Our Top Three Favorite Topics

As we have discussed the possibility of being chosen as the next Baron and Baroness of Skraeling Althing we have discovered that our conversations tend to be dominated by three important topics: Baronial unity, membership numbers, and enjoying history. We have enjoyed spending a fair amount of our SCA time and energy on encouraging unity and cooperation between members of the Barony, recruiting and encouraging new members, and sharing our enjoyment of the time period recreated with in the SCA. We also feel that these three areas will continue to be important to us in the future.

Baronial unity, in our opinion, is very important in Skraeling Althing because the barony is remote from the center of the Kingdom and spread thinly over a wide area. Working together is the best way to combat dwindling membership and apathy. Many a member has commented that no matter what the reason they joined the SCA, the reason they stay is because of the friends they have made. Providing opportunities to develop friendships between cantons can only strengthen our Barony and increase everyone’s enjoyment of the SCA. Such opportunities may come in the form of joint projects, friendly competitions, and inclusive decision making. Both of us have been pleased to be involved in a number of inter-Canton activities in the past, such as co-operative demos in three Cantons, co-hosting Kingdom events and volunteering at events in other cantons. Cristabell’s direction as the Editor of the Chronicle is to deliberately include news from all corners of the Barony and seek out writers who may not normally have considered submitting articles. In the future we both hope to see the development of a more functional and co-operative event planning process or policy to help alleviate the current difficulty caused by events competing for attendance and volunteers. If members in all the Cantons will reach out to each other to work together more we could tackle larger, more satisfying projects that we have not yet dreamed up. We see a healthy SCA group as one which is cohesive, inclusive and inviting. We have been and will continue to work toward this vision.

Our second, but no less important area of focus, is the attraction of new members and the retention of current members. Complaints can be heard across the Kingdom, and indeed around the Known World – “our numbers are shrinking”. It also seems that every group thinks that they are alone in facing this problem. We believe that active steps need to be taken toward generating growth. New methods, tried and true methods as well as old, but possibly forgotten, methods of attracting new members must be used. If chosen as Baron and Baroness we would consider it part of our Baronial duty to be in the public view. We enjoy participating in public demonstrations and have learned quite a bit about what makes them work well. Once someone has decided to join the SCA they must be made to feel welcome and equipped to fit in. We plan to support the efforts of the Chatelaines across the Barony. One of the great duties of a Baron and Baroness is to provide opportunities for public recognition in court. We understand that timely and meaningful recognition is one key to membership retention. Both by awarding Baronial accolades as appropriate and recommending Skraels for Kingdom awards, we would help insure that members feel appreciated and want to stay. We have also learned that there are many small ways to show appreciation that are not attached to an award. Words of thanks, small tokens and praise for a job well done can be generously distributed as a part of our contribution toward strengthening the membership across the Barony.

The third area of focus is what we enjoy most about the SCA – the recreation of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. One misconception that occasionally comes up is that being historically accurate is at odds with having fun. Another is that it must be perfect from the start. We believe in neither of these statements. While both of us have a lot of fun at being historically accurate as possible we love the process of striving for accuracy. We truly feel that a great deal of fun springs directly from learning, trying, and being ‘into’ history. Personally, we love to research and create historically accurate, well fitted clothes because it makes us feel good and therefore look better. We also love to encourage the same in others, but not just in clothes, in all sort of disciplines. We also like games and entertainment from the middle ages and renaissance that are quirky, funny, and easy to have fun participating in. Every person in the SCA has their own individual focus in terms of historical recreation and they all should be encouraged to have fun learning about, using and sharing knowledge that they think is fun. The SCA is a big game of make-believe, and participants who have the right building blocks can have a lot more fun playing. We like to share our knowledge with those who wish to learn more. We like to encourage others with different areas of expertise. However we do know that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing so we try to respect the limits of each individual. Whether we are chosen as Baron and Baroness or not, we will continue to strive to share the fun of pretending to be a fine Lord or Lady from a real place in history.

We look forward to being able to talk about these ideas with all of you at the all candidates meetings, but please feel free to comment on them or ask questions here in our blog.