[Ansteorra] Student chapter?

Tue Feb 17 09:34:18 PST 2009

Need you limit yourselves to the student population at TLU? You might
explore the possibility of forming a canton of either Bjornsborg or Bryn
Gwlad, or even forming an incipient shire.  Such a group structure would
allow reaching out into the community at large....local members who will not
move away after four years, are not gone during the summer hols, and will
not drop off the face of the earth come midterms and finals week, can go a
long way in establishing stability.

I know that Raven's Fort owes a huge part of its success in the 1980s in the
integration of a student population at Sam Houston State with the community
at large in Huntsville and Conroe.  It is hard to believe that Raven's Fort
would have become a barony in 1989 if the group had started out as a
college.  Fynnon Gath originated as a canton, and not a college, of Bryn
Gwlad, and I cannot imagine that what is now TSU had nothing to do with that
group's development.

Just some thoughts. Organizing a local SCA group in the context of a college
campus should not exclude the possibility of other structures in addition to
the college structure.

Good luck with your explorations there! Speaking only for myself, I quite
like the idea of an SCA group in an area with some German colonial history.

Pax et bonum,
DT+LF
Detlef von Marburg
Tir Medoin

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace <
sirlyonel at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> 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
> _________________________________
>
> 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?>
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