[Ansteorra] Which brings us to...

Theron Bretz tbretz at montroseclinic.org
Wed Apr 24 13:19:13 PDT 2002


Recruiting and retention of new members.  The state of the current
discussion reminds me of a political cartoon from many years ago, when
Americans were boycotting France over a political incident, "Deprived of
Americans, the French turn to insulting each other.  Chaos ensues."

We face much the same problem in the Society today.  By all accounts
membership has dropped off tremendously in the past decade.  People age and
withdraw from playing, with no one to fill their void.  I watched an entire
"New Generation" of Bjornsborgers come in, play hard, get acculturated, get
real jobs, get married, and with very few exceptions, leave.  Which made it
really hard on the next crop of kids to come in, because now the Barony was
a lot more wary of training people who wouldn't stick around, so they didn't
get socialized as quickly as they should have.  All in all, it took the
better part of a decade for things to really recover.

As a result, the Society is falling into a spiral of decay.  New blood is
harder to come by, and many of the folks who've kept the wheels turning for
so long are long past worn-out.  Our best hope is in bringing in new folks,
but (to my eyes) it's slow going.

Luciano




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