Hot topic on our kingdom list, was just wondering if anyone else was talking about it as well.

>From the President, Patrick Anderson:

Earlier this year, I was asked by several people in the waterbearing
community to examine the various laws of states and countries related to
waterbearing as an organized and official activity of the SCA, Inc.
Various states have informed officers of the SCA, Inc. that while our
activity does not directly violate the food codes or health regulations
of their states, if there were to be an outbreak of illness, the SCA,
Inc. could be held liable for that outbreak. Several health care
professionals and attorneys have reviewed this topic and agree with this
assessment.

I was asked to examine the best way to both ensure a safe fighting
environment for our fighters, and to comply with the various state and
country laws. The relevant laws vary from state by state, county by
county and country by country. I determined that the best way to do this
would be to make “waterbearing” unofficial and unsanctioned by the SCA,
Inc. and proposed this change to the Board. The only other option would
be to regulate waterbearing, and to regulate it such that it follows the
various food safety codes of the various states and countries the SCA
participates in. This would be unwieldy, impractical and expensive for
the SCA to do. Further, it is likely that waterbearers would not be able
to continue to serve our fighters using any of the current methods of
waterbearing.

The proposal put before the membership for comment would stop
waterbearing by any SCA branch or other official group. The SCA would
not have an office of waterbearer at any level. Marshals would still be
permitted to allow waterbearers on the field, but any waterbearing must
not be done by any officially sanctioned or regulated groups of the SCA.
Households are welcome to provide water to fighters, as are unofficial
and unrecognized “guilds”. This does not bar groups from putting out the
"serve yourself water coolers" at events. (In my Kingdom they are
usually the big orange cylinders.)

The Board and Corporate officers understand that many people have spent
time waterbearing within the official framework, and now hope that you
continue to volunteer unofficially. This proposal has been brought to
enable fighters to continue to have a waterbearing service provided to
them, without the extremely strict governance that official waterbearing
will require.

The actual text of the proposed rule is below. This rule has not yet
been approved by the Board, and is being sent out for comment here. The
Directors request comments from the membership regarding this proposed
revision no later than October 1st, 2008. Please send them to:
Corpora Revision
SCA Inc.
Box 360789
Milpitas CA, 95036
email: comments at sca.org

Thank you for commenting.

Patrick Anderson
President, Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.

Proposed language to be added to Corpora:
The activity of providing beverages to combatants and spectators at SCA
Combat activities is not regulated, warranted, organized, controlled, or
sanctioned by the SCA, Inc. or any affiliate or subsidiary entity. All
warrants, authorizations, or other formal recognition of this activity
are by publication of this change revoked. This document does not either
address or restrict such volunteer activity or the methods by which it
occurs.
--
Patrick Anderson
President
Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
president at sca.org
952-412-4112