On Council, business and fun

[jducoeur]

A few totally unofficial observations, while I think of them.

The current move of Council to Christopher's (it's the second month in a row, so it seems to be trending that way) has produced some interestingly mixed reactions among people I've talked to. Some are very much in favor of it, since it facilitates a much more social atmosphere than our usual room at MIT has done. Others are much less sanguine -- some about practical concerns like parking, but others about the atmosphere swinging *too* much in the other direction: that Christopher's is noisy, has somewhat weak acoustics, and isn't as good for getting business done. This is shading over into the SCA-stereotypical "X vs. Fun" debate, and as usual that raises a bunch of alarm bells in me, since those things are usually false dichotomies.

So let's think about that for a minute. Council *used* to be a fair amount of fun. It hasn't generally been lately. And the question that hasn't been asked enough is: why?

The thing is, there's fun and there's fun. I like having a beer with folks as much as the next guy, but it's worth noting that that really has nothing at all to do with why Council used to be enjoyable. Rather, Council used to enjoy a virtuous cycle because of the way the Barony was running. We were very busy and active, so a lot of people had things to bring up at Council. Since there was a lot of variety being discussed at Council, a broad cross-section of the Barony came. Since that broad slice of the Barony was there *and* accomplishing things, there was a gratifying sense of accomplishment, and a charge in the air -- the whole Barony working closely *together* to make things happen, which provided a lot of underlying social energy. And that made it easier for us to do more things.

All that being the case, my conclusion is that the dullness of Council is more a symptom than a cause. It's a dynamic system, so "cause" and "effect" are often hard to tease apart, but I think it's more an effect of our general drop-off in activity. So moving to a more social location is basically a patch over the symptom rather than a fix.

Which doesn't mean it's a terrible idea: so far, I think it's proving a reasonable experiment for the time being. But I don't think we should develop any illusions that it's going to change things fundamentally, and I don't think we should get too attached to the experiment. The *real* fix is to gradually ramp up the activity and energy around the Barony's activities, with Council returning to being the central lightning rod for those. If we can do that (and realistically, I think that's going to take a few years), making Council more enjoyable is likely to take care of itself. (And we might have to move to somewhere more conducive to business, if we find ourselves with a bunch more of it...)

Comments

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

The Sword of Damocles is just a sharp pinata. :-)

I mentioned this on the Grand Council list some time ago, but a reference for Justin and an advert for you.

You guys both know that I'm not doing SCA, but I am doing barbershop. An organization whose membership has been shrinking and aging... But unlike many groups, they have done something about it.

One fellow did a top-flight bit of research on how social groups work, and live and die, and then he created a program that was absolutely designed to address that. Then he piloted it in 3 groups, and when it worked, it was adopted and went national.

You might check out his entire site, or his research paper (PDF) (and the key bits are only some 10 pages to get most of it), or some info on the program he created and teaches.

The program is called "Compellingly Attractive Chapter Meetings". He lays out most of the case, and most of the means, in his research paper.

I have a copy of his class on CD, as well as a copy of his booklet.

It's right on point to some of this discussion.

[jducoeur]

Ah, excellent. Thank you -- you've mentioned this in the past, and I've been meaning for months to ask you for pointers to it. I'll put these on my to-read list...

[jducoeur]

After a quick skim of the site: yeah, that broadly makes sense. (It edges into marketing pitch a bit too much for my comfort, but the ideas seem right.) In particular, it makes a lot of sense from a systems-dynamics point of view -- that there isn't one magic bullet for solving the problems, but a bunch of factors that have to be addressed, that synergize.

Of course, that's all at the strategic level -- a lot of thought is needed on what tactics are appropriate to implement in the SCA. (And specifically in Carolingia -- the "how do we get there from here" question is not by *any* means a small one.)

