Fencer Retention   56 comments

It’s nearing that time of year when, according to longstanding tradition, we make improbably lofty promises to finally rein in our degenerate ways and become the paragons of courtesy, fitness, temperance, and/or martial excellence we all know we could be. It’s likewise nearing that time when we recognize that another year of degeneracy never hurt anyone, and slough off those solemn resolutions of a fortnight earlier. Eh. They tell me resolutions are easier to keep if you con your friends into joining. Maybe I can pull that off here.

At Unevent, there was much discussion among the Chatelaines regarding member retention. As is the inevitable result of cramming several dozen lovably, cloyingly officious do-gooders in a single room for an hour, the discussion became so involved that there was little time for anything else. While our topics of discussion centered primarily on retaining the People Who Get Shit Done (not an official term), preventing burnout, etc, it got me thinking about an unusual and unfortunate paradigm we have in the fencing world.

At most small events, about half the field is blue scarves and half is FS and WS; at major events, perhaps two-thirds to three-fourths are Scholars. Given that we authorize an average 1-2 Scholars at each event and make only 1-2 new FS a year, one would expect these ratios to gradually change in favor of the Scholars.

But they don’t. While the cast of higher-end fencers tends to remain relatively consistent and appears regularly, there seems to be a fair bit of attrition among the blue scarves. People are playing for 6 months to a year and dropping out.

Any given blue scarf will, it seems, take one of three paths:

1. They fence for a short time, appearing at a few events before they lose motivation or interest and fade away.
2. They fence desultorily; they might want to put in more time or effort but are prevented by real-world circumstances, or they may see fencing as an ancillary activity within their greater, more diverse SCA activities. These people may take the field only at major events.
3. They buckle down and start putting in the effort and making the sacrifices necessary to get on the path to Free Scholar. They begin showing up everywhere and get (in)famous.

Now I know I will eventually get bored of fighting the same people at events–I suspect many of the FS/WS already are, since the same six or so always appear in the finals–so how can we keep the new blood in? Category 2 can be difficult to “fix”, but I want to do my utmost to keep category 1 involved.

The Newbie’s Perspective

I was a newbie myself not … too terribly long ago, so perhaps I can offer up some of my own experiences as a place to begin discussion.

Most notably for the fencer, there appears at first to be a definite in-group/out-group distinction, whether intended or not. At my first Ymir, I could see that all the WS and most of the FS knew each other, conversed, and sparred. Meanwhile the few people I knew from my local group were otherwise occupied. I am not a social person and I was not going to strike up a conversation with a total stranger. It was a little lonely. I left after the fighting because there was nothing else to keep me interested.

As fencers, we do not intend to create this atmosphere; it just sort of happens. People have to be either good, ubiquitous, or very ambitious to get noticed; the newbie isn’t likely to make more than one event every one, two, three months, and generally doesn’t possess the skill to impress anyone for at least a year. Unless he is of the uncommon sort to really dedicate himself and seek out instruction from the higher-ups, he’s not likely to become a part of that in-crowd. He may be of the opinion that without the instruction that the best fencers can provide, he doesn’t really stand a chance of getting better. Gold scarf seems impossibly far away. He sees fencing improvement in the SCA as a catch-22, gets frustrated, and leaves.

On the other side, many of us established folks are doing our utmost to improve our own games and meet up with people we only get to see once a month. We like teaching new people and making them feel welcome, sure, but it’s one more demand on a limited schedule. Simply saying “y’all should put in more effort to connect with new authorizees and teach ’em real good” would be disingenuous, hypocritical, and ineffective.

Solutions

Part of the onus, perhaps, lies on the marshals who run local practices and entice newbies to authorize. Maintaining interest and expectations has to occur at the local level. I think fencers are generally pretty friendly folks, so it may be that the only thing needed is to encourage the newbie to introduce himself to Wistric or Connor and try to fight a few pickups.

Letia had an idea a short while back that would go a long way towards ameliorating the issue. Fencers tend to congregate after Court for off-site dinners. Most newbies are actively encouraged to go to Feast–and that’s probably not a bad thing, as it’s a part of the experience of an event–but there’s little better way to make them feel like a part of the community than to invite them along. If fencers plan ahead, deciding on a specific post-event restaurant and disseminating the information via rapiernet, they can encourage any blue scarves in their local chapters to tag along.

Another option is to provide some visible motivation for newbies to keep at it. In some ways the Academie suffers from having three ranks–there’s no “green scarf”, nothing intermediate between the confirmed prowess of the gold scarf and the “hey, you authorized!” acknowledgement of the blue, and the importance we place on scarf color means fencers tend not to notice kingdom- and baronial-level awards. I’m not advocating that we change the structure of the Academie here; instead, I’d suggest we increase the visibility of the Sea Dragon award. Most fencers tend to receive Sea Dragons when they’re around that “green scarf” point: when they’re no longer pushovers on the rapier field, have made some efforts to look good, and are consistently making events. That’s a much more attainable standard for the newbie. The only trouble here is finding a good medium between visibility and presumption; this Sea Dragon thing should not be fancier than a WS. Perhaps a small burgundy or silver-grey favor with the Sea Dragon emblazoned upon it, tied to the scarf, would be acceptable.

Thoughts?

Posted December 30, 2012 by Ruairc in Teaching and Training

56 responses to Fencer Retention

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