Gday all, I attended the Three Mountains Council meeting last night and was moved by the letter Their Excellencies presented to the group. I asked permission to share Their letter here. Words of wisdom from our cousins Three Mountains. To the Barony of Three Mountains: The SCA is closing in on its fiftieth birthday. What started out as a protest against the 20th Century in California has grown into an international not-for-profit educational organization with tens of thousands of members. While the SCA grew for decades, today the total membership is in a slow decline as the Society faces increasing competition for members from outside groups and hobbies. As with the parent organization, our Barony of Three Mountains faces similar challenges. While Barony has hosted many successful events over the past several years, the most successful ones have been either Kingdom events or events with a full Kingdom draw. Attendance at our championships and other local events has dwindled, even relative to their lower expected turnout. Participation in the various championships themselves has similarly waned. Attendance at Council has dropped over the past ten years as well, and we routinely have difficulty filling our slate of officers. While there is nothing we can do about overall societal demographics, other factors influencing the health of the branch are firmly within our control. To remain vital, the Barony needs to address a few key issues which seem to be impacting our ability to attract, retain, utilize, and develop new SCA members, even relative to some of our sister branches in the area. One issue appears to be a high level of inertia within the branch. While our Barony has many great and proud traditions and these should be respected and maintained where appropriate, we cannot be afraid of trying new things even if they seem on the surface to be different or disruptive. How we “have always done it” should not be more important than how we could do it now to get some excitement and more volunteers behind it. When discussing new ideas and activities, let us not make the focus of our discussion why a new proposal will fail rather than discussing what it will take to make a new proposal succeed. This is a volunteer organization and every potential event steward or officer we drive away with negativity weakens our branch and the SCA as a whole. Lets work to build consensus rather than build obstructions. As Coronets, it is our hope that the Barony will shake off the negative outlook and attitudes and look instead to building excitement and becoming the group that enables instead of the one that confines. Without branch activities, officers, and events we have no Barony. To maintain our status, the branch needs individuals with a variety of experience and time in the SCA to serve as officers and event stewards. In short, the branch as a whole must create a welcoming and enthusiastic environment where newcomer, longtime participant, and all in between feel valued and empowered.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 22:11:32 +0000
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