Demos - one person's opinion.
Today, N. went over to syalda's place to play Mario Kart Wii and other games, and Chow and I went to Attilium for a demo. From my point of view as marshal, it went quite well - everyone was legal, everyone knew what they were doing and had been fighting for a while, and there were plenty of fighters to rotate through - 3 is an acceptable number for a demo rotation, but four was terrific, especially rotating with the two fencers.
A while ago, I said that I'd write my thoughts about demos in general, so here goes.
(Pause for a day while I have the rest of my weekend - the above was written on Saturday and below on Sunday.)
Let's define 'demo' first. They come in two general types - the recruitment demo and the educational demo. Recruitment demos are generally internally driven, looking for a way to draw new members in to a group. Educational demos are externally driven, usually from a school or library looking to give children a glimpse of a different way of life.
For my own part, I much prefer the educational demos, where a bunch of people get together at a school or a library and talk to kids about how life was different and then show them some fighting. This type of demo really defines the 'Educational' portion of the 501(c)3 Educational Non-Profit status, and give people a chance to show what's so fascinating about looking at another time and another way of life. One of my favourite bits to do at one of these demos is a discussion of what these particular kids would have been doing in the Middle Ages if they were there. We talk about how the kids would not have gone to school, but would have had to work instead. And it wouldn't have been easy work, either - working in a field or with animals, or watching smaller children, while spinning yarn all the time or doing some other type of handiwork. Most kids, upon hearing the descriptions of the lives their counterparts lead, decide that school might not be so bad after all.
Recruitment demos usually happen when someone says 'Hey, we need new members. Let's have a demo!' Someone finds a park or something and basically have a fighter practice in garb. People come by, they talk and gawk, they maybe take a flier, and maybe one in 100 or so will come to a few meetings and maybe one in 10 of those will join. Now, that's not exactly a scientific survey, but that's how it appears after years of observing at demos.
There's a third type that sort of combines both of these types of demos, and I tend to think of that as the 'festival demo', where a group of people set up a booth at a street fair or the like (around here they tend to be river festivals) and do a combination of education and recruitment. These demos are extremely labour-intensive and take an awful lot out of the membership of the local group (a bunch of people who tend to be shy anyway have to go out and be 'on stage' for half or all of a day), and doing them year after year can be extremely grinding.
Anyway - my personal opinion is that educational-style demos are terrific as long as nobody is assuming we'll get any members out of them. It does happen (there's one in my canton), but it's not the point. The point is to show the kids a bit of what life was like in the past. Recruitment-style demos are generally a waste of time unless you approach them as if they were a fighter practice and don't think you'll get any members out of them. Don't get me wrong, I had a nice day at Attilium yesterday, and so did Chow, but we approached it as if it were a long-drive-away fighter practice, and didn't feel bad for not having people slavering to sign up. Festival-style demos are good, but grinding: there are occasionally members who come from these demos - we used to have one in our canton, but over the past several years I've gotten rather burnt out on them. I'm going to one in a little while (I did commit to one day at the Ren Faire Demo in the spring), but I won't be going again for a few years, I'm sure.
A while ago, I said that I'd write my thoughts about demos in general, so here goes.
(Pause for a day while I have the rest of my weekend - the above was written on Saturday and below on Sunday.)
Let's define 'demo' first. They come in two general types - the recruitment demo and the educational demo. Recruitment demos are generally internally driven, looking for a way to draw new members in to a group. Educational demos are externally driven, usually from a school or library looking to give children a glimpse of a different way of life.
For my own part, I much prefer the educational demos, where a bunch of people get together at a school or a library and talk to kids about how life was different and then show them some fighting. This type of demo really defines the 'Educational' portion of the 501(c)3 Educational Non-Profit status, and give people a chance to show what's so fascinating about looking at another time and another way of life. One of my favourite bits to do at one of these demos is a discussion of what these particular kids would have been doing in the Middle Ages if they were there. We talk about how the kids would not have gone to school, but would have had to work instead. And it wouldn't have been easy work, either - working in a field or with animals, or watching smaller children, while spinning yarn all the time or doing some other type of handiwork. Most kids, upon hearing the descriptions of the lives their counterparts lead, decide that school might not be so bad after all.
Recruitment demos usually happen when someone says 'Hey, we need new members. Let's have a demo!' Someone finds a park or something and basically have a fighter practice in garb. People come by, they talk and gawk, they maybe take a flier, and maybe one in 100 or so will come to a few meetings and maybe one in 10 of those will join. Now, that's not exactly a scientific survey, but that's how it appears after years of observing at demos.
There's a third type that sort of combines both of these types of demos, and I tend to think of that as the 'festival demo', where a group of people set up a booth at a street fair or the like (around here they tend to be river festivals) and do a combination of education and recruitment. These demos are extremely labour-intensive and take an awful lot out of the membership of the local group (a bunch of people who tend to be shy anyway have to go out and be 'on stage' for half or all of a day), and doing them year after year can be extremely grinding.
Anyway - my personal opinion is that educational-style demos are terrific as long as nobody is assuming we'll get any members out of them. It does happen (there's one in my canton), but it's not the point. The point is to show the kids a bit of what life was like in the past. Recruitment-style demos are generally a waste of time unless you approach them as if they were a fighter practice and don't think you'll get any members out of them. Don't get me wrong, I had a nice day at Attilium yesterday, and so did Chow, but we approached it as if it were a long-drive-away fighter practice, and didn't feel bad for not having people slavering to sign up. Festival-style demos are good, but grinding: there are occasionally members who come from these demos - we used to have one in our canton, but over the past several years I've gotten rather burnt out on them. I'm going to one in a little while (I did commit to one day at the Ren Faire Demo in the spring), but I won't be going again for a few years, I'm sure.