How to Help Newcomers

How to Raise Newcomers to be Useful Members of SCA Society 

(usual disclaimer, this is MY opinion, your mileage may vary)

This is a re-write of an old email that I sent to someone when they asked how to bring up a newcomer "right". I think this is a very important thing for those who have been in the SCA for a while, because without our mentorship, new people don't have fun here, and they leave. This concerns the first bit of getting them into the SCA, getting them interested, so they'll hang around. 

Quesetion: How to get newcomers honestly interested in the SCA (or how do I get my friend/brother/coworker to really love this and be happy here?)

Adoption adoption adoption adoption! 

The biggest thing is to make newcomers feel valuable and wanted. If no one pays attention to them, they wander a-way, never to re-turn :) The second thing is to make them feel as though they "can do this". This means someone has to be paying attention to them A LOT. It is a big investment of time, and expect about a 50% loss rate anyway, grin. 

Make sure your new people are comfortable asking questions, and that they know some people will blow them off, but to keep at it. Most people who are brand-new are comfortable with saying "uh, what is going on?", but after a little bit they think they "should know" so they don't ask. Always, always ask! 

If you can manage to teach them the very basics of how to speak to SCA people (the standard "my lady, that looks fascinating, what are you DOING?" is good, as is "my lord, can you explain how your armor is constructed?") that is great. Along with that, you need to teach them how to spot people who are too busy to talk, so they'll actually get responses :) 

It is second nature for SCA people to know that when the is Knight trucking out onto the field franticly putting on his vambraces as the tourney starts, not a good time to ask him about his shoes, grin. That may not be obvious to new people :) 

The same goes for royalty busy with something official, consorts watching an important fight, etc. It is easy to scare newcomers away from the royalty and peers, so try not to do that! I like to present the peers as having a big sign proclaiming thier proffession, so if you want to know about that proffession, ask them! (but this can wait until SCA 201, more on that in a minute)

DON'T try to teach new people vocabulary extensively before events :) Basicly, most SCA stories and all the stuff we end up memorizing is dead boring, and utterly meaningless without CONTEXT. Pretty much the only way to get that context is to go to events. Small ones are really good because it isn't as overwhelming, and you will have more time to spend with them. But some big ones are excellent so they won't think this organization is composed of 20 ding-a-lings camping in in a field :) 

It is no use memorizing terms when you have no idea what they pertain to. If, on the other hand, you go to an event or two, then the list of terms is basicly a bunch of words for things you have seen and experienced. This can all be done AT the event, or if they are big on reading, hand them a sheet (or send an e-mail) in the days after the actual event. 

Most of this stuff is self explanitory, THAT is a biffy. THIS is court. THAT is a field battle. Pointing and naming is good, but it usually only includes about 1/2 the useful information, hence the handout (biffy=bathroom in the forest for you, it refers to any toilet facility at an SCA event, but is normally applied to a portable blue item. Court is a time when the SCA gathers to conduct official business, presided over by Royalty. Field battle means armies fight, as opposed to tournys where individuals fight, the field part means it is in an open area, not a forest, bridge, etc.)

Second, let THEM explore, but also assign specific tasks, grin. Exploring is an important part of starting the SCA. It takes many forms. Going for a walk at night to find the really loud parties. Observing a pirate ship. Shopping on merchent's row. Seeing what time period and place you might be most interested in. Seeing if you are most interested in a specific area of SCA life (service, fighting, A&S, drinking, etc). 

Exploring is important, but the SCA is HUGE! Most people need some help navigating it :) It is overly confusing for most new people to be confronted with a vast array of possibilities and told "here, pick a life for yourself, now". 

With our must successful newcomers, we put them into different situations to see what they liked. We said stuff like "you are new, it is your job to help cook and serve this feast, with us in charge and you following orders. Did you like the kitchen?" 

or "we are dancing now, and so are you. Do you want to dance more next week?". 

This is the standard Glyn Dwfn education though ;) It also happens to be a standard medieval education (the essentials of serving, archery, dance, literature, history, games, pastimes, crafts, combat, etc). With our newcomers we made them serve, cook, dance, play games, learn fiddly crafts, how to do research, SCA history, basic sewing, waterbearing, etc. All of it was presented as "we are doing x, you should come too", or "here, try this, it is fun", or "I'm going to tell a story now!". 

mmmm. I think the best thing is to find something they is honestly interested in, and a friendly expert for a bit. Don't hover TOO much, find an expert for them and leave them to it. These are adults, they don't need babysitting, they need something to DO. Find practices, classes, and teachers for them. 

It is sort of a long-term plan, as usually it takes about a year for a person to really get their footing in the SCA. Some people pick it up a lot faster, but that's about average. Finding a persona you really like can take 6-24 months, usually, and don't be annoyed if they goes through several phases, or don't seem to have a preferance for a while. 

The modern idea of what is cool sometimes clashes with the An Tir-SCA one, and then the person's actual personal preference can be different from either, but most need to go through a progression (I will be a BarBarian and wear all black! No, wait, I must be a NorseGuy, I need striped pants NOW. Ooooo, Hungarian...hmmmm). 

Make sure your newcomers know the wide range of options right away, but don't be dismissive of their choices. DO encourage period stuff from the beginning, and DO show how and why we do stuff the medieval way (well, y'see, the point of this organization is to recreate the middle ages. Here's a painting with a tunic in it, would you like that one? Nope, no shiny polyester velvet tunics for YOU!). Don't be super strict though, if they want shiny trim on their very first tunic, that's okay, though do tell him it isn't so medieval. They will soon be coveting the embroidery on his Majesty's coat and all will be well. 

It is sort of a complex passing on of social values thing. If you constantly admire people who have the most medieval thing ever, your newcomers will understand, and will see that is as something valuable. If you constantly point out people with high honor, awsome fighting skills, and great manners, that is good. If you point out that SOME people, though unbelievable fighters, are for the most part horrific humans, they'll accept that. If you do honor to the Royalty, that is how they will belive the SCA works ;) All this can be as subtle or as blatent as you want. Some basic rules need to be blatent (bow when you cross court), the rest is up to you. I am a big proponent of STATING THE RULES, but that is just me, grin. 

I guess I'd boil it down to: present all the options you can think of. Let your newcomers pick what they are truely interesting in doing/learning about. Give them the tools to do that (books, teachers, a ride to practice, encouragement, whatever). Let them know that they don't have to stay with just one thing, most SCA people change interests, time periods, and names a few times. Let them know what the end expectation is (someday, you need to decide on a name and device, get a few sets of actual medieval clothing, and learn to do SOMETHING, like fight, or make things, or run stuff.) Tell cool stories about SCA history, crazy things that happened, and fun trips. Let newcomers go at their own pace, if they wants to inhale the SCA in a summer, great. If they want to take a few years, that's okay too, but they'd better be not still be from tunic-land at the end of that, grin.