The Missive That Started It All

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Here is the full text of the official informational release from the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. regarding the proposed change to Corpora as it relates to Water Bearing within the SCA.

It is available in many locations online but because I quoted it in my blog, I have made the full text available here as per the “Permission to Reproduce” clause included in the release.

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From the President, Patrick Anderson:

Earlier this year, I was asked by several people in the waterbearing community to examine the various laws of states and countries related to waterbearing as an organized and official activity of the SCA, Inc. Various states have informed officers of the SCA, Inc. that while our activity does not directly violate the food codes or health regulations of their states, if there were to be an outbreak of illness, the SCA, Inc. could be held liable for that outbreak. Several health care professionals and attorneys have reviewed this topic and agree with this assessment.

I was asked to examine the best way to both ensure a safe fighting environment for our fighters, and to comply with the various state and country laws. The relevant laws vary from state by state, county by county and country by country. I determined that the best way to do this would be to make “waterbearing” unofficial and unsanctioned by the SCA, Inc. and proposed this change to the Board. The only other option would be to regulate waterbearing, and to regulate it such that it follows the various food safety codes of the various states and countries the SCA participates in. This would be unwieldy, impractical and expensive for the SCA to do. Further, it is likely that waterbearers would not be able to continue to serve our fighters using any of the current methods of waterbearing.

The proposal put before the membership for comment would stop waterbearing by any SCA branch or other official group. The SCA would not have an office of waterbearer at any level. Marshals would still be permitted to allow waterbearers on the field, but any waterbearing must not be done by any officially sanctioned or regulated groups of the SCA. Households are welcome to provide water to fighters, as are unofficial and unrecognized “guilds”. This does not bar groups from putting out the "serve yourself water coolers" at events. (In my Kingdom they are usually the big orange cylinders.)

The Board and Corporate officers understand that many people have spent time waterbearing within the official framework, and now hope that you continue to volunteer unofficially. This proposal has been brought to enable fighters to continue to have a waterbearing service provided to them, without the extremely strict governance that official waterbearing will require.

The actual text of the proposed rule is below. This rule has not yet been approved by the Board, and is being sent out for comment here. The Directors request comments from the membership regarding this proposed revision no later than October 1st, 2008. Please send them to:

Corpora Revision
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas CA, 95036
email: comments@sca.org

Thank you for commenting.
Patrick Anderson, President, Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

Proposed language to be added to Corpora:

The activity of providing beverages to combatants and spectators at SCA Combat activities is not regulated, warranted, organized, controlled, or sanctioned by the SCA, Inc. or any affiliate or subsidiary entity. All warrants, authorizations, or other formal recognition of this activity are by publication of this change revoked. This document does not either address or restrict such volunteer activity or the methods by which it occurs.
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Patrick Anderson
President
Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
president@sca.org
952-412-4112

Comments are strongly encouraged and can be sent to:
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas, CA 95036

You may also email comments@lists.sca.org.

This announcement is an official informational release by the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.; Permission is granted to reproduce this announcement in its entirety in newsletters, websites and electronic mailing lists.

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About a week after the above announcement was brought to my attention, there was another official SCA, Inc. announcement in response to inquiries that had been received on this topic thus far.

Because I make reference to this announcement (even though I don’t quote it) I have chosen to reprint it here both for the sake of clarity and out of respect for the “Permission to Reproduce” clause included in the release.

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

There have been a couple common questions that have come through on comments and in various email lists. I have asked Mazelle Attiya, the Society Exchequer and Interim Corporate Treasurer, to address those. Her comments are below.

I appreciate your patience and your well-thought out comments.

Patrick
President, Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

Letter from Mazelle Attiya follows:

Allow me to address two specific questions that numerous people have asked in regards to the proposal dealing with water bearing activities.

1. Does it mean that we can't use SCA Funds to purchase water, Gatorade, food, etc for the fighters?

The answer is yes, groups, including kingdoms and the major wars can still use SCA Funds to purchase supplies and food products for the populaces' use. Donations can still be taken for this but instead of it going to the Waterbearer's Fund; it will have to be place into a different Fund.

I will be discussing this with all the kingdom exchequers. The group funds currently set aside for waterbearing would still belong to the group to purchase water, etc. It just is not labelled as belonging the guild/office anymore.

2. What happens to the equipment and supplies that belong to the office?

Since SCA Funds were probably used to purchase the equipment and supplies, then it all belongs to the group that bought the items. The items still need to be listed on inventory and in the case of items valued over $500 have to be included on the depreciation schedule of the group as should currently be the case. Nothing changes there at all.

The best analogy that I can give is the following: think of the Waterbearer's Office as a division of a large corporation. If the division is dissolved then the assets would be absorbed back into the rest of the corporation. Same sort of scenario is happening here. There is no impact financially as to who can use a group's equipment, howeverindividual groups might have policies in place that restrict usage, such as not allowing individuals from borrowing equipment for usage outside of the SCA.

You do not need to be an officer of a group to use its property. Feastcrats/Headcooks would be a good example of non officers using group property.

If any one has any further questions or comments, they may contact me at treasurer@sca.org.
Mazelle Attiya
Interim Corporate Treasurer/Society Exchequer
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Patrick Anderson
President
Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
president@sca.org
952-412-4112

Comments are strongly encouraged and can be sent to:
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas, CA 95036

You may also email comments@lists.sca.org.

This announcement is an official informational release by the Society for Creative Anachronism , Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce this announcement in its entirety in newsletters, websites and electronic mailing lists.