[MR] garb, events and newcomers

[egeorges at cox.net]

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Kingdom Chatelaine!

I want to underscore some points that have been made here...

Like a good many things in this life, the requirement that someone wear garb at an event is not as black and white as it would appear.  People have a good many reasons for not wearing garb at one point or another during an event, or even (in rare instances) refusing to wear it entirely.  My hope is that each and every one of us, upon encountering someone who is without garb, would offer assistance rather than judgment, and make inquiries rather than jump to conclusions.  Anything less than such courtesy is beneath us, or should be.

Loaner garb is something that ideally, a local chatelaine should maintain on behalf of the group.  Loaner garb is a courtesy we offer to individuals who are new to the society and therefore may not have had time to make garb of their own.  It's helpful for a local chatelaine to keep a good assortment of loaner garb in a tub that he or she can bring to events.  I recommend keeping the tub at troll, so that when folks check in, they may be offered garb if they need it.

Members need to remember that the loaner garb is not in endless supply.  Most groups don't have 25 outfits in assorted sizes in good repair, so if you are bringing five people with you to an event, don't expect the chatelaine to clothe them all for you without advance notice.  That is a courtesy you should give to the local chatelaine, who has been kind enough to maintain this loaner garb on behalf of the group.  You have a closet, and you hopefully have friends -- attempt to clothe your guests yourself, and if you can't, call the chatelaine and make sure he or she has enough garb on hand to assist you.

Which brings me to the subject of loaner garb maintenance more generally.  When I took my first job as a local chatelaine, I inherited 5 gigantic rubbermaid tubs of "loaner garb."  Well, actually, it was 5 tubs containing mostly group members' ill-fitting cast offs, many of which were in poor shape.  After casting out the clothes that were too tattered, too complicated and otherwise impossible to wear, I had maybe 2 tubs.  Most of the stuff was unusable. 

My point is this -- what you offer to a newcomer to wear should be point of pride for your group.  A group should be able to offer a newcomer at an event a clean, decent outfit to wear that doesn't make him feel embarassed.  A few generic outfits in basic sizes (kids, small, medium and large) should be sufficient for most local groups.  You get greater success in getting newcomers to wear loaner garb when what you offer them is not ugly, dirty, ill-fitting, or full of holes.  Even then, there will still be newcomers who will want to play the part of observer initially, and not wear garb -- they should be encouraged, but not forced or berated or embarassed.  We are a society of courtesy (I like to think, anyway) so a generous-minded approach should be second nature to us.

If you really care about making sure people wear garb at events so that the mood isn't spoiled, my suggestion to you would be to offer some assistance to your local chatelaine with the loaner garb.  Offer to go through your group's supply and make sure it is worthy of offering to a guest.  If there isn't enough garb in enough variety, offer to help stock the chest -- either by making it or taking up a collection.  Offer to be a Silver Key deputy who handles loaner garb for the local chatelaine at events.

The argument for wearing garb is that the SCA is about participation, not sitting on the sidelines.  That being the case, those who want to foster that attitude should lead the way with their own action and participate in the solution.

BTW, if groups have questions about how to put together a good loaner closet, please feel free to contact me, I'm happy to provide any assistance I can.

In Service,
Luce Antony Venus
Chatelaine, Atlantia