Recruitment vs high standards

[msmemory_archive]

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.

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

It is a gimme that higher standards are exclusionary. The SCA's success, and its concomitant academic disrespect, come from its low barriers to entry.

While I am nowhere as active as you are, I've still found the SCA to be largely a do-it-yourself group, with tremendous access to resources that don't require money. When I was younger, I noticed that students often had better kit than their elders, since they had more time.

I find the "cash for flash" availability to a form of parity, frankly.

Just another view. I wonder if you are confusing Carolingia's higher standards of excellence with the rest of the world?

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

If the problem were Carolingian only, I'd expect other regions not to be having trouble growing the membership numbers, but anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Ah.

If this were a membership issue, I'd probably relate it to age, era, and gas prices.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

"Era" may in fact be the true explanation. The SCA's time may be passing, as other organizations' times have come and gone in their turns. Culturally and collectively, we may have moved on from the hippie DIY days to the yuppie days.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Are we better than a video game, a beer and some pizza? :-)