[MR] Grand Council Intro and request for opinions

[Lady Orla Carey]

Greetings,

As some of you are aware in 1995 the BoD formed an advisory committee to
discuss matters of interest to the populace of the SCA. The Grand Council
provides recommendations on proposals based on requests from the BoD. For
those who are interested in finding out more, the Grand Council's website
is http://grandcouncil.sca.org/

Each Kingdom provides a representative to this committee and it is my
honor to represent Atlantia. There are also some members who are not
officially representing a Kingdom. Two of those "Non Comm" members live in
Atlantia. For a complete list of the current members go to:
http://grandcouncil.sca.org/gcroster.php.

While anyone can monitor the e-mail list, only Grand Council members can
actually post to the list. Messages from non Council members can be sent
to the list by asking a member to forward them.

Generally the topics we have covered have been things that do not require
approaching the Kingdom as a whole for opinions. For the current topic,
the people I have consulted so far have urged me to consult the entire
Kingdom which is why I'm sending this to both the Merry Rose and Branch
Seneschal's list. Please contact me OFF LIST as I have no wish to take up
the bandwidth of these lists with this topic. My email address is
Orlacarey at Gmail dot com.

Basically while costs continue to increase revenue has stayed pretty much
the same. While the situation is not yet urgent, they are trying to figure
out how to fix this problem before it becomes a major issue. For anyone
curious Society level Exchequer reports are located at
http://www.sca.org/officers/exchequer/reports/index.html.

The Grand Council has been asked to comment on the positives/negatives of
revising the membership structure. I have posted the 3 emails we have
received with instructions/clarifications at
http://orlacarey.livejournal.com/896773.html.

One idea is to expand the "pay to play" system by requiring membership for
more activities. Possible problems caused by this would include
recruitment and might lead to a "tiered" membership structure. Another
possibility would be an "Al la carte" system for membership fees.

Keep in mind that this topic is at the brainstorming phase. It is by no
means certain. However something will eventually change to cover future
projected Shortfalls and the BOD would like our opinion on what that
change should be.

I will be taking commentary sent to me and consolidating it before sending
it to the Grand Council list so that we are not sending 100 emails
basically saying the same thing.

Please send me commentary and ideas. Note, however, that the BOD is
already aware of ideas such as moving the Milpitas office to a different
area of the country or outsourcing membership administrative functions.
These topics are brought up on a regular basis.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

In service to Kingdom and the Society,

Lady Orla Carey
Atlantian Representative to the Grand Council


PS Could someone please forward this to the Branch Seneschal's list for
me?  My email is acting up and don't have the right address stored.

AIM: OrlaCarey

Per bend sinister gules and Or, a wolf couchant contourny sable.