RE: Disc: Pay-to-Fight

[Jay Shaner <JSHANER@frederick.solarex.com>]

Poster: Jay Shaner <JSHANER@frederick.solarex.com>


Greeting patrons of the Merry Rose from Konrad.

Lord Leifr posted a reply to Lord Gawain's post.

Hi, Leifr nice event this weekend.  I had a good time.
 ----------

| Poster: Lance Harrop <lharrop@mrj.com>
|
|
| Lord Gawain Kilgore writes:
|
| > I guess if I get right down to it, I feel that if any of us have to pay,
| > we should all pay and equally share the load of funding our game.  Once
| > again, everyone that comes to an event is currently receiving benefits
| > from the organization, therefore, they should help to support that
| > organization, in my belief.  I believe that this should be society wide.
| >  I mean, isn't this one of our principles, pitching in together and
| > sharing the load?
| >
| I am wondering WHAT benefits from the organization Lord Gawain is talking
| about?  Our Insurance does not cover individual participants, where
| dues-payers or no.  This is particularly amusing because, I'm told,
| membership in the NRA, for about the same amount, gives you life
| insurance for death from the use of a firearm, and property insurance for
| your guns.  Admittedly their membership is a couple orders magnitude
| larger then the SCA, but boy, would it be nice if my armour was insured
| from theft, and I had life and health insurance for accidents from
| fighting (or dancing, for that matter).

>From my experience recently with Augustus joining the Cub Scouts this is 
rare.  It cost $17.50 for the year and the only thing you get are award 
patches.  Had to buy the uniform (shirt was $30) and book.
|
| The newsletters and TI are a direct benefit, you get
| them if you pay for them.

Had to pay extra for Boys' Life which was strongly recommended.
|
| If you are a member, you usually get polled on baronial questions, if you
| live in a barony, once every two years in Atlantia, a lot less often in
| other kingdoms where they don't have term limits.  Then again, some
| baronies poll anyone who claims membership.
|
| If you are a member, you can (joy, joy) volunteer to be an officer and
| dedicate all your free time to helping run your group or kingdom.  Some
| benefit that.

Everything in Cub Scouts is volunteer.  Try being with 25 six to ten year 
olds all night.
|
| Corpora SAYS that all you need do to attend an event is make an attempt at 

| period garb.  It never demands membership.

Can't attend most functions unless you are a member.  Can't get awards 
unless you are a member.
|
| Anyway, I think pay-to-fight is bad for a couple of reasons.  One, it
| puts us seriously out of step with our neighboring kingdoms.  People even
| run off to the East to get authorizations, rather then bother with
| Atlantian BS.

True but authorizations very from Kingdom to Kingdom.  When we were in 
Meridies a few years ago (I don't know if the following is still true or 
not, I have not keep up with Meridies requirements) You could authorize at a 
fighter practice instead of having to do so at an event like in Atlantia. 
 Authorization required two marshal or a marshal and a Knight.  Knights were 
automatically Marshals, they are not in Atlantia.  When you authorized it 
was based on safety and you were authorized in all weapons forms, in 
Atlantia you authorize in each weapons form and beyond weapon & shield, 
spear and misses weapon you have to show expertise in the weapons form (PW, 
GW, DW) to authorize.
|
| Then there is the point Duke Richard raised, that the policy is an
| attempt to get authorized fighters more in touch with the Kingdom.  Well,
| not everybody in the states of Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas wants
| to be in touch with the Kingdom.  Just because people live in our
| geographic bounds does not mean they consider themselves subjects of
| Atlantia.

I am not sure what his Excellency was referring to here or what all his 
statement encompasses but I would assume that he was also talking about rule 
changes which you find out about by reading the Acorn or Red Tape.  Everyone 
needs to be playing by the same rules.
|
| Nor should they need to.  Atlantia gets along fine with its
| committed populace, as long as the Crown attends to the advice of its
| peers, officers, and subjects.  When that's not the case, trying to force
| membership on people just tends to backfire.  Lots of people who live
| around here like to fight at Society wars without committing more then a
| couple of weekends to kingdom events, at most.  That's not something
| terrible, nor something to be discouraged.

Regards,
Konrad
=======================================================================
List Archives, FAQ, FTP:  http://sca.wayfarer.org/merryrose/
            Submissions:  atlantia@atlantia.sca.org
        Admin. requests:  majordomo@atlantia.sca.org