Question of the Week...

[femkes_follies]

Which pretty much mostly applies to the North American crowd, the feedback from my Overseas Coterie is always appreciated.

While I think movements like "A Gathering of Fools" are a good thing (though I'm not convinced there will be enough pushback against current SCA inertia to do any good), it makes me curious:

Is anybody making any plans to salvage anything if/when we lose the lawsuit?

Talking with John in the car yesterday (more on the weekend in general later) it occurred to us that as devistating as it would be to loose all our assets, the sudden loss of liability insurance in itself would be even more crippling.

None of the big "Wars" will happen uninsured. Even the small events are threatened. Even if you could "pass the hat" to finance the site - I had to have a liability rider on my renter's insurance for my wedding. It was required by the event site. It wasn't all that expensive, but that was *mumble muble* years ago.....

John was positing hooking up with the sorta-local HEMA group. But doing anything of that sort would create a new Society with much greater focus on the arts martial and I do not mean archery. I don't oppose that but there are lots of people who will.

Herding all the cats back into one corral may be impossible as well. A lot of them will believe and insist that any form of centralization is bad. (They already hotly resent the BoD). More will believe that the Society can be remade in their image. Then there are the Ancient and Honorable Peers who will want everything put back the way it was....

So, I ask - is there anybody in your neck of the woods that is at least laying contingency plans?

Comments

[luscious_purple]

I hope I don't sound too ignorant when I ask this, but what is "A Gathering of Fools"? Is it a Midrealm thing? I did a couple of online searches, but the only references I found were (a) to a small household in An Tir and (b) documents that use the words "gathering of fools" and "scam" to refer to climate scientists. :-(

The Maryland branches have been spun off as "SCA-Maryland, Inc." This includes my barony, though it includes both the District of Columbia as well as a portion of Maryland. So far, the only effects we've seen are:

1) all the branches had to close out their old bank accounts and open new ones, and
2) it is more cumbersome to pay for an event by check, because the check must be made out to "SCA-Maryland, Inc., Barony of XYZ." (You can use "SCA-MD, Inc.," though.)

We are all aware of the lawsuit, since we are in a neighboring state (you do mean the Pennsylvania child molestation case involving some guy named Ben, right?). But we haven't been dwelling on it. Atlantians have plenty of other things to chew over....

[femkes_follies]

Thing is, the separate incorporation, if I understand correctly, is for tax purposes. I don't believe it will protect local assets from seizure in the event of a major judgement against the SCA, Inc. Otherwise, all corporations would just spin off other subsidiaries and transfer their assets in the event of a liability judgement.

(That is the suit I refer to, yes).

So, if you're considering having to try to put on events with no "nest egg" and no corporate liability insurance... now what?