Kingdom money crunch?

[HaMizrachi@aol.com]

Unto all who read these words, greetings from Yaakov.

The East Kingdom had a money problem last year, which it solved with a
fundraising effort.  This works if the problem is a one-time short-fall.  It
doesn't help if the problem is that expenses are up and income down.

The first step is to determine why expenses are up. Are the royalty
travelling more?  Is regalia more expensive?  Since inflation has been
relatively low for the past several years, it is not simply the rise in the
cost of living.

Please note that I am not saying anyone is profiligate.  I do believe,
however, that it is better to treat the cause at the root than to bandage it
by throwing money at it.  If the problem is serious, it will quickly outstrip
our ability to cover the loss.

The other question is, why is revnue down?  Membership in the SCa has been
rising fairly steadily, based on figures from corporate.  It should follow
from that that more people come to events, which should *increase* the
revenues from royal events.  Have royal events been seeing adrop in
attendance?  Has event planning not permitted a suitable profit to the
kingdom?  Again, it is important to find answers to these questions.

Some of these problems may be systemic to the SCA as a whole.  Others to
Atlantia specifically.  It may also be true that other kingdoms are
experiencing similar problems, and the exchange of ideas would be useful.

Before we try to determine solutions, lets figure out the *real* problem, not
just the symptom.

Yaakov