[Steppes] Recruitment summary

[Duncan Hepburn]

To Faelan: your post is well thought out and well written. I like how 
you have classified things, and I pretty much agree.

To everyone in this conversation: As for sponsorship, I think that is a 
good idea... it doesn't always work in practice, but is worth a shot. 
Heck, I think that doing something.... *anything*... is better than 
doing nothing. (I consider arguing about what to do to be just above 
nothing, due to the negativity being projected)

Why are we arguing about which demo is better? Do 'em both I say. Let 
whoever wants to go to one do that, and whoever wants to go to the other 
do that. Don't criticize the other person or the other demo. That's 
*negative*. Be positive. If you think sponsoring is good, do it. If you 
don't, then don't. If you want an educational focus at a demo... 
(feeling like a broken record here)...

To Faelan again: As for your newest challenge: I myself am currently 
sponsoring two newcomers, both of whom came out with me to Elfsea 
Springfaire and will be at Warlord. One of them has been coming to 
fencing practice, and the other was at the most recent gaming gathering. 
So my opinion of sponsorship is pretty high. I think these two are 
hooked, as it were.

Pax,

Duncan



Faelan Caimbeul wrote:
> There's been some apparent confusion as to types of demos. Educational demos
> are what we do to teach. The focus is not recruitment, but education. People
> claim we don't do enough education, since we're and educational organization
> supposedly. I say we do. Think about how many people in the Society you've
> taught to do something over the years. We're educating all the time, we just
> don't do it in a classroom generally and usually only train our own students
> once they're "admitted". How's this any different from college? I can't
> think of one college that will teach you anything until you are admitted to
> the "club", i.e. the student body. The biggest difference is we don't charge
> for this knowledge, just the materials needed to learn it, the knowledge
> itself is free. Who's system is better? Ours, of course. What we're talking
> about here is strictly recruitment demos. There's also no reason we can't
> teach at these demos. In fact, we probably should. Read on . . .
> 
> Out of all this discussion about demos, here's what I see it all boiling
> down to:
> 
> Human interaction and advertising.
> 
> You get new members by bringing them to events and let the event work it's
> magic. There are a number of ways to do this; demos, fliers, internet, radio
> and TV, bookstores, game stores, schools, word of mouth, drive bys, etc. It
> seems a lot of people got the idea that the demos are the be all and end all
> of recruiting, they're not, they're just part of the greater campaign. These
> things get us the initial hook.
> 
> To set the hook you need the human interaction. You can't get that on the
> internet, by flier, or by any other means. You need to spend time with
> another human being. Word of mouth is ALWAYS the best advertising, and any
> ad exec worth his salt will tell you that. You're far more likely to believe
> your friend isn't feeding you line, than you are to believe some weird guy
> at a booth.
> 
> To real them in, you need to get them to an event. Many people, apparently,
> took years to actually get to this most critical step, but that was the last
> step. After that we had you hook, line and sinker. Now 5-25 years later,
> you're still here. It can't be stressed enough how important it is to get
> people to an event as soon as their interest is peaked. To that end, Lady
> Lady Constance is planning a newcomers event after our planed upcoming
> demos, and any demo for that matter. We don't want people not getting
> called, not getting a ride, and not coming to love the SCA because they
> never got the chance. This will take the efforts of the entire group, not
> just a few people, to make this happen.
> 
> To that end I propose this: We get a list of people together for the
> Hospitalier that would be willing to "sponsor" a newbie. We did this in the
> military, and some SCA groups do it, and it works wonderfully. We keep a
> list of people's areas of interest, geographic location, and availability of
> transportation. We take a copy of this list to demos. When we find someone
> who's interested, we get their contact info, give them a sponsor and their
> info, then contact the sponsor (assuming they're not already present) and
> let them know. Offering that initial ride to an event, even if you don't
> need it, and time spent talking, can make all the difference.
> 
> When I first joined the SCA, I was basically sponsored by Master Mark, the
> scribe I met at a game convention in Toledo, OH. I'd been going to the con
> for years, but this was the first year the SCA had a table there, right by
> the door to the main game area. You literally could not miss them, you had
> to go by them to get to the door. Mark was working on a scroll and I thought
> it looked interesting so I sat down in between games and watched. He
> explained basic techniques to me, actually gave me a pen and paper to
> practice on and showed me some basics about illumination. It was two weeks
> before I knew they hit each other with sticks. I was 15 or 16 and car-less
> at that point, so Mark gave me a ride to meetings and my first event. By
> then I was hooked. His household basically adopted me and helped me feel
> welcome. That made all the difference.
> 
> The human element of a sponsor can make or break someone's SCA experience.
> It also will motivate people to participate sooner, get hooked, and avoid
> the "I wish I'd done this 20 years ago" regrets.
> 
> Lets stop poo-pooing the demos and those trying hard to enrich the Baronies
> and start helping them, and ourselves. Criticizing them for their efforts
> gets us nowhere.
> 
> So, who's willing to sponsor newbies?
> 
> Faelan
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