[SCA-AE] From YOUR Grand Council Representative

[Lindsay Baldassano]

Greetings One and All!

Here's the two cents from the Kingdom Chatelain.

Actionable recommendations for how the SCA, as an organization, could better
promote participant retention at the local group level:

1. Promote greater communication through out the levels of the SCA.  For
instance, why can't our organization give our new members an option on the
membership forms for having the local group or Kingdom they belong to actually
contact them.  Right now the newcomer has to search out all contact information
for their local group and Kingdom and hopefully they find the right people and
officers, and hopefully those people will actually respond them and invite the
newcomer to the group and it's activities.  This last part is something that I
have been working on encouraging from my end of the office. We need to be
consistent with our efforts and contact with newcomers, as many say them feel a
sense of "alienation" from local group members (this is not from one group or
another, or even Kingdom or another, it's a common SCA-wide theme). 

2. Find ways to encourage and/or local group officers to create the materials
they need to keep newcomer's informed and how to keep the local populace on the
same page about which materials they can use too (we're all chatelains aren't
we???).  I can suggest things out the wahzoo to local officer, but at this
point, there is no standard for how to run a chatelain office.  Our office is
in the process of making Kingdom standard materials (in time for the membership
drive), but there seems to be huge gap between what the office does and what a
non-officer member will do in recruitment and retention.  And I don't see why
that is.  All official materials from Kingdom and Society are found through our
websites and can be downloaded and distributed by any one needing a little help
talking to a friend or co-worker about the SCA. Yet there still seems to be a
gap, so maybe more sca-internal p.r. about usage of the materials we have, so
that we can promote a consistent recruitment and retention effort across the
board?

3. I do agree we should make our newcomers feel like they are needed and
wanted, but as for letting them be officers right off the bat....I think maybe
it needs to be a slower process.  Our office has taken on a lot of deputies to
help get things done and utilize new talent, it provides training before
letting a newcomer jump into an office fully and all the politics that goes
with it.  I do not mean we should exploit them, but tap what they are good at,
and let them run with it in some kind of office capacity.  It helps the whole
run smoother (less burn out for any one officer) as well as fills the gap
between a hang-er around-er newcomer and newcomer who is becoming an active
member. 

4. Lastly, there seems to be a large discrepancy between the "big" group and
"little" group mentality.  While I do not have answer to this, I feel it should
be mentioned as a part of the issue at large.  From my conversations with local
officers and other Kingdom Chatelains, many groups ask "Why do we need a
chatelain?" or "We're just a small group, we don't need to recruit."  While the
for the most part our larger groups are not asking these questions and show
steady growth of newcomers and keep the office filled.  I don't believe the
goal of the office of chatelain is make all small groups into large groups or
even to make all large groups even larger.  True growth and increased retention
will only happen when the local group is ready to support that growth with
events, activities, and base participation.  It is unlikely that just because a
group gets a new chatelain that the group will grow uncontrollably!!  I do not
fully understand why there is resistance to what recruitment and retention
structure the SCA does have, though I would like to.  It would help our office
bridge that gap.  While a chatelain can help bring someone in and guide them
through getting to know the SCA the local group as a whole needs to be able to
support the growth, or attract newcomers who are willing to jump in feet first
and take the reigns (which happens, though should be not be the ideal, as we
should be able to sustain ourselves without specifically attempting to recruit
"leader" types of people).


My two cents from my perspective!!
Best Wishes,
Fru Ellisif of Endless Hills
Kingdom Chatelain