[Ansteorra] Fee Increase and other Business...

[Hillary Greenslade]

Robert de Bray said:
<With all this talk about NMS and new comer's coupons for free site fee made
me think about another angle on this.
We have so many kingdom level events, King's College for example - why don't
we have an event specifically for new comers?  
I can think of some arguments why we don't but I was just wondering if
anyone had ever thought about doing something like this before...
Personally, I don't think we are effectively marketing ourselves.
>

Hum, interesting idea.  
I'm regularly telling folks that we are sorta like a 'Ren-Fair', but not a commercial
enterprize; that anyone is welcome to attend our events, but they are encouraged to 
make an attempt at a costume. Most folks understand the 'Ren-Fair' concept.  

Might be an interesting idea to host a local SCA-Faire, though it would have to be 
very well thought out, probably ann issue as an independent festival due to the liability 
issues.  What seems to work well is to piggy-back an SCA-demo with an existing 
festival, such as the Ingleside Ren-Fair weekend down in Seawinds, or the Castle-Fair 
up in Oklahoma, where the SCA is a small part of a large commercial event.  Stargate 
used to participate at the Highland-Games in Houston.  
Might be a matter of going to a festival to offer demo services, rather than waiting for 
them to come to us, if you can identify a good opportunity.  

I tend to agree with Robert - we don't market ourselves well. We often leave the 
nurturing of newcomers to the Hospitoler, as well as the organization of demo's to that 
office - and frankly, they can have very different requirements and skill sets needed.  
Perhaps the Hospitoler office should be split or at least have a lead Hospitoler and a 
deputy, they can choose which of the two tasks to focus on, depending on their talents.  

Interesting topic, Hillary