[Elfsea] things for thought

Stefen and Rhonda Hays housedragonstar at earthlink.net
Wed Oct 30 16:47:34 PST 2002


Question for the Hospitalers...

Do we keep records on how many folks we get from what demo or recruitment
venue?

Would a poll of some sort be in order?

Medb Liath  (who has clearly been involved one too many Six Sigma projects)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Threlkeld" <rjt at softwareinnovation.com>
To: <elfsea at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 5:00 PM
Subject: RE: [Elfsea] things for thought


Your Excellency,

I have spent much time when I was Seneschal and since then thinking about
what makes like good in Elfsea and what could be done to make it better. I
believe life is still good in Elfsea, but it could always be better. I have
been harping for a couple of years about recruiting and membership. As it is
everything gets done, but some people (yes, Wilim I am talking about you and
others here) do far more than their "share" of the work.

The SCA is a wonderful place with pageantry, awards for great work, fun
camping, the adrenaline rushes of martial arts, the feel of accomplishment,
and wonderful friends to share with whom to share this. Under all this is
the infrastructure of Marshals to make sure the martial arts are safe for
both the fighters and the watching crowd, Hospitalers to help new people
learn our world, Exchequers to keep track of the money we need to put on
events, Seneschals to see things happen and keep us legal, Chirurgeons to
fix the boo-boos, Chroniclers to keep us informed, and hard working members
of the populace to setup/takedown/run troll/run security/prepare feasts/etc.

But jobs change causing people to move away. People go back to school or
their children join scouts or they take on a second job. Though they agree
that life is good in Elfsea, some of us will be reducing or ending our
participation in Elfsea. To remain a healthy group we must attract people to
replace those who cannot continue to enjoy our company and a few more to
grow on.

We have not been as successful at recruiting over the last few years as
before. Interest in the middle ages comes in cycles, so we can expect some
ups and downs from that. After looking at other groups both in the SCA and
outside, I believe some of this is generic trends, some of it is the
appearance of many other organizations competing for our time, and some of
it is ineffective recruiting.

The only thing we can change is recruiting. We need to think about who we
would like to recruit and where they might be found. Our demos are usually
fun for us and those who attend, but we need to make them effective for
recruiting also. We moved our fighter practice site partly to increase
recruitment. Most of those who have joined us have said we were the most
friendly group they have ever visited so we are doing most of it right.

Would those of us who are fairly new care to comment on what they found
attractive and unattractive about Elfsea? Anyone have any ideas on what to
change for better recruiting?

In service,
Caelin on Andrede

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