[Ansteorra] Student chapter?

Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace sirlyonel at hotmail.com
Tue Feb 17 09:15:56 PST 2009


Salut cozyns,
 
In the past twenty years, I've seen many attempts to start a College (an SCA branch organized within the students and faculty of a college or university). I started one, myself, at Idaho State University several years ago. It didn't survive two years. In fact, it only lasted as an "official" group (after recognition) for a semester. Currently, as far as I can tell, Ansteorra has only one incipient College (Three Bridges at UT Arlington). I know that, within Bryn Gwlad, Laszlo was trying to get a group started at UT Austin, but I don't know if it ever took off. Earlier attempts there did not fare well.
 
I believe it's possible to get a College going--especially in an area like Sequin where the distance to the nearest shire or barony is great enough to be difficult for students.
 
If you want to start on such a project, I'd say do the following:
 
(1) Familiarize yourself with Kingdom Law (available at Ansteorra.org)
 
(2) Make firends with the neighboring seneschals (Ffynnon Gath, Bryn Gwlad, and Bjornsborg)
 
(3) Get to know the regional and kingdom seneschals
 
(4) Start thinking about how you'll go about recruiting, where you would hold populace meetings, and where you would hold fighter practice. In my experience, no college survives without a strong martial base. No fighter practices usually means eventual death for the group.
 
(5) Find at least one and preferably two more students who feel as strongly about this as you. If you try to be the sole source of energy behind the group, it will die any time you're unavailable.
 
(6) Know what your college requires from a student organization/club/society.
 
(7) Talk with Laszlo about his experiences, they're more recent than my own.
 
 
I really don't want to scare anyone away from the attempt, but if you're going to do this, you should be aware of the obstacles. Essentially, the problems are
 
(1) Your populace is temporary. Most students are there for just four years. Four years goes by pretty fast. Every year, populace members will simply disappear. This is especially hurtful when they're active members.
 
(2) Your populace is concentrating on something else. Students really don't have that much spare time, and that tends to disappear around term paper and exam times.
 
(3) Large chunks of your population disappear in the summer. The structure of a College is supposed to allow for that, but people who are away for three months occasionally come back with other interests.
 
(4) Your populace can't afford a lot of travel. That means they don't attend a lot of events outside of your group.
 
(5) Colleges often have weird little rules that makes it difficult or even impossible to hold events on campus. Many, for example, will give an SCA College a space to use for fighter practice, but anyone practicing there has to be a student or staff. Some schools won't allow fighter practices (safety concerns, lawsuit concerns).
 
 
Bon chance, cozyn.
En Lyonel 
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Impedimentum via est (The obstacle is the path)> Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:36:21 -0600> From: giertrud at gmail.com> To: ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org> Subject: [Ansteorra] Student chapter?> > I plan on attending Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, TX. The meetings> of the local shire are,> unfortunately, rather far away.> > I was doing some reading and noted some "student chapters" are around.> > Several of the students there DO attend the Renaissance Fair and I am sure> there would be> some interest in the group.> > Does anyone know about who I would contact or such about starting such a> group when> I arrive?> > YIS,> > Giertrud Gyldenstierne> > God is my lyght and saluation, whom then shall I feare? God is the strength> of my life, of whom then shall I be afraide?> _______________________________________________> Ansteorra mailing list> Ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/ansteorra-ansteorra.org
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