Bright Ideas and True Confessions: How and What to Do and Why

Being an Officer

Membership Requirements

Some of these requirements apply directly to officers, but it's good for officers to understand them so that they can advise people with questions. Membership information will be found in various places: Corpora (under classes of membership), the SCA membership application (descriptions of various classes) and possibly in your kingdom's laws.

Officers

Officers must be subscribing or family members who live in the house where the family copy of the kingdom's newsletter is delivered.[1] Associate members or family members who don't live at home are not eligible to hold office because they're not receiving the kingdom newsletter, where policies and laws are proclaimed which could affect officers. Officers should read and abide by those things set down in the kingdom newsletter by the Crown or their kingdom superiors, or proclamations by the board of directors or corporate officers. When such a statement is published, the local officers are as responsible for following it as if they'd gotten personal letters.

Kingdom Office

Each Great Officers of State (i.e., kingdom-level seneschal, herald, marshal, arts/sciences, treasurer and chronicler) must be in his own right a subscribing member getting the newsletter of his own kingdom. (This way moving, divorce, separation, won't affect the running of the kingdom.)

Award Recipients

In the Outlands and at least one other kingdom, kingdom law states that only SCA members can receive awards. The corporation does not require membership for awards, but people who are in any degree serious about the Society should be members. Encourage newcomers to join. When you're recommending people for awards, check to see whether they're members. (Membership listings are available from the stock clerk, and the kingdom seneschal usually has a current one.) If your kingdom doesn't have this requirement, you might still consider it yourself, when you make a recommendation. If awards are given for service and dedication, for virtue and character, then it seems important to consider what could motivate a person to fail or refuse to maintain membership.

Crown Tournament Entrants And Those Whose Favors They Carry

Sustaining (or higher) or family membership is required of entrants into coronet or crown tournaments. Having your favor carried is considered also to be an entry in this sense. You need to be living in the house where a newsletter comes, and you need to be a member.

What is an associate membership good for? It's a way to have a membership card, which sometimes gets people into events at a discount. If two people in one house want to go together, one sustaining and one associate is a little less expensive than a family membership. For three or more family membership is better. For the small cost we pay for sustaining membership, it seems a shame for someone not to get one. The worst excuse I've heard for people not wanting two memberships is that they didn't want to have extra newsletters and an extra T.I. One of the finest gifts you can give a newcomer is some old T.I.'s with articles they'll be able to use. People never have to get the same kingdom newsletter. If there's already a copy of your kingdom's newsletter at your house, you can change yours to a neighboring kingdom, or one where you have friends or relatives. Just let the registry know in writing.

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