[Loch-soilleir] Loch Sollier Chivalric Fighter Practice

[Michael Tucker]

On Jul 22, 2008, at 2:35 PM, Wissa Bear wrote:

> Greeting to the Populace,
>
> For a few months we have been talking about changing the Loch  
> Chivalric
> Fighter Practice.  ...  There are two
> main reasons for this that I see.  One is that with practice closer  
> to home,
> it will make attending practice easiler and less expensive for our  
> members.
> The second reason is recruitment.

I'll throw in my two coppers.

I have to agree with my wise and well-spoken brothers-in-arms Galen,  
Alexis, Ulsted and others.

Moving practice closer to home might be a valid reason. But if  
attendance is down I think that's not so much the current distance to  
practice (although it isn't negligible), as much as the normal,  
annual lack of desire for folks to get off their keesters and  
practice fighting in the middle of summer in southeast Texas. I think  
a more effective cure to the problem would be just to get people  
excited about going, not lower the bar to make it easier to go.

Promote mini-events. Give each practice a theme ("this week Sir  
Longspear will be showing us polearm technique"). Have practices  
drive towards a specific goal ("just x more weeks until the y event,  
let's all be ready!") instead of just practice for its own sake. I  
know that when I was taking piano lessons as a kid, if we didn't have  
regular recitals and competitions to prepare for I likely would have  
been much less motivated to practice.

Having said all of that: if you think that practice should be moved  
for the convenience of people who are currently attending practice  
and wish it was closer, please do! That would be an excellent reason  
to move it. Just don't move it hoping that more (or different) people  
will come. Experience shows that if they aren't coming now, they  
still won't come even if it's closer.

Regarding recruitment: I think this is a case of wanting too much out  
of one thing. Demos and recruitment events are for recruiting.  
Fighter practice is for practicing fighting, just as dance practice  
is for practicing dancing, garb-making night is for making garb,  
populace meeting is for the populace to meet, etc.. Use these to  
*retain* people once they've decided to come to one of our  
activities. Tell them a little about what we do, and invite them to  
attend whichever of these activities seem to spark their interest.  
But don't depend on these activities to *recruit* people in the first  
place. You'll just forever be disappointed, as your expectations and  
desires probably won't ever be met by reality.

Chiming in from the back of the peanut gallery,
Michael Silverhands
5th Baron of Stargate, now a resident of Loch Soilleir