Notes from the SCA Board of Directors Meet & Greet session at Pennsic 50.

You have the ability to leave comments on this page.  I will respond or delete as I see fit.  

-- Eyrny

Left to right:

https://www.sca.org/about/officers/#board 

• Jennifer Krochmal (Duchess Kalisa Aleksandrovna) Board Member
• KT “Shep” Sheppard (Graf Ulrich von Brandenburg), from Meridies Board Member
• Pug Bainter (Master Phelim Gervase)from Ansteorra Board member
• Krista Capps (Mistress Bricca di Ghelere) , Board member, from West
• Gabrielle Fisher (Duchess Gabrielle Fisher Kerrec) from Ealdormere, Vice Chair
• Baroness Marie le Mains from Trimaris silent herald
• Ronan O Gobhann, in red is the moderator
• Lis Schraer (Mistress Elasait ingen Diarmata), Calontir, Society Seneschal
• Society Marshal-Elect: Melissa Midzor (Arabella de Sena) (2 weeks)
• Charles Burk (Baron Charles de Bourbon, OL) Corporate DEIB officer

1 question per person ideally, there will be a line up for those asking questions

Questions

Koshamain of the 2 Seas (sp?)^[b]:  As someone in a wheelchair and seriously disabled, as a result I have a difficult time making connections in the fighting community, why is the Crown denied me permanently.  Why am I unable to fight for Crown or attain the Crown, by a means other than combat.  It is AS 58, why have we not yet developed a split Crown system where one reign a year is determined with A&S and compatible with Canadian disability laws.  

KT Shep:  These are the rules we live by.  We’ve had different principalities request a variance in the past, and I can’t tell you why they weren’t approved.

Gabrielle Fisher:  Lochac is working on a proposal

KT Shep:  There hasn’t been a specific request, something specific enough to consider and approve.  If you give us a well written out plan with depth and detail we’ll consider it.  I can’t promise more than consideration, but I personally will ensure it gets considered.  

Gabrielle Fisher:  it will go through an experimental phase, and lots of groups will get to provide commentary.

KT Shep:  restates that we need more than just “why don’t we do a fencing crown?”

Questioner:  You’ll have a 20 page plan on your desk by the end of Pennsic

Illadore adds to the question:  what are the requirements of the Board for a plan?  Approval from Crown?

Bod:  We don’t know for sure, until we see it.

Charles:  I have a huge appetite to see this move forward from a DEIB perspective.  I’m happy to help craft these proposals to meet the needs of the Board. equity@sca.org 

Q from Cormac Mor:  As someone who has written proposals to the Board before, and tracked proposals to the Board, and been unable to find those in the Board minutes.  How will I know when it is considered and ensure I get a response.

Breck?:  Work with your ombudsman to know what’s going on, and the next ombudsman when they change.

Q:  if I’ve been communicating with them and they didn’t respond for 8 or 9 months, and eventually they say “there’s too much in this proposal”

Pug Bainter:  these conversations come up during the planning sessions which run 13 to 15 hours.  I’ve been tracking a list for the planning sessions but what we’re able to address each quarter is limited by time.

Gabrielle Fisher:  When we can get back to in person meetings they seem to flow faster.  We try to get through as much as possible.  If the ombudsman doesn’t get back to you, try the vice chair.

Q: Aldwynn:   Will you be considered of our time?  Will you be conscious of all our time and the list of questions and avoid repeating or echoing your answers.  Yes this is well started

A:  Yes

Q  Illadore:  Most recently it was discussed on the Board meeting minutes which said you’d gotten a law firm to look at a proposal to change the structure of the Board.  Does that law firm have any ties to the SCA

A from Gabrielle Fisher:  They are independent of the SCA and they’ve been given all our governing documents to review and consider.  I’ll see if we can make the name of the law firm public.

Q followup - is the law firm cognizant of international laws

A from Gabrielle Fisher:  They are aware we are international, though they can’t review the affiliates.

Q:  Lucienne from Atlantia:  Want to know the BoDs position on fighters who have not demonstrated their ability to fight safely on the field.   Does the Marshal in Charge have the right to remove that person from the field?

