[Ansteorra] Participation vs. Recruitment

[Jeffrey Clark]

This forms the crux of my original point. The focus on THE ONE EVENT is counter to our ability to get new people into the SCA. With modern schedules the way they are, in these economic times -- and especially speaking of younger people (under 35?) -- you MUST understand that even four events a year can be difficult.

Lord O'Hosey, I'm a junior in college -- I sit in class in Fridays until four in the afternoons, I also work for a church -- which means that I have to be at work awake and alert (not tired, drunk, or hung over) at 7am every Sunday morning. I will do well to make three events this year, I probably won't realistically make more than two -- I have neither the time nor the money to travel that much; nor do most of my friends. Should I just not participate at all in the SCA since I'm not willing to lead others by attending more events? Should I stop trying to get some of my friends to join since I can't (sorry, won't) go to more events? Shod my friends not bother joining because they can't make that many events either?

I agree with Lord Casey's response that increasing our number of local players will cause more people to attend events, and I restate my assertion that we need more activities on the baronial, canton, and shire level. We need to be more social in our own baronies and get to know each other locally beyond the guys you see at fighter practice and the weaving guild. We need to get together in garb (or garb optional) and just hold mini-revels, no classes or fighting. That will give us a good place to bring newcomers that isn't overwhelming and allows them to talk to people and get a sense of what's going on. It also gives the more veteran members a chance to wheel and deal and for intrigue to happen across the established groups and guilds. It allows networking and helps like-minded people find each other where they otherwise wouldn't.

Stronger local groups would make for a stronger kingdom by providing members with more opportunities to get involved and re reasons and support to make it to the big events; as well as motivation and reason to keep playing in the downtime between the events they can go to -- whether those events are weeks, months, or years apart.

-- Alessandro Zorzi

On Jan 23, 2012, at 16:36, Cionaodh O'Hosey <CionaodhOHosey at verizon.net> wrote:

> There is a lot of discussion about recruitment on this list, i hope this is because we want more people to participate in our events. We can also increase the participation at our events if we all participate more often ourselves. For example lets say we have 48 events a year, and our goal is 200 active players people at each event then the following things are true: If we all go to every event then we only need 200 people total to meet our goal. If we all go to two events a month then we need 400 active players. If we all go to an event just once a month then the we need 800 active players. If we all go to just three events every four months, that's just nine events a year, then we need 1066 people, that is also the minimum number of events a person needs to attend to save enough on non-member event fees to break even on a sustaining membership. If we all only show up once every two months, six times a year, we need 1600 active players. If we all go to an event once every quarter, four times a year, then we need 2400 active players. If we all go to an event twice a year then we need 4800 active players. Lastly if we all go to an event once a year then we need 9600 active players.
> 
> It becomes immediately apparent that the fewer events we all go to the more people we need to successfully recruit to meet our goal. But lets also be honest, the fewer events you go to the harder time you are going to have getting new people to go to more events. If it is not worth your time to go to an event why would a new person, who looks up to you as an experienced player, want to go to that event? It is a simple matter of leadership, you cannot recruit people to do what you don't do.
> 
> Cionaodh O'Hosey
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