ANST - Heal Thyself first

[Keith Hood]

Are we dying?  I don't know what the numbers say but every organization has 
a life cycle just as real as the turning of the seasons.  It's only normal 
that paid membership numbers will go up and down in the course of time.  I 
would worry if people can truthfully say they think they've seen less 
participation than in the past, and that the rate of new people coming in 
has fallen off significantly.  Even those figures have to be bounced against 
normal, seasonal forces that cause the number of people on hand to vary, 
like work requirements, school schedules, economic conditions, etc.  So with 
the numbers properly qualified, do we then have good reason to think that we 
are in a general overall decline?  Only then does the word "dying" become 
relevant.

If anyone is worried about the SCA dying, the treatment would be to get it 
livened up.  I personally think we are suffering somewhat from hardening of 
the attitudes.  It seems to me like the SCA overall is getting more and more 
concerned about rules and regulations and doing things the 'right' way--I 
believe there is less interest in and freedom for experimentation in how we 
do things.


     Tomonaga


--
A long bow and a strong bow,
And let the sky grow dark.
The nock to the cord, the shaft to the ear,
And a foreign king for a mark!

        -- Stolen from "The Song of the Bosonian Archers" --
               By Robert E. Howard, who should be
                 the patron saint of Ansteorra

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