A from SEM elect:^[c]  Marshals on the field are in charge of safety and should remove that or stop the fight.  If there are questions about the call there’s a chain of command going up to the marshal in charge, and then there’s another set of appeals possible

The current rules are confusing and there are loopholes and one of my goals is to reformat and revamp the current rules and make roles & responsibilities clearer and easier to understand.  I come from a land of “listen to the marshal on the field” and then appeal if necessary.  I’ve been going over the rules, and right before my first interview I read them all, and my husband can attest to me screaming obscenities up and down the halls, because I was then confused by what we’re supposed to be doing based on what those words say.  I’ve got a fabulous team working with me to try and go through all the rules and society handbooks to make these much more clear.  To better reflect how we think the game is played.  The rules don’t always match the way things are getting done.

Q follow up:  What is the percentage of decisions that go against dukes & counts & such

A:  I don’t know

Other A:  we don’t track that in our statistics.

SEM elect:   we’ve been duct taping and bubble gumming rules onto the documents and it doesn’t really reflect how we’re really doing things.

KT Shep follow up:  As the Board member, if we get a complaint about a fighter acting up we refer it to the Society Earl Marshal, we’re not the first line to deal with this.  Are we talking about sanctions for behaviour on the field?  That’s a marshal thing.

Gabrielle Fisher:  The board supports the society officers to enforce the society rules for everyone equally, regardless of rank.  We look at sanctions in modern names, not SCA names and titles^[d].

Q  Lisa Losito from Atlantia:^[e]  I just heard yesterday of a duke abusing the marshal on the field in a way that would get me, as a member of the populace thrown off.  As a fighter in multiple disciplines, this is distressing.  We have many dedicated people with good intentions, in things like how we’re dealing with the marshalate it feels like our processes are not followed consistently.  Are we auditing and reviewing the investigation procedures to ensure they’re followed

Lis Seneschal:  investigations through myself are those done by Kingdom, we have a team of investigators, I read through their reports and I send it back if it needs work.  IF they are unsatisfactory they aren’t asked to investigate again.  People can apply by writing to the Soc Sen, and I have a deputy who assigns investigators to investigate where they aren’t close to the people involved.  Kingdom level investigations rely on the kingdom seneschal.

Q from Lisa;  the kingdom level processes affect me most directly.

Lis Seneschal:  I’ve done training with them on how to do investigations, I get lots of questions from Kingdom Seneschals

Jennifer Krochmal :  there are marshall courts for things that happen on the court, and if the marshal is inappropriate that should be handled in that court there

Gabrielle Fisher:  the best we can do is support our officers, but the process has to be followed by the folks before it gets to us as well

Krista Capps:  We will review our investigation process with the legal team to ensure we’re doing it well.

SEM elect:  one of my things about being a marshal is that you need to be able to tell a Crown to follow the rules, but it is hard in the moment.  How do we support marshals to do this in the moment?  I don’t have an answer for you right now, but I want to see that improve.

Krista Capps:  For any marshal in the room, if you do feel uncomfortable confronting someone get some help from another marshal.  Work with your team.

Follow up Q:  Are there any protections now or being planned for marshals who have to speak to power?

Krista Capps:  there are already protections to protect the marshal on the field

KT Shep:  all of us, any person, marshal, we should never stand for verbal abuse on the field.  If you experience it, let me know, let us all know.  If you want to disagree with a marshal or seneschal or BoD member have a discussion

Clarifying Q from Gilchrist Monaghan:  if anyone presents to my list unable to provide proof of  authorization I will not allow them on my list.  Will you continue to sanction marshals for doing that?

Krista Capps:  We will not answer questions about individual sanctions due to confidentiality.

Jennifer Krochmal :  I am an attorney mundanely and we need to keep that confidentiality to ensure people feel safe to report things.

