[MR] re: Value of membership - a request

[David W. James]

On Sunday, August 25, 2002, at 04:52 PM, Alan MacNeill (Gorm of Berra) 
wrote:
> 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.

	Alan, the Board asked for member comment a few years (3 or 4) ago on 
the subjects of Election of Board members.  They reported that, out of 
23-24,000 members, they got next to no response (memory says less than 
50, it may have been significantly less.  If you want to know when and 
the numbers, contact Andrew, the Board's EA, I'm sure he knows or can 
quickly look it up) which was not overwhelmingly in favor of it, but 
mostly it was the apparent apathy that killed the idea.  There did 
appear to be some interest in direct member recall of Board members, but 
*that* was difficult to impossible under California law if the members 
don't elect the Board (under California law, the SCA *has* no "Members", 
as it defines a "member" as one who can elect members of the Board, and 
this fact was explicitly stated in the last set of the Governing 
Documents that I read...  Ah, Section V of the ByLaws as approved April 
2001 states:

V. MEMBERS

A. STATUTORY MEMBERS

The SCA is a public benefit corporation and shall not have any members 
within the meaning of Section 5056 of the California Corporations Code. 
It is not a mutual benefit nonprofit corporation permitting 
distributions to members.

B. NONSTATUTORY MEMBERS

The Board of Directors may designate categories of advisory membership. 
These will be detailed elsewhere in the Governing Documents of the SCA, 
Inc. Such advisory members are not members within the meaning of Section 
5056 of the California Corporations Code.



I just looked, and there is no record on the Society web page on past 
calls for comment.  Check your copy of the Board Minutes and/or the 
Society Seneschal's letter or past TI's to see if they say anything 
about it.  I just looked to Winter of 1999 in my collection of TI's, and 
was unable to find anything there, sorry.  Check with the Board for more 
info on their past inquiries regarding direct election.  Note that their 
ability to request input has vastly improved since then!

David/Kwellend-Njal