ANST - Newcomers

Sat Apr 1 09:12:04 PST 2000

Greetings,
       I am sooo new to the SCA that I haven't even been to an event 
yet...nor am I signed up anywhere. I have heard of the SCA before 
but, I never really became interested in it until I ran into someone 
here at work who goes. I must say my first impression of the 
newcomers spot (website)is a little on the overwhelming side. There 
is a LOT to read!!! But, it would seem that there is much to the SCA 
to know. After all, it is a society much different than what most 
people live from day to day. So, I must appologize, I became a bit 
crafty and decided to join the mailing list in order to learn the 
ropes a little better before going to my first event. I have learned 
quite a bit by just reading these emails but, I can tell there is 
much more for me to learn!!!
      I like the idea of the business cards because it is something I 
can stick in my wallet and not loose! (Lord knows I loose as much as 
I can!) So, take my two cents worth or leave it.

A Newbie!!!!
Barbara

---- Begin Original Message ----

From: "Jennifer Smith" <jds-emma at operamail.com>
Sent: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 11:53:37 -0600
To: ansteorra at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: ANST - Newcomers

Isobel wrote:
> Is our problem that there is too MUCH information on the main 
Hospitaler's Web
> page?

Speaking as a relative newcomer (been in the SCA for just a 
smidge over a year now), I did read the entire 
newcomers/hospitaler's web area when I first started.  I didn't find 
it 
hard to find, but then I pretty much read EVERYTHING on the 
website, so...

Too much information?  Well... yes and no.  See below.

> *  Michael De La Mare's Guiding Hand is filled with lots of good 
information,
> both about the SCA in general and about Ansteorra.  I updated it a 
year or so
> ago, but there still are slight problems (doesn't have several of 
the newer
> non-armigerous awards on it).  The laws are probably also out of 
date.

This is pretty good in general, but you're right about it needing to 
be updated.  My biggest "too much info" area has to do with the 
kingdom laws and details about awards!  

Your standard newcomer probably needs/wants to know that there 
are awards, that convey various ranks (thus explaining the 
hierarchy), but the DETAILS of the awards probably can go in a 
separate document (referenced by the first), instead of being in the 
main newcomer document.  

Your standard newcomer may be interested to know that there are 
Kingdom (and Society) laws, but good grief, who wants to read that 
stuff for fun?  When you move to a new town, you aren't met by the 
welcoming committee and handed a stack of city laws, are you? 
Talk about dry reading. :)

Yes, the kingdom laws should be on the website.  I question 
whether they should be listed in the hospitaler's area instead of, 
say, the seneschal's area.  (A link to them could always be made, 
of course, wherever.)

> *  I've added "Forward into the Past", though it does not yet have 
images
> (anybody want to do some scanning???).  It's good enough to stand 
without them,
> and does have all of the very basic SCA information in it.  Who, 
what, where,
> why, when, how, etc.
>
> *Most of the articles that are normally passed out by local 
hospitalers are
> online in digital format.  They are primarily from TI.  Again, no 
alteration
> allowed.

Again, most of these are fairly good.  The problem is that no single 
one covers *everything* a newcomer needs to know *well*, and you 
have to read all of them to get a good well-rounded picture of just 
what exactly is going on.  Quite frankly, that's a lot of reading, 
and 
most of it just repeats what another one said.  

I'm not sure of the  perfect solution here, unfortunately (of 
course).  
I guess I would have liked to have seen (enough verbs there?) ONE 
document that explained in very basic terms what the SCA is, who 
plays in the SCA ('all kinds of people'), that there are kingdoms to 
regionalize things, who/what Ansteorra is, and then go into a bit 
about how local groups are organized, what an event is like etc.
And then have a fair number of links, well organized.  For example, 
"to read more about the SCA from different viewpoints:", "to learn 
more about organizational details: (awards, nobility, maybe laws)".

I've been meaning to redo (or actually, do) a section of our shire's 
website to have a very basic "who the heck are we and what are we 
doing" section.  

I seem to dimly recall that the main www.sca.org site was largely 
useless, but it's been over a year since I looked at it.

> Finally, one thing that we are doing in Bjornsborg is passing out a 
small 3-fold
> flyer with basic SCA info, local contact info, links to the web 
sites, etc, to
> those who show up at the park where we hold our fighter practices. 
 We have a
> great local deputy hospitaler who sets up a small table with the 
words, "Free
> Information" on a small sign, for those who are more shy.  Any 
group who wants a

This is a really good idea, I believe, but I'm thinking of actually 
shrinking it down to business-card sized  (maybe a two fold card if I 
need the extra space, but we'll see), on the theory that it's easier 
to hold onto a business card than even a 3-fold flyer, particularly 
by 
people out jogging at a park.  

At our last rapier practice, I talked to several people wandered up 
to watch, and the questions I got asked were 1) who are they, 2) 
what are they doing, and 3) do they go to faires.  These are the 
questions I intend to answer on a small card or flyer. :)

> copy of this flyer (artwork by Ragnar), can download it from the 
hospitaler
> site, in either pdf format (with a space to write in local phone 
numbers, etc)
> or as a MS Word document, for editing and personalization.  See if 
you can find
> it on the hospitaler site.  Let me know if it's too deeply buried.

Which reminds me, there's actually TWO sets of information in the 
hospitaler area which may need to be more obviously segregated.  
There's information FOR newcomers FROM hospitalers, and then 
there's information for other hospitalers.  Working for two different 
audiences is never easy.

I'm not sure how much this helped, if at all!  If I actually DO get 
around to doing a newcomers/intro section on our shire's site, then 
hopefully I'll have more concrete feedback.

-Emma de Fetherstan
Shire of Mooneschadowe

--
Jennifer Smith
jds-emma at operamail.com
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