[MR] Nekkid noobs, smoking

[Gina Shelley]

Folks, our problem seems to be that we no longer know what our priorities are. Let’s see if we can figure that out, and then how to achieve our goals.
 
If our goals are to preserve a museum quality atmosphere for our own enjoyment: 
By all means, let’s make sure we keep out the garbless newbies from defiling our events. Because while we can ignore cars, modern buildings, modern silverware, camp chairs, igloo coolers, air conditioning, and yes, even the horrid fluorescent feast hall lighting so many of us are so enamored of, we can’t ignore a couple of potential new members wearing jeans and t-shirts, so lets make sure we either bar them from our event entirely, or at least make a big deal out of their clothes. After all, it’s tough enough to enter a new place with new people, full of strange customs and weird clothing in and of itself. Make them self-conscious enough, and we can be sure they won’t be back, ever. And we can enjoy our events undefiled and unhampered by having to endure our atmosphere being “ruined.”
 
If our goals are to attract new members to this lifestyle and hobby we hold so dear:
Then we need to make it a priority to make these people feel welcome and at ease.  An interested new person should be worth more to us than pretty much anything else. That means making them feel welcome and at ease is more important than worrying about what people will think if they have to look at a pair of modern jeans or a sweatshirt. Because while seeing these things won’t kill us, or let’s face it, our enjoyment of the day, making a newbie feel self conscious will certainly kill THEIR enjoyment of the day, and their interest. 
 
If I sound annoyed, I’d like you all to understand where I am coming from. From SCA members, I am constantly hearing that we absolutely must attract new members. From potential new members, I’m constantly hearing that “I went to an event and got ignored/ insulted/ berated.” I wish I had a nickel for every new person I met who said, “you know, I tried the SCA before, and thought it was full of jerks. I’m glad to discover it’s not.” We’re attracting interested people to our game. We just either aren’t managing to retain them, or worse, are actively running them off. People who ought to know better, too, are some of the worst offenders, if I am to believe what I am hearing. I am not annoyed at all by the task of introducing new folks into our world. I enjoy the heck out of it. What I am annoyed at is having to do damage control because of blockheads at events actively making new people ill at ease with us. The job’s hard enough without rude people making it worse. 
 
I don’t like SCA people running around events in mundane clothes, either. Especially when it’s a situation of slackness or apathy.  But seeing strangers in mundane clothes? Good! It means someone’s being exposed to what we do. Hopefully they find us interesting and courteous and fun. If they do, maybe next time, they’ll put on some clothes and join us. I have had at least one household member who saw us from the street, joined in the fun while wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, hung out all day asking us a lot of questions, then showed up in garb from there on out. I’d say the price of letting the guy hang out for a couple hours and have fun was well worth what we got out of it. 
 
Lady Shae is 100% right. We are all chatelaines, each and every one. Instead of worrying about how “nekkid” people make us feel, let’s worry more about how we make THEM feel. We are chatelaines. If there is loaner garb, fine. If there isn’t, well, that’s fine too, make sure you have them garbed up for their NEXT event. And make your focus be making sure that for your new person, there IS a next event. 
 
NOTE ABOUT SMOKING: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…I’d really love to see the return of designated smoking areas. I’ve been to events where I had trouble finding a smoke-free area to set up. I’ve been to events where I had to walk through clouds of smoke to get into the feasthall doors (once while heavily laden with stuff I was carrying, which is another rant for another day). I’ve had to shoo people out of our tent after they entered with lit smokes. And last, but by no means least, I’ve had to crawl around picking up cold cig butts off the ground the next morning. Yes, folks, this may come as a huge shock to some of you, but butts are litter. And we do not litter in the SCA, we are above that disgusting habit. Knock it off. 
 
Grouse-mumble-rassafrassa-kvetch-grumble
Dulcy
 
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” –Maya Angelou
 
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