[MR] SCA Census..

[Patty]

 To follow up with something Rikker said about the focus on SCA recruiting among college students and military personnel:

My experience (having earned two B.S. and one M.S. over a span of nearly two decades) is that colleges and universities have made it increasingly harder for outside groups to recruit students if they aren't already sponsored by an "official" student organization. I think this grew out of "cult awareness" -- university administrators don't want Hare Krishna and "Jonestown" type groups reaching their students.

Somebody in Storvik suggested last year that we look into a student activity festival at the University of Maryland ... I don't remember all the details, but we would have had to jump through some huge bureaucratic hoops just to place a table at the least desirable spot at the festival. Yeah, right.

At least during Daylight Savings Time we can have our fighter practice in the parking lot of a church between Fraternity Row and Sorority Row, and if students have their earphone music turned up so loud that they can't hear the clanking of armor and the mighty THWACK of sword against shield, I don't know what else to do.

Vels made some excellent points too. I'm a perfect example of what he was talking about -- I first heard of the SCA at the age of 18, and joined the SCA at age 44. When I was getting my first bachelor's degree, I was way too career-oriented and spent all my time building a "career" at the college's daily newspaper. I don't regret that -- it was the right thing for me at the time, and I met some wonderful friends there -- but I do wish I had joined the SCA a lot earlier than I did.

My journalism alma mater's SCA branch is long since defunct, and here in Atlantia, the College of Rencester appears to be inactive, too.

In service,
Patricia