[Ansteorra] Starting a new thread regarding the demo aspect, and gaining new members - a "Foreign" viewpoint

[Tega Albert]

Tulsa has also started a Ren Faire as well. It is in its infancy but will be
getting bigger. Northkeep has already had one demo and has three others
lined up for the year so far. The thing about certain demos, such as
elementary schools is that often the info doesn't get back home to mom and
dad. I tried pamphlets one year and saw plenty of them on the ground before
we left. This year I have a new angle. I got little coin charms with Queen E
on them... They were cheap, metal, and cool looking. The idea is to run a
string through them so the kids can wear them like a necklace. This is a lot
more likely to make it home so that it prompts parents to ask and the kids
to tell about their day.

 It really is time to take a proactive approach to attracting and
maintaining members. It doesn't take that much effort. One person stated
that it is all thrown to the Hospitaler and that is true sometimes. I have a
very strong belief that whoever takes the position should take it VERY
seriously and that progress should be made as a result of someone holding
that office. I am lucky in the respect that lots of people in our barony are
very welcoming and help me out by greeting newbies and lending a hand. This
last practice a newcomer said to me "You mean to tell me there are THAT many
people doing this?? Why doesn't anyone know about it?" Well, she has a
point. WHY don't they? As far as I am concerned, this is the most fun I have
ever had as an adult and I wanna tell people about it. So some goals this
year are lots of demos, Grub N Garb, media involvement and so forth.

 I really encourage all of you to ask yourselves what you can do. Whether it
is go up and talk to someone new, or spreading the word mundanely. This is a
positive thing and it can only get better!

On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 7:19 AM, Doug Copley <doug.copley at gmail.com> wrote:

> This sounds like a great event! We do have a demo in Norman, Oklahoma
> (called the "Medieval Fair" and sponsored by OU, located just south of
> Oklahoma City) that has a fair every year and the SCA does have a large area
> so that we are able to have siege weapons on display, multiple tents for A&S
> activities, dancing, archery / thrown weapons display, nobles/royals, and of
> course an area for fighting. There are 200 or so SCAdians that participate
> and help make the event possible and the fair has grown to over 300,000
> attendees during the 3 day event. We are working to try to do better
> recruiting during the event and we had some success last year from our
> efforts and hope to do even more this year.
>
> Vincenti
>
>
> William Arwemakere wrote:
>
>> Greetings all,
>>
>> Up here in the far north, we have two yearly events that are officially
>> public demos. Most of our demo's tend to be at schools, or smallish events
>> where maybe 15 - 20 SCA members show off what it is we do. These two
>> events
>> are very different.
>>
>> Ursulmas, held in late January (to celebrate the mythical St Ursul, the
>> bear) is the largest prize-tourney in An Tir. I'll not claim it's larger
>> than anything around, as I don't have stats to back the boast. This year
>> as
>> had an SCA attendance of 1300 people, and thousands of moderns came to
>> check
>> us out. (For note, the Heavy (chivalric) tourney had 162 fighters in the
>> list).
>>
>> June Faire, held the first weekend in June nearly takes over a small town
>> overlooking the ocean west of Seattle. We use the large grass fields in
>> town
>> (
>>
>> http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=port+gamble+wa&sll=49.122239,-122.733507&sspn=0.007962,0.024719&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Port+Gamble,+Kitsap,+Washington,+United+States&ll=47.854494,-122.585825&spn=0.004082,0.01236&t=h&z=17
>>  )
>>
>> Camping attendance can be as high as 2500 people, and over 10 000 moderns
>> come visit.
>>
>> Both of these local Baronies have a large upswelling of people at the
>> events
>> that follow. The focus of the events is to showcase as many aspects of the
>> SCA as possible. Of course the fighting gets the most attention, but there
>> are always excellent A&S displays and pomp and ceremony to let the people
>> know it's not just a bunch of fighters hitting each other. Show them the
>> "big show" then bring them to teh smaller newcomers events to help thm get
>> on their feet.
>>
>> Does Ansteorra have any large, public-friendly events like this?
>>
>> HL William Arwemakere
>> Kingdom Protector, An Tir
>> Archery Champion, Barony of Bordermarch, Ansteorra
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-- 
Montega Blackdragon
Hospitaler of Northkeep