Illadore, an intelligence analyst for the gov’t:  I’m very upset.  I asked the Board of Directors several months ago, and the only answer I got was “you’re reading it wrong”  There’s an interpretation from the BoD that prioritizes hierarchy over safety, allowing a kingdom Earl Marshal to decide who is authorized on the spot.  Are you going to overturn this or will we continue to put people at risk

Jennifer Krochmal :  We are not going to speak to a specific sanction.  I am not here to be yelled at or disparaged.  We are doing the best we can, we ask you to treat us with a little bit of grace.  We’re giving up our vacation too to answer your questions.

Illadore:  I hear you and I’ve given up 2 weeks to be here as the legal representative of the SCA while I’m here.  I understand your time is precious too.  I am not asking a sanction question, I'm asking about a policy decision made last summer.

Gabrielle Fisher:  We are having our governing documents reviewed by an outside law firm to clarify our rule set.  We empathize completely and appreciate your passion.

Illadore:  I asked for help on this question prior to Pennsic and I got silence.  I ask the BoD to be more transparent and forthcoming with the information, to the populace who works for them.

SEM Elect:  One of my main goals as SEM is to review those rules and roles & responsibilities, that’s the way it’s written now and we will review and ensure it makes more sense for our corporation, safety, and risk.  I’m putting together a presentation to put before the Board about how it will work and they can review a plan.  Until I do, they don’t have anything they can do.

Followup:  We’re not asking about particular sanctions about the implications about those sanctions and the impact on us and our choices to volunteer in 

Q  Elizabeth from Northshield:  A more general question:  One of the things I see a lot is someone being frustrated and being told to write to the Board.  What is the most frequently seen or frustrating misconception about what you do and what people think you do?

Pug Bainter:  As a Board Member the populace doesn’t understand the distinction between society officers and the Board, they’re all the evil people out in California.  We’re trying to figure out how to improve that understanding, and every kingdom has a brand but what is the brand of the SCA?  We don’t have a clear answer for that, we’re running a corporation and don’t want to get sued out of oblivion.  We need to understand what the society officers are providing to the kingdoms, and what the board is and is not responsible for.  Many people won’t understand that distinction between Board and Corporate officers.  

Gabrielle Fisher:  What’s frustrating is the assumption that we’re making snap decisions without gathering information.  Some of our meetings are 15 hours long as we get into the details.  It’s painful when people think we’re just making snap decisions.  Some people assume we don’t participate.  I've been in the SCA for 40 years.

Jennifer Krochmal :  The thing I see the most is that any time some decision is made in the SCA it’s blamed on the Board.  We are 7 individuals trying to operate at 10,000 feet.  We don’t handle the day to day running of the SCA, that’s what the officers do.  Example:  We didn’t have any input on the Pennsic medallions or Pennsic.  

Follow up from Linda:  I was formerly on the Board, so I have a little knowledge from a long time ago.  I was frustrated that everyone assumed I knew everything.  I came across someone’s LInkedIn page and followed them and was asked “why are you following me and what have I done wrong?”  I agree that it’s both remarkably difficult and important to clarify what the Board is doing and have more visibility into how the decisions are made.  I know the death threats and the complaints, but I agree we need more clarity.

Krista Capps:  One of the things I find fascinating is that now Board meetings are online, there are maybe 40 people joining us online.  Please join us and see how we make decisions and what we’re working on.  We’d love to have more input.^[f]  If we’re doing meetings in person we still want to have recordings available to be watched later.  We can’t spoon feed it to you.  

Gabrielle Fisher:  The information we can share is sometimes restricted by legal issues.  We’re working with our brilliant communication officer and the legal team to try and bring more information up, instead of being so afraid to say anything.  We want to educate more.

Charles:  I really liked that question.  I am not part of the investigation process, reaching out to me won’t help.  Escalating to me won’t help.  I’m not part of the sanctions process.  I can advise but I don’t have any input.  Writing me vile emails doesn’t help.  If I tell you where to go to escalate or appeal, being nasty isn’t OK.  Being nasty to any of us isn’t OK.  I’m working on behalf of people who’ve been marginalized and attacking me for something I have no control over is very frustrating.  I’m a very pragmatic DEI person, I do it professionally, and if I responded the way I want to the Board would ask me to step down.  I won’t tolerate it.  I have no input on banishments, don’t come to me, it’s super frustrating.