I'll continue to chew on this; at some point I'll likely want to borrow that CD. It's not quite a laid-out program, but it does suggest a good approach to examining what the Barony is and isn't doing well, and what we might do about that. (Offhand, it looks to me like we do reasonably well on some points, so-so on others, and much worse than we'd like to think on a few...)

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

It was a pitch - 50 years of being a pitchman never wore off the author.

It's always a "getting there from here" thing.

That report was tuned to the needs and observed values of barbershop - the thing to do is dig into the detailed analysis and see what's there.

But some basics that we observe... everyone must:
1 Greet members as you see them.
2 Greet guests, thank them for coming
3 Look for people who are absent, contact them soon

Then, give them something to do that was worth their coming, every time.

Let me see if I can quote from an email that came from our membership chair, about a fellow who was not sure he wanted to try out, and then did...

I say thrilled because we can all take credit for an awesome job last week. At 730 last Thursday, he told me he was on the fence about continuing. By 1130PM, he was convinced that this was a group he wanted to join. He told me it was the experience singing tags, some personal coaching from David P, and the way the rehearsal was run that helped make his decision.

Kudos also to Seth for a great Tag Time ( did you see the ovation Rob got after he came off the risers to sing? ) and to Ben for being extra attentive to him at practice and making him feel included. Having DTX sing tags with him at UNO's sealed it - he was beaming afterwards.

Don't make a fetish out of it. Make it a core thing - start with the personalities that make it worthwhile, and spread the magic. Thank people for coming, ask how they are, praise what they do well, make sure whomever is running WHATEVER has a plan to make it fun.

The rest is just lots of hard work.

PS Sounds of Concord has grown from 23 guys when I joined, to something like 57 dues-paying members in 3.5 years. And dues are a couple hundred... This stuff works.

PPS For current barbershop stuff, check out their materials on Operation Harold Hill at barbershop.org. Think the SCA could muster stuff like that?

[dreda.livejournal.com]

I want to caveat up front that this is *not* a "yes, but" answer in the sense of "oh, that won't work, here's why" - you know I hate those answers. ;) This is a "why I struggle with this" answer, intended to solicit ways to ameliorate struggle.

(And I think "give them something to do that was worth their coming" is the HUGEST thing, and I have zero quarrel with it, and am continuing to turn over ideas.)

I spent a year being co-chatelaine with my beloved, and I had the opportunity to practice this sort of things firsthand. It really does work - particularly with regard to newer folks - make an effort to not only meet people, but stick around for more than five minutes. Make an active effort to spend time connecting with people you do not know and figuring out ways to knit them in, both to the organization and to your life. Simple and clear principle, really.

And one that is diametrically opposed to the things that people say they like about Olde Councile and STEs - hanging out with your extant friends around a common topic. So it is, in some part, a question of training people to acquire a new instinct which may be uncomfortable and unfamiliar. And I think, in order to really work, EVERYBODY has to do it; if you leave it to people whose official job it is, and the handful of extroverts we actually have, you get crispy fried chicken.

I credit a wise person with breaking this down to three ideas: time spent connecting with new-to-SCA folks, time spend connecting with new-to-you folks, time spent creating the something-worthwhile-to-do. If everybody involved spent, say, 30% of their time on one of these three things...

[jducoeur]

Yep -- I think you're exactly on target that it's all about getting everybody (or at least a substantial chunk of the population) in on it. In a club full of introverts, that's not an easy proposition: it's trying to change not just habit but *culture*, and that is hard work. (And demands a great deal of patience.)

That said, I do suspect it's possible. In particular, if enough of the folks who people look up to (not just those with fancy titles, but the ones who are *respected*, which isn't quite the same thing) pick up the practice; the practices are played up as ways to have a better and more interesting time instead of being an onerous responsibility; and there is a clear sense of what we're trying to accomplish and why, I would guess that these habits could probably be fairly broadly instilled in a few years.

Really, the biggest challenge looks to be changing habit. We've paid lip service to these ideas for ages; the trick is making that real...