[SCA-AE] SCA budget

[CountessAlexandra at verizon.net]

I enjoy number crunching (go figure), so I thought I'd do some analysis on
the budget:
*based on last year's numbers*

30% of expenses went to publications
10% of expenses were from the BoD or SCA Officers expenses
60%!! of expenses were from the Corporate Office.

Ok, so where did the Office money go?
15% went to rents, maintenance, ect.
10% went to Legal and Accounting fees
30% went to insurance
40%!! went to Salaries.
5% assorted other


I think that is the real problem.  Not so much that the rent is high, but
that salaries are high in CA.  I hope that Renee has some minions to help
her get everything done, but over $250K a year in salaries is a lot.

As Fridrikr said, there has been many many years of discussions about moving
the office. I don't think it is going to happen.  

Regarding BoD meetings, the BoD has stated that they like to travel to other
Kingdoms to give members the chance to attend a meeting in person.  I think
this is a good thing.  I have had a chance to attend 2 meetings, and got to
put faces to the Big Scary BoD.  I wish everyone could do this to see that
the members of the Board of Directors are all SCAers.  They have all been in
the SCA for years.  They were all known and loved enough in their Kingdom to
get onto the Board.  These people are trying to do the best they can.  (ok,
getting off my soap box now).

As others have said, the SCA is a great deal for your money.  Warning, I'm
stepping back onto that soap box.  I personally don't understand why most
people are not a member.  If you love something you support it.  My second
year I purchased a membership.  I have had one ever since.  This was before
the NMS.  It's only $20/year.  I spend more than that almost every time I
leave my house.  The sad fact is that membership has declined almost every
year since 2003.

And that brings us to the NMS.  See, to me this can be an opportunity for
the chatelaines.  We should have a chatelaine table near troll, with a big
sign that says "New to the SCA?  Start here."  With donated funds, the
chatelaines could pay the NMS for the newcomer, and give them some "welcome
to the SCA" type literature.  Then the newcomer could be assigned a buddy if
they so want.  Maybe that would help to turn that negative into a positive.

Alexandra