Follow up to Charles:  What are you able to do in terms of the office.

Charles:  There’s a difference between Society and Corporate Officers.  Society officers run the game facing side.  Corporate officers keep the wheels on the bus.  The scope of my job is to advise the board on moving DEIB forward in the Society.  To advocate on behalf of the voiceless for systemic changes to be more inclusive and more equitable.  Before we get to inclusion and belonging we aren’t going to have retention.  

Soc Sen:  I zoom with Charles regularly.  The investigations and complaints go through the Seneschalate.  If you can, start with the kingdom seneschal.  I get frustrated by complaints that should be addressed at the kingdom level.  Sometimes I’ll assign a kingdom investigator.  Anything more than banishing from the Crown’s presence goes through me and goes to the Board for them to uphold or overturn.  Removal from Participation that is upheld goes to an investigator, and that process is slow.  I’ll talk to Charles if I need his perspective, I’ll consult with him.  

Followup:  I fully understand and agree that no one deserves abuse when receiving these communications.  I have witnessed the Society Assistant engaging in tone policing.  If she doesn’t agree with the language, she’ll use tone policing which has historically been used to keep poor and POC people in line.  Spicy language can be used to make emphasis.  I’ve sent in emails that she has gate-keeped and responded that the language inside the email is bad and she won't pass it on.

Charles:  calling a person an asshole is abuse.  Tone policing is different from abusive behaviour.  I’m not a fan of tone policing because it is used to discriminate.  We all love this game, we will be passionate, there will be spicy language.

Follow up:  will anything be done about the executive assistant?
Gabrielle Fisher:  I’ve made notes, we will follow up

Pug Bainter:  we read all the emails sent to SCA-Comments@sca.org (comments@sca.org  is out of date)

Follow up:   I was told my email would not be passed on because of the language.

Jennifer Krochmal :  we see every comment sent to that comments list, the Executive Assistant ensures that people know it’s been seen and acknowledged.

Gabrielle Fisher:  We have corporate officers and each quarter they bring us reports, variances they’ve granted and ask us to uphold.  We don’t just randomly look around and try to find problems that we can provide input on.  

Clarification request:  One announcement or message from Corporate that went out on social media spoke to being unable to verify the sender when messages are received.  They could not be certain that comments were being sent by the person who claimed to be sending them.

Soc Sen:  That was particularly about…  if you’re going to communicate to the Board it has to have your name on it.  This has been in corpora forever.  The interpretation was specifically about an online petition that was going on at a kingdom level and on change.org  and there was no way to verify who was actually signing that petition.

Eleanor from the East:  To circle back to the first question about Crowns becoming more inclusive.  What I heard in your answer was pushing it back on the marginalized community to come up with an answer.  Why isn’t your job at the highest level of the society to come up with an answer

Gabrielle Fisher: To start, because we need guidance on what the community WANTS.  We don’t expect the community to create a ready to publish policy, but we need more than a 1 line proposal that expects us to understand what is meant and what the parameters are.

Followup:  Would the Board take as an action item to create a committee to investigate the issue, to discuss inclusivity at the highest levels.

Gabrielle Fisher:  That would come up as an action item from the Corporate officers, could be Soc Sen, SEM, or DEIB.  

Charles:  I commit to take this as an action item to bring up a proposal for a committee, and it will have to come from the 3 officers.

Victoria something:  Since the migration to the membership portal it’s still a hot mess.  We have pollings that are invalid because the data is so bad.  What is the timeline & plan to address this.

Krista Capps:  Neon-CRM is the database that’s running the whole office.  We did just migrate from the dark ages to this new system.  I just visited the corporate office and they were working on this very hard.  They just figured out a fix to try and migrate that data better.  They are working on it every day.  I don’t know if we have a timeline.  Sam is on it, the IT guy.  The system was customized for us, and we’re learning that the user interaction is creating additional data bugs.  So as we go more problems are cropping up.

