(and what we can do about it)
Recently, the King of Aethelmearc challenged his subjects to invite and recruit more members into the SCA. He pointed out that the population is aging, and challenged the kingdom to expand its population.
This sparked a pretty lively Facebook debate as to why the SCA is having trouble recruiting new members, especially young ones. As we all know, Facebook is a great place to have reasoned, coherent conversations about complex topics, and bring them to resolution. I had my own contributions to the discussion, but there were over 200 comments in response to that initial, seemingly innocent question. Some were from new members, some were from alienated ones, and others were from people who didn’t see a problem at all.
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After reading through all of it, there were usually one or two recurring themes in most of the complaints. Firstly, the SCA, as it has grown and expanded over the past 50+ years, has failed to modernize enough to attract younger people. Secondly, people have found insular, clique behavior in a formal organization that’s hard to integrate into because of its size and rank structure. Often, one early negative interaction with a high ranking peer was enough for someone to leave permanently.
The purpose of this article is not to complain. That’s not constructive. The purpose of this article is to identify areas where we can improve so we can have a vibrant organization with many new members, and throw some suggestions in on how to do that. Really, I just want to start a constructive discussion, outside the walls of Facebook’s garden of conflict and likebait. I want my fellow SCA members to read this article and be inspired to take specific and tangible steps towards fixing the issues I discuss here. I also want people to disagree with me, and have discussions that lead to even better ideas and solutions.
This is a long article. I decided not to shorten it, because I feel very strongly that complex problems require time and thought to work through, and deserve our full time and attention. If anyone can work through a long narrative discourse in the 21st century, it should be a society of Medievalists.
Return on Investment
The SCA was founded in 1968. That was a very different time.
I also get the sense, looking at the pictures from these old events, that the standards for participation were lower. The garb looks made from thrifted or local fabrics, the armor is made from scavenged or easily found materials. The tents are old army tents or simple modern camping tents. This is not to say that enthusiastic, accurate representation is a bad thing; it is simply to say that things look as if they were a lot more laid back.
Today,hours are long, often both partners work, and finances are tight. When I worked at my last job, a standard salaried tech worker job, I had just enough time on the weekend to catch up on all my chores and cooking for the coming week. If I did a leisure activity on the weekend, it usually came at the expense of getting something done around the house. Which is to say, it had better be really fun and enjoyable, and not require mountains of prep in advance, because I simply didn’t have the time. And I didn’t even have children.
I had to buy most of my initial SCA garb, because I didn’t have time to sew it. That was expensive. I bought a tent, feast kit, chair, accessories, period art supplies, etc. All said and done, several thousand dollars, easily. And I wasn’t a fighter! I could afford it, but again, it was expensive! For the amount of money I spent on the SCA for the first few years, I could have afforded a modest vacation to Japan.
Did I overspend? I don’t know, probably. I was very short on time, and I had the money. I bought nice quality things that have lasted a long time. However, I also suspect a lot of fellow members don’t really keep track of how much they spend on the hobby, through time or money, and would be surprised if they added up the total.
My point is: the SCA is a very expensive hobby. Especially if you are a fighter or a material artisan. And the question is, is it worth the expense, time, and money to its participants? And how many young people, already struggling to keep their heads above water, would find such a hobby even accessible enough to make that comparison?
I know that we have gold key and loaner gear systems. However, those are not meant to be anything more than bridges to gradual purchases or creations of your own. Eventually, everything either costs you time or money, so while these systems make the game initially accessible, they don’t bring down the overall cost.
I think we can do many things to resolve this issue. Firstly, I think we all need to create a culture where we accept and enjoy imperfections and inaccuracies as learning and imagination opportunities. This would help newcomers feel less pressure to “get everything right” and less like a peasant dressed in loaner or starter garb. We should make newcomers feel enthusiastic about their starter garb; never offering unsolicited critique, but encouragement instead. This is especially true on social media, especially on social media, where many people can see. We should strive to be knowledgeable resources that inspire each other, not critics that tear each other down.
