[Northkeep] SCA history in regards of issues

[willowdewisp at juno.com]

The trend you are seeing in Northkeep is a trend that I noticed in California  about 12  years ago. I have no information about California since then so I do not know where it went from there.
Bjo Trimbal described a standard event as people coming and going with the activities they like. The fighter  came for the tourney  and the A&S people came for the classes. The people who like feast would come just for that and the Courtly dancers would show up after feast.
No one  would stay for another's activity. If they liked fighting and dancing they would show up and leave and come back again. 
There was no  drive to bring the whole community together and there was little or no crossover..
The founder "fathers" of  Ansteorra  knew about this trend. It was one of two trends we were trying to avoid. The first being the "California" life style. This is  where people live the SCA like being a member of a Church and they blur the line from SCA reality and mundane reality.
The second trend was this segmentation. This was how the  Neanderthal fighter and the Neanderthal  a&s persons are create. I don't do anything else than needle work or fight. They are not interested in the bigger pictures
We tried several programs to stave off this extremes. 
One was the concept reflected in our laws that the general purpose of a SCA group was  to create  pre 17th event. Starting with that in mind the leadership of the kingdom judged the health of a group on how well groups pulled that off. It was like the grain harvest in a rural town. Everyone and every sub group had to work together to create an event that felt like we were in period. 
For the production of a tournament we needed fighters, costumer, prop makers, heralds, officers and autocrats, researchers, people to watch, people to entertain, cooks and the list goes on and on. A well done tournament that would make a window into the past was a creative activity that engaged most of the people and would make appreciative of each other. 
An event like the "Field of Gold" had three baronies involved in the show and over a 120 people worked on the entertainment. We had ever 30 people just working on "the look" of the event. We had a staff of over 20 people being Heralds. We had 20 people serving the feast. We had 12 horses in our parade to start off the event. 
In a age when 200 people was biggest event that had ever been 500 people came to the "Field of Gold".  Of course 3/4 of them were working the event. It turned out great and everyone was very please with themselves. You could tell by the number of parties and the laughter that lasted till the sun came up.
This event was a treat to look at and it was a great  outlet for creative energies and it truly made people feel like they all worked together and everyone was needed.
We also stressed the importance in making the kingdom seem real. The public show of meeting and greeting, gift giving and providing hospitality  involves many people in the grandads of the Middle Ages. It is like going to a Ren faire and watch the court, but one step more,you could take part. 
Doing these things take energy and money which didn't come from the SCA. they are hard on the people involved because It isn't "real". It makes you look sort of put on. 
A member of the populace chastise me for making to much of being the first Queen.  He told me he didn't care what someone did the past he was only interested in what someone could do for him right  now. I got the feeling he didn't believe in the Kingdom or any of that "hat" business. 
The only group I know of who is still getting together and attempting to do historical events is in Austin and they seem to have a lot of active people. I am not privy to the statistics of all our groups but they were still popping when I went and looked at them.
The main differences between them and us is they have that site that requires them to do things in a Historical manner. They have an ongoing need for people to do things and they "need" lots of people. When they get a recruit they hit the ground running with clothing, and classes so they can help the group maintain the behavior needed so they can keep their site. 
In most groups 10% do the work and the rest lurk. I think Northkeep does better than most groups. 
willow

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