by Sir Thurat » Fri Apr 22, 2016 2:12 pm
Realm history can sometimes be the biggest hurdle in recruiting from an already tapped community. My local community, for example, is in a similar situation with our local Dag chapter. A lot of drama and * ended in a significant exodus from that group, and that has made recruiting from the local community (i.e., not from the college) nigh-upon-impossible for either of our groups because of it. When a realm is around for thirteen years and manages to leave a bad taste in the mouths of the local nerd community, it hurts for a long time. Those folks who live here permanently tell every new crop of nerd that comes in from the college "avoid those guys. They're dramatic, rude, and are general asshats."
Even though membership and leadership have changed, people hear the name or the description and they think "oh, it's THOSE guys. Hell with that." Not great for recruitment. So, what we're likely going to do to try and save the chapter (because the more foam-slingers we have in our area the better), is to change the name and structure of it. New constitution, new leadership, and a new name. We're also going to change one of our practices to a different park. People that don't know the group's name still recognize it as "those guys that fight at Evergreen."
So the best place to start might be to start frequenting places where you're most likely to get recruits, and try and feel out how many people are aware of the old group and what happened with it. I regularly encounter people who tried fighting in my area before I was around, and many have a very negative impression of it. Before I can even hope to recruit from that pool again, I've now got to do some serious PR to change that.
Also, take a look at exactly what kind of drama it was that split your group before. In our case, people couldn't leave relationship drama off the field, and there was a lot of animosity between a large local unit and its ex-members. Between those two things, people decided to stop playing together. My group is going to have to take steps to prevent that in the future. Find out what affected your group and try and do the same.
And finally, don't let people pass the blame off on you. Old members that haven't been involved or relevant to the group in years will come out of the woodwork as soon as you try and change things. They'll have opinions about how things should be done, they'll nay-say anything that they don't agree with, and they'll talk **** about your new group and your efforts. Those are the same people that fractured the old group. If they wanted to be a part of the process, then they should have stepped up and fixed things when they had the chance. You're the one that's taking the steps to fix things. If they want to be a part of that and help, then that's wonderful, but if they're going to just get in the way and cause problems then don't be afraid to tell them that they aren't welcome.
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