[Ansteorra] Questions 7/18

[D. Vandever]

Mistress Lorraine wrote:

> In an effort to try to figure out how to attract new people and keep them
in, here are a series of questions that I'd like as many of you as possible
to answer...so that I can get a good "demographic"... keep answers
brief...please...
>
> 1. What attracted you to the SCA?

After years of wishing, I found a group of people who learned what I wanted
to learn, lived the way I wished to live, and thought the way I thought the
world might ought to be. I found a family, a school, a shoulder, and a way
of life.

> 2. What is your perspective of what the SCA is to you?

See above answer.

> 3. Where do you invest the most time and energy in the SCA (household,
local group, kingdom, specific activity)

I invest most of my time to service at all levels. But recently, somehow,
some creative stuff has managed to creep back in.

> 4. How long before you started to take initiative in the SCA (applying for
an office, organizing an activity, etc.?)

I think it was about 4 months before I got my membership and immediately
became my group's hospitalier. 1 month later, the seneschal had to leave for
personal reasons and I first became the "drop-dead" and then seneschal for
real.
Since then I have held offices (sometimes several concurrantly) for the last
15 or 16 years I've been a member.

> 5. Were there instances that could have "run you out of the SCA"..why did
they not...or why did you come back?

I, like many, have run into unpleasant persons and situations. That's life.
They might have run off someone else but I never thought of myself as
particularily "thin-skinned". Therefore any anger I had could turn outward
to try to change, mitigate or otherwise affect the situation in a positive
way rather than turn inward and make me pull into a shell and "go away". I
wish more folks would take a pro-active stance in unpleasant situations,
learn to do positive conflict resolution behavior and make our
hobby/dream/life-style a better place...but that is me. Hmmmm....do I see a
possible class here for Round Table? Let me work on it.

> 6. How long before you burned out? Why did you burn out? Is there anything
anyone could have done to help keep you from "burning out"?

I did not and do not burn out. That is what 27 years in public education has
taught me and I apply it to the SCA. I get done what I can and I do not take
guilt for what I can not get done. I am well aware of my limitations of time
and budget and respect both. I do not take on jobs that I am not positive I
can do well or that I can learn to do well. The few jobs I have taken "just
to try it out" and found out that I either do not like them or stressed me
too much (feastocrat comes to mind) I will no longer volunteer to do, except
under the most extrordinary of circumstances.

> 7. What do you get out of the SCA?

A lot of satifaction of helping the people I enjoy have a better time.
People sometimes say to me, "But Annes, you've sat gate (or whatever) for 12
hours! Go have some fun!" What they do not understand, is that I *am* having
fun, often much more than if I were somewhere else at the event. They are
seeing what I'm doing from their perspective not mine. Besides, if I didn't
like what I was doing, you wouldn't see me doing it. See above statement.

> 8. If you have your AoA...how long did you get it after starting to
participate in the SCA?

About a year and a half. Piece of Ansteorran history trivia, after Patrick I
and Julia I gave Gerard and Vanessa their counties, my AoA was the very
first award they gave at their coronation in the (then) Shire of Elfsea. :-)
I still remember my utter shock and pride.
>
> and last but not least...why do you think that people should join the SCA
and stay in it?

People should join the SCA because they 1) love the people in it 2) want to
add interest to everyone's life in general  3) like to teach others 4) like
to help out and last but not least enjoy learning and growing. They should
stay for those same reasons. If they are there only for strokes and ego
reasons, it is my humble opinion that they will eventually be disappointed
and leave because they won't get enough of what they think they need.

In Service,
HL Annes Clotilde von Bamburg