[MR] Fwd: Want more people at your event?

[Jacqueline Lee]

"Don't know what crash space is? It's an old custom that seems to have fallen into disuse. Every time a group held an event, they had a list of people who were willing to have others sleep at their home during the event. But now it's gotten harder to find."
 
Thank you so very much Mistress Dervila ni Leanon and Lord Tom Drumbuilder.  Crash space was the custom when I began life in the SCA and it was the way that I and a great many others met friends that we still have and learned about this organization.  I have often said that I learned more about the SCA, how it was run, heraldry, persona construction, and many other things on the floor of Master Robin's condo than I did at any University or class I have ever taken.  I think that this kind of "getting to know you" downtime before and after an event contributed to the knowledge of how to conduct oneself in the group and the kind of closeness that we lack so much of the time today.  There is a difference between dealing with someone only in garb at an event and sitting and gabbing on the floor before everyone settles down for the night.  I will not say that things were perfect in the time when crash space was the rule, but it did help to keep
 things in perspective dealing with others knowing that you were going to be vying for the prime floor spot (under the table, no one could step on you) with that person when you got back to the house.  Seriously, I think that we need to return to this custom.  It was considered so important by the founders of the Society that hospitality according to ones means was considered a requirement for elevation to the peerage in the early additions of the Corpora.  Think about it. 
 
Mistress Megara di Alessandra
First Event Attended, the Last Coronet Tournament of Meridies, where I stayed with friends (House Haraldstad) in South Downs.