[The_herald] UND Involvement Expo, 8/22/2007, 10:00 am

[Peter Bohlman]

Here is what I've been trying to say:

UND is putting this big Expo on for UND students who are new to campus. We
want to use the opportunity here to use the biggest possible net we can use.


You're totally correct: "[people] know that historical recreation groups
wear historical costumes." So us not wearing garb or costumes is not
misrepresentation. It's being less specialized than what we are.

The SCA is a fairly specialized organization. We've delineated our
historical focus with a 'start' and an 'end' time frame. Once inside that
there is a world of other historical specializations that draw each one of
us further into the organization. For some, it's making and wearing garb.
Others it's heavy fighting or even more specifically heavy fighting with
emphasis on great weapons. More still focus on reproducing period art pieces
via heraldry, bead making, and other scribal works for example.

Now with UND, we need to use their delineated net of 'involvement' to bring
in the widest possible audience. That means we will be out there for
hundreds of students to see. Yes, some will be attracted to garb wearing.
And just seeing some of it displayed will be more than enough to draw their
interest.

But that's just a small cross section of the net UND is casting for us. In
order to capitalize on UND's net, we want to bring those in who might not be
comfortable seeing or hanging out with a bunch of people in garb. They may
or may not find it intriguing. Garb wearing is not repulsive. But it can be
intimidating.

New people or shy people can get very intimidated by it. It might interest
them, intrigue them and even spark their curiosity to find us later. But
they could also leave us alone and not approach us. For example, a shy guy
might see a beautiful woman in garb. Is he repulsed? Doubtful. Could he be
intimidated by her, because of her appearance? Speaking as that kind of guy,
yes. Very much so.

So this is why I suggested against wearing garb for this. Those that are
already interested will see us there and approach as they want to. But we
want more than that small group. Don't we? Those that are repulsed will go
away. Those who aren't repulsed but intimidated might not come over and in a
large crowd of students, we will probably not see them to try and talk to
them.

We want a lot more, we want those who are simply interested in history and
might want to come by for an A&S night so they can get some practical
experiences over and above classroom/book learning. We want to draw a large
number of people who might be on the fence about the SCA as a whole but are
more interested in history as well.

I'm working with the idea that we and any new people we get, are comfortable
at the local level with history as a common interest and then bring them
into the world of the SCA as a whole later. We're not recruiting for the
SCA, we're looking for new friends here at the local level.

We want as many people as possible to get their feet in the door of the SCA
through Rudivale, instead of throwing them through the door into the world
of the SCA. It's easier to get someone to join a small local group than it
is to get them to join a huge international group. The more we can get into
our door, the more will stay.

And if we can minimize things that would or could alienate or
intimidate anyone with our little door, we should try and do so.


-peter



On 8/21/07, Dianna Haught <avacyn at gra.midco.net> wrote:

> That sort of backward thinking isn't it?  Why would we want to attract
> people who wouldn't want to wear garb?  How are they going to
> participate?  Especially when our message is "don't come to business
> meetings we are too boring for you to want to participate."  Why would we
> want members who don't want to do what we do?  If we were a civil war group,
> we'd show up in uniforms with muskets.  People aren't generally
> stupid.  They know that historical recreation groups wear historical
> costumes.  Why would we purposely try to misrepresent ourselves?
>
> Seeing someone in public in garb - seeing fighters fighter is generally
> how new members are attracted.  WE WANT people who are attracted to this
> aspect, not people who are repelled by it.
> Avacyn
>
> >Yeah we are a recreation group. That's not at issue; what we don't want
> to have happen is to scare off any potential new members who would at first
> be joining MARS, the UND arm of things.
> >
> >With the Involvement Expo, the target demographic UND is looking to bring
> there is college freshman. 17-19 years old, away from home for the first
> time looking to be active members of the UND community. Showing up in grab
> can be very intimidating for first timers.
> >
> >We only wear grab at events, not business meetings, or A&S nights or a
> lot of other functions we regularly do.
> >
> >I'd rather that we intice them with the shiny or pretty things and bring
> them into garb wearing a bit later than potentially alienate them or having
> us end up as something we'd rather not be.
> >
> >I hope this make some sense.
> >
> >
> >-peter
>
>
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