Message-Id: <9109181324.AA08303@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date:    Wed, 18 Sep 91  9:18
From: Lisa Withall <WITHALL%CTSTATEU@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU>
To: <CAROLINGIA@BLOOM-BEACON.MIT.EDU>
Subject: DEMO ADVICE

Greetings all,

I am from Central CT State U, we are thinking of doing a DEMO in October or
November (depending on the weather) here at school.  I was wondering if
there was any info/advice that people have about DEMOs?

We would like to show the campus community here at Central what the SCA is
about.  (i.e. that we are a respectable group of sorts :-)

                                             Caitlin MacKay
                                            WITHALL@CTSTATEU
                                            Lisa WithaLL
                                            House Poor & House Apathy

To:WITHALL%CTSTATEU@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU
cc:
Subject: Re: Demo Advice
--------

Unto Caitlin MacKay does Tibicen Blackmane send Greetings!

There is a person here in Carolingia who is just finishing a handbook
which has much good information on how to run a demo; his name is
Justin du Coeur (justin@inmet.camb.inmet.com), and should he not see
your original message, you should ask him for help.

I would be glad to help as best I can.  Do you have an SCA group at
CCSU?  Is it a recognized student activity?  These things can make a
big difference to how nice the school is to you.  I would be glad to
go on at length about how to deal with a school; I led the Borough of
Mitgaard (the MIT SCA group) for 1 1/2 years.  

Also, what is the purpose to this demo?  It is a good idea to pick the
goals of the demo and focus in on them.  For instance, MIT annually
has an Activities Midway for the incoming frosh, to which we are
invited, as an Association of Student Activities recognised group.
Our purpose at that is to get new members.  We try to get people
interested in us, and we have people who are interested in us sign up
on a sheet with all the data they can give us about getting back to
them.  

Also, usually we have a "fight practice demo".  Since fight practice
for the Barony is at MIT, it is very simple to invite a bunch of other
people to show up and sit in the afternoon sun and chat with
passers-by.  Our purpose at such demos is to increase visibility, to
let people know we exist, to get people used to seeing us around doing
our thing.  We are much more low-key about those.  

Finally, we did something very different this year.  We held a small
new-persons' event on campus; it was a feast for 40 (we fed 60 in the
end) and then there was dancing.  We were funded entirely by the
MITASA Finance Board, so we could feed people for free; we reserved a
room in the Student Center, and ARA gave us a waiver so we could have
an event which they didn't cater; lots of people volunteered lots of
time, especially our feastocrat/autocrat Caterina of Mitgaard; garb
and feastgear were not required, though we provided loaner equipment
to everyone we could; the feast was 50% SCA and 50% new people.  The
point of this event was two-fold: 1) to *show* (as opposed to tell)
interested new people what the SCA *does* (which is something a demo
usually doesn't do at all)  and 2) to do something nice for the MIT
community in the name of the SCA.  This is not for beginners, though.

Don't be afraid to use your imagination!  Think of it this way:  If I
were just J Random Student on campus and saw a new group, what would
make me feel like they were a nice group to have around?  And whatever
you answer, that's what you must do.

Remember that just showing the campus what the SCA does will not
necessarily convince them that we are respectable.  And we *are*
respectable.  *I* respect the SCA -- it is filled with some of the
most hard working and creative and giving and noble people I know.
Keep that in mind.  You don't *ever* have to apologize for the SCA; it
is nothing less than glorius.  It is a gift you are bringing to
campus, and no one should ever think it anything less.

Lady Tibicen Blackmane,
(mka Vanessa Layne
dagoura@athena.mit.edu
though currently writing from sca@athena.mit.edu)