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.
no subject
I still remember my first event, in November of 1983. Dark hall, candle-lit, some skits from a play that was definitely NOT period, but dealt with period matters (I still can't see that movie without thinking of those actors and not the ones on the screen). I had just been to the "Beast Feast" about two weeks before, and got to meet a whole group of people I'd never seen before but who were willing to talk to the newbies. And then there was this big guy who helped me out as I was using a flimsy plastic fork and knife to try to carve a bit of lamp from the carcass for myself - my first impression of him was of this large arm and truly gigantic knife coming from behind me to slice off a slab and put it on my plate. And at this event, here he was at the other side of the room with a white belt and some sort of coronet. Apparently he was seen eating with his hands; someone else shouted out "Use the fork, Duke!".
My favorite event? It would have to be one of the Poulet Gauche events. There was that atmosphere, that *magic*, that had attracted me in the first place. And yet again anyone could go - no barriers. If the SCA is the "best parts" of the middle ages, then events such as that are the "best parts" of the SCA.
(Yes, I should have gone to Crossroads. I plead extreme busy-ness: this Friday I start to come down from the month-long holiday season. On the other hand, I get to sit back and laugh and most everyone else goes crazy in December. :-) ).