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Re: Where does THIS END of the hobby need to improve MOST?
Not to start a pissing match....
I am drawn to snobby, accomplished, self-absorbed historians doing their own research supported, historically representative things unobtrusively on the periphery at adjuncts. It provides a venue and opportunity for more and more guys just like me to do what gets our historical, wool clad rocks off.
I think Jason started this thread in order to find out how we can:
1. get more folks interested in an authentic experience.
2. improve what happens at authentic events.
3. get folks to stay through authentic events from beginning to end, weather be damned.
What gets our, "wool clad rocks off," has nothing to do with it.
Many never will do an EBUFU nor have traditional mainstream tendencies or interests so it doesn’t impact those events either way...why harsh the buzz ?
My repeated point and an attempt at logic is this:
Do we make ourselves snobbish and separate by staying away from mainstream folks at mainstream events? How do we get those folks to come over to the dark side if we separate ourselves from them and become unapproachable?
There's no need for me to post my re-enacting resume' here. I've spent plenty o' time in event planning and with my butt sitting in the libriary of the AHEC. IMHO, the answer to getting folks to our events is simple. Get out there and talk to them.
I'm lucky, there's events all around me here in Pa, by driving 6 hours or less I can see the best and worst in the two hobbies, not like Tampa, where not much happened in the WBTS. The Army History and Education Center is literally 15 minutes up the road, where I can sit and read original documents until my a$$ falls asleep. But, all of that means nothing if you dont' attend events and try to pass your knowledge, both book and field skills on to others. COI's need to contain both drill and field skill "classes." "Burnt food sucks," eh boys?(another topic for another day)
Here's what I suggest and have done myself.
Attend one "mainstream event" or go to a "mainstream" living history and fall in with a buddy or two. Do everything you can there as right as rain, in the confines of what your host group is doing. If that means eating a pancake breakfast in the local fire hall, so be it. I'm unlucky enough to live less that 25 miles from Goofysburg. So, before the NPS started taking any group that can breathe, I'd watch the NPS schedule and spend time chatting with members of the groups attending the good LH's in the park. I always had a couple of small "flyers" in my haversack. The flyer had the CR's web site addy and the link to the how to join page. It also contained the link(s) and how to register information of a couple of upcoming authentic events. I'd make myself close to individuals who looked good and seemed to know how to act like a CW soldier and by the end of the weekend or after an hour or so, I'd have a flyer in their hand or lying in their shebang. Did every one come over? No, and I never expected that to happen. But one of two things happened. First and best, I saw them in my company at the next authentic LH or event or, they realized more historically correct re'nacters didn't eat their dead and I got a thank you for showing them something extremely simple that made them go, "that's cool." Win-win situation if you ask me. And, I still get e-mail questions form folks in 'streamer units on a fairly regular basis about this or that.
Know your history.
Know your job.
Teach it to someone else.
Currently residing at the old soldiers home,
Simple.
Not to start a pissing match....
I am drawn to snobby, accomplished, self-absorbed historians doing their own research supported, historically representative things unobtrusively on the periphery at adjuncts. It provides a venue and opportunity for more and more guys just like me to do what gets our historical, wool clad rocks off.
I think Jason started this thread in order to find out how we can:
1. get more folks interested in an authentic experience.
2. improve what happens at authentic events.
3. get folks to stay through authentic events from beginning to end, weather be damned.
What gets our, "wool clad rocks off," has nothing to do with it.
Many never will do an EBUFU nor have traditional mainstream tendencies or interests so it doesn’t impact those events either way...why harsh the buzz ?
My repeated point and an attempt at logic is this:
Do we make ourselves snobbish and separate by staying away from mainstream folks at mainstream events? How do we get those folks to come over to the dark side if we separate ourselves from them and become unapproachable?
There's no need for me to post my re-enacting resume' here. I've spent plenty o' time in event planning and with my butt sitting in the libriary of the AHEC. IMHO, the answer to getting folks to our events is simple. Get out there and talk to them.
I'm lucky, there's events all around me here in Pa, by driving 6 hours or less I can see the best and worst in the two hobbies, not like Tampa, where not much happened in the WBTS. The Army History and Education Center is literally 15 minutes up the road, where I can sit and read original documents until my a$$ falls asleep. But, all of that means nothing if you dont' attend events and try to pass your knowledge, both book and field skills on to others. COI's need to contain both drill and field skill "classes." "Burnt food sucks," eh boys?(another topic for another day)
Here's what I suggest and have done myself.
Attend one "mainstream event" or go to a "mainstream" living history and fall in with a buddy or two. Do everything you can there as right as rain, in the confines of what your host group is doing. If that means eating a pancake breakfast in the local fire hall, so be it. I'm unlucky enough to live less that 25 miles from Goofysburg. So, before the NPS started taking any group that can breathe, I'd watch the NPS schedule and spend time chatting with members of the groups attending the good LH's in the park. I always had a couple of small "flyers" in my haversack. The flyer had the CR's web site addy and the link to the how to join page. It also contained the link(s) and how to register information of a couple of upcoming authentic events. I'd make myself close to individuals who looked good and seemed to know how to act like a CW soldier and by the end of the weekend or after an hour or so, I'd have a flyer in their hand or lying in their shebang. Did every one come over? No, and I never expected that to happen. But one of two things happened. First and best, I saw them in my company at the next authentic LH or event or, they realized more historically correct re'nacters didn't eat their dead and I got a thank you for showing them something extremely simple that made them go, "that's cool." Win-win situation if you ask me. And, I still get e-mail questions form folks in 'streamer units on a fairly regular basis about this or that.
Know your history.
Know your job.
Teach it to someone else.
Currently residing at the old soldiers home,
Simple.
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