[Ansteorra] helping new people

Ld.blackmoon ld.blackmoon at cox.net
Fri Jan 18 05:29:20 PST 2013


greetings

you had many good points your grace , but I would like to add that revels 
are also a less threatening and expensive exposure to the sca .
other than sitting on the sidelines in the park and watching people in silly 
clothes beat on each other with sticks , then one would fall down, sometimes 
laughing their butts off.
I didn't really get to know anyone , or get a strong enough interest in the 
sca until I had been invited to and attended a couple of revels.
where I discovered that I liked some of these people, so maybe I could trust 
them not to lie to me ( about the sca at least ) and everyone did seem to be 
having fun.
no one was making me stay , I could come and go as I pleased, no one charged 
admission , and no one seemed to mind the nubie with no clothes, as a matter 
of fact no clothes may have helped, since every one seemed to want to come 
up to me and talk to me, making getting to know them much easier : )  .
I still go to some of those people today to ask questions and get answers.
I actually got very lucky, being broke , ( but helpful ) I was ask if I 
would like to attend an event with the people that had been having the 
revels , I told them I was broke, but they said " don't worry about it " 
they covered  gate, feast, brought me a tunic to wear, and feast gear to 
use, so all I had to bring was myself, sleeping bad, and tent. yes I helped 
them set up and tear down their camp, as well as anyone else that needed 
help ,I did that for many years  ,but that seems to also have gone out of 
style : ( , and now my back won't allow much of that : (
it was valor's vatavia event , in calontir, it was amazing , and I was 
hooked , made me want to get a membership, and help keep this fun thing 
going .
but that was over 30 years ago, back before the nms was invented , and 
people could afford to pay a strangers site and feast on top of their own : 
(
anyway to me that is just one of the things that makes northkeep and 
ansteorra  great.....

Be Safe , Be Happy, Have Fun .
Arthur


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <willowdewisp at juno.com>
To: <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
Cc: <willowjonbardc at juno.com>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2013 1:34 AM
Subject: [Ansteorra] helping new people


<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

What is the best way to inform someone that they are making a period Fashion 
Mistake?
By Duchess Willow de Wisp OL

Let us imagine we know someone who has been doing better and better at 
making costumes and everyone is very pleased with how they look and you go 
to look at their new costume and you see them making a mistake that you got 
burned for in your early years. What do you do?

If you just come out and say “that’s not period” they will think you are the 
authenticity police and that you are rude. But if you say nothing you know 
that what they are doing will undo all the good work that they have done so 
far. You can just hear what people said to you and about you when you made 
that mistake.

Do you care enough about this person to clue them in when it will be thrown 
back in your face? You know if you say so and so will think less of you if 
you wear this as it is they will go to the people and ask them. You know 
from past experience these people will look the person in the eyes and say, 
“Willow (put in your name) is unreasonable. You can wear anything you want. 
No one has the right to keep you from wearing it.” Then the person will come 
back and say, “Mistress (put in name) says you are unreasonable and I can 
wear anything I want.”

You are left there with egg on your face thinking, “Yes, you can wear 
anything you want and they can refuse to support you for awards.”  And two 
years later when the person still hasn’t gotten any awards and they are 
wondering what they are doing wrong you hold your tongue because if you say 
it because they look like a newcomer and a fringe player because of what 
they are wearing they will get very mad at you.

Because many people today do want to be political and giving someone advice, 
even if they ask for it, is political they will not share insights into how 
we play the game. I heard Peers and Nobles saying “it not my job to teach”. 
I heard cop outs like, “They don’t want to learn.” Or “I had to do it on my 
own they should be able to”. “They can look it up.”

There is a general concept that you can “look up things” on the internet. 
Yes, you can look it up and get hundreds of answers, but if you don’t know 
much about the subject how can you tell if the information is valid.  The 
Internet is always changing so a site that was really good was there one day 
and gone tomorrow. I have seen some really bad advice on the Internet.

What about the library? You know how many costume books my local library 
has, two. They are the ones currently in print and they really are very 
general.  I had talked to a young lady who discovered that in her library 
there was only one book on the medieval period. I questioned that so I went 
to my local library and found three. When I asked the Librarian about 
information she directed me to the computers.  You can get some things from 
interlibrary loan, but you need to know the name of the book to request it.

You can buy the books. I am sorry, but young people, people with children 
and old people with set incomes just do not have the money to speculate on 
books. You see a promising title on line, but when you get it home it is all 
fluff. We need to provide people in the SCA with useful titles.

People just don’t want to learn. That is a silly statement. Why are they in 
a historical club if they don’t want to learn? They don’t want to be 
lectured at. They do not want to be made to feel stupid. No one who is going 
to a lot of trouble to make a costume and hand sew things on it is making a 
mistake on purpose. I bet they did some research.  We just need to get them 
data before they buy the fabric.

