[Archers] Loaner Equipment

[Garth Groff or Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends of the Bow,

This message may cost me some friends, but it is something that needs to 
be said, and something that should be read by every target archery 
marshal and MIT in Atlantia. I am speaking about the deplorable 
condition of our target archery loaner gear. Too much of it is an 
embarrassment to our local groups, and even worse, an insult to our guests.

Yes, our guests. Keep in mind that everybody who comes to your range is 
a guest, and should be treated with all possible respect and courtesy. 
Respect and courtesy include issuing them loaner gear that is in good 
condition and safe to use. Anything less is an insult. This goes double 
for newcomers, who often have early contact with us through a local 
archery practice or at their first tournament.

If your guests don’t have a good time, particularly if they feel they 
failed at archery because of poor-quality loaner equipment, they won’t 
be back. That means they won’t be back to your range, but they are also 
unlikely to come back to your group for other activities, or to any 
other SCA group. If they feel particularly offended, they will tell 
others about their negative experience for years. Friends, we need happy 
new Atlantian archers, not bad PR.

The first way we fail our guests is a systemic problem in the way we 
fund archery on a shoestring. Many groups have loaner equipment that is 
ancient, and is likely scratched, dinged, faded, shopworn, or otherwise 
extremely trashy. Our guests aren’t stupid, and can see that what we 
offer them is from the bottom of the barrel. Sadly, even if you replace 
old bows, what you buy is likely to be more of the same--fiberglass 
youth bows. If a guest compares even new bows of this type to the nice 
composite recurves or longbows many of us shoot, they still may feel 
slighted and think, “Oh, I see how it works. You give us the junk [or 
the cheap toys] and keep the good stuff for yourselves. I’m not hanging 
around with you bums.”

Yet replacing old bows is something that must be done. If you have 
30-year old Bears, Stemmlers, or Ben Pearson Jet Bows, you’ve gotten 
your money’s worth from them. A big obstacle to replacement may be your 
populace or officers, some of whom are likely to ask, “Can the bows 
still be shot?” When you answer “yes”, they will counter, “Then why 
should be replace them?” The answer must be, “Our archery loaner kit is 
one of our best recruiting tools. This equipment is an insult to our 
guests. If you want new members, please approve my request for new 
gear.” Write this statement down. Make it your mantra, and repeat the 
same words over and over again in an even tone to every objection. 
Hopefully, they will eventually cave.

The second problem is that much of our equipment is filthy, and hasn’t 
been cleaned for years, if ever. If you were invited to dinner and 
served on dirty plates, you would offended, and rightly so. Is it any 
different if we give our archery guests gear that is covered in dirt, 
hand grease, and old bow wax? No! Sadly, we often make this worse by 
storing our loaner gear in places filled with dust, such as garages, old 
sheds, and worst of all, barns. Even if barns haven’t held animals for 
years, they are still filled with dust from ground up and dried animal 
feces that constantly rains down from the rafters. This is not only 
gross, but potentially dangerous to guests with allergies and other 
health issues.

The solution, other than storage someplace inside your house, is that 
bows should be cleaned at least once a year. One possibility is to hold 
a “field day” during the slack time in. Gather up fellow marshals, press 
gang some volunteers, and be sure to include your MITs(we don’t teach 
them anything about equipment maintenance in our training program, and 
this should be worth a signature on their form). Lay in a supply of soft 
drinks and order some pizzas and make the work session a fun social time.

The bows should have their strings removed for close inspection and 
re-waxing. Bows themselves should be cleaned with a towel dipped in a 
bucket of warm (not hot) soapy water, and rinsed with clean water and 
another towel. Wooden bows should be dried off immediately. Use this 
opportunity to do a thorough inspection, and after restringing, adjust 
the brace height and nock point position.

ARROWS SHOULD BE CLEANED AND INSPECTED AFTER EACH TIME THEY ARE ISSUED, 
AND BEFORE THEY ARE USED AGAIN. Give a newcomer a dozen arrows, and I 
can almost guarantee that every one of them will have been grounded by 
the end of the day. Clean your arrows with a moist paper towel or cloth, 
skipping the fletching. Be sure to clean out the nocks. No guest should 
have to pick dried mud out of a nock before they shoot. Squirt some 
inexpensive furniture oil onto a paper towel and rub it onto the points 
to prevent rust. Any arrows that are damaged, including those with 
chunks of fletches missing, should go to the shop before being reissued. 
Any arrows damaged beyond repair should be destroyed or converted to 
some other use (such as line markers).

Finally, we too often give out equipment this is broken in some way. I’m 
mostly talking about arrows here, since we do a pretty good job 
inspecting bows. Most of our loaner arrows are in short sets, either 
through loss or damage, or because they were donated by some archer who 
didn’t want them anymore. Sadly at tournaments, guests are often given 
just six arrows (frequently mixed from the remains of several sets). 
This is insulting, since guests can see they are getting leftovers. At 
many tournaments there are a few targets that require eight or nine 
arrows to complete. How can we expect guests to feel satisfied if we 
don’t give them enough arrows to compete? We’re telling them we want 
them to participate, but not fully.

Arrows should never be lacking fletches or points. These arrows won’t 
fly right, and pointless arrows will likely bounce off the target if 
they do get that far. This is only going to frustrate our guests. It 
also shows them we don’t care enough to give them equipment in working 
condition.

No guest should start the day with less or more than 12 arrows in their 
quiver. Why 12? When everyone starts with 12, it’s easy to keep track of 
how many they have shot, or how many are still in the grass. 
Additionally, no guest is likely to feel that they were shorted.

When a marshal makes a new set for their loaner kit, it should have 15 
arrows rather than 12. Keep the extras at home. If a guest breaks or 
loses arrows, it is easy to replace them before the set is used again. 
When the total falls to 12 arrows (or less) it is time to build more 
replacements. New sets added to our loaner kit are no longer colored or 
crested. This saves production time both with the new set and with any 
replacements. Of course, they are still sealed with three coats of 
polyurethane, just like my personal arrows. Replacements for older 
“pretty” arrows still get staining, but I often skip the cresting.

After all this carping, let me offer you a couple of positive ideas that 
will impress our guests. At a local practice, never offer guests a used 
bullseye target. Start with a fresh target every time. They only cost a 
buck or so. However, you might want to reuse a homemade novelty target 
if not too badly shredded. You could say something like, “We used this 
target at our last tournament, and it was so much fun I saved it for you 
to shoot.” This turns a potential insult into a thoughtful gift.

Finally, keep a clean cloth with your loaner kit. After stringing a bow, 
but before handing it to the guest, take a moment to wipe off any bow 
wax, especially on the upper limb where the string has just slid into 
its slots. With recurves, remember to also clean the limbs where string 
slap has deposited more bow wax. For few seconds of extra effort, you 
will show your guests you really do care about giving them nice 
equipment. It could be the gesture that impresses them into coming back.

We simply can’t afford to chase these newcomers away. Do everything you 
can to make them feel that the SCA is going the extra mile so they can 
have a good time. In the film MRS. BROWN, Prime Minister Disraeli says 
to the ghillie John Brown, “With queens you have to lay it on with a 
trowel.” That’s good advice for us too.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seahorse.atlantia.sca.org/pipermail/archers-atlantia.sca.org/attachments/20171105/f998ac19/attachment.html>