[MR] NonMember Charges

[Bryan Christian]

Hello all,
	I rarely end up posting much to the list, and I haven't really been all
that active over the past year.  There are reasons for this, most of them
related to money.  The nonmember surcharge is a big deal in some areas...
I'm from Black Diamond.  I'm sure most of Atlantia is familiar with the
group that makes up our membership for the most part.  We're college
students, and many of us are bearly scraping by.
	I've been playing with the society on and off for the last four years now,
and it's been filled with fun and rewarding experiences.  If this surcharge
had existed when I first learned of the SCA I doubt I would have been to
even half of the events I attended my first year, and likely I would have
never become a member since I would most likely have lost interest without
the good times and great people at those events.
	I am a rapier fighter, and as such I scraped together funds just to be able
to join the lists, but I was able to do this bearly.  My membership dues
last year were paid by my parents because I asked them to give me the money
as a gift.  I only attended four events on that membership because that was
all I could afford to attend.  Money running low or out completely is
entirely why I have not been more active outside of my local group these
past few years.  I look forward to being able to participate more now that I
should have fewer financial problems.

	Enough about myself however.  The reason for mentioning all that is to
poihnt out that those like myself can and do question where the money goes.
Any time there is a large organization there is oppourtunity for
mismanagement.  In this arguement there seem to be those who brush off this
fact simply because the dues for membership are low, and I wonder what they
are thinking?  Just because the they don't ask for much you don't care what
they do with it?  What I get for actually paying for an SCA membership
really hasn't been that much in the past(more than 90% of my issues of TI or
the Acorn have either never made it to my door or came in those envelopes
from the post office for damaged mail for some reason), but I didn't care
much about that.  I do care if the funds themselves are being mismanaged and
someone is being asked to pay more because of this.  That I consider unjust.
People saying who cares about how money is managed can very easily lead to
more problems as recent events have shown with the current economy.  As
paying memebers we have a right to know where are money goes and why it's
going there.  Numerous examples have been brought up with respect to Acre
and Markland, and the membership benefits as mentioned in those posts sound
at least comperable to SCA Inc.'s at a lower cost, and from all reports they
seem to be getting by.  If nothing else, perhaps investigating the
difference in how they utilize avaliable funds to see if something can be
adapted.

At this point I've rambled enough.  Although I do not care for even the
concept of the non-member surcharge I can and will accept it.  If I actually
ever recieved the Acorn or TI that I should have been recieving(which was my
own fault for not reporting the problem) I might have had the chance to
voice an opinion before the vote occured.  Regardless, I don't have much by
way of suggestions.  Thankfully I also have a full time job now and can
easily afford to pay for my membership unlike in years past.

Melchior Overrath
Barony of Black Diamond

PS:  At one apartment I tended to recieve a lot of damaged mail, and did
complain to the post office.  At the next I had issues with my mail being
returned as the wrong address even when it was correct.