Twelfth Night, XXXVIII (3 Jan., 2004)
West Kingdom Welcome Committee News
(All content written by Frederick of Holland, Chairman WKWC)
WKWC for one more year (at least).
Due to the generosity of the people of the West, the WKWC will continue to offer to pay the $3 Board Tax for "non-members" at Western events (Kingdom, Principality and Local) for at least the next year (2004 CE).
Totalling the payments made to the SCA, Inc. and the donations to the WKWC by the members of the West Kingdom populace shows that at least $2,871 was paid to welcome people to the West. More than $1800 of that amount was donated by members of the populace other than myself (Frederick). Some of this donation was in small bills, some in large checks - all of it fills my heart with gladness that I live in such a generous Kingdom. I'm going to list a few people below who have been especially helpful, but I could not fit everyone even if I used this entire page. You ALL have my thanks.
When I started the WKWC, I was prepared to invest a lot of my own money into expressing my feelings that forced donation to the SCA, Inc. was against the traditions of the West and against the best interests of the SCA as a whole. Due to the generosity of the people of the West, I have not had to. So, I am prepared to continue to head up the WKWC for at least another year and to continue to offer freedom of choice to non-members coming in the gate.
How to Use the WKWC
Kingdom and Principality events are covered by arrangement with the Exchequer and Constable. Local events can be covered either by an in-person representative of the WKWC or by the autocrat calling or writing me and reporting the number of non-members who accepted the WKWC offer. The check will be in the mail the same day. The Barony of Rivenoak has been using this method for their events. If you, as an autocrat wish to use this method, we ask that you put out a donation box as well.
As reported below, some groups are handling the WKWC all on their own. We like this idea; the WKWC is not supposed to be elitist, but welcoming, and welcome is best generated at the local level. It would be nice if local people told us what was going on, so we could evaluate the impact of the WKWC, but you know, we can't require
The Year in Review
The WKWC started off the year at Twelfth Night. For the first few months all we had to cover were Principality and Kingdom events, but starting in May, we attempted to cover as many regular events as possible. There was some perception that I had to be there which took a while to dissipate.
Now some special thanks:
Thanks to Master Bjarni Edmundsson of York, Oertha, particularly Silveirgard, has been covered. After an initial donation of seed money (which was returned unused) it has been self-sustaining, to the extent that I have not had a report from them for six months. Thank you Bjarni, and Margarita, and all of you who have donated.
In the Mists we have received excellent support, not only in money, but effort. Thanks especially to Christophe d'Avignon, who not only has made it easy to cover gate at Principality events, but who has also run a mini-WKWC in Darkwood with the help of others.
In Cynagua, Master Johann von Drachenfels has provided great support for the WKWC, and I suspect him of having donated money to cover some events. Danegeld Tor has done their own events as far as I can tell.
And I must very especially thank Alberic Wolf, the Kingdom Constable, for his support at Kingdom events. I could not have represented the WKWC nearly as effectively if it were not for him.
All those people working and donating are why the figures on the back of this page represent the minimum donations and welcome-to-the-West payment totals of the WKWC.
It has been worthwhile. I have received thanks from many people for heading this up, but more importantly *WE* have welcomed people into the SCA.
A Minor Editorial
It was reported by the Exchequer at the Great Officer's Meeting in December that the overall non-member attendance at West Kingdom events was 19%. That means that only one in five attendees at Western events were not paid-up SCA members. This contrasts to reports from other Kingdoms that their non-member rate is on the order of 50% or even higher. We got to our non-member rate by NOT charging extra to non-members at the door. We were the only Kingdom in the Known World that did not charge a non-member rate before the Board-mandated NMS went into effect.
The acceptance rate for the WKWC offer is on the order of 40% to 50% overall. That means that I can estimate the total NMS from the West. It comes out to $6,000 to $7,000. If I multiply $7K times the number of Kingdoms, some of which are much larger than the West, I get $112K. This is almost equal to the $117K which I heard at the Board Meeting for the 2004 Budget NMS number. (I have no idea why the 2004 budget is not on the SCA webpage.)
This suggests several possibilities:
1. .The overall non-member rate is much lower than the anecdotal reports would suggest.
2. .Other Kingdoms are not paying their NMS.
3. .The Board has no idea what is going on.
At any rate, I continue to feel that the NMS is a bad idea, un-welcoming, and contrary to the ideals of the SCA. I much prefer to hear what was said by one newcomer who was paying for herself and four friends and was offered the WKWC: "You mean, you'd do that for us?"
Yes, we would. Welcome to the West.
