[Steppes] More on Newbie Experiences

[Jessica Smith]

At Gulf War this year there was a young lady from the Steppes I had never
met before. She was new as well, and we took the time to share our
experiences as New Comers in the Steppes. Sad to say, it is a lucky thing
she started out in the SCA elsewhere before, because the first Steppes event
she attended to she was not only ignored - but ignored to the point of
rudeness. Both her and a friend who she had come with. I know I'm blessed to
have met Saqra and doubly blessed to have been introduced to Conal and
Miguel and make good friends- spoiled really. But the way she described her
experience with events had me dumbfounded.
Unfortunately, shes not the only one who has brought this up to me. I've had
people react with shock to find I'm from the Steppes - and its not because I
do you a dishonor. If I ever - bring me up on it. But the Steppes has this
legacy - a wonderful history - but it also has a reputation for being hard
to get into. The Steppes is full of established players, and it is sometimes
difficult to get where you are playing among giants. I'm out going - I'll
talk to anyone and if interest is shown I'll chat your ear off. We need to
be more talkative - we have passions - we need to gift new comers by sharing
with them these passions.

Adelina


On 4/17/07, AlKudsi at aol.com <AlKudsi at aol.com> wrote:
>
> OK, I'll bite too.  I went to my first event in 1980, at the invitation of
> a
> collegue at work who had been watching me read my favorite writers during
> lunch hours.  At the time, one of those writers was Diana Paxson.  He came
> over to
> the break room table and sat down and told me a little about the SCA, and
> that Diana Paxson was one of the original founding members.  That
> intrigued me.
> I'd been doing theater work since junior high, so I did a little research
> on
> costumes, made myself some garb, and went with him and his best friend to
> an
> event.  That was a Baronial Court, held by Baroness Auriliene, the second
> person
> to hold this barony in fief, following the founding Baron, Allemandus.  I
> was
> blown away.  I still to this day thank Brother Lord Lupus for that
> introduction...
>
> Then I went to a tourney called the Field of Cloth of Gold down at the
> Scarborough Faire site.  Wow.
>
> No demos, no internet, no flyers, just an active SCA member who saw
> someone
> who looked like they might fit in.  That is what it boils down
> to...interested
> and interesting people who interact -- however that is -- with others who
> find
> that they have similar interests.  That's not to say that demos, internet
> sites, flyers, whatever are not important -- they are, especially these
> days.
> But the human interaction is the critical make/break for getting someone
> interested.  Just like someone earlier on this thread said, she almost got
> turned off
> by being left out until someone paid attention and gave of his time to
> engage
> her.
>
> I think we have become more and more detached from the human contact
> element
> of getting people interested because of the internet.  It is a great
> resource,
> but it is a detached resource.  That is why demos, whether we can quantify
> through membership correlations or not, are important...as long as we
> remember
> why we are there: to engage others, through our crafts, our skills, our
> fighting, our persona play, whatever it takes.  And it may be why our
> membership
> locally has been stagnant...that loss of that human element.  Adelina has
> a point:
> find a newcomer and take them with you to an event.  Introduce them
> around,
> show them around.  Become involved.  Because each and every one of us is
> the
> best and worst possible contact for someone new: best if we engage their
> interest and make them feel at ease, or worst if we ignore them to talk
> only to our
> friends or do our own thing. Convention, Ren Faire, school demo, cultural
> event, it doesn't matter where it is...we can use it to bring people in if
> we show
> WE are interested in THEM!
>
> HL Saqra
>
>
>
> ************************************** See what's free at
> http://www.aol.com.
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