[Steppes] Akon vs. Scottish festival

[Sir Morgan Buchanan]

Does Ford advertise their high end cars during Saturday morning cartoons?  No.  Why?  Target market.
 
Is it POSSIBLE that we can recruit wonderful people at events that are farther away from our center target market?  ABSOLUTELY.  Have we?  CERTAINLY. 
 
We could go walk around Grapevine Mills Mall in garb and possibly get members as well.  I think the odds are less favorable in some venues than others.
 
I'd never suggest that the heritage festivals are BAD venues.  I'm only saying that in my opinion, sci-fi, fantasy, game type conventions are BETTER.
 
If we can only get volunteers together to do 2 big demos a year, would you think we should do those big demos outside Wal Mart or at a venue where we know the folks there have an interest that has a lot more in common than our current average member than a desire to save a buck on laundry soap?
Further, I asked a very serious question...  Why are we doing demos at events where the demo coordinator is nearly begging to get people to attend?  "If we're doing demos at events that large numbers of SCAdians don't attend, how do we expect to get large numbers of members?"
 
Finally, I do not mean to be dismissive of the notion of future-recruiting.  But let's be realistic.  I don't want to convince someone to look for this organization 10 years from now.  I want someone who will help ensure the organization will BE HERE 10 years from now.  But any demo we do has the exact same potential in this regard.
 
I would NEVER EVER suggest we stop doing certain demos.  If people want to do them, do them!  By all means!  What I love about this conversation is we're getting an idea of the passions of the members.  Those who are passionate about Irish Fest should DO Irish Fest!  Those passionate about geek-cons should do those!  I guarantee we're going to be more successful when the people doing a demo are passionate about the venue.  But if 3 people in a group are passionate about a demo and 23 about another, the three can't rightly expect the 23 to throw the same enthusiasm into the first.
 
It's a fine line that we walk, trying to find the best demos for the group, knowing that different individuals in the group have very different goals for the group, and there's no way to do them all without burning out the folks who do most of these demos and recruitment opportunities.
 
Morgan