"You should tell your readers that if they don't like reading,
they could just become paid national members right now,
neatly avoiding the whole question of whether or not
to read any of your page with a little money!
Even before the page's first header."
-- Aeldred The Wise And Perspicacious


What is the SCA's Non-Member Surcharge (NMS), and why does it exist?

[FIRST, THIS DISCLAIMER: You should know that I'm not quoting a single certainly-reliable source of information; I'm just trying to share some information from memory, what "I have heard around". I'm trying to be helpful, but I have to hang my head and admit that you really have no more reason to believe me than you have to believe that grubby guy in the stained trench-coat who wanders around the diner downtown muttering that Frank's bacon is some kind of mind-control device. Is that enough of a disclaimer for realistic folks?]

The Society For Creative Anachronism, Inc. (the SCA) has a website of its own at http://www.sca.org where you can get word "straight from the charger's keyboard", as the saying kinda goes. On 9/20/2011, I found this NMS Policy (PDF). What you want to read is the "How the NMS Applies" section.



WHAT is it?


The Non-Member Surcharge is a surcharge (an amount of money, extra cost) added to the site fees for certain people who are not "paid members of the national organization, the SCA", attending SCA events. (In the SCA, a "site fee" is the price of admission; we call it that because it usually goes mostly toward recouping the cost of renting a site for an event.) On 9/20/2011, I found this NMS Policy (PDF). What you want to read is the "How the NMS Applies" section.

(Interestingly, it lists those for whom a site fee does not need to be collected. By the way, the document does not explicitly say so, but members are never charged the NMS; I guess the name says enough :) . Basically, it is only collected for those for whom a cash site fee is collected, except for minors who get a discount. Look elsewhere to find the proper definition of minor, please.)

Even if you read no further, you should also know that the NMS paid goes to the Corporate organization, NOT to the local group paying to rent the site and run most of the event's activities.


WHY is it?


So why do non-members have to pay a little more to get into an SCA event?

Please remember my disclaimer, above :) . The SCA, Inc. (including any subsidiary/affilliate organization) pays for and maintains an insurance policy that is used to cover official SCA events held by official SCA groups. Some of the money for that cost -- and the raw number of dollars is large -- comes from the membership dues that "paid members of the national organization, the SCA" pay. And that makes sense, since the insurance helps protect them. Some of the money now comes from the NMS, which also makes sense, since the insurance helps protect all people attending an event, including non-members. As I understand it, just having the Corporate insurance policy in place also makes it possible to rent some facilities for events that would otherwise be unattainable or much more expensive for the sponsoring group.

In some very real ways, the incorporation and the insurance make it possible for this club to exist -- because I can't imagine anybody wanting all the liability, for a national or world-wide organization and its people, as an individual! (Heck, I wouldn't want liability for 30,000 members of a book club!!!)

It's a very nice thing that the SCA allows people who aren't members to attend its events and participate in them as fully as they do. As I understand it, very few clubs do that. So for the family that only attends a few events a year, for someone who is going watch their friend or relative become King or Queen or get a special award at one event, for a couple who want to "try out" the SCA by going to an event or three before deciding if they want to pay $37* per year apiece for a "sustaining membership", the NMS is a simple way to be able attend SCA events and pay their very small share of the cost of being able to have the SCA, while still letting them avoid or delay the full cost of a paid national membership.

* or whatever it has become by the time or century in which you read this ...


When is Membership cheaper than the NMS, and vice-versa?


One other thing: There is a point (a number of events attended in a year) below which paying the NMS makes financial sense, and above which becoming a paid national member, instead, makes more financial sense. Ignoring other benefits of paid national membership, and there are some, that break-even point changes with the cost of the type of membership you want and the cost of the NMS. When [NMS cost times the number of events you attend in a year] is greater than [yearly cost of the membership type you want], then it's time to be a member, assuming you can pay that cost all at once. (Right now, 02-21-2010, the most expensive type of membership is $35.00 US per year.)

Visit the SCA's official web site to check out the different types of paid national memberships, their benefits, and their costs. You may even decide it's a good idea to become a member before hitting the financial break-even point.


Remember, I'm just a guy trying to be helpful, and nothing on this page is official, or even necessarily correct. I'm not an officer of any sort related to the NMS. You can blame me if I'm incorrect, but you can't blame anyone else for my honest mistakes. And of course, I have no legal obligation to you in any case. This information is not part of any official anything from The Society For Creative, Inc. or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries, even if it happens to appear on one of their web pages or anywhere else at all. No part of this document may be swallowed, in part, or in whole. Playing in traffic can get really, really dangerous. Colleen Jansen is very probably still very cute, even though 5th grade was a long, long time ago. You know, so is Mary Pat D'agonstino, I'll bet, even though my crush on her ended a good three years before that. Sometimes things don't just happen. Chess is an even better game with the proper addition of [a random noun]. "Period" means a lot of different things to a lot of different people; context is critical, especially when dealing with high explosives. Try to be happy standing next to aluminum doors, and enjoy any show produced by Chuck Lorre. In particular, How I Met Your Mother starring Alyson Hanigan. Even if I spelled her name wrong. Cardamom is a fine random noun. When you read the red text above the page title, did you buy a membership right away, and skip reading the rest of this page? (That'd be cool.)

Well-meaningly Yours,
-- Dahrien Cordell =)

last edited: 6:23 AM 9/20/2011