Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The First Barrier- Attracting First Time Fighters


                In the Tir Asleen model, I propose that there are four barriers to be overcome to attract new fighters and create long-term realm members: trying Belegarth for the first time, coming back to a second practice, becoming a regular attender, and attending a national event.  In this post I will discuss the first barrier, which is basically an advertising and sales challenge.  First you need to make people aware of generally what Belegarth is, and then you have to convince them to give it a try.

                There are many, many ways to approach advertising, but by far the most effective is just to fight in a location where people can watch.  Holding your regular practice in a place that has good foot traffic by your target demographic means you can recruit every week during your regular practice for little additional effort.  Your realm is constantly undergoing attrition in members and you can’t count on a handful of special recruiting events to make up for what you are constantly losing to school, work, and other pursuits.  Fighting in a public place with good foot traffic is absolutely essential to the Tir Asleen model of recruiting.  Tir Asleen fights twice a week on the Iowa State University campus.  Our week night practice is our more heavily attended practice, but we also get a good showing on the weekend during the school year.  Our week night practice spot is on the lawn right in front of the campus library.  It is one of the better lit public spaces on campus and has a steady stream of undergraduate students, graduate students, staff, faculty, and even some high school students constantly passing by, seeing us and often stopping to watch or try it out.  Our weekend practice is on campus in a location with less foot traffic, but is more scenic and with more room to fight, representing a compromise between the needs of our current fighters and potentially attracting future fighters.  At either practice location, we are constantly in ‘recruitment mode’ and will typically get between four and twenty walk-ups on a week night, depending on the time of year.

In addition to locating our practices in a public space with good foot traffic, we also have a professional looking sign sitting out front that identifies who we are, what we are doing, and communicates that new members are welcome.  The sign we use whenever we fight outside is a Plasticade A-frame sign with 2’x3’ laminated full color posters on each side.  This sign looks very clean and professional and represents a significant step up from our old sign, which was a homemade A-frame sign with spray paint lettering that was not terribly professional looking.  The difference in people’s reactions to the two signs is noticeable.  People will stop to read the nicely printed sign and watch what we are doing, where the amateur looking sign only warranted a quick glance as people walked by.  It is not enough just to have ‘a sign.’  The sign has to communicate that you an organized group and that new members are welcome to participate.

Double-sided A Frame sign with printed posters.
 
In addition to having a professional looking sign, the rest of your practice should look presentable as well.  Remember, even at a regular weekly practice you are Belegarth to people that know nothing about the game, but who may become members in the future.  If all of your members are wearing shoddy-looking garb and swearing loudly at each other, it will turn off many potential recruits.  You should run your practices like you are on display to the public, because you are.  I believe that an effort should be made to have your veterans in garb every week.  Tir Asleen does not require garb at most practices, but if a veteran consistently shows up without it, one of the realm leaders will politely remind them that it is an expectation that most veterans be in garb most weeks.  That said, I also feel that it is beneficial if passerbys can see that not everyone is in garb.  Maintaining a spectrum of garb from no-garb new fighters to fancy-garb veterans will help make practices feel more accessible to walk-ups because they won’t be the only person without garb.

Fighting in a high-visibility location and looking like an organized group won’t do you any good if you don’t capitalize on the attention you receive.  Tir Asleen has a small number of veteran fighters who are responsible for approaching interested passerbys.  It is very important to note that not everyone is well suited to this task.  Realm leadership should approach and ask a few friendly, outgoing realm members with nice garb to undertake this responsibility. During the height of the recruiting season we will have a designated person who is doing nothing other than approaching people, explaining rules, and answering questions.  Later in the season one of the heralds will pull double duty running the field and watching the sidelines or one of the fighters will come off the field to approach someone who looks interested.  It is worth saying that often times having a female realm member responsible for approaching people may be more effective at getting people to try fighting than her male counterparts.  As it turns out, many guys are as interested or more in girls as they are in sword fighting, and if you can demonstrate that you have both, you will be that much more likely to convince them to at least give it a try.

So how do you know if a passerby may be interested in fighting?  Most people will walk past without paying too much attention- these people are probably not worth approaching unless you are a very good recruiter.  A large number of people will watch what you are doing while they walk by.  Pay attention to these people and note if they are smiling and laughing or slowing down.  If you have a recruiter nearby, these people are worth asking, “Would you like to try it out?”  Sometimes they will stop to have a conversation with you or maybe even try it out, and sometimes they will politely say “No” and keep going.  Don’t press the issue, they are probably not long-term recruit material and you should focus your energy on more promising recruits.  Some people will stop to watch or maybe take pictures or video with their phone.  You should always approach someone who stops, even if they don’t fit your image of who might be interested in trying Belegarth.  You never know who might be a closet nerd (or have a friend who will come out) and you should have a pretty good success rate with anyone who shows that much initial interest.

