Limen: Thoughts from a threshold

I knew, as soon as I started seeing media reports about this, that I wanted to spend at least a little time this year talking about the Sarah Palin censorship related issues - and some other stuff that’s related.

The myth:

As many of you may have seen, there’s been emails flying around about how Sarah Palin tried to challenge a whole big long list of books when she was mayor of Wasila. Except there’s an immediate problem: many of the books on that list weren’t published at the time she was mayor.

I figured this out as soon as I looked at the list: it’s one of the “Top 100 books banned” compilation lists put out by the ALA as part of Banned Books week, and I’ve seen a number of them go by over the years. But Snopes has a nice summary (including relevant quotes), but I was reading about it as things came out on librarian.net (here has a nice summary of her issues and links to the relevant posts) and there’s a bunch of other links from Library Journal here.)

Short version? She did ask (apparently 3 times) about challenging books - she says she was asking about process, the record is a little less firm about that. The librarian was fired for ‘lack of support’ but reinstated fairly quickly after public complaint.

But, frankly, I find this far less interesting than broader issues.

What role do personal beliefs play in government choices?

Politicians bringing personal bias/choices into challenges is not unheard of - there was a challenge in 2006 in Illinois where a school board member who was elected “amid promises to bring her Christian beliefs into all board decision-making” challenged the inclusion of 8 books on class reading lists based on excerpts from the books she’d found on the Internet.

The books were retained, but included “Kate Chopin’s The Awakening; the Vietnam War books Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers, and The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien; Stephen Chbosky’s teen angst tale The Perks of Being a Wallflower; the best-seller Freakonomics; Toni Morrison’s Beloved; Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five; How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez; and The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World .” (quote taken from the full story here)

Now, obviously, this also plays into the issue of context (having a book generally available in a library versus on a suggested reading list versus as a required assignment are three different ones) but it does raise the question of how an individual’s beliefs, preferences, or priorities affect their political decisions.

Me, I think that one part of being an ethical person with authority of some kind (as politicians are, and as school principals are, and so on) is that you need to start by assuming that professionals are, in fact, following professional standards. You might be wrong - and it’s always good to have a method of cross-checking. But as a starting assumption, it seems like the place to start.

What does it mean to be a professional?

Now, I generally believe that each person should be able to make decisions for themselves about what they want and don’t want to read. (And that parents should generally be able to make those decisions for their children - though as the kids hit their teenage years, I think sensible parents should start backing off.)

But I also believe it’s important to recognise that we train people as professional [whatevers] for a reason.

This doesn’t mean we can’t ask about the reasoning behind a choice - after all, people do get stuck in what they’ve done, or they may make a bad call in a particular situation. But again, starting from the reasoning that they’re making choices for a particular reason well-informed by common professional practices is a good place to begin.

A digression about professional education:

The library profession is a little trickier than others: for a long time, the MLS or MLIS degree (Master’s of Library Science or Library and Information Science) degree was the entry level degree for the profession - it’s the degree that lets you do more of the professional decision making, and less of the day to day grunt work of shelving, processing, etc. You’d need it to do more than simple reference questions, too.

These days, due to budget cuts and other considerations, many libraries are using more non-MLIS holders for some of these functions, but overall collection development (”How do we decide which books we’re buying” is generally still overseen by a MLIS degreed person.)

What does the MLIS cover? Depends on the program, but my coursework included

• Introduction to Library Science (overview of the profession and different options - required class)
• Intro to Cataloging (how we put together standard info about books so people can find them - required)
• Intro to Reference (answering people’s questions with useful information - required)
• Reference for the Humanities (one of my areas of background.)
• History of the Book (One of my undergrad majors was in Medieval and Renaissance studies, and I was trying to decide if I wanted to angle for rare books/archival work.)
• Public Library History and Theory (a *fascinating* class in all the ways the public library has changed over time, and how that reflects political and cultural shifts.)
• Library User Instruction (how to teach people how to do things in a library - also a lot of survey design and project planning stuff, so we’d know how to present a complete program proposal.)
• Academic library administration (an administration course was a requirement)
• Collection Development (how do we decide what books/items to buy, and what are the issues)
• Information Policy (how do we develop information policies and where do they come from?)
• Communication for Leadership (highly recommended by my school, as library work often involves working closely with a team of others)
• Information Seeking Behavior (how people look for information)

I’ve also done another class in Reader’s Advisory, or how you answer the question “I like X book - can you help me find some more like it?” or “What should I read next if I like A and B and C?” through professional development funding.

My program was fairly varied as I wasn’t sure (and still am not) exactly which type of library I really wanted to work in. These days, I usually define my professional interests as being about helping people find information that matters to them, and about issue of information policy and education around technology, especially Web 2.0 type resources. But I also love talking about reader’s advisory and collection development (which explains why I’m currently quite happy with my current job - a college-bound high school gives me lots of chances to do all these things.)

