ES - Membership in the Society

[Matthew G Saroff]

"Wilim Penbras" <wilim.penbras at pandora.org wrote:
> Greetings,
>      I played in the East before I came to Ansteorra.  I'm a member 
> of the Society in Ansteorra.  It's a small difference and probably 
> one that a lot of people wouldn't recognize.  I do all of the same 
> things here that I did in the East.  Except here it simply seemed 
> the Right Thing for *me* to do.
	To paraphrase a Don and double peer, we are talking about
two different things, the Society, and SCA, Inc., which not 
infrequently gets in the way of people being members of the Society.
	To paraphrase "Fiddler on the Roof", the appropriate prayer
for the for the Board of Directors is, "May God bless and keep the
BoD.......FAR AWAY FROM US."
	I agree completely on the East Kingdom.  I started there
too.
--snip--
> trust.  Why would I all of a sudden expect that the $35 I sent to 
> the Society is being used carelessly or irresponsibly.
	Because there have been BoD financial officers who have
misappropriated high 5 figure sums (and got caught and had to 
reimburse the SCA), sold overpriced computer equipment, given 
lucrative consultancy contracts to close relatives, acted 
capriciously  in ways that have damaged the society, maintained
that the BoD are in fact the ONLY members of SCA, Inc. (They 
maintained that everyone else just paid admission.  They lost 
in court.), and ignored their own bylaws.
	You know the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you, 
fool me twice, shame on me."
--snip--
> sees it the same way.  As long as enough people decide to say 
> "What might I lose if I don't give my Money?" instead of "What 
> do I get for my Money?".
	The problem with the BoD, and this is a problem endemic
to non profits, is that individually, and as a group the BoD and
the BoD members tend to engage in empire building, and then feel
the need to throw their weight around.
	If one is leery of letting a bureaucrat in Washington, DC
running their local affairs, why should someone be any less leery
of a Bureaucrat from Milpitas, CA.  Particularly when non profits
have neither the profit motive or the extensive auditing of 
the public sector to restrain them The BoD that governs least
governs best.
	Not to sound too Republican, being a life long Democrat
and a bit of a "pinko" to boot, but, "The BoD that governs least 
governs best."
	The paying of dues implies support for the BoD structure
and policy (no matter what you put in the memo field on the check),
and I would argue that sending that money to the Kingdom, either 
as a general or target donation, produces more benefits for the 
Society (as distinct from SCA, Inc.)
	I believe that SCA, Inc. based on the specific history of
the corporation, and on the general trends in not for profits,
needs to be made far less powerful and far more democratic and
responsive.
--
--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
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes
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