Chatelaine 201: Building a Better Experience

Barony of Tir-y-Don Demo Display at Bacon's Castle Ren Faire.

Chatelaine 201

These are more complex topics that focus on building a better Chatelain beyond the basics of the office. This is a start of a series for a new class I am developing for officer training.

Building a Culture of Safety

These concepts are based on the framework by Timothy R. Clark.

Psychological safety is a condition in which you feel included, safe to learn, safe to contribute, and safe to challenge the status quo -- all without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished.

This concept should be standard across everything we do in the SCA. No gatekeeping, no friction, just helpful people teaching and learning together.

Stage 1. Need to Belong. Ask the questions "Do you feel like you can be your authentic self here or do you wear a mask to fit in?" Of course, we all wear a mask of sorts, in our personas. But our personas are an extension of ourselves. Do you, and the newcomers you speak with, feel comfortable? Are you a welcoming presence?

Stage 2. Need to Grow. You feel safe asking questions, giving/receiving feedback, and making mistakes. This is at the core of the SCA as a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit. We exist to teach and learn. But is that environment a safe one? Are you judging A&S competitions with fairness and with feedback? Are you encouraging participation and growth in all areas?

Stage 3. Need to Make a Difference. Feeling safe to use your skills and talents to make meaningful contributions. Are you seeing newcomer's you have mentored engaging with the SCA? Are they becoming members themselves? Are they becoming empowered to venture out on their own and grow in their chosen area? Are they entering competitions (martial, arts, or otherwise)?

Stage 4. Need to Improve. We want to be able to challenge what is known. We research, we explore, we conduct experimental archeology. We also live within a modern society and have politics to consider. Not modern politics, but internal politics. We have to ensure that there is a safe space where a new person feels able to challenge how things have always been done. This is perhaps the hardest and most important stage.

Often, we fall into a trap of tradition. Why are things done a certain way? Is there a better way? We do not stop or limit our research. New sources come out frequently and we learn more as we review them. We look for peer reviewed or primary source documents. Where we seem to lack is in taking in new perspectives for things that are not wholly historical in nature. Service comes in many forms and updating processes and procedures is certainly among those forms. Be open, be communicative, listen.

Effective Communication

A natural segue into the most important topic we as Chatelaine's face. How do we best communicate with newcomer's? We need an open dialogue. We need to acknowledge when we are approaching an information dump that can be overwhelming to someone just starting out.

Communication vs. Conversation

At its most basic, we need to make sure we are having a conversation. We need to ask questions as well as listen and answer them. There needs to be a two way street. This is especially important with newcomers. Asking questions about their interests, what they are enjoying, what they want to get out of the SCA, and making sure they feel comfortable and that they have a place among us.

Matching Communication Type

Understanding how someone communicates can help us to get better engagement and more meaningful interaction. As Chatelaine's that means we need to be where the people are. The people are not all on Facebook. A majority of younger potential members refuse to create an account. If this is your only means of communication for group events, discussions, and notices, you will lose people.

It is very important to keep group websites up to date with the latest information. Whether this is done via a notice on the home page or a feed that does not require logging in to see, your website needs to have all the information someone needs to find you without having to login to Facebook.

So if not Facebook, what alternatives do we need to look at? I asked one of my grad students last year what the best way to reach out to potential new students was. TikTok was the most frequently used, then Instagram and LinkedIn, and Facebook bringing up the rear with the phrase that made me age 10 years "My mom uses Facebook." The best way to communicate, or have a meaningful conversation was Discord or text message. Phone calls or emails were not as popular, but email was more popular than phone calls. If you are a Chatelain and you are not active on Discord, you should be.

Matching Principle of Communication

This goes hand in hand with communication type. The Matching Principle discusses effective communication simply and effective. If you know what you want out of a conversation, that's your first step to getting there. Identify the type of conversation:

• Practical Conversations - Someone is trying to get help or find an answer

• Emotional Conversations - Someone is looking for support or empathy

• Social conversations - Someone wants to be heard and acknowledged

It is important that you are having the same type of conversation. With a newcomer, this is likely to be a practical conversation - new environment, new people, and lots of new activities with questions. However, these conversations will have elements of emotional and social as well. An event can be an overwhelming experience. There is a lot to take in. Someone may have anxiety or feel lost or that they don't know where to go or who to talk to - or who they can talk to.

The Matching Principle is simple: Match the conversation. Match the tone. Match the intent.

Managing Information Overload

A thousand hobbies wrapped in a tunic. It is easy to overload someone with too much information. You don't want their head to be swimming. That can be overwhelming for anyone, but especially for someone new. Ask questions about what they like to do and focus on things related to that. If someone likes to embroider, find them people playing with string. If they're fascinated by fighting, explain the fights to them and maybe find a Knight/MoD around the side of the field who isn't participating. If they are already an archer, bring them to the range. If they're not sure, walk around the event with them and give them some snippets. Stop and ask if they want more information before moving on to the next thing. They may find what they're looking for!

Encourage newcomer's to attend local group meetings. This could be A&S, scribal nights, fighter practices, or even business meetings. Yes, business meetings can be boring, but they are a great informal setting to find out what's going on and who people are. They are plain clothes, which makes them casual and approachable. My first encounter with the SCA was at a business meeting in August 2001. People came and talked to me, found out what I was interested in, invited me to join them at archery practice (loaner gear provided!), and were generally welcoming.

I have heard some people say they do not recommend newcomers start with a business meeting. Maybe your local group meetings are different, but mine have officers saying all the things they're doing, how many people are showing up, event summaries, upcoming event progress and planning, there's a lot going on! I found it to be a low pressure way to find out what the SCA is, who local people were, and if I wanted to be involved. It also let me know right off HOW I could become involved. I could be an officer, a fighter, an artist, all of the above!

If you build it...

Once the structure is in place, you can guide someone through your framework and build a fully engaged member. If someone only goes to fighter practice, they only know the fighting side. If they only go to events, they are missing out on all the behind the scenes work. A well rounded member is a happy member, one that can contribute to the group and the SCA as a whole. Building well rounded members builds the core of a group and will help retention, growth, and stave off burn out.

The framework starts with communication. This is the key to entry in any endeavor.