So what does this mean for libraries?

Librarians generally order books for one of three reasons.

1) It got good reviews in a professional review resource.

There are a number of these - Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, to name just a few. (There’s also all sorts of specialised resources for particular topics or types of focus.) Reviews focus on their utility for libraries, so the Booklist reviews often have a last sentence that suggests who the book might particularly interest, or notes on Young Adult potential crossover.

Here, we go through the Booklists every few months, and order things that look of interest to our collection, plus #2 and 3 below. We also look at a few other resources regularly - there’s a publication of University Press books of potential interest to school and public libraries that we order a fair number of things from each year.

2) Someone requests it.

Sometimes this is a specific request (”Can you get This Specific Title?”) and sometimes it’s a request for general books on a particular topic. Here, where a lot of our selection is assignment driven, we look at trends.

For example, we usually have at least one person interested in doing their US history research project on the Salem Witchcraft Trials - so we have a bunch of books about that, and pick up major new works when they come out. Or we got several books about the Armenian genocide after people chose it as a topic for two years.

3) Librarians see a particular gap in the collection.

This is the one where the most professional judgment is often involved, because you’re both judging what a gap looks like and what you’re going to use to fill it. That said, librarians will use their knowledge of the entire community they’re serving, the existing collection, their budget demands, resources at comparable library systems, and professional review resources and other tools to help figure that out.

Library wholesalers produce lists for collection development. For example, you say the size of library you have, and they send you a list of “A good collection in US History for this size library might really want to think about [this list].” where that list hits major titles in the field that are suitable for the collection (so a high school will get different titles than a public library - different age ranges, different needs). Who puts together these lists? At most of the wholesalers, this usually involves someone with library experience and background, and generally their MLIS.

4) There are a few other options.

We’ve started subscribing to a paperback subscription service: we send them money, they send us 18 paperbacks each month. We’re doing it as a quick and easy way to get a range of fun pleasure reading - most of the books are light romances, thrillers, mysteries, SF and fantasy, etc. with the occaisional media tie-in novel. Think airport books. We don’t pick the titles in advance, but we’ve been fairly happy with the selection - and, of course, if we ever had serious concerns about a specific title, we could just not add it to our collection.

Back to our politician:

Your average local politician may be a very good person, and very interested in many things. But what they usually *aren’t* is someone who is fully aware of all of the different issues, demands, and resources in either a school system or a library. This is only reasonable: even people who work in those school systems or libraries often aren’t aware of all of those things: they’re most aware of the bits they work with regularly.

And of course, an outside perspective can sometimes help people see something that could be done more effectively. And it can help someone to ask questions about things that help everyone see new potential resources, opportunities, and approaches.

But at the same time, I think it’s important to respect the professional training and background - not to mention daily experience - that goes into decisions in schools and libraries. And that means a few things:

• Learn what the policies are. How do classroom assignment titles get chosen? What selection criteria does the library use? It’s good to have clear policies (that are flexible enough to adapt to changing community needs.)
• How do these fit into other libraries, other schools? Obviously, other institutions might be messing up on something too - but if a bunch of other schools are including a book, there’s probably something of merit in it.
• Learn about the entire community that’s being served. And if you’re representing the entire community, don’t just cater to the bits you like or agree with. More on this in a second.
• Treat the teachers, librarians, and administrators like reasonable professionals, and be aware of power issues.

From the other side:

Likewise, librarians and teachers can do the same things.

• Have policies. No, really. Now. Look at common issues that have come up over the last few years, and adjust. Make sure your policies cover actual practice - whether that means changing the practice or changing the policy. Have the policies somewhere you can hand them over.
• Know why you’re making particular choices. Can you explain why you want to use a particular book in class in a couple of sentences? Doing that is not only going to help you explain if someone has questions or concerns - but it’ll help you better explain that choice to students.
• Behave like a professional. No one’s able to read every professional journal in their field - but keep up on the high points. I find that reading a couple of email lists, skimming several more, and keeping my eye on about 10 library blogs doesn’t take too long - and it means I’m really likely to hear about major issues pretty quickly, which means I can look at what I’m doing.

Know your community:

Back to knowing your community. Public libraries and public schools are supposed to serve their entire community - not just the folks who agree with them or look like them, or who want the same things. (Private schools have more leeway in a lot of ways, because they’re dealing with a much more closely defined community.)

This means that as well as serving people who believe that sex should be confined to marriage, you need to make sure there are resources so that those who make other choices know more about their options. You need information so that those who are being abused (emotionally, verbally, physically, sexually) know that they’re not alone - even if those descriptions are uncomfortable to read.

It means knowing that there isn’t just one religious group or one ethnicity or one point of view - but that you need to represent those in your community and beyond. (This is part of the Library Bill of Rights.) And it means not just buying to your preferences, but to the needs of the community to ensure a balanced collection.