(The WKWC accepts donations and offers of help from any who wish to
give. Please send donations to Frederick of Holland, Flieg Hollander,
3334 California Street, Berkeley, CA 94703, or see me at any event. The
WKWC is a private concern, so donations to the WKWC are NOT
tax-deductible.)
(return to news)
WKWC Accounting 2003
| Event | Date | Attendees | Non- | WKWC | WKWC | Donations |
| members | accepted | Cost | ||||
| Twelfth Night | 1/4/03 | unknown | unknown | 20 | $60.00 | $244.37 |
| Oertha Coronet | 1/17/03 | 140 | 24 | 24 | $72.00 | $104.00 |
| Cynagua Investiture | 1/25/03 | unknown | 19 | 19 | $57.00 | $12.00 |
| March Crown | 3/21/03 | 780 | 226 | 165 | $495.00 | $163.00 |
| Mists Coronet | 4/6/03 | 303 | 51 | 42 | $126.00 | $120.00 |
| Mists-Cynagua War | 4/12/03 | 120 | 21 | 15 | $45.00 | $43.00 |
| Ste Katharine's Feast | 4/13/03 | 51 | 17 | 12 | $36.00 | $18.00 |
| Westermark Banquet | 4/26/03 | 53 | 19 | 12 | $36.00 | $54.00 |
| "Winter's Gate Spring Collegium, April 26-27" | 4/26/03 | 25 | 7 | 5 | $15.00 | $15.00 |
| Silveirgard Baronial Creation | 5/23/03 | 91 | 20 | 20 | $60.00 | $48.00 |
| Cynagua Coronet | 5/23/03 | 436 | 120 | 29 | $87.00 | $74.00 |
| Mists Investiture | 5/10/03 | 180 | 31 | 18 | $54.00 | $57.50 |
| Beltane Coronation | 5/2/03 | 553 | 222 | 64 | $192.00 | $140.00 |
| Danegeld Tor Drumming*** | 6/7/03 | unknown | unknown | $0.00 | ||
| Winter's Gate Captaincy | 6/7/03 | unknown | 1 | 1 | $3.00 | $10.00 |
| Silveirgard Summer Hunt | 6/20/03 | 40 | 5 | 5 | $15.00 | $15.00 |
| June Crown | 6/20/03 | 1200 | 400 | 134 | $402.00 | $151.00 |
| Cynagua Investiture | 7/12/03 | 196 | 36 | 14 | $42.00 | $26.54 |
| A&S Tourney * | 7/26/03 | unknown | unknown | $0.00 | ||
| Purgatorio | 8/23/03 | 256 | unknown | 34 | $102.00 | $3.00 |
| Mists Bardic | 9/6/03 | 92 | unknown | 14 | $42.00 | $42.00 |
| Mist/Cyn War ** | 9/12/03 | unknown | 32 | $0.00 | ||
| Mists Coronet | 9/27/03 | 152 | 21 | 21 | $63.00 | $89.00 |
| October Crown | 10/4/03 | 897 | 335 | 160 | $480.00 | $89.00 |
| Debardchery | 10/18/03 | 35 | 5 | 2 | $6.00 | $0.00 |
| Equestrian Event | 10/19/03 | 60 | 10 | 5 | $15.00 | $0.00 |
| Cynagua Coronet | 10/31/03 | 411 | 125 | 48 | $144.00 | $18.00 |
| Mists Investiture | 11/8/03 | 163 | 18 | 2 | $6.00 | $164.00 |
| Rivenoak Championship | 11/8/03 | 56 | unknown | 6 | $18.00 | $0.00 |
| Collegium Occidentalis | 11/22/03 | 85 | 11 | 9 | $27.00 | $49.00 |
| Golden Rivers Anniv | 11/29/03 | 70 | 10 | 9 | $27.00 | $13.00 |
| Fettburg Yule | 12/6/03 | 65 | 11 | 11 | $33.00 | $16.00 |
| Jingles | 12/6/03 | unknown | unknown | 20 | $60.00 | $0.00 |
| Rivenoak Yule | 12/13/03 | 114 | 38 | 11 | $33.00 | $0.00 |
| Boar Hunt | 12/13/03 | 76 | 12 | 6 | $18.00 | $30.00 |
| Year Totals | $2,871.00 | $1,808.41 | ||||
| Covered by Frederick | ($1,062.59) | |||||
| Percentage covered by donation. | 63% | |||||
| 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. | ||||||
| * The WKWC was represented, but has not given me any numbers. In terms of donations, they must perforce equal the number of people who accepted the offer. | ||||||
| ** I was out of town and it is not clear whether or not WKWC was represented. | ||||||
| *** WKWC was represented, but gate cleared out without telling me information. |
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