msmemory_archive (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
msmemory_archive) wrote2007-09-28 03:44 pm
msmemory_archive) wrote2007-09-28 03:44 pm
Recruitment vs high standards
This is a half-developed notion. I have this theory percolating around my brain that the SCA's recent higher standards in many areas are in fact a barrier to recruiting new members.
Thinking back, when I joined the SCA, it was very much a do-it-yourself group. Nobody minded if you made a polyester velour tunic, or made a surcoat out of brocade curtains from a yard sale. We all politely ignored the pickle bucket armor, webbing folding chairs, and nylon tents, instead collectively imagining ourselves lords and ladies in samite and fur, living in bright pavilions, sitting on thrones. College students, young adults, and the poor could feel welcome, for their fantasy was just as good as anyone else's.
These days, all the trappings are available to anyone with enough money. You want turnshoes, sheepskin bedding, snowy linen robes, shiny armour? Just plunk down enough dollars and Poof! instant status. That random 19-year-old scholarship student, who would have been a shabby but respected herald in 1982? Well, now he's just shabby.
We've recreated class differences, and based them on modern incomes. No wonder we aren't bringing in or retaining the peripheral, young, or poor members who historically have been the SCA's lifeblood.
ETA: I'm not claiming innocence here either: I am at least as guilty as most of spending my "look! no kids!" income on finery while that early garb molders in the attic.
Thinking back, when I joined the SCA, it was very much a do-it-yourself group. Nobody minded if you made a polyester velour tunic, or made a surcoat out of brocade curtains from a yard sale. We all politely ignored the pickle bucket armor, webbing folding chairs, and nylon tents, instead collectively imagining ourselves lords and ladies in samite and fur, living in bright pavilions, sitting on thrones. College students, young adults, and the poor could feel welcome, for their fantasy was just as good as anyone else's.
These days, all the trappings are available to anyone with enough money. You want turnshoes, sheepskin bedding, snowy linen robes, shiny armour? Just plunk down enough dollars and Poof! instant status. That random 19-year-old scholarship student, who would have been a shabby but respected herald in 1982? Well, now he's just shabby.
We've recreated class differences, and based them on modern incomes. No wonder we aren't bringing in or retaining the peripheral, young, or poor members who historically have been the SCA's lifeblood.
ETA: I'm not claiming innocence here either: I am at least as guilty as most of spending my "look! no kids!" income on finery while that early garb molders in the attic.
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This will probably sound ridiculous, but I have never felt like I truly "fit in" socially here in Carolingia. And I've been here long enough that I am pretty sure if I don't now, I'm not going to anytime in the future. Whatever; I do my jobs and projects and run my events and try not to worry about it too much.
What this has to do with economics or class, if anything, I'm not sure.
Other than the other Simmons students, the people that reached out to me when I was new were the laid-back ones I'm still camping with now, eating our hot dogs at the camping events and buying half our kits at Wal-Mart. Doing thrown weapons because it's fun, but also because you don't have to buy anything to participate. Same for dancing. Now, part of that is definitely economic - several of us just don't have much to throw around. On the other hand, I often have the feeling that even if one of us won the lottery, we'd still be eating our hot dogs and playing cards and rolling ice-cream-maker balls around under our hoopskirts. ("We'd still eat Kraft Dinner, we'd just eat more of it, and use fancy ketchup...")
The people I often hang with are not the most period people on earth, and I don't think they have any desire to be. And there are times when I love that, and times when it's stifling. But it makes them accessible. No one has to worry about not being up to snuff, no one feels badly because they accidentally talked about LiveJournal or can only afford cotton garb and a nylon tent.
I don't play at the level a lot of people in the Barony do, and there are a lot of reasons for that, of which money is only one. But the fact that I don't play at that level and probably never will is an awkward thing for me at times, and one of which I am quite often aware. I sometimes feel like there's an unspoken "But you could play at that level, if you wanted to..." And I probably could, but I've made other choices for the time being.
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One notable incident was when I was demonstrating sugar paste techniques, and someone called me out for using sugar paste mix from a bag (rather then making it from scratch with gum tragacanth and powdered sugar). Sure, it wasn't exactly period, and I totally have the ability to make sugar paste at that higher level. I've done it before. However, it adds so much hassle to the process that I feel like the "fun" part of making sugar sculptures is diminished by the "obligatory, period" part. So I choose not to.
I guess, in some ways that may be why I don't play very much anyomre. I kind of hit the ceiling on "improving accuracy". (My first garb was calico cotton, FYI.) It isn't that I couldn't do things in yet more period ways, it's that I hit the turning point where pushing the envelope even further isn't fun anymore.
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*nods* *nods* *nods*
Yup - I can relate to that comment.
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Not necessarily, time can change these things. Certainly I once felt like I fit in socially, and certainly I don't any more. That's the more usual delta over time, but it's possible things could change the other direction. Just sayin'.
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I think that may be true for most of us, strange as that seems.
When I first started, I was 19 and very blue-collar. I was very self-conscious about my lack of education and lack of money.
Luckily, I soon figured out that I had some skills that I could contribute. I already knew how to camp comfortably, how to spin wool and brew, and how to cook inexpensive meals for a fairly large group. I'm a good listener, so I'm usually a good audience for quiet entertainers. I also met some wonderful people who patiently answered my questions about lots of different things. So, I ended up sticking around :-)
However, even now, I still have plenty of those moments when I look around and think "Who the heck are these people? Gee, I don't even recognize many of them. I'm not even sure we're playing the same game. What am I doing here?"
When that happens now, I make a point to try to meet some of them, but it isn't always easy to step outside of my comfort zone.
Please keep in mind that even on days when you aren't feeling like one of the cool kids, someone may be envying all the fun you are having while you are eating Kraft Dinner with your campmates :-)
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I would most like to learn about foods that are appropriate for Dreda (late 12th/early 13thC English) or Lucien (late 16thC Breton/French), but I will happily start with any period recipes that fit the bill, figuring that it's a step forward from where I am!
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I can certainly come up with some early English recipes/foods. I haven't looked at the Anglo-Norman recipes in a while, so this would be a great excuse :-)
I'm less familiar with the French (I bet Jehan and Luke would have some good ideas). Let me see what I can come up with.
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