So what do you say to someone who is interested in fighting?  It is important not to overwhelm people with rules or stories.  Get them the rules quickly and get them fighting.  All the other stuff can come later.  The spiel I give is very fast and goes something like this-

 “Have you ever done anything like this before? [No].  Okay, it is pretty much what it looks like- if you get hit in the arm, you lose the arm and put it behind your back.  If you get hit in the leg, you lose it and must kneel on it.  Keep the dead leg on the ground and leave the other up so your opponent knows which is which.  If you lose two limbs, you are dead- you bleed to death.  Do not hit in the head or neck.  [Optional brief explanation of missile weapons if they are in use].  One hit to the torso kills.  Torso includes your shoulders down to and including your butt and groin.  [Optional explanation of reds if in use].  Most of our loaner swords don’t have stabbing tips on them, so please don’t poke people with them.  You can use any equipment you like from this area, but generally I recommend a shield and a one-handed weapon for new fighters.  When you have selected what you want to fight with, go talk to the guy in yellow and he will put you on a team.” 

There are of course some situational variations, but typically I aim to get someone the rules and some weapons and get them fighting in 2-4 minutes.

Tir Asleen is totally geared toward recruiting during the first six weeks of the fall semester, and in addition to the recruiting we do at regular practices, we also run a number of special recruiting events during the week before the fall semester starts.  At Iowa State University the students all move in to the dorms throughout the week before classes start.  These students are typically underclassmen who don’t know anyone, aren’t involved in any clubs, and don’t have anything to do between move-in and the first day of classes- the perfect recruits!  To target these golden recruits, we set up a small fighting field directly outside the dorms in the afternoon/early evening of move-in days.  Our fighting demos are visible from the windows of the dorms, the sidewalks between running between them, and from the dining center.  For these special recruiting days, we put out all of our signage, wear our best looking garb, and make sure there is always some fighting happening for people to watch.  During slow periods, we often king-of-the hill one-on-one battles that provide fast, hard fighting for people to watch, but also allows everyone not on the hill to have breaks between fights.  Also during these special recruiting events, the realm members responsible for approaching passerbys are somewhat more outgoing at approaching people, often pitching to large groups that have shown no particular interest.  The goal is to get as many people as possible to fight in at least one battle so that even if they don’t become regular members, they are at least familiar with us and may talk to their friends about their experience or give it a try later in the semester if they see us again.

For the past two years, Tir Asleen has also been invited to participate in the official University welcome activities for incoming freshman, dubbed “Destination Iowa State.”  Participating in these activities has been an absolute gold mine for us, and a large number of our new recruits that make it to Oktoberfest have come out of them.  We participate in two DIS activities.  The first is an outdoor bazaar of university clubs and community organizations called “Center of exCYtment.”  There are club demonstrations, bouncy castles, and swag to be collected, but our fighting field definitely draws the biggest crowd.  This is a high-throughput, go-go-go kind of recruiting event, but by the end of the night we have had several hundred new people fight in at least one battle.  Because of the sheer scale of this event, we treat it as a high priority for veteran members to be present, in garb, and with gear that new people can use and always make sure the realm loaner arsenal is full and in good repair.  We have two or three members work the crowd and funnel interested people to one or two different members who explain a very basic rule set (blue damage only) and get them some equipment.  They then go to a field herald who assigns them a team.  We run constant two-team battles for the entire event (2-3 hours).  During the rules explanation, people are encouraged to take one of our flyers that has our contact info and practice times on them and sign up for our email list.  We hand out something like 100 flyers and get 30-40 email addresses from this event.

The second DIS event we participate in is called “Late Night at the Memorial Union.”  It is an evening hang-out type event for new students to come check out more university clubs and play games and generally stay out of trouble before classes start.  We run this event similar to the Center of exCYtment event, but at a smaller scale.  We have usually have fewer new people fighting, so we have a little more time to explain some more of the rules and maybe run a couple of different kinds of games.  A large number of people that come to this event tried fighting the night before at the Center of exCYtment event and want to try fighting again and maybe get their friends to try it, too.  That allows us to use this event to “set the hook” and get people that are already interested to really commit to coming out again in the future.  We get a chance to talk them up a little more and hint at different kinds of games, events, and all the rest of the glory of Belegarth.

In addition to the dorm recruitment fighting and the welcome student events, we also get asked to participate in other clubs’ and organizations’ events throughout the year.  These are typically less lucrative for us in terms of attracting new recruits, but they are very useful for the purpose of familiarizing a diverse body of students with who we are and what we do, and help to establish us as a campus institution.  Many of these events are sponsored by the residence halls or Greek houses that want to have some sort of battle between groups and would like to use our equipment to do that.  We are happy to help, but we do insist that we use Belegarth rules (sometimes with negotiated changes) and that our members run the field to create a smooth, safe fighting experience.  We often are repaid for our efforts in pizza and always generate good will with other clubs and organizations and sometimes with faculty and staff as well.

