brand Erik for posting.
Also, Lady Katitcha reitterated the same.
Lord Slovaczek, fear not.

Remarks, reprinted below, are sent about Waterbearing from Her Excellency Mistress Lissa in the Stargate. Her Excellency allows me to post here the words she wrote to the SCA BoD.
HE Lissa is one of the ones, along with Mistress Hillary, members of the extended "Great House" (several bonded ancient households of which Mountain-Gate is a part) who independently and together saw a need to care for, hydrate, and feed the fighters... long before Hillary set up the organized rungs of Waterbearing.

Also: Bordermarch families have offered hydration, refreshment, or shade to anyone, anyone in need,
for over 3 decades, where ever we are (before there was such a thing developed as Waterbearing Officers) and, for my part,
-and I feel fairly certain that I can speak for most of our local non-combatants who support battle warriors- will continue to offer that hospitality and care to fighters.

According to the Society Exchequer, branch funds may still be spent as event expenses, to provide hydrations or ice, etc. (compare to the need for expenses to cover field ropes, torch fuel, or gate paper copies, etc); however, a Waterbearing "office" fund distribution will change to general expenses.  
In that light, Bordermarch funds *may* be used to purchase the ice chest that Lord Slovaczek submitted a request for last month to insure adequate ice at hand for the event growth expected in November.

Tessa
Sensechal
 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Sue Jurgens 
To: Saint Tessa 
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 5:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Bordermarch] waterbearing


Tessa, 
Just wanted to share with you what I sent to the BoD. Please feel free to post or forward to wherever you feel is appropriate. 

Love & Hugs to All, 
Lissa 
----------------------

Dear BoD, 

First, thank you all for your service; it is very much appreciated.

Second, regarding Waterbearing. I wish that the suit-happy killjoys among us would get over their silly, rude, annoying selves. I have been to hundreds of events in my 30 years in the SCA, and have never yet seen anyone physically forced to drink water that they didn't want, nor forced to drink from a container that they didn't want to drink from. The waterbearers in our area take great care that there is little opportunity for transmission of disease or contaminants. That being said, I realize that there are people in the world who force us to change the way we do things so they won't have an opportunity to sue. 

Now, as I understand it (and please correct me if I am mistaken), we can still have folks walking around offering drinks. We just can't have an official "officer" for the activity, right? If so, fine, I understand. We will still be doing waterbearing, we just won't be doing it as a formal office. I am ok with that. Another question - will events still be able to pay for the ice and other things that waterbearers often had out, such as pickles and orange slices?

If on the other hand we will not be allowed to have people walking around offering drinks, then somebody better sue me now, because I plan to continue to offer drink to those that are thirsty, food to those that are hungry, and shade to those that are hot. I will also continue to bring popsicles and frozen washcloths under dry ice to events and hand them out to overheated fighters on hot Texas afternoons. It's what I do because of who I am. 

Modius: Next time, EAT that popsicle! 

Sincerely, 
Baroness Ellisena de Bayonne ("Lissa"), AoA, OSM, OP

Sue Jurgens 

----- Original Message ----
From: Eric Gobel <eagobel at hotmail.com>
To: bordermarch at lists.ansteorra.org
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 1:22:45 PM
Subject: [Bordermarch] waterbearing


(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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