[MR] re: Value of membership - a request (fwd)

[Craig Levin]

Corwyn:

> Greetings citizens of Atlantia.
> 
> Speaking from experience, the BoD greatly cares and respects the opinions 
> it receives. Indeed, it takes a VERY small percentage of the membership to 
> actually make changes.
>
> It wouldn't surprise me if the membership is not better served under the 
> current system than a wholly democratic one. If the BoD could do nothing 
> without a 51% vote of some percentage of the membership (even of those 
> votes received -- heaven forfend it took 51% of the total membership), then 
> a small vocal group couldn't make changes, and I promise you, small vocal 
> groups DO get the attention of the Board, and have the power to implement 
> changes.

Hm. I wish I knew more about the laws surrounding non-profits. 

Small vocal groups are both good and bad. Compared to the
population at large, the folks who were advocating civil rights
many years ago were a paltry few, arrayed against injustice. On
the other hand, the Flat-Earth Society is also a small and vocal
group. 

> The membership responds in absurdly low numbers. The Board's letter and 
> proposal was referenced in the March 2002 Acorn, and available to all 
> members for several months. For all claims of disenfranchisement, a 
> response rate of < 5% shows that most members don't care.

Or don't feel that they're being heeded. Or figure that the BoD
will "think of something" (how they'll do this w/o input from
somewhere, I can't guess). Part of my disappointment comes from
the BoD first saying "We're not considering an NMS", and then
saying, "Well, actually, we are."

> And, it's not like changes themselves aren't then changed or modified based 
> on the response of the membership - historically, it looks to me like 
> making changes are the only way the Board can get a response out of the 
> membership at large.

That's true. I think part of it is the perception that the
corporation is far away, and doesn't give much to the local
groups or to the people. Now, as I've said before-I've worked
closely with a corporate officer. I know that it's tough work,
and that, to some extent, the SCA depends on these few people to
keep the game going. I'm wondering if maybe we can spread some of
the burden, and get more people involved in the decision-making
process.

> If EVERY member of Atlantia responded to EVERY Board requests for comments, 
> Atlantia could overwhelmingly affect the rest of the Known World, based 
> solely on our comments.  In this kingdom one barony alone could be 25% of 
> the last response rate.

Wow.

> I challenge you, citizens of Atlantia. In the next 6 months, respond to ONE 
> item listed by the Board, and convince one other person to respond to :
> - requests for comments (You can hear about them automatically from the 
> announcements at sca,org mailing list, subscribe at 
> announcements-request at sca.org, subject: subscribe),
> -- comments on one of the Board nominees,
> -- or recommend someone for Board membership.
> 
> Or let members of other kingdoms speak your Voice for you.

You and I may not agree on some things, but on this, I'm with
you. 

Currently, there's nothing on the webpage
(www.sca.org/BOD/announcements/) calling for input. However, that
doesn't stop us from asking them to revise this from an NMS to a
different call for aid, such as the hat-passing notions I
previously wrote on. Email them at: directors at sca.org

> Corwyn
> Seneschal
> (don't forget to tell them things that are GOOD so they know to keep doing 
> those things)

Indeed. If all you get are sticks and no carrots, pretty soon
you're going to kick over the traces. I've worked in places like
those.

Pedro
-- 
http://pages.ripco.net/~clevin/index.html 
clevin at rci.ripco.com
Craig Levin				Librarians Rule: Oook!