[Ansteorra] Newbie Status

[willowdewisp at juno.com]

Lord Johann Kiefer Haydon
You are totally correct. Most people know nothing about "recruiting" I am a trained organizer. I did it for a living for about 5 years. My job was to create groups from nothing. I retired from the political field when I came to TX but I didn't stop organizing. I worked in Ansteorra. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Part of what you do as an organizer is to give people skills to get more people into your group. Getting more people into your group is what recruiting is all about.
In new groups your have start with strangers. These people don't have already created social linkage so the group, the entire group not just the officers, have to socialize the new person into the group. It is similar to raising a child but is a lot faster.  You have to help them along as parent would until they are ready to leave the nest. 
Many of our groups are not just a club they are a community and like any small town they get comfortable with the people and really don’t want outsiders in. Many of them have been hurt by people they invested time with; they want to wait to work with them until they are sure they will stay. . 
The problem is the world has changed. Young Adults are used to getting information fast. They want to incorporate into a group quickly and they want to start doing fun things as soon as they can. The army recruiting site talks about young people want to be treated as adults. They have no patience with being told to wait. 
We need to be ready to “mentor” people from the first moment they meet with the SCA. Also we need to able to continue to “mentor” people for years. We also have to “mentor” these people without talking down to them
 Recruiting in today’s world involves showing people that they can fulfill their Dreams in the SCA. To be able to do this we need a populace that knows a lot about how the SCA and how our kingdom works. They need practical knowledge and they need to be able to explain the different paths and how to succeed in the SCA so the new people can see that they can have a fun and creative and emotionally satisfying time. 
We need to set up some workshops on talking to new people and make sure the populace has enough data to be able to feel comfortable about talking to newcomers. 
Duchess Willow de Wisp
 
 
 
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