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

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Hey - I'd be interested in that too! I'm doing OK with the medieval, but not so much with the "quick" and "easy" part, and I would love to learn. (If email is easiest, username@LJ works, and otherwise I'll just have to corner you at an event. ;)

[soteltie.livejournal.com]

Let me come up with some ideas to share with you at Falling Leaves. Do you want to know about foods from a particular time/place to fit a persona or will any old period recipes/foods do the trick?

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Alas, we will not be at Falling Leaves. (Sadly, pretty much the whole fall season is a wash for us.) Are you usually at Towers Project Days? We keep wanting to come up for one of those.

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!

[soteltie.livejournal.com]

I do go to most of the Towers Project Days, so that's a definite possibility. There is almost always a potluck dinner involved, so maybe I can prepare some samples of suitable recipes to share (no promises, will depend on my schedule).

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.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Yay! Second Sundays, right? We'll have to drop you a note next time one rolls around (we'll be away for the October one, and possibly November, now that I look at it!).

[soteltie.livejournal.com]

Usually 2nd Sundays, but once in a while they get shifted. When I get a chance to play with recipes, I will email any that look promising.