I have never been good at telling people about what they are doing wrong. I 
just can’t get it right. Once many years ago a young lady wanted to do a 
Byzantine outfit and bead. She bought me some fabric to look at. The fabric 
had the right design and it was beautiful, but it polyester knit. In a soft 
voice I tried to explain to her that if she took the time to bead the piece 
someday she would want to put it in a contest and they would give her a hard 
time over the fabric. I then said, “But, it is your right to use this fabric 
if you want it.”  I swear the only thing she heard was “right”. Two years 
later when it was finish and it was one the best beading jobs I had ever 
since the judges just could get pass the polyester knit and gave it almost 
no points. She was furious with the SCA. She was furious with me. She said 
we were unfair and quit the SCA along with at least 3 other people. I didn’t 
want her to be mad at me so I was very vague and the end I lost 4 friends.

In my time in the SCA I have seen hundreds maybe thousands of people leave 
the SCA because they were criticizes for having something not period. If we 
gave them just a little help maybe we would have kept them. The best thing 
is to get the information to the people before they make the mistake.

Whose job is it to teach people? If you look at the kingdom there looks like 
we a person for every job, but that is far from the truth. In the “game” we 
have peers and nobles and in the medieval they would all have households and 
they would teach people and the nobles higher up the chain would take people 
from their vassals and they in turn would teach them and their Lords who 
spirit them away.  For example, a knight has a personal Herald and the Baron 
sees him doing something for the Knight and asks him for the use of the 
Herald. The Herald is now the Baron’s man and in that job comes in contact 
with the King and sees that the man is very good at what he does. The King 
requests from the Baron the Herald. The Baron is pleased to let the King 
have his Herald because this puts the King in his debt and if the Herald 
makes good his good fortune may rub off on the Baron. In the very least this 
makes this Barony the place to go if you want to advance in this world. And 
what about the Knight well he has served his Lord and if he has a good Lord 
he will be grateful.

This was the pattern that Ansteorra had for many, many years. The households 
would get people started and then the B&B’s had courts that trained up 
people and it was from these courts the Kingdom would full its posts and 
make its peers. But, this system is not in play anymore. We used to expect 
every Lord and Lady to set up some kind of household and do their duty in 
training, teaching and helping new people. If someone did something well 
they would bring them to the attention of the B&B and peers in the area. The 
Peers were expected to work with people not only in their households but 
anyone in their spheres of influence.

As we behaved in a medieval fashion (which is persona play) in our medieval 
world these teaching and training and helping just seemed natural. Now, we 
have a hole in the bucket. We have many people coming in that do not have 
enough information to advance to really be part of the SCA. Getting 
information seems to hard and they have the feeling that people are hoarding 
their information. The effort of getting into system takes too much time and 
money so they quit.

When we have a problem like this happens then it is on all of us to help 
out. We need to kick start the system again.

Here are some things we can do.
1.     Try to get your group to sponsor more revels with historical or 
education theme. What have parties?? Yes, little parties of these kinds 
allow for non-threatening education. People can show off their clothes and 
tell their horror stories about their first costume. You can even have a 
“worst mistake” theme where people bring in their “worst mistake”.  You 
could have a bring costume books party where show off their favorite   or 
least favorite costume book. These parties can promote learning. Like when 
Namron had a “banned by the Church” party. You can be just like people in 
medieval time and go out and make a new outfit flouting the banned item.
2.     Bring your books out to fighter practice and other activities.
3.     If you are a performer do pieces that shares knowledge about the 
Middle Ages.
4.     Set up an area at meetings that has educational displays and if 
possible set some stuff at events. Do a display for the area.
5.     Do not let your events become Clique fests. Make sure your group does 
something at your events that shows a historical activity and encourage 
people to interact.  This will spotlight people and what they are doing and 
wearing so newer people will get the idea of who they should model.
6.     Praise people who are wearing good costumes in public and in small 
groups. Remember what people used say about children” little pitchers have 
big ears”, and realize that this is true about new people. They are picking 
up data all the time as to what we believe to be proper for the SCA.
7.     Talk to people about everything and anything and listen for the 
questions. Many people in today’s world find it hard to ask questions so 
encourage them to do so. If you do not know the answer help them find 
someone who might.
8.     Realize that we the people make the SCA and it falls to all of us to 
teach, train and help. Also we need to be sure our information is correct so 
we should compare notes and seek the advice of knowledgeable people and 
research and share that research.
9.     Write articles and reviews of books and articles for your local 
newsletter.
10.  Take on a newcomer and mentor him for a while. Set a system with other 
people so the person gets a larger and larger pool to call on. Don’t think 
of it as a permanent arrangement, but like training children who will grow 
up and have a place all their own. You have a goal to make a this individual 
into a successful Ansteorran.





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