If there are pieces to someone’s kit or gear that are out of period, don’t break character and talk about how the expensive period thing is better or their sleeves are cut wrong or whatever. Use your imagination to put something else there instead, or sit on the fourth wall a little bit. You can talk about a modern item without ever mentioning that it’s modern. We do this a little bit in the SCA when we call cars “dragons” at Pennsic; in LARP we did it a lot more and it was actually kind of fun, because it made substitutions accessible and permissible for safety and budget. It also forces you to start to think more medievally and immerses you.
Secondly, I think we should take a hard look at how we use artisan’s time in the SCA. Largesse and scrolls are beautiful and touching, but they’re a totally inefficient exchange of resources and time. As a scribe, I’ve worked on scrolls that take upwards of 40 hours of resources and prep, and usually $40-$50 in paper and materials as well. I like the scrolls I’ve received, especially the ones from friends that are very touching. However, tangible items are actually more helpful, especially to newcomers, like the mugs often given at a persons’ first court. It might be more helpful to give newcomers a piece of equipment or garb they really needed as opposed to something they need to frame. Then, whenever they use the item, they can think about their award and the people that made it. It would also open up award making to many different artisans as opposed to just people who like making scrolls. The same goes for largesse – the stuff is really lovely, but often it’s not appropriate to the persona at all, and something that isn’t needed, so in the end, it can be wasteful.
As an artisan myself, I’d feel much more inspired if I knew I was making something I knew the person would really cherish and love to keep and *needed*. I think we could facilitate this process very easily with a spreadsheet or by asking for the information to be included when letters of recommendation are sent in. It would encourage us to get to know each other better too, which is never a bad thing.
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As for lowering the barrier to entry for fighting, it’s more difficult. The biggest issue is the armor, which is a very specialized craft. We have loaner gear, but that’s not a perfect solution. That is probably the best we can do, short of switching to lighter armor requirements, which is something I discuss below.
We Have Competition
In my home barony alone, there are two larps and three hema clubs, a kenjutsu dojo, a kendo club, and a thriving set of conventions for nerds to dress up however they want. There are also many craft guilds and art organizations for creative artisans. In many ways, all of these activities are a “better deal” for specific interests.
Fighting
If you’re a fighter, HEMA is comparably lower priced to get started in compared to a heavy kit. It has more modern equipment, and uses steel blades that more accurately simulate edged combat. Depending on the HEMA school, there’s often a huge focus on historical texts and blades, whereas there’s a geographic variance of that interest in the SCA. Additionally, HEMA schools just have students and instructors, or club members, instead of a Knight/Squire system, which may encourage a more egalitarian and inclusive atmosphere.I think we need to take a long hard look at our Heavy Fighting and decide if we want to modernize or just slowly bleed people to HEMA. I actually went and explored a local HEMA club. The attendance was double or triple the fighter practices I had watched. It looked a lot safer, and it was a more accurate simulation as far as I could tell. (Full disclosure: I’m a Kenjutsu martial artist that’s been practicing for many years. I’m an eastern swordswoman, not a western one) It also looked more inclusive: there were more women and it relied less on brute strength, the weapons were lighter, and the equipment looked more standard, safer, and less expensive. Why are we still rattan fighting in the era of springsteel and eva foam? Don’t we want to be safer and more accurate? We could even have almost armor-free fighting with modern light boffers with fiberglass/kitespar cores; this is how some of the Kenjutsu schools in Japan practice randori (sparring/freestyle). We should explore these possibilities by doing them at fight practice.
If you like creative costuming and lighter combat, LARP is fun, it’s easy to jump in, and there are far fewer rules. Preparation tends to be taken care of on site, the barrier to entry for costumes and weapons is much lower, a few hundred dollars will get you a full kit. Nobody will care if you have machine stitching! On top of that, room and board is usually taken care of for overnight events, so you don’t have to buy a tent or furniture.