If you are still with me, you must be interested in learning more about the Tir Asleen model of recruiting and realm building!  In this post I discussed some of our strategies for overcoming the first barrier in recruiting, getting people to try Belegarth for the first time.  Upcoming posts will feature in-depth breakdowns of the strategies we use to overcome the second, third, and fourth barriers to gaining and keeping new members.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Welcome to The Acorn

Hello, my name is Matt Stephenson, but you probably know me as Ser Xipher Oakheart, the acorn knight of Eriador.  I have been fighting since 1999 and helped to found the realms of Nan Belegorn and Tir Asleen along with the Eriador Alliance and Belegarth fighting in Iowa in general.  Over the years I have learned a lot about starting, running, and growing realms.  This blog is my attempt to organize my thoughts about Belegarth in one place and to serve as a resource for others to access in the future.  If you have any questions or would like me to cover a particular topic, please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate!

My Belegarth Background


Hello!  To help you understand how my experiences can help your realm, let me start with some background information about my fighting history, my realms, and my kingdom.  I started fighting in 1999 when I was in high school.  My friends and I found out about Dagorhir (this was before the split) when we made friends with Carl, who had fought some growing up in Ohio.  We did some backyard fighting for a while before I began to become interested in organizing a larger realm.  By the time I graduated high school, Nan Belegorn was a large and growing young realm.  Sadly, after graduation I had to move away for college at Iowa State University, and left Nan Belegorn in the capable hands of Bhakdar (still Alcon at that time).

I got right to work starting another realm in Ames, and with the help of some friends who had also come to ISU from Cedar Falls, we got regular practices going pretty quickly.  We recruited a lot of amazing talent right from the start and that first year Tir Asleen took six people to Oktoberfest, plus Bhakdar from Nan Belegorn.  Fighting in Iowa had taken root.

Fast-forward thirteen years, and I’m still in Ames and still helping run Tir Asleen.  I have gone through periods of intense involvement in the management of Tir Asleen and I’ve gone through periods where others have taken most of the weight for me.  Through all that time I’ve learned quite a bit about what works for us and what doesn’t work for us, and I hope that others in similar situations can learn from our experience.

To make that experience as useful as possible, it’s important that you know a little bit about the community where Tir Asleen is located.  Ames, Iowa is a mid-sized town of 60,000 people (including students) that is dominated by Iowa State University, which had an enrollment of about 30,000 in 2014.  Iowa State University’s award-winning campus was designed as a pedestrian campus, with limited accessibility by car.  Students walk or ride the bus where they want to go, and there are many large, beautiful green spaces sprinkled throughout campus.  In short, it is the perfect setting to fight and recruit new members.

Over the last two years, we have done that in spades.  Tir Asleen has had two years of bumper crops of new fighters in a row, with fall practices ranging from 30-80 people, and averaging around 40-50.  In 2013 and 2014 we took more than 40 people on the five hour drive for Oktoberfest, including 10-15 brand new fighters both years.  In 2014 Nan Belegorn, following many of the same principles we do, had similar success, going from a defunct non-practicing realm to having around 40 fighters at Oktoberfest in about eighteen months.

So with that brief summary of where we came from and where we are now in mind, I will lay out the theory behind our recruiting success as well as the nuts-and-bolts actions that we took to translate that theory into membership over the next several segments.  The theory we developed may not be directly applicable for every realm, but I am convinced that every realm can benefit from a thoughtfully crafted recruitment campaign designed for their unique situation.

The Tir Asleen Model for Recruiting

                It is my belief that a large percentage of 16-24 year-olds can be considered potential recruits.  Obviously Belegarth is not for everybody, but I really believe that most high school & college-aged young adults could enjoy fighting if it is properly presented to them and they are given the opportunity to have fun and develop some fighting skills.  Based on that assumption, I developed a systematic approach to developing a recruiting strategy that has worked very well for Tir Asleen and Nan Belegorn over the past two years.  For lack of a better name, I will call this recruitment theory the Tir Asleen Model.  In this segment I will hit the highlights of the theory and I will drill down into the nitty-gritty details in subsequent segments.

                Recruiting new members can be viewed as overcoming a series of barriers which stand in the way of potential members becoming long-term realm members.  The first barrier that needs to be overcome is getting potential fighters to try Belegarth for the first time.  At the most basic level, this can be viewed as an advertising challenge.  In general, you need to make people aware of what Belegarth is and that they are encouraged to join.  Realms can advertise their presence in a number of ways, but the best way is to fight in a public place and make it obvious that passersbys are welcome to join in.  This is most efficiently done is your regular practice place is somewhere with high foot traffic by your target demographic, such as on a college campus or a in a popular public park.  You should also always put out a professional looking sign have an outgoing, friendly person designated to approach people that look interested.  Having all of your members in nice-looking garb also goes a long way to improving your image overall and creating the right first impression.  In addition to passively recruiting during your regular practices, it can be very worthwhile to attend welcome student events at a college, fight outside the dorms during move-in week, set up a fighting field at/near local festivals, and offer to provide equipment and expertise to other community groups that might be interested in running a ‘fight night’ for their members.

