[Ponte Alto] Proper Procedures for Financial Commitments

Mon Dec 24 12:24:21 PST 2007

This is an interesting proposal and I am still very curious why there is an
emergency before us.

>From all the email traffic I have seen, it sounds like that the community of
fighters have raised funds to cover at least the month of January 2008 for
an indoor activities area. 

What if the community of fighters puts forward the donations for the January
term and then at the regular business meeting of the whole Barony, funds can
be allocated for the remainder of the winter season.  Or am I missing
something from this dialogue so far?

Tirloch of Tallaght, OP, OL

From: ponte-alto-bounces at atlantia.sca.org
[mailto:ponte-alto-bounces at atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf Of thrid at aol.com
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 10:28 AM
To: ponte-alto at atlantia.sca.org
Subject: Re: [Ponte Alto] Proper Procedures for Financial Commitments

Excuse me, I incorrectly posted prior to e-mail before completing it.

Your Excellency,

As we have tried to lay out the proposal before, we are looking at 3
separate monthly contracts with the School.  Each contract, for one month's
use of the site, would be committing members of the Barony to $520.  If
after one month, the plan is a total failure, we can decide not to renew it.
I don't believe a commitment from the Barony of $520, especially when a
large potion of it will be coming from the individual resources of its
members is beyond the scope of the financial committee.  

>From what I can tell, based on the financial commitments of the three of
the people (including my self) who have posted there is already a minimum of
a $300 per month commitment to see the barony does not take a lost.  In
addition, as I have previously state, If need be, I am willing to deposit
$920 into barony's funds to ensure the barony takes no financial loss.

I apologize for the frantic pace of this discussion.  The fighters at our
practice have developed some momentum and do not look forward to the lack of
activity during the winter months.  In addition, many of us at the practice
felt that obtaining the site might be a good opportunity for others in the
Barony to make use of it.  

The issues which have been raised against obtaining the site have been: 

1) The amount of financial to risk the Barony, which I have repeatedly tried
to show, is not very much.

2) The fact this has not been raised at a Baronial meeting and run through
the normal channels.  Clearly this would have been the preferred method of
handling this proposal. I apologize this has not been placed in front of the
barony through this method. The opportunity and the commitment from the
fighting community came after the last meeting and with no meeting in
December this was the only forum left to us. I believe however, this forum
does give members of the barony a chance for thoughtful consideration and
debate.  With a one month financial commitment from the barony being so
little, I believe the financial committee, with the general consent of the
barony, has it within its power to decide to help fund the project. What we
are looking for is the general consent of the barony.

3) That the fighters "pledge" are not worth much to the barony and the
Barony it's self is taking all the risk.  The first time this was raised,
the Max explained this was a real financial commitment on our part and not
some hollow words.  The second time this concern was brought up I found
offensive to myself and to the fighting community in general.

When I first propose this idea a few days ago, I was expecting the negative
comments to be: This plan would not work; there is not enough interest in
the Barony; and you will not get enough people willing to pay. For these
were my concerns. 

I am surprised and happy have not seen any of these comments made by the
members.  In fact, my own concerns and doubts have been greatly alleviated
by the strong statements of both a personal and financial commitment by
members of this Barony.

The Barony has a solid financial policy for which we all should be proud of.
We have always made our decisions, as a group, based on a sound argument
with a good debate.  

It is the fighters desire to place this before the barony for debate, at to
work within the framework of the barony's financial rules.  It is our belief
that those financial rules do make room for a decision to be made for a one
month contract with Lemon Road Elementary school.  It is our belief that we
have reduced the financial risk to the barony to an absolute minimum.

The fighters would have liked to have funded this directly with the school;
however, the SCA requires that funding for events and activities go through
Baronial channels. 

What we ask, is that through this forum, the Barony give discussion to the
merits of this proposal. And finally that the financial committee use the
merits and support (or lack of) for this proposal to decide as to whether it
will approve funding for this activity (most of which will come directly
from the fighters themselves). 

Thomas of Calais

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Capozello <afpopa at cox.net>
To: 'The Barony of Ponte Alto' <ponte-alto at atlantia.sca.org>
Sent: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 6:05 am
Subject: [Ponte Alto] Proper Procedures for Financial Commitments

While We do think this is a very worthy idea, the Barony has policies and
procedures in place to deal with this sort of situation (which our Baronial
Exchequer has already explained).  Trying to force this through the
Emergency Financial Committee is *not* the proper way to do this.  

What you are seeking to do is akin to running an event - i.e. expecting the
Barony to be financially responsible for a obtaining a site, and expecting
to be reimbursed by collection of a "site fee".  Your original proposal
would have the Barony aquiring a financial liability of over $1,500.  This
is more than the budget for most events we have run.  Every event we run,
from its initial conception onward, has to be approved by the Barony, not
just the Emergency Financial Committee.  Please do bring your proposal to
the Baronial business meeting so that it can be discussed and dealt with in
the proper forum.

Yours in Service,

Marcellus Capoziello da Napoli and Belphoebe de Givet

Baron and Baroness of Ponte Alto

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