ART
If you’re a material artisan in the SCA, the way you are recognized and celebrated is typically through acts of largesse donations, doing scrolls, teaching or documenting historical research and art. The first three are acts of free labor and materials, things most people don’t have in high supply, and the last is really not terribly creative and is time away from art. While I enjoy making historical textiles, I don’t enjoy writing up my research very much. I understand why it’s important, and I enjoy the result. However, It’s not very creative to me, and it takes a long time to do well. But that is the only way to get “recognized”, and to be “recognized” is a big focus of the culture and hierarchy within the society. As much as people may say you shouldn’t focus on getting awards, they very much pay attention to who has them.
Whereas, local art clubs and even online ones tend to just admire and support each other’s work, and even discuss how to sell it, the SCA is more focused on critique, competition and documentation. Historically-inspired seems to be less valued than exact reproduction, despite the name of our organization. The “laurel track” actually seems designed to appeal to a professional academic, not an artist, and even the laurels themselves seem to have many gripes about it. This environment makes it difficult to attract artisans and have them stay.
With that said, my local chapter meetings are very supportive and fun. I have found the local arts minister and the assorted other laurels very helpful and collaborative. After the recruitment discussion was asked on Facebook, it looks like we are having more of those. I agree with this; I think we need to do more fun things for artisans, beyond just an a&s tent and a competition. I know many artists who don’t even participate in those things. When we have crafting at local events there’s always a huge draw and it’s very inclusive. We need to have more crafting centric events, and more crafting at events. They don’t have to be scribal or sewing; we had a mask making event that was a huge hit at Agincourt. They can be contextual or seasonal, like dyeing with Irises at iris festival or cooking traditional harvest food at an autumn feast.
Feudalism is not Fun
Royalty in the SCA can only come from heavy fighting. I talked a bit above about how heavy fighting could probably stand to be modernized a bit; with new materials sciences technologies, it could easily be a safer and more accurate combat sport. As it stands today, the strength of the blows being imparted, the weight of the weapons being used, and the rules themselves, favor … people who are strong, healthy, and who are willing and financially able to get themselves injured.
At least in the Barony, most of the Kings and Dukes look like older men with big physiques. There are some female fighters and smaller framed male fighters who win and prove the exception, but I am talking about a pattern, not a rule. Don’t be like Will Farell in the Barbie Movie talking about how you had a female CEO in the 1990s. You make my point for me.
As a newcomer to the SCA, it kinda weirded me out that most of the kings old and new looked like… my dad, and I was expected to obey them and bow to them? How do you all think that feels for a generation that’s keenly aware of equity and equality, and also one who already gets enough of that in the workplace? As a female tech worker, it felt a little like I was just reliving my day job at a particularly bad company. As a 20 something year old, I would probably not want to join an organization where everyone in charge looked like my father.
Furthermore, I think this is incredibly discouraging for anyone who doesn’t fight heavy. Kings and Queens are at the center of our organization – it’s not a symbolic post, but one with power, authority and prestige. Royals receive gifts, adulation, praise, attention, and bows everywhere they go. They are the ones who get to award titles and gifts to others. People often tell me something won’t change until Royalty cares about it, or I will hear someone go over and say, “As a Peer/Knight/Royal/Rank/Etc, I find…” and then suddenly things change for them. We are supposed to be pretending at feudalism lightly with court, not accurately rebuilding its power structures in our society’s inner workings. Everyone should have an equal voice in our society, regardless of the awards they have won.
I question, firstly, why fighting is the way we choose kings and queens. It’s not historically how rulers were chosen – some were charismatic fighters, but they were often better charismatic leaders of fighters and generals than they were excellent duelists. It also reduces the pool of people who can “rule” to heavy fighters and their partners. This leaves out all the people who are likely to make some of the best, most selfless rulers; the service people and office holders who uncomplainingly make things work behind the scenes. These people often give up their whole events to cook or take event fees without complaint. I’m sure all the charismatic bards and singers might make excellent royalty too, or maybe even a shy artisan would surprise everyone. The point is we don’t know, because we’ve never given them the opportunity.