Follow up:  please make better communication, please ask them to communicate more.

Krista Capps:  We will.  We’d like more help.  

Follow up question: “"the whole Known World Webministry has for years offered to help Rusty and then Sam, and were met with silence or "we're good".”

Krista Capps:  talk to Sam^[g][h]

Þórfinnr Hróðgeirsson from the East:  This is a high level policy question:  Last several years there were many decisions that had the effect of centralizing policy to an SCA level.  In the context of a member driven organization, the activities are in person and run by people on the ground.  There’s no way for a member of the populace to influence a Board decision, no matter how many are aligned.  Does the Board view this as a problem?  If not, how can we convince the board that some restructuring is useful?   Part of the populace feels disenfranchised.  We’re sending paper petitions to even ask for policy change.

Gabrielle Fisher:  our governing documents, including how the board operates, are part of what is being reviewed.  We have a membership of over 25,000 people, and only 43 people on the Board nominee list.  Yes, the overall functioning is being reviewed by the law firm.

Followup:  good, but I want more.  Do you recognize this problem?

Gabrielle Fisher & Krista Capps:  Yes we recognize the problem.  

Krista Capps:  Transparency is vital to the populace, but we also need more

Followup:  Transparency is the floor and I’m delighted you’re working on it.  But I’m concerned about accountability.  There’s no mechanism for the populace to accomplish a change other than asking.  But the 25,000 people have no input other than “asking”

Gabrielle Fisher:  I think it’s something we discuss at every meeting.  The recent change to unanimous minus 1 to choose a new board member is a result of listening.

Cormac followup:  The Board is supposed to be in charge of keeping the lights on.  The Grand Council was supposed to support the game side, but it was dissolved in 2015.  Is there consideration to bring it back?

Pug Bainter:  I brought that up a couple meetings back, and we’re discussing how to do that, but we want to ensure the rules are fine first.

Follow up from someone else:  The BC Societies Act bans people from having a self selecting board….

Gabrielle Fisher:  because we’re California based and registered in each province, we’re working with CRA and each province.  We’re trying to be cognizant of each province's laws and concerns.  We may very well have to incorporate in Canada.  

Clarifying question:  Can you tell us what the brief you’ve given to Miller Thompson is?

Gabrielle Fisher:  The CRA part is a developing issue, they’re looking at each province, taxation concerns that are applied to different things in each province. Are our activities taxable?  We’re working with tax accountants.  Miller Thompson is looking at whether we should incorporate as well.

Duona (sp?) from Atlantia:  Are there Board minutes from this year?

Soc Sen:  should be on SCA.org in the newsletter section, after they are approved in the following month’s meeting.

Wistric:  they’re not there

Jennifer Krochmal  says they may have moved

Gabrielle Fisher will check on where they are now and post to announcements.

Followup:  with that delay are there federal violations happening

Krista Capps:  No

Fiore (sp?) from Atlantia:  As archers of great prowess we don’t have a path to peerage.  If not, tell me the steps to get there.

KT Shep:  as the ombudsman for the peerage committee there is wording being worked on.  The Board is waiting on the peerage committee to submit it, they’ll review, the populace will then get to see it and provide commentary.   When we put it out for commentary it is NOT a done deal, we may have to send it back to the peerage committee for more revisions and then the Board will review again.

SEM elect:  Do we know why there’s a 6 month delay?

KT Shep:  they are working on it.  I promised at the previous board meeting that I would reach out to that committee, I did in April, so in the May conference call we told them what changes we needed made so their document would meet our requirements.  We didn’t get it back by the July meeting, so we’re hoping for September.  

Cormac with a follow up:  the committee was formed in 2015, in 2021 the proposal did go to the populace and was pulled in 48 hours.  The last report from the committee was last year and asked about the website.

KT Shep: I wasn’t on the Board then, so I’m not aware of the 2015 activities.  So I’m working on it now and I’m not sure what happened then.  I’m working with what I have, and I think it was almost ready for commentary from the populace.

