To whom it may concern, (sent to Outlands Kingdom Seneschal, Society Seneschal, Ombudsman for Seneschal, Ombudsman for Outlands; cc comments alias; feel free to forward as needed)

I am writing because I am concerned with the process of investigating and communicating sanctions of SCA members. Since I joined the SCA in 2017, I have seen more instances than I would like when sanctions and investigations were handled poorly. I am glad to know that changes have been made since I last wrote the Board of Directors about this issue in 2019. However, issues with the process persist - I have heard of cases where investigations have been in progress for a year without resolution. In order to create an equitable Society, we need to address membership related issues in a timely manner, and we currently are not. I believe it is important for us to address this with procedural fixes.

I recently read the Investigator’s Guide from January 2021 (https://www.sca.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/InvestigatorsGuide.pdf) and Sanctions Manual from April 2024 (https://www.sca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sanctions-Manual-2024.pdf). I feel there are a few ways in which this guide could be improved in order to improve our Society. Here are the suggestions I have:

  • Remove the Crown from a decision-making role in the sanction process entirely. Winning a tournament does not mean you are qualified to make decisions in out-of-game proceedings with legal implications. Seneschals should declare sanctions in court when the crown previously would have. If the seneschal is unable to announce in court (for example, if life prevents the seneschal from attending a court, or if the crown doesn’t permit it), newsletter and/or email notice to the populace should be sufficient.
  • Add SLAs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-level_agreement) to all steps of the process. The seneschal looking for an investigator, or the investigator once assigned, should provide regular updates every 30 days on which steps are next in an investigation (or other regular cadence; once every 30 days is my recommendation for an update, even if the update is just that it is blocked until next month). If an investigator cannot be found after two regular updates, escalate up the chain, if we’ve reached the top of the chain and an internal investigator cannot be found after multiple updates, SCA Corporate should hire one externally. SCA Corporate should start considering the best way to ensure every case that needs an investigator is able to reach an investigator now. I have heard of several instances where it took multiple months to find someone able to begin an investigation, which meant that issues were not addressed in an appropriate and timely manner.
  • Publish transparency statistics on how many cases are investigated, and how many take more than six months or more than one year to resolve. I understand that investigations are sensitive and we can’t share the content of them; however, I feel it is important for us to have a pulse on the health of our society and our investigation process by providing anonymized summary statistics.

Thank you for your consideration; please let me know what the path forward is to implementing fixes, and if there is more I can say or do to help make our Society better. Please also confirm receipt of this email when you are able, as I’ve heard of recent issues causing SCA emails to not go through.

In service, Noble Anne of Østgardr (they/them), Silver Tyne of the Outlands, Silver Wheel of the East mka (omitted) member # (omitted), expiry (omitted)