                The second barrier to people becoming long-term members is getting someone who has tried Belegarth to come back a second time.  This almost entirely comes down to one question- did they have fun at their first practice?  If they have a good time, they are likely to come back.  Unfortunately, ensuring that new people have a good time is not always a straightforward proposition.  A careful balance needs to be struck to let your veteran fighters do some fighting at a high level, while still letting new fighters have fun and feel like they have a chance to make a difference in some of the games.  The first step is to have quality loaner gear available that does not put your new people at a significant disadvantage gear-wise.  It doesn’t need to be the latest tech, but it should not be a significant barrier to the new fighter having a good time.  The person calling games should include games that allow new people chances to do well.  Examples include games like capture the flag where there is an objective that you don’t necessarily need to be a good fighter to complete, games with little downtime so that if they die early they can quickly re-enter the game, and games that have a silly component to them so that they are enjoyable for new fighters even if they aren’t fighting or not getting many kills.  One of the most important things you can do to leave a favorable impression with new fighters is keep them from getting hurt on their first practice.  Obviously safety is a high priority for all of your fighters, but sometimes it might be necessary to ask some heavy-hitters to meter their swings or avoid new fighters on the field.  Sending your new people home with bruises is going to severely impact your new fighter retention rate.  It is important for the passerby approacher, leaders, heralds, and game callers to make it absolutely clear that new people are important to them and that their enjoyment of the game is a high priority.

                Okay, so you have attracted some new fighters and convinced them to come back to a second practice.  The next barrier is to turn these interested fighters into regular attendees.  The key to overcoming this barrier is to allow your new members to grow as fighters and make friends in the realm.  You can encourage your new members to grow as fighters by providing them access to the tools they need to succeed.  This includes things like hosting weapon building parties, garb sewing parties, and access to veteran fighter instruction.  Sometimes it might be more efficient to just provide your new fighters with inexpensive weapons for purchase and realm tabards with their first dues payment or when they attend their first event.  Having their own weapons and their own garb creates a substantial feeling of buy-in that they won’t have if they don’t have their own garb and are always borrowing loaner equipment.  Equally as important as helping your new people to grow as fighters is to allow them the opportunity to integrate into the social fabric of the realm.  You can help this process along by providing social opportunities where all realm members feel welcome.  Sometimes this can be at a different time & place as practice, but it often works well to go get food after practice as a group or all go over to a realm member’s place to hang out.  It is critical that new fighters feel welcome to come along.  Veteran fighters will already likely be friends and don’t need encouragement to hang out together.  These structured social times are most important for new fighters, so make an effort to get them to come along.

                Tir Asleen has found that if we can get our new fighters to attend a weekend fighting event, they are likely to become long-term members.  For us, this represents the final barrier to transitioning potential recruit into a long-term realm member.  Tir Asleen’s main recruiting period is the first six weeks of the fall semester, starting at dorm move-in and using Oktoberfest as a ‘finish line’ for the bulk of our new recruits.  We make sure our new members know what Oktoberfest is and encourage them to come with us by making an announcement about it at every practice and making a concerted effort to get all of our new members weapons, garb, and transportation ahead of time.  Do your best to provide structured times where people can make weapons and garb, but sometimes you might have to provide some personal help outside of those sessions to make sure everyone who wants to go has what they need.  After your new people have weapons and garb, they are going to need transportation and lodging at their first event.  I encourage you to actively mediate ride-sharing, since sometimes veterans might prefer to drive themselves, but will take riders when asked by a realm leader.  Ask your new fighters about their level of familiarity with camping and help them share, borrow, or purchase the tents, sleeping bags, and other equipment they will need.  Sometimes students can get excused absences from classes for trips with student clubs.  If your realm is a student club, look into your college’s rules about this and help your new student fighters get an excused absence if that is an option.  Finally, once you are at the event, don’t abandon your new members.  Camp with them, fight with them, and party with them, and you will have successfully transitioned your potential recruit into a long-term realm member. 

So that is a pretty course-scale look at the Tir Asleen model for recruiting new members.  This theory assumes that you are recruiting in a target-rich environment and have some access to schools or colleges to recruit from.  If that is not the case, some of these strategies may still be useful to you, but I strongly suggest that each realm take a comprehensive approach to developing their own recruitment model that works for their own unique situation.  In subsequent segments I will drill down into these lists of actions and provide some details and options and examples of how Tir Asleen has approached these strategies.