West Kingdom Welcome Committee

Year-end Report and Newsletter - 8 January 2005

(All content by Frederick of Holland, Chairman, WKWC.)

WKWC to continue for another year.

As announced in the December Page, the WKWC will continue to offer to pay the NMS for any who owe it and are willing to accept our offer. This will continue throughout the year 2005. As noted in that announcement, this is not just for newcomers, but also for those coming back after a stop-out, or those who have just temporarily forgotten to renew their membership. The WKWC is about welcoming all non-members, not about asking why they are not.

We continue to believe that the Board-mandated NMS is un-welcoming, un-necessary, and un-Western. We continue to oppose it in our idiosyncratic way.

Year-end Report - 12th Night, 2005 (AS 39)

On the back of this sheet is the report on the year's activities of the WKWC. The total amount paid is just a bit less than was paid out last year. The amount donated is somewhat less than last year as well, possibly because I didn't feel like pumping donations for the WKWC at smaller events or even much at bigger events. However, in order for the WKWC to continue to operate, at least at my hands, I need to see that people do support it. So, I will be standing up in more courts and asking people who support the WKWC to do so with their dollars.

On the other hand, we have had a lot of verbal, operational (and monetary) support from lots of different people. This does keep me optimistic about the state of the West Kingdom ideals of generosity and openness. I would especially like to thank Alberic, Christophe, Fearghus, Wulfstan, and all the other Constables and gate wardens who have helped make it easy for the WKWC to operate. We have also had a great deal of support from the Kingdom Exchequer and the Principality Exchequers, who have made it easy for me to handle the money matters. And I would especially like to thank the various autocrats who have allowed the WKWC to be present even when I could not be present.

One of the great happenings of the year was the WKWC presence at the gate at West/An Tir war. Since the West was running it, it was a West Kingdom event and the WKWC was there. This startled a good many of the visitors from An Tir. The Prince of Tir Righ (the northern principality of An Tir) was particularly impressed and wanted to know how to set up a Principality version.

An editorial on honor and trust.

At the Great Officer Meeting in November a new and exceptionally un-Western policy was announced to those attending. The policy would be that checking of membership cards at the gate/door of events would become mandatory. I objected at the time and the policy has not actually been publicly announced, so perhaps it won't happen that way, but that's not the point of this editorial.

The reason given for this change of policy (which was announced by the Seneschale) is that she had been checking the gate rosters against the SCA membership list (why she was doing this was not revealed) and she had discovered that a significant percentage of those coming in the gate had apparently lied or been mistaken about their membership status. (I do hope that she had membership lists that were of the same date as the event, and not those of some time earlier or later, since that would have the potential to seriously bias the results.)

Now, a few people would have been no problem, but she claimed that over 15% were wrong! If that number is correct, then I have to accept that a certain number of them were deliberate mis-representations of membership status. And I have to ask a serious question.

Where is the honor that I thought the people of the West had? And what is the possible reason for lying about this matter when the WKWC is available to take any financial burden off the person coming in the gate? I am very disappointed in some certain subset of the subjects of the West, both because of the lack of honor and because of the destruction of one of the nicest things about gates at West Kingdom events, the acceptance of the word of the person coming in as to his or her membership status..

How to use the WKWC

The WKWC will cover ANY West Kingdom event, wherever located. All the Autocrat and Constable for the event have to do is to record the gate results and offer the WKWC payment to those who attend. Then write or e-mail me and let me know what the WKWC owes. The check will be in the mail the same day. If you collect donations, please let me know how much was donated.

Donations, commentary, etc. may be sent to:

Address: Flieg Hollander, 3334 California St. Berkeley, CA, 94703. E-mail: flieg@berkeley.edu

Website: http://xray.cchem.berkeley.edu/flieg2/wkwc


Monetary report on the activities of the WKWC in 2005

Event Date No. Attendees Non-members WKWC WKWC Cost Donations
Twelfth Night 1/3/04 696 132 71 $213.00 $172.00
Danegeld Tor 13th Night 1/10/04 25 11 6 $18.00 $1.00
Cynagua Investiture 1/24/04 190 38 18 $54.00 $8.00
White Shield (need data) 2/29/04 170 30 unknown unknown $18.00
Tarnmist Court of Love 3/6/04 unknown unknown unknown unknown $0
March Crown 3/13/04 1300 unknown 107 $321.00 $335.00
Collegium Occidentalis 3/26/04 76 15 1 $3.00 $13.00
EQ Tourney 4/17/04 40 7 5 $12.00 $3.00
M/C War 4/24/04 200 20 4 $12.00 $12.00
Beltane 5/1/04 632 227 88 $264.00 $144.40
Caer Darth Poacher Feast 5/8/04 33 12 12 $36.00 $0.00
Mists Investiture 5/15/04 147 9 8 $24.00 $36.00
Duchess War 5/22/04 68 unknown 4 $12.00 $8.00
Cynagua Coronet 5/29/04 551 224 86 $258.00 $21.00
June Crown 6/11/04 610 141 70 $210.00 $124.00
L'Esercizo della Spada 6/18/04 30 1 0 $0.00 $23.00
Collegium Nebulorum 6/26/04 134 13 6 $18.00 $86.00
West An Tir War 7/2/04 1034 357 112 $336.00 $78.03
Cynagua Investiture 7/9/04 217 36 26 $78.00 $29.00
A&S Tourney 7/31/04 310 44 0 $0.00 $13.00
Westermark Madness 8/6/04 70 22 16 $48.00 $16.11
Golden Rivers Rapier 8/13/04 46 13 10 $30.00 $1.00
Purgatorio 8/28/04 253 30 23 $69.00 $18.00
Mists Coronet 9/18/04 199 26 19 $57.00 $45.00
Mists/Cynagua War 6/23/04 175 16 9 $27.00 $0.00
Oct.Crown 10/16/04 798 206 122 $366.00 $164.00
Cynagua Coronet 10/30/04 301 67 28 $84.00 $51.00
Mists Investiture 11/13/04 unknown n/a n/a $0.00 $20.00
Vakkerfell Champ./Feast 11/20/04 54 18 10 $30.00 $30.00
Golden Rivers Banquet 11/28/04 85 14 10 $30.00 $0.00
Beaconsgate Boar Hunt 12/4/04 102 7 4 $12.00 $10.00
Rivenoak Yule 12/11/04 87 20 8 $24.00 $0.00
Year Totals $2,646.00 $1,479.54
Amount I paid ($1,166.46)
Percentage covered by donation 56%


The "unknown" quantities are those which were not reported to me. Quite often I was given total attendance

and number of people who accepted the WKWC offer and that was all.

n/a is for events which were donation only, or free.