[MR] value of membership

[Anne of Carthew]

My friends,
I'm disappointed that the value of membership in the SCA Inc. appears to be
measured only in terms of a very tangible "what's in it for me?"
Purchasing membership in the SCA may not buy you entry to a feast or give
you personal insurance if you get hurt at an event, but it does give a
number of intangibles that are, in my opinion, highly valuable.

-How about the existence of the corporation itself which gives us the
ability, via a non-profit status, to maintain checking accounts and manage
money?
-How about management of those really nasty issues and lawsuits that need to
be raised above a kingdom level?
-How about maintaining the insurance needed for renting sites, without which
we couldn't rent event sites?
-How about a governing body that establishes our approach to
re-enactment/re-creation, and allows us to move from one kingdom to the
next, and play a game that's reasonably the same with titles that mean the
same things?

It is true that each kingdom could secede and form their own corporation,
get their own federal tax ids, apply for 501(c) status, maintain their own
membership, etc.  However, the necessary liability insurance (IMHO) becomes
an issues that makes this scenario prohibitive.  We are all much better off
grouping together to get better rates - strength in numbers!

At a University not long ago (and, I believe, at this past Pennsic), Duchess
Melisande provide a class on the corporate structure.  During this, she
broke down how much money went to each part of the budget for each $35
membership fee.  I found it very revealing and helpful.

We are not the federal government: we can't spend money we don't have.  If
the SCA Inc is running in the red, there are only a few choices:
- cut spending
- raise membership costs
- find ways to increase membership, so that we share the costs wider (e.g.,
500 people buying $50,000 of insurance is $1000 each;  50,000 people buying
$50,000 is $1 each)

It looks to me like spending has not increased dramatically in the last
several years - they've kept a reasonable rein on spending. (Do I see a line
item where the BOD members spent $178 on telephone calls last year?  Do any
of us think that is all the phone calls they made? That they didn't use a
lot of personal funds to the job?)  But revenue from membership is down.

Raising membership costs always causes flack, so I assume they are trying to
avoid that pit.  Personally, I think $35 is really low compared to my $143
IEEE membership.

So, lets get more paid members.  I know from working lotsa troll at Pennsic
that membership discounts are a BIG encouragement for people to join.  It
worked before. Maybe it will work again.  AND I think (but am not sure) that
part of the proceeds from that discount STAY in the kingdom or local group.
I certainly don't object to the idea, and as an autocrat I don't think it
will be that hard to manage.

Anne.