Gabrielle Fisher:  We want to get it up and out for commentary

Charles:  if it’s important to you, send commentary.  We do look at it, it is important.  Don’t let only the people against the thing be the only comments heard.  If you support the thing send in comments too.

Follow up from gentleman in purple:  Is “I’m glad this is happening” a useful commentary?

Board:  Yes

Mistress B something from the East:  I’m from NY and never learned how to be subtle.  I’ve written a lot of emails to the Board.  90% get zero response.  I’ve been led to believe that emails are filtered through the executive assistant.  Because I generally do not get responses, how do you ensure my emails are acknowledged and read.

KT Shep:  Yes, they all get read.  I’m guilty of giving out the wrong email address a couple of times this week.  It’s sca-comments@sca.org and anything else should get a bounce.  If you email the board and don’t get a response, copy your ombudsman and let them know you’re looking for a response.

Followup:  I’ve cc'd a lot of people.

Gabrielle Fisher:  a lot of ccs doesn’t mean we know there’s a problem.  Send a separate email to the ombudsman.

KT Shep:  I can’t fix the past, but if you put it TO:  the ombudsman and clearly tell them you need a response.

Board members agree with them.

Pug Bainter:  as an ombudsman I’ve had challenges with technology and health.  I may have missed some.  I’m trying to do better.

Jennifer Krochmal :  everyone should get a response that the email has been received.  But a lot of emails that come in are statements, not questions.  We’ll try to ensure even those get acknowledged

Additional followup:  If the wrong email is given out, please have IT redirect the wrong email to the right place.

Pug Bainter:  the migration to a new system is making it hard to do that, which should be easy.

 Berakha from Calontir:  there’s a massive deficit of trust between the Board and Greater officers and at least a portion of the populace.  Does the Board see this as an emergency and what are the plans to address it so we can come together.

Gabrielle Fisher:  Yes, we recognize the deficit of trust in the emails we receive.  We’re trying to get face to face with people, work with communication officers to get more information out faster, and encourage officers to work with us when issues come to them.  We are trying to rebuild that trust.  It’s hard, because the default position from some seems to be that the officers are trying to hurt the game.

Follow up:  thank you for doing the Meet & Greet.  Some of what I’ve seen on the internet from greater officers hanging out on social media gets a reaction that shows the trust deficit.  I’m glad you see this as an emergency and are here.

Krista Capps:  This is also not the first meet & greet we’ve done.  Please to your home kingdoms and invite us to do a meet & greet.  Whoever can make it, will.  We’re working on one for An Tir 12th night

Followup:  how much lead time do you need?

Gabrielle Fisher:  as much as possible.  We’re looking at transitioning to in person meetings, so if your kingdom wants to host a board meeting please let us know.

Follow up:  Meridies was thinking we’d get to host a Board meet & greet and we’d ask some questions and it was abruptly canceled.

Gabrielle Fisher:  We pay for the travel to the meet & greets personally, so who can show up varies by location.

KT Shep:  For the Meridies one it was also very close to a Board meeting and then Pennsic.

Follow up:  Is it legal to use SCA funds to pay for travel for Board or Society officers to travel to the area to the meeting.

Gabrielle Fisher:  yes, it should be possible but check your kingdom policies too.

We have 20 minutes left

Cormac with 2nd question:  the Board minutes are the governing documents of decisions that have been made.  They are woefully  incomplete.  John Fulton was supposed to be president for 3 years years ago, and his eventual hiring as an employee was not part of the minutes.  How do we ensure important information like that gets into the minutes.

Gabrielle Fisher:  That's a great question.  We don’t know why that happened and didn’t get published.  We will look at it.

Follow up:  the mention of him as an employee was mentioned in a document after that.

Follow up:  the minutes often say “a report came in from an officer and was received” and there aren’t details.

Gabrielle Fisher:  when the officers give reports they can include action items.  The publishable summary is included in the president’s report later.  We can’t publish more than they give us.

Pug Bainter:  we are speaking to the officers about using the publishable report section better.

SEM Elect:  I have done these in the past and assumed that it was supposed to be short and sweet.  So we’ll work to be clearer about what we want to have published.

