Unsolicited advice to an SCA newbie

I couldn't help myself. There I was, casually reading my news alerts about my favorite topic, the SCA, when I saw:

somewhere between fascinating and freaky

Reading Mark's words about his first event brought out a somewhat protective streak in me. I wrote him a comment warning him that there is a dark side to the SCA.

I thought to myself: "Please, don't let some jerk scare these nice people off." Let them be warned, because to me, they just looked super nice and trusting. And I hate to see anyone take advantage of newbies.

But it is also a blatant attempt to lure them in at the same time. Them and any other such folks that might read this.

Here, in my opinion, are some of the best resources for all you new people interested in the SCA. I do hope you enjoy your stay with us, however long or short it may be.

The Newcomers Page at SCA.org
Always a good place to start.

Get local: Find your Kingdom.

Stay informed: read SCA today, reporting the news from around the Known World.

Read your eyeballs out at Stefan's Florilegium. One of the best archives of SCA information in existence, but entirely text based.

Learn the lingo: The Dictionary of SCA Slang - It is not required to learn ALL the slang. Some of these are strictly regional and some derogatory. If there is a word you don't know the meaning of, check this site first. If it's not here, just ask what it means the next time you hear it. We will be all too happy to enlighten you.

Why is it bad to be medieval lately?

The think the term "medieval" has been over-used lately by the media. In some very high profile world events, they have described recent massacres, poor living conditions, treatment of prisoners and other such horrible topics as "medieval" and it's giving us medievalists a bad name!

I bet the tendency of the media use the term medieval in a negative way started in 1994 when Pulp Fiction uttered the oft-quoted "go medieval" phrase into our virgin moviegoing ears.

Now, I think newscasters just like to say the word medieval because it usually means some blood was spilled, and that's NEWS. I read an awful lot of news online via blogs, websites and RSS feeds, and I tell you the trend is saddening.

Sure, there's still plenty of local news across the country about medieval festivals, school activity days, projects, and fund-raisers, archaeological finds, and eccentric rich guys.

But what grabs the most eyeballs are the big gory statements like:

"Three Men Involved in Medieval Brawl"

"A teenage girl terrorised a terminally-ill man in the final weeks of his life as she laid 'medieval siege' to her neighbours' homes."

But of course, if you are like ME, when you read those quotes you thought of three guys court dancing together and a girl launching stuff out of a backyard catapult. Call me idealistic. Call me naive. But in MY mind, being medieval is fun, not a reason to fear something.

I wonder if people of the medieval period used the term "ancient" in the same way though.

Free press for the SCA!

I wasn't going to mention this, because I don't like jumping on to the 'sensational story of the moment' but, the SCA has become 'mainstream news' again.

(Has everyone heard by now, of the high school senior whose yearbook photo was denied because he was holding a sword, which violated the schools zero tolerance 'no weapons' policy? No? Well, he's in the SCA and his family is suing the school. Now you're up to speed.)

The original ACLU press release really sparked a firestorm of news online...

All of this press about the lawsuit is attracting an awful lot of attention to the SCA, but thankfully it is of the generally positive variety rather than the negative kind.

Whichever way this lawsuit is decided, it is a great opportunity for the SCA. This is a chance for us (as a non-profit organization, which supports itself through membership funds) to increase our ranks.

Good press translates into: potential members. Let's use the free press we've just been handed!

SCA Today

For my first official post, I'd like to direct your attention to a great news resource for anyone in the SCA. It's an online news page called SCA Today, and they take reports of all kinds from every kingdom. You can search by Kingdom, subject, time period, and more!

It's kind of like CNN for us medievalists!