I also question why we’re so fixated on monarchy in the first place. Feudalism was a common form of government in medieval Western Europe. It wasn’t the only one, but it was one of the worst ones to be a “subject” in (even that word referring to modern people is pretty awful). There are so many more interesting forms of government in our period, enough to fill a whole other article. But say even if we kept the “charismatic hero” sort of government that monarchy uses, perhaps we could expand the possibility of whom the charismatic hero might be.
The BOD has said they will consider new forms of government if they’re handed proposals. I just finished my giant book on pre 1600s forms of egalitarian government, so I’m going to write something and have others collaborate. I invite others to do the same. And I think we should do more than let them consider it; we should insist they change it. One of the fundamental freedoms is the freedom to reorganize your form of government to something more appropriate to your current circumstance. We should have it, and use it to improve and modernize our society.
Sport or Reenactment?
The heavy fighting champions becoming kings begs a question: are we a sport, or are we a re-enactment?
Everything in the SCA is competitive. Even A&S, which really isn’t naturally very competitive, is competition and award focused. You practice your archery/melee/art/etc, you get an award, you do it some more, you get more awards. The way we talk, interact, and order ourselves in the society is based on what awards we have. People talk about “being on the ___ track.”
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Before you disagree with me, think about the structure of recent events you have attended. I’m willing to bet that they were something like this: the main affair is fighting competition or two, there’s a tent or a table with some A&S displays, food, and court where awards are given at the end. Even Fiber, Fabric & Fighting used to be just Fiber & Fabric, until we added fighting to that too.
My point to this is, these events don’t feel very much like historical gatherings. They’re not saint days (which would be inappropriate), they’re not ting-moots, they’re not seasonal festivals, they’re not traditional communal crafting activities. They are probably most similar to tournaments, but they’re very different from tournaments, too.
We are so determined to not be “LARP” we never really get to be re-enactors. I have had more immersive, historical conversations with someone in bad History Channel Viking attire at a larp than I have really ever had in the SCA. My closest encounter is sitting down with someone in really nice, perfectly stitched clothing and then listening to them talk about movies or politics.
If I’m going to be merciless, it seems like the SCA is mostly here to recreate historical material culture, fight a very specialized series of sports, eat some very delicious food, and then go home. Sometimes, we have some music and dance entertainment as well.
This is an approach, but this means the sports really have to be excellent, and the people who don’t get to fight really do have to have some good reason to stay and keep volunteering and supporting the community beyond getting scrolls. As I outlined above, we have a lot of competition as a sport, we have a lot of competition for artisans and cooks, and service people… can realistically go volunteer wherever they want, and probably do a much greater net good for the world at any local charity.
What we really don’t have competition for is a pre-1600s re-enactment group. We’re pretty much the only one in America, and certainly the largest with the biggest swath of cultures and times. I personally think this is a much greater, and far more interesting aspect of our identity than any one type of fighting or discipline. I think we should own this particular aspect and really double down on it; I think committing to more immersive events would only enhance all the other things we do.
I think we should also put our phones away at events and try to be in persona a little bit. Immerse ourselves. Talk about crafting or food or history. Stop looking at a clock and see how time starts to feel after a little bit. At one of my previous pennsic camps, we have fire time at night, every night, where all the fighters would sit and tell stories about battles from that day or the past. Now, sometimes it was funny, and sometimes it got very boring, but it was always immersive. It felt real and in period. I want us to bring back that sense of mystery and wonder more often.
