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

[silme.livejournal.com]

In Drachenwald, there are re-enactment groups that are even more accurate than the SCA and fancier -- far more expensive than the SCA. One big difference, though, is that they don't tend to run as many events per year as the SCA do, and they focus on a very specific time period. Also, they usually are paid for their performances at castles and various period places. (One reason we can't use Hampton Court, for example, is that we're not a group like The Tudors that work with only one time period.)

But I do agree. What used to get by in the SCA tends to be 'shabby' nowadays. It's become a very expensive hobby. Someone in my area bought some amazing armour not too long ago. I heard he ordered it from Eastern Europe, so it probably was cheaper than had he been an American living in the US buying it from someone stateside. But still, when I heard how much he paid, I was shocked. The SCA isn't a cheap hobby, and here in Drachenwald, where even getting to events can be costly (petrol is running over US $7.00 per US gallon right now, and we need to fly a lot to events), it seems particularly high-priced.