Life Before My AoA - The Saga of Lana (SCA Newcomers addition) - Part 1

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about newcomers to the SCA and how to recruit and retain them. In trying to come up with ideas on this topic, I have started thinking back to when I was a newbie. I have also been analyzing conversations I've been having to people not in the society. 

So, I have decided to write a series of blog posts about my experiences as a newcomer in the SCA and my thoughts around the subject. Here is part 1!

I recently got in touch with an old friend through Facebook. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, “Where are you living now?” “What do you do?” “How’s life?”, I started talking about the SCA. After a few messages where I rambled to her about events, fencing, and the arts I was doing, I had a striking realization.

What I do for fun isn’t normal.

Normal people play baseball and make quilts. Normal people watch football, sing in choirs, go to shopping malls, collect knick-knacks from vacation, and read books.

Normal people do not dress up in “funny clothes” that they made with their own hands and hit their friends with sticks on the weekends. Normal people don’t research historical recipes for glue and then go make it in their basement after buying exotic material on the internet. Normal people don’t even realize that something like the SCA could exist.

My physical therapist is one of those normal people. She likes skiing and travelling. She reads non-fiction biographies. She is also incredibly fascinated by my pursuits in the SCA. So much so that she asks me about it almost every time I see her.  And while she always is excited to hear my tales, there is something about how all the pieces interact that doesn’t quite register with her. To her, the SCA is this gigantic exotic thing that people don’t really do—like being in a play all the time.  

The individual aspects of the SCA seem to be easier for her to understand. For instance, fencing. That’s a sport in the Olympics, so she can picture it. There’s also costuming. Everyone has done Halloween, right? But the moment that you put costumes together with fencing…the imagination starts to become stretched. Then add costumes + fencing + medieval rapiers + alternate names & personas + honorific titles + fictional place names that overlaps a real city? Mind. Blown.

You know what? I bet this is how newcomers feel when they dip their pinky-toe into the Society. Thinking back to my own beginnings in the SCA, I realize that I was a much more reticent participant than many newcomers these days. I fenced for a year—a year—before I went to my first event (Caer Galen Midwinter!). This means one year in a Triplette fencing jacket. One year with a French grip, cup-hilt epee.  One year without garb.

Before my first event, I realized that I needed a medieval dress and name. I had no idea how to make any of that stuff. Or even where to go to learn. Luckily for me, my mom liked to sew and had years of Halloween-costume experience. So we went out and bought a bunch of the prettiest synthetic fabric we could find and a McCalls or Butterick pattern and set to work making the epic dress.

This is me and a friend in my first 2 SCA dresses that I ever made (she's in #1, I'm in #2).

Note: Not actual boyfriend

For a name: I spent about 5 minutes researching a period version of “Lana” because it sounded cool. And I wanted a tiger on my device. Cuz Tigers. Also swords. Cuz Swords.  I didn’t think at all how hard that would be to reproduce or even that I would do such a thing, because…who does these things?

Apparently people in the SCA!

I have come a long way since then (currently one of the heirs to the baronial coronet of Caerthe) that I have almost forgotten what this beginning feels like. That is, until I talk to anyone outside of the SCA.

I appreciate these interactions because it allows me to almost see the SCA from an outsider’s perspective. It helps me come down to their level (not implying that they're stupid but it gives me compassion for their lack of understanding) and explain things in a way that a non-Scadian would understand. This comes down to even the wording that I use. Instead of saying “baron/baroness” I will start with “local leaders” etc. until the concept of medieval reenactment actually begins to sink in.

In the SCA’s drive for recruitment and retention, I will ask all members to do one thing. Think about your first time in the SCA…your first 5 times…your first year. How overwhelmed did you feel?

Then, take those understanding and apply them to newcomers. The next time you are talking to a newcomer or potential recruit, be mindful that this could be their first time hearing about any of these concepts. Even if they have been coming around for a little while, the Society is so vast that there are probably parts of the SCA that will still be completely new. Have patience with them. Understand that their questions on topics you’ve already explained are not because they don’t care or are lazy, but because they may not have grasped it the first time around.  

We want to set up all potential members with enough knowledge to entice them back but not with some much that they feel like they can’t commit to it all.  Save that for their peerage. ;-)