ANST - membership

[Michael Tucker]

Greetings from Michael Silverhands:

"Mark.S Harris" wrote:
> 
> Michael Silverhands wrote:
> > We have a drawing for a door prize at Stargate's monthly Populace meeting.
> > Everyone with a membership card puts it into a "hat". We usually have a nice
> > door prize that's been donated; but if not, Baroness Neassa and I buy the winner
> > a year's subscription to the Baronial newsletter.
> 
> Interesting idea.
> 
> Does everyone remember to get their card back at the end of the meeting? Or
> do folks often dash out and forget to get their card back?
> 

We usually put the box on a table up front and remind all members present to put
their cards in for the drawing. Then we usually choose a youngster to act as
"page" for the Barony. They draw the winner, which we announce; then they get to
go around the room with the box, returning everyone's cards. This give them a
quiet, useful activity to do for several minutes; gets everyone's cards returned
to them; and helps our youth learn everyone's names (*grin*).

> I can see some advantages in donating a year's subscription to the Baronial
> newsletter rather than an SCA membership. The most obvious is that it is
> cheaper, so the money can go farther. Secondly, I often think the local
> newsletter is more useful for newcomers than an SCA membership since local
> events, guilds, meetings and such will probably be of more interest to
> them,
> at least initially, than events on the otherside of the kingdom or what
> the current Kingdom officers have to say.
> 

Yes, that's why we give newcomers one free issue of the Baronial newsletter
(usually on their first visit). It has all the local contact info, plus a
schedule of our guild meetings and other local activity for a couple of months.
(It's cheaper to print 100 copies of the newsletter, and we have less than 100
subscriptions. So we use the extra copies as handouts for newcomers, demos, etc.)

However, remember the door prize drawing is for *members*. If we give away a
subscription to the newsletter, it will go to a member, not a newcomer who
hasn't joined yet.

> What do you do if the winner already has a subscription? Add another
> year on? Have them donate it to someone else?
> 

They get a year added to their subscription.

> What kinds of prizes have you given out?
> 

I probably don't remember everything that's been donated, but here's a sampling:
an Egyptian-style glass perfume bottle, a book on period garb, a copy of the
Knowne Worlde Handbooke, a book on heraldry, some trim for garb... basically,
nice SCA-related stuff that somebody didn't want anymore and was willing to
donate (rather than garage sale or something else).

We usually have around 50 people attending our Populace meeting, of which
probably 30-40 are members. I feel very fortunate to be a part of such a large,
dedicated group of people. :-)

> Thanks.
>   Stefan li Rous
>   stefan at texas.net

You're very welcome. :-)

Yours,
Michael
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