ES - Are we welcoming enough?

[Paul Mitchell]

Galen here!

I'm on my way out of town; I'll be back Sunday,
for Hengist's mini-bearpit tourney.  But I wanted 
to share with you something I've been thinking 
about.

At Emerald Tourney last weekend, I saw several
people whom I've always considered as Elfsea
folks, but inactive.  They hadn't come out
to Springfaire the week before, but they'd
gone down to Emerald Keep for a small tourney
down there.

Now, to me, Elfsea has been a very welcoming
and rewarding place to be, and I know that 
many of us share this opinion.  I also know
that there are some who are trying to be a
part of this barony who don't feel they're
succeeding as well as they'd like.  And some
who live here don't even seem interested in
Elfsea, and would rather not play locally at
all, contenting themselves to travel when they
can (and I'm not talking about famous high-
ranking people with terminal burnout but about 
"average" members, who aren't famous).

So, are there local people who come to things
in Elfsea and we don't do a good enough job
of letting them know how glad we are that 
they're there?  Are there local people that we 
see elsewhere who we should be inviting back 
out to moot and fighter practice?

Elfsea today is populated by a disproportionate
number of new members.  This isn't inherently
bad, but those new members (and also immigrants
like Zara Zina, Allessandra and myself), don't
remember that life in Elfsea hasn't always been
this good.  Some people still remember the days
when Elfsea was a place of bad politics and 
frustrated potentials.

We've worked to improve communications; the
_Elfsea Scroll_ has come out faithfully for
at least the last three Chroniclers, for a
reasonable price.  Our website is two years
old now, and this list is helping even more.
Information is available for those who want
to come out.  Let's help them want to come
out.

Whenever I see people who I know live around
here, I try to let them know that we'd love
to see them back out to fighter practice.  I'm
sure I'm not the only one.  

Live IS good in Elfsea.  I don't think it's
perfect, but I don't think what we've got here
is fragile, either.  Let's share it around
as much as we can.

Anyway, if that makes any sense, that's what
I've been thinking about.

- Galen of Bristol
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