ANST - Newcomers

[gptaylor]

Thanks for the Input that y'all have given.  Keep giving it, please.

Resulting Ideas that I've had or like, as a result of these responses and other recent
brainstorming:

* Business card sized handouts.  Great idea.  I've seen folks with SCA business cards
before, and they are very handy.  A "fold-over" one would be a good addition.  If you
make one, Emma, please also forward it to me, so that I can put it online.

* Get Kryztoph to split the Newcomer's and Hospitaler's accts, or make links to
separate pages.  This has actually always bugged me, but timewise, I've never ended up
messing with it.

* Make in information-dense 2ish page handout, with most of the info from Forward into
the Past, (who, what, when, where, why, how) without actually plagiarizing Forward
into the Past.  With the correct number of kingdoms.

*  Make a two-sided, one page form for a "Get into your First Event Free" flyer (not
feast...just day-trip gate for sites that don't charge per person for the day), for
groups that want to institute this policy (Ravensfort, Bjornsborg do...any others want
do this?  Want to?)  On the "Invitation" to the event will be a place for site map and
directions, as well as the number to call to make mandatory reservervations, time for
a possible event tour, Instructions on what to bring, what to expect, a few basic
translations for SCA-ese, Info on clothes (call this to borrow...or here's a T-tunic
pattern).  Etc., etc.  Give them out in the month prior to a major event.

*  Decide what to do with the Guiding Hand...or whether I actually CAN modify it,
much. Please note...the extra info in Guiding Hand is often there for transplants from
otehr kingdoms, rather than just new folks....so some of it is pretty in-depth.

*  A very good thing for a hospitaler to do, if you've just had an influx of folks, is
make up little 3x5 cards in a very small font, and print out two months' activities,
as well as contact info for each, by date.  We had very good feedback when we did this
in the past.

Anybody want to make any of these things?  I've had an offer, already from Kateline,
in Bjornsborg, to do some scanning for Forward into the Past.  Others?

Ah, well...enough for now.  Back to work...

Isobel














Jennifer Smith wrote:

> 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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