SC - re: Tasting Dinners

[Stefan li Rous]

Greetings,

A week ago I had posted as part of a message the following paragraph:

<< It may be splitting hairs, but serving special dishes or the same dishes with
 special, more expensive ingredients to the the high table might also be considered
 to be a similar misuse of event or group money. I am undecided myself on
 this one.< >>

I skipped some digests because I was getting so far behind, so this is an aging
subject. However, as some folks comments imply they have mis-read what I said, I
think I want to clarrify some of what I said. Most important, is that I did NOT
say this was how I felt. I said, as can be seen above, that I was undecided upon
this issue.

Meadhdh said:
> I must disagree with you here Stefan.  Serviing 'special' dishes to the crown or
> ranking nobility in a group is a very period thing to do. 

Ras said:
> You can/t really be serious, Stefan. Providing special dishes to high table is
> no more 'misuse' of funds than buying shire archery equipment for the archers
> or shire armor for the fighters. And what about the things that are bought fot
> calligraphy/illumination classes or the money spent on books for the
> herald's office? Or demos or whatever?

Yes, it was a very period thing to do. But it wasn't done with the other guests
money. I was talking about the current Middle Ages, not the real one where
your money source and your life often depended upon not displeasing the king.

As to equipment for special interest groups, nothing prevents me from joining
those groups. If I want to use baronial or shire archery equipment, all I have
to do is pass the safety tests. If I want to use caligraphy or illumination
supplies, I just have to show up. 

Would you say it would be ok, if the only ones who were allowed to use the 
supplies were a select group of people previously invited and approved 
by the guild leader? What if a dollar of each event fee you paid were to go 
into a fund to pay for gold leaf that only those approved by this guild leader 
and their friends could use for whatever project they wanted as long as it 
seemed medieval?

Now compare this to the head table. Who sits there? A leader who is selected
only because he can swing a club better than others at a particular contest.
In some kingdoms, only people invited by the previous winner are even allowed
to participate in the contest to select the next leader. The other way
to get to the head table is to be friends of the same leader. Or perhaps a 
Baron and Baroness, who are picked not by an election of members, but are 
selected again by a small, select minority.

Again, I said that I was undecided on the issue. I am all for adding more
of a period feel to our events. The question is where we draw the line. There
are lots of things we could add that would make our events more medieval.
Many people use the phrase "recreating the Middle Ages such as they should
be, not as they were". We have already made a decision to only do a selective
re-creation of the Middle Ages. The SCA is not a democracy. I doubt I want it 
to be. On the other hand, the longer I am in the group, the more favoritism and
cronyism I see.

Part of my concern is also how the IRS would view taking a chunk of SCA group
funds or event fees to enrich a small, select minority of the group. The
funds are probably so small that they wouldn't care, but I am not a tax
attorney or even an accountant. Recently, there was a ruling from the
BoD(?) along similar lines of group funds being used to purchase presents 
for outgoing officers, so there must be some concern in some quarters
about such things.

Lord Stefan li Rous, AST, ASC
Ansteorra
stefan at texas.net

And no, I don't hide in caves. Although the hot tub might be nice right now.
Lots better than the boiling lead I can imagine headed this way.
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