Greetings, good Cousins, from the Incoming and Outgoing Chair of the CIC Board.

We have a few announcements to make and a few details to go through, and we felt this changeover period was a good time to do so. It’s good news, so bear with us!

First, we would like to take a brief moment to explain to some of our newer members what the CIC is and how it affects our game. In order for SCA members in the UK and Ireland to continue playing we have various legal responsibilities to meet, including registration with various national official entities and obtaining insurance for our members. To represent us in this outward facing, mundane required world we have the CIC, our EXECUTIVE layer. Within our daily lives playing as SCA members we are represented by our OPERATIONAL leaders, our Seneschal, Coronet and the officer team.

The CIC keeps track of membership, negotiates our insurance and maintains whatever records are required for that purpose. The CIC board would be the conduit through which our members are represented in law, should that arise. As such we are not particularly visible in the day to day lives of our members.

Our most visible function, - insurance procurement and maintenance - has been much discussed over the past year, as there were various elements that were an admin headache for everyone involved. This was necessary because we were obliged to work with two different insurance models, one in Ireland and the other in the UK. We want to take time now to thank everyone for working so well over the last year to ensure we continued to be compliant.

We are very pleased to announce that our insurance is now with one insurance company for the UK and Ireland instead of with two as before. This means that we

  1. no longer need to ask about shotgun licence information,
  2. that the Irish Shires and Barony are covered for equestrian activities and,
  3. most gratifyingly, we do not need to raise our membership fee this year.
  4. Event stewards do not need to send lists of members attending an event before an event, but will need the list of attendees that is included in the normal event steward report that gets sent to the Insulae Draconis Sensechal after the event. A photograph of the sign in sheet with signatures is sufficient.
  5. As part of this after event report we must receive the membership number of everyone, including from other membership systems elsewhere in the KIngdom and the known world,
  6. The “Waiver” sheet will no longer be used, just sign in sheets.

HOWEVER, insurance covers people who have been paid for through Membermojo, which means new people who are not members will need to be set up in the system prior to an event, so notification of those people still should be sent in advance of an event so they are temporarily at least added to the system. The surcharge for non members is on a per day basis, so costs quickly mount up.

The biggest change is that we need, as an organisation, to set priority on purchasing membership as soon as possible once someone starts participating, to ensure smooth and clean insurance cover for everyone. That includes the person themselves, the staff at events they go to, and the officers of Shires, Barony and lands of Insulae Draconis. The idea of a new member surcharge doesn’t get that person registered with membermojo, which they need to be. Really this is coming down to having to organisationally recognise that a new person would be able to attend one event as a trial but to be properly, legally covered they must be registered as a member to continue after that. If Shires wish to subsidise or fund new member memberships this is fine.

Everyone who has any sort of responsibility at demos, events and so one must be a member to properly ensure they are covered, but also to cover them, for example, with dealing with a member of the public at a demo handling equipment as so on.

Insurance is a requirement in our modern lives, and we cannot ask volunteers running events and practices to accept liability on an ongoing basis for other people.

If there are any questions please make contact at bod-chair@insulaedraconis.org.

Yours in service,

Magistra Ysabella-Maria de San Lazaro, OP
Outgoing Chair

THL Órlaith Chaomhánach
Incoming Chair