I wish very much that our events looked less like stick fighting sport tournaments, and more like the seasonal celebrations and gatherings of people of past times. I think the twelfth night feasts are probably intended to be recreations of historical feasts, and that is lovely. I would very much love a mochi pounding or a tsukimi and poetry night; I think our Barony is have a masquerade ball soon and I am delighted. I hope in the future, we can have more events that are not just Fighting+, but Immersive History+.
Meeting People Where They Are
Probably the most easily solved problem, the SCA’s web presence is really not helping its recruitment efforts. The society webpage is at least scalable and reactive; I can easily use it on mobile or on tablet. But the local webpages, if you can even find them, are often not very usable on a phone at all. In addition to that, many are almost never updated. Our local Barony does a pretty good job, but take a look at my local shire. Its website and Facebook page haven’t been updated in over a year.
If I hadn’t just been willing to drive almost an hour to the Barony meetups, I would have no way to participate in the SCA. Even then, because I did not live within the zipcode of the Barony, I couldn’t vote or receive the normal citizen awards (I was very touched when I got a green comet, though). The rules have finally been amended, and I hope to be a full citizen someday soon, but can you imagine navigating that as a new person? Fortunately the people in my-soon-to-be Barony are so wonderful I was drawn back regardless.
Younger people are on the internet, on their phones. They are tiktok, insta, twitter, youtube and (to a lesser extent) Facebook. If we want to recruit young people we don’t have any connection to, we have to exist in places where they can find us. I myself was recruited by a fellow player in SWTOR online. They were in Halifax, not local at all.
We need to have some sort of positive presence on these platforms. That means being easy to find, with a meaningful name. Not necessarily the name of the Barony or Society. To a newcomer, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands and SCA do not spell “reenactment”. That also means posting content, like videos and images, of us doing fun things! Using these platforms to educate and advertise and connect.
It also means centralizing our web presence outside of walled social media gardens. We should be using Facebook for outreach and to post events, not as our central and most active form of communication. I don’t need to go into here how Facebook violates your privacy, encourages conflict, and excludes people; I think that topic has been well covered. We need to move our official announcements to scalable, reactive webpages that work on phones (WordPress is an easy choice) and our discussions to platforms that encourage healthy discourse and don’t violate our privacy. A lot of young people use discord, and the Asian persona community has a vibrant collection of young people on the discord Teahouse server. I think it’s a great example of what we could have for the rest of the SCA.I hear from many older scadians that discord is too tough or they don’t want to learn another platform. I may try to teach a discord class at a future event if there’s a good way to do that. With that said, it is an effort we need to make. If we want younger people, we need an online place that is safe and secure and encourages healthy conversation. As someone younger myself, I hate Facebook. I associate it with where my parents and their friends hang out, and I don’t actually post there because I have no privacy from my parent’s friends (and by extension my parents). I had to create an account just for the SCA, which facebook thought was a robot, and .. I got banned for two years. It is not a “cool” place for young people.
Another small issue with a huge impact is that you can’t really find us on google if you don’t know what to look for. If I search in an incognito window (to keep my search results from being personalized for SCA results), “medieval reenactment Pittsburgh”, I get…. the renaissance faire. If I search for “Historical Fighting Pittsburgh”, I get… the HEMA schools. If I search for “Historical Archery Pittsburgh”, I get the Pennsylvania Longbow Association. We really, really need search engine optimization. This isn’t even that hard to do, but we have to do it.
We also should heavily consider attending conventions and events where likely interested people go. We have a lot of nerdy conventions and activities in my local city; I think the Steel City Con would be ripe for recruiting. The anime convention has a gentleman who collects antique swords, a whole boffer sparring arena, and had a UPitt Professor teaching Japanese Samurai Death Poems. There have got to be some people attending who want to rock Heian garb and trade tankas. The boffer arena had lines of people paying to fight; there are probably some future fighters and archers waiting to be discovered as well.
We have to go find these sorts of people, and welcome them. And we have to build a society that newcomers are going to feel welcome in, and want to return to after their first event. A place where the effort is worth the reward in community and experience.
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Category: WHY
