To add to volunteer retention: if people don’t feel appreciated or that their service is needed, they will stop volunteering. People also will not serve if they feel like they have no support systems. (And no, handing someone a handbook on how to do a job does not equal support.)

This is how we lose institutional memory, how we lose people willing to help, and how we lose out on innovative ways and ideas.

The other phrase I hear a lot of, especially in the SCA is “we have always done it this way.” Talk about a death knell! While it is perfectly fine to hold on to some traditions, if your traditions are getting in the way of inclusion and diversity, then those traditions need to be reevaluated and massaged so that people are able to participate as volunteers, or the traditions need to go away.

The same goes with “just because this kingdom does it, doesn’t mean we should…”

If people had done that with Nobelese Largesse when I started, there would have been a very real possibility that it would not have been successful. The Dirty Dozen started in An Tir and was brought to Calontir.

New ideas, brought to us from new players or those new to the kingdom aren’t bad; but we can be a whole lot receptive to listening instead of shutting people down.

It does mean that we have to be more creative and work with what we have.