New Policies and Procedures

There have been many changes to the SCA's insurance and financial requirements.
Recent changes have meant that our insurance now requires non paying members of the SCA to pay a $5 'event membership' (previously $2) to ensure they are covered by our insurance for participation.

There are two indemnities that we sign.  The first is one that accompianies our membership and the second is at the individual event / activitiy that we attend.

The SCA is now also required to pay GST.

There is a lot of discussion still happening around the roll out of these new policies and processes and we will continue to update this page if changes happen.

New Insurance FAQ

August FAQ - this links to the Lochac website pdf.

A couple of key things to note:

There are three changes that will happen from September 1 2012:
1. Our insurer has decided that indemnities must be done at all SCA events and activities.
2. Six-month indemnities are no longer allowed. Everyone must sign a member sign in sheet
or an indemnity at each and every SCA event or activity.
3. Member without card indemnities are no longer allowed. Members who cannot prove
they have a valid membership must sign non-member indemnities and pay an Event
Membership.

Local Impact:
At St Florian fighter practice and Arts & Sciences meetings, we previously signed an indemnity that covered a six month period.
We now must sign an indemnity at every activity we attend, eg every week at fighter practice. 
Members must also be able to prove their indemnity is current (more info in FAQ below)

What about demos?
For the SCA in Australia demos count as events and so all of our participants must be
subscribing members of SCA Ltd or Event Members who have signed indemnities and paid
the Event Membership fee. For members of the public, they must sign indemnities and pay an
Event Membership fee if (and only if) they participate in any SCA activity. Holding a sword to
look at it is not participation, swinging that sword at a pell is participation. Holding a bow is
not participation, drawing it is.

Local Impact:
This paragraph outlines a small definition of particitpation.  So if someone wanders up to a local tourney in a park and has a chat about what we are doing, picks up a bit of armour or a sword to have a look at it there is no problem.  If we allow someone to stike an aromoured leg or shield 'to see how it feels', then that would be participation and requires them to pay the 'event membership'.

I have a one year membership do I need to renew my indemnity?
Yes, you do need to renew your indemnity. While your indemnity is less than a year old and
therefore fits our insurer's requirements the constables have no way of knowing this when you
sign in. Your card shows that an indemnity was signed but not when it was signed and the
membership expiry date bears no relation to the indemnity expiry date because we have
multi-year memberships which could have been taken out 2, 3 or 5 years ago and the
indemnity is out of date once a year has passed.

Local Impact:
Everyone must re-sign an indemnity for their current membership.  if you have a multi-year membership itwill need to be redone for every year of that membership.
The process is below.

How to update your Indemnity:
The insurance changes now require that all members fill out an annual indemnity to coincide with their membership.  To update yoru annual indemnity for membership plese follow the following process:

To ensure our members indemnities are current as of the 1st September 2012 we ask that all members do the following:

1 -Logon to the Membership Services section of the SCA Australia website using the following
URL - http://lochac.sca.org/members.html

2 - Once you have logged in, select the option labelled "Update and print indemnity or change address etc. details". This will take you to the membership update option with all your current details displayed. Scroll to the bottom of that page and select your acceptance of the indemnity and click the submit button.

3 - Once this is done a new page will be displayed at top of which you will see a section labelled "Indemnity update". You will need to print out this page and cut out the indemnity update part and stick it to the back of your membership card. Once this has been done then on presenting your card at an event the constable will check your card to ensure your indemnity is current. Please note if you are updating multiple memberships you need to print off the Indemnity Update page each time otherwise you will have to reapply for a current indemnity for those you missed.

4 - If your indemnity isn't current when attending an SCA event or activity then you will need to sign a Members without cards indemnity form. You will only need to sign the indemnity you will not have to pay the $5 fee as the membership expiry date on your card is proof of current membership.

The Board apologises for the inconvenience this may put people through but it is the only safe way to proceed. The Board therefore asks all members, in the spirit upon which our society was founded, to help us make sure we are properly covered by insurance for all the activities we enjoy as members and get the proof of indemnity added to your card.

GST:

The SCA is now required to collect, report and pay GST on its income.  This will affect most heavily impact the people who are running events and of course the Reeve (Financial Officer).
We will work to minimise the procedural impacts to ensure we can meet our financial compliance and reporting in the simplest way possible.
The reporting to the Australian Tax Office will happen at the Kingdom / Board level. 

Local Impacts:
At a local level our responsibilities are to advertise correctly (eg GST included) and to ensure we record those details are reported to kingdom level correctly.

Nothing has changed in the need to keep receipts for events and match expences for event reporting.  The Reeve will work closely with Event Stewards to support them to meet the requriements for recording GST.  If you have any concerns, questions or suggestions please contact either the Reeve or the Seneschal.