[Loch-soilleir] a missive to the populace

[Virginia Lively]

I can bring inkle looms and do a mini weaving intro esp if someone will help me warp my rigid heddle loom beforehand.  I also have drop spindles I bought to endure junior high students if someone else wants to do a spinning demo - I don't currently have any top though.

Hedwig - do you want handouts as well? Rhi


--- On Sat, 6/21/08, Hedwig/Melissa <honeyfrog at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Hedwig/Melissa <honeyfrog at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Loch-soilleir] a missive to the populace
> To: "Loch Soilleir Announcements" <loch-soilleir at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Date: Saturday, June 21, 2008, 10:26 PM
> Greetings unto the Populace,
> 
>             We had an unusually small turn out for populace
> meeting this
> last week.  Many of our officers were away on modern
> business or had
> personal issues to attend to and could not make the
> meeting.  I hope that
> everyone is now well, and their business is booming!
> 
>             We did have a small contingent of newcomers at
> the meeting and I
> took that opportunity to find out what drew them to us and
> prompted them to
> seek out our good barony.  Naturally there were diverse
> interests and
> motivations.  Without fail however there was this one
> common thread.  There
> is so much distance between the guilds and where we all
> live.  It makes it
> very hard to attend things and try to make it to events. 
> We even have a few
> who are more interested in the guilds and could really care
> less about
> events.
> 
>             The sad fact is that with gas prices still on
> the rise and the
> cost of events being what they are, there are many of us
> who are looking at
> cutting back on making it to anywhere more than a few miles
> from home.  It
> is a given that our hobby is an expensive one in the first
> place (when
> you're looking at duplicating your life and making it
> medieval as well it
> can really sap your budget) but when you add trying to
> drive to and
> sometimes hotel an event then it has become prohibitive for
> a great many
> people.
> 
>             Here is the one thing that our newcomers have
> emphatically
> stated.  They understand that business meetings are a
> necessary evil but
> they do not represent what they are looking for from this
> group.  It would
> be wonderful if they could come to populace and be
> introduced to the people
> they've been hearing about but can't make it to
> their homes for guilds…or
> they don't even know we have these people so expert in
> their fields of
> interest in our barony.  If just one hour could be set
> aside or even once a
> quarter be designated for a newcomer's college or
> classes at populace that
> would be awesome.  They've even volunteered to help set
> up etc.
> 
>             I have to tell everyone now that this very idea
> has been on my
> mind since I took over the office of seneschal.  We've
> had newcomers who've
> come and gone and we can not keep them because they are not
> being included
> or they do not feel welcome and cannot find a place to get
> involved.  We can
> all sit and read this and say, "Well they should find
> a way to participate."
> Or "There are guilds they should show up."  That
> may be true enough, however
> when you live in Galveston and armor guild is in Pearland
> and you know
> enough about Ansteorra to know that the man running it is
> Sir Alexis (you
> can sort of piss your pants just thinking about calling to
> set up a time) it
> can be intimidating to even go at all!
> 
>             A few people have mentioned that we've
> tried this
> "before"…that's nice I'm glad we've
> tried it before.  I've been playing in
> the Loch for four years so it's been longer ago than
> that since we tried it
> last.  I've also heard the argument that people are
> coming from work so that
> makes it difficult.  Really?  Well I'd like to point
> out that we all
> routinely get ready for an event and pack our cars and get
> our garb and all
> our important things together and still go to work daily. 
> This is a weekly
> thing for many of us.  Planning for one night in garb (not
> even court
> garb…kitchen garb works for this)  and perhaps teaching a
> one hour or 30
> minute class or just being available for questions really
> shouldn't put too
> much of a clinch on people's time.  There is a restroom
> to change in at
> populace so it isn't like you have to change at work
> and freak the mundane
> just to be at a newcomer's college once in a while. 
> Yes, I'm getting
> preachy here.  Think back to your first few months in the
> SCA.  What did you
> expect from populace meetings?  Did you really wish you had
> a mentor to walk
> you through things?  How about having someone to sit with
> at an event and
> explain why someone was getting part of a bay tree branch
> shoved on top of
> their head (yeah it can seems strange if you don't
> know)?  Would you have
> liked the chance to sit down with someone and ask the
> awkward questions but
> it was too intimidating at an event or even in
> someone's home (because no
> one had on their garb and you didn't recognize who was
> who when everyone was
> wearing flip flops and shorts…OMG I just asked the Queen
> a stupid question
> I'll never live that down!)  Case in point one of my
> very first posts on the
> Loch list was to ask "which" Ulsted had just won
> crown and then I was told
> there "could be only one"…(OK no one has ever
> accused me of being shy or
> unwilling to ask!)
> 
>             So, having said all of that I have decided that
> July populace
> will have a 10 to 20 minute business meeting (I've done
> that already don't
> scoff) and the rest of the night will consist of a few
> classes or small
> groups to answer some questions and lead our newcomers in
> the direction they
> seek to walk.  I will be looking for people to teach these
> classes (a great
> place to try out a class your working on for a
> "real" event) or just to
> answer questions.  I also ask that everyone bring garb to
> change into or
> show up in garb.  I would like to include a short session
> on court and some
> of the customs and manners that are encompassed in that
> subject.
> 
>             If anyone has questions please email me at
> honeyfrog at gmail.comor contact the hospitlar Gunthar (who is
> working
> with me on this) at
> hello.loch at gmail.com.  If we want to grow as a group and if
> we want our
> dream to continue on then we have to nurture the newcomer
> and work with the
> situations we've been dealt.  We may all love history
> but that doesn't mean
> our habits can't evolve into something new and
> different.
> 
> 
> 
> Stepping on toes to step up our game,
> 
> Hedwig, seneschal
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