Gabrielle Fisher:  We'll address this with the officers so they are clear.

Followup question:  If John the Bearkiller is an employee, who’s reviewing his effectiveness and the terms of his employment, and optically him and his spouse are

Krista Capps:  If you asked this question of your CEO, he wouldn’t answer either.

Followup:  I think my CEO could at least tell me about the review process.

Krista Capps:  we’re rewriting an employee handbook, we’re reviewing our review processes.  All of these things are necessary to bring these things into an actual corporation.

Gabrielle Fisher:  Krista Capps was selected in part because of her HR experience.

Krista Capps:  Please be patient with us as we work through these things.

Followup:  in a standard organization chart we can easily see who their supervisor is in just about every organization.

Krista Capps:  we do have an org chart that is available.  The Board is responsible for the president’s performance.  It takes time to set up HR, and I’ve been here since April.

Follow up:  thank you for coming here, I know this is a 2nd job,  can you give us a timeline and promise that if it’s not done by then you’ll update us on progress and the new timeline?

Krista Capps:  absolutely, as soon as I can review the documents that need to be reviewed.  Until then I can’t give a timeline.  I’ll provide an update in the next quarterly board meeting.

Followup:  has the president’s position changed from a rotating 3 year position to a permanent employee and was it announced?

Board: Yes and No it wasn’t^[i][j][k].  ^[l]

Cariadoc:  I think the problems we’re observing are due to a mistake made 50 years ago, which was setting the SCA up as a single corporation where kingdoms are subsidiary to the corporation, so the assets of every group are at risk if we get sued.  

Moderator stopped it there because it’s not a question.

Judith fitz Henry brings the question from Chatracan Meghanta(sp?):  in order to encourage more occasional SCAdians to become paid members, what additional value will the BoD add to a paid membership.  What else can a paid membership get you?

Pug Bainter:  It is something that we’re worried about with the SCA brand.  The newsletters are now available to everyone.  We’re looking at the potential for new memberships, looking at JSTOR^[m] and ARTSTOR to provide access to resources, and we’re looking at other opportunities.  If people have ideas for membership benefits, please send them in.

Baron from Atlantia:  Thank you for what you’re doing here and in the many hours of your own time.  How do you keep the dream alive to keep doing this work?

Krista Capps:  THIS!  We love the game!  The youth fighting was SO CUTE!  It warms my heart.  To see the A&S and the things people do, and the love we each put into the game.  It keeps me working so hard.

Gabrielle Fisher:  I love helping out at events, each one is someone’s first event, I love seeing the excitement on their faces.

Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin.from the East:  There’s a sense that the Board and society officers don’t do a good job of acknowledging their past mistakes and correcting them.  Can you give examples of when this happened.

Jennifer Krochmal :  We are putting out for commentary the change to bylaws for selection of directors.  I believe this is correcting a past mistake.  It’s a bylaw change, it’s a big deal.  We are constantly working to improve.

Gabrielle Fisher:  We’ll look into communicating about the president’s status.  We’re fallible.

Illadore, Aethelmearc Kingdom Seneschal:  What are we doing about the SCA’s harassment & bullying policy so we are better at taking care of our LGBTQ members, because if I find a member posting bad things on social media I have to fight to tell them to stop.  

Soc Sen:  For every person who is told to stop, we also get complaints about being policed on their personal page.  There is so much we need to do to improve.

Charles:  I’m seeking an external consultant to work in the DEI space because I’m not an expert in everything.  Our community guidelines need work.  We’ll be hiring expert counsel to help us rewrite these guidelines.  Lis and I both know these need to be redone and reworked.

Follow up:  the Pennsic treaty between Aethelmearc, the East, and the Middle has not been signed so there will be issues from Aethelmearc if that doesn’t happen.  

Followup:  Can you speak to any kind of teeth if the new guidelines are violated?

Charles :  We won’t know until the experts are in the room and helping us.  We do want the guidelines to have teeth.  There’s too much ambiguity now.

More people wanted to ask questions, but the tent had to be cleared for the next class.