[MR] re: Value of membership - a request

[Gorm of Berra]

Well here's the inverse of the problem.

WHy don't people communicate with the BoD?

At least some of the problem is that there is an impression that we, the 
average member, have no say in the matters of the BoD.

And we don't, in the most important way.  The SCA is the *only* 
organization I am a member of that the Board of Directors is not elected, 
either directly or indirectly, by it's members.

Yes, nominations are accepted, as is commentary, but the ultimate decision 
of "Who will be on the BoD" is made by the current members of the BoD.

So, there is no way to *really* know what the true opinions of the 
membership as a whole are.  Were there an elections structure, and the BoD 
did something completely against the wills of the membership, then in the 
next election, those who were opposed could run a slate of candidates who 
represented their wills, and if the membership was truly behind them, would 
be able to make their changes.

As it is now, if the BoD does something completely against the wills of the 
membership, about all that can be done is waste millions of electrons in 
mailing list writing.

That's the issue.

And no, democracy isn't period (it's Pre-Period and Post-Period), but 
neither is being a 501c(3) corporation concerned with liability insurance 
and acquisition of sites.  But you can't say "WE're not medieval, we're 
21st Century" in one breath and "We're not democratic, because democracy 
isn't period" in the other.

I didn't write in on the "we need more money" issue, because I didn't have 
any good suggestions on the subject.  And since the reinstitution of the 
non-member penalty wasn't on the table, I didn't see a need to say "Oh, 
btw, that's a bad idea".

Alan MacNeill

At 04:07 PM 8/25/02 -0400, you wrote:

>In that case, my lord, I'm clearly not talking about you.  For what it's
>worth, I appreciate your efforts to communicate your opinions to those
>making the decisions.  I at least partially agree with your later post that
>a huge problem facing the society is the difficulty in communication between
>members and the BoD.