[Artemisia] Collegium Youth Track -- Thank You!

[BECKY LEISHMAN]

I agree... everyone that pulled this entire Collegium rocks... I only wish that we could have made it (sighhh). 

 

Regarding the 'why' participation might not be what you had hoped for: 

 

My observations are and have always been that the youth program participation is primarily kids 13 and under... in other words tweens and chilluns.  This is mostly because if this age group gets they get dragged to an event in the first place, they aren't usually old enough to participate in anything else.  This is why in the past, our youth officer's efforts have been primarily targeting this age range. 

 

Also, when kids get up into the teens, they often have other activities that prohibit them from even participating in SCA stuff.. i.e. sports, jobs, etc... or, they are old enough that they can participate in adult classes, etc... so they tend not to do 'youth' activities. 

 

Something to consider in the future:  Teens teaching teens.  Find some teens who know a lot of stuff really well.. have them serve as the class instructor... see if that will boost participation. Always of course have adults present to cover the 2 deep leadership criteria. 

 

Are you actually having your youth officers keep track of their participating kids and how old they are?  This would help you define your target population so that you don't have folks spinning their wheels on stuff that is going to get little to no participation.  Just a thought. Sounds like you might be using the event sign in to try to identify this.. that will only work if the age of the youth is listed. And for the record... 1 child particpating is 'enough' to make the effort worth while.. That 1 will realize what a good time they had, and next time bring some of their friends, and so on and so on and eventually the program grows and flourishes. 

 

But hey... one has to admire your efforts and your energy level. 

 

Bethoc
 

Who gets tired just watching you
> From: dtavares1 at hotmail.com
> To: artemisia at lists.gallowglass.org
> Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:39:07 -0700
> Subject: [Artemisia] Collegium Youth Track -- Thank You!
> 
> 
> Now that I've recovered from Collegium weekend -- and gotten caught up with work -- I want to texpress my enthusiastic and heartfelt thanks to all the instructors who gave so unselfishly of their time and effort to the Teen Track. The number of teachers and the variety of classes offered for this first-ever experiment just amazed me.
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> I particularly want to thank two of my Youth Officers: Dame Constance de la Rose, of Loch Salaan, taught two sessions of her wonderful class on bees & honey in Period for both adults & kids. (This class was so popular at last spring's Combined Collegium that I requested she teach it again.) Baroness Petronilla, my tireless Evil Smurf(tm) from Twae Linnes, devoted herself to the education and entertainment of the smaller fry that day. Pet rocks!! >:)
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> My personal thanks to THL Allegretza, my retired officer out of Arrows' Flight, who offered herself as my relief in case I needed a break.
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> Alas, not as many teens & pre-teens attended the event as I had hoped. (A couple of classes had no one signed up...but I'm told that's pretty much an occupational hazard of any collegium.) I am already analyzing why and how to address that issue. Please know that, however your class turned out, I very much appreciate your involvement. I will be getting together with the class coordinator and the autocrat to parse the information gleaned from the enrollment sheets and other forms of feedback. If you as a teacher, student, parent/guardian have any observations or suggestions for improvement -- talk to me! The more we know, the better we can build Youth participation for the next event.
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> Again -- Thank you, thank you, a thousand thank you's. Our kingdom rocks.
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> 
> Aurora de Portugal
> Kingdom Youth Officer
> 
> 801-232-2698
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> 
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