Ok, going to stop here for today, since this is plenty long.

Every year the American Library Association (hereafter the ALA) and many public, school, and other libraries, call attention to issues of censorship and freedom of information issues with Banned Books Week. And every year since 2005, I have made a series of posts during this week talking about some of these issues in my LiveJournal. This year is no exception (though because I’m extremely busy this week with Pagan Pride preparation, these posts might stretch into next week.)

For folks who don’t know me in this capacity: I’m a librarian who’s worked at a private high school library since the fall of 2000. I started as a paraprofessional, but finished my Master’s in Library/Information Science degree in the summer of 2007, and have since negotiated some greater job responsibilities. I’m fascinated by the issues of access to information.

I’m also a witch and priestess in a small religious witchcraft tradition (Wicca is a close enough approximation until we get into some specific details). Both professionally and personally, I’m particularly interested in how religion plays into challenges to material and access.

What you’ll get:

Today: An overview of issues, plus links to past posts.

Forthcoming (unless someone suggests something that seems even more interesting and useful that I feel I can do something good with.)

• a discussion of the Sarah Palin book challenge reports (because there’s a bunch of misinformation floating around about this one, and it definitely seems topical) and a general discussion of how political choices seem to be mixing in with this issue.
• the issue of “might possibly harm someone”
• context issues (having something available vs. a recommended reading list, vs. assigned reading) plus internal context issues (some books being challenged for depictions in the book of painful things - for example, it’s hard to write a story about someone being bullied without depicting the bullying.)
• issues with rating system proposals and parental permission.
• a discussion of issues around challenges based on religion, as well as challenges to material related on occult, esoteric, or other related topics.

General information:

Technically, a better name for it is something like “A week to raise awareness of challenges to material in various kinds of libraries, schools, and other resources.” That’s not nearly so catchy, though.

More usefully, the ALA says “the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.” They have an extensive set of links, stats, and other resources available. They also have some interesting statistics (up through 2005) of challenges sorted by type, initiator, and type of institution.

They also publish a volume every few years of specifics of each challenge. Many of these are also discussed in the Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom, put out by a member group of the ALA.

Some stats:

• According to the ALA, there were over 400 reported challenges in 2007.
• Estimates suggest that as many as 85% of challenges are not reported to the ALA - and don’t receive much (or any) media coverage, since many are dealt with on an individual school or library level.
• These numbers are for books only - they don’t include any other forms of media.

Types of challenges:

These are based on stats from 2000 to 2005 (the most recent update with specific sorting). Anything in quote marks comes directly from the Banned Books: Treasure Your Freedom to Read compilation edited by Robert P. Doyle (this is the 2007 edition of ALA’s Banned Books week flagship publication which lists recent challenges plus some notable historical ones.) I’ve included a couple of examples for each book.

Offensive language is the most common reason for a challenge, with 811 challenges. These challenges include the obvious swearing - but they also include challenges to books about bullying, and to books about historical time periods where particular terms were in common use.

• Chris Crutcher’s Whale Talk has been challenged “because the book uses racial slurs and profanity” - but the book is about bullying, and includes scenes where people are bullied using these terms. (i.e. the book doesn’t show them as being appropriate.)
• Walter Dean Myer’s Fallen Angels is about soldiers in the Vietnam War. The award winning book has been challenged for offensive language and profanity (things that would seem to be realistic in that setting!)

Sexually explicit books include descriptive or explicit text about sexuality. Sometimes these books are challenged because they frankly discuss teen sexuality (Judy Blume and many others). Sometimes they’re challenged for providing accurate and medically appropriate information about puberty, sexual health, or birth control. This category has 714 challenges.

• It’s Perfectly Normal: A Book about Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health by Robie Harris is an acclaimed book about teenage sexuality issues. It’s also #9 on the 2007 list of most challenged books. A library patron in Maine refused to return it to her library in 2007 because she was “sufficiently horrified by the illustrations and sexually graphic, amoral, abnormal contents”. While she included a check in her letter to pay for the book, the library is pursuing legal action. (Initial story here - there are also updates in January and March 2008.)

Unsuited to age group is a category used for “I don’t want my child to learn about this yet” challenges. Many times, these challenges overlap with the sexually explicit category, or with discussions of homosexuality (and various other things people do) as a normal thing. There were 504 challenges in this category from 2000-2005.

• And Tango Makes Three (by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell) is based on a true story about two male penguins who adopt an abandoned egg. It was also the #1 challenged book in 2007. A challenge in Missouri claimed it had “homosexual undertones” and a committee of teachers and parents at an Illinois elementary school wanted to have it moved to a shelf requiring parental permission.
• King and King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijlandhas been challenged because the prince in the fairy tale story rejects a horde of princesses to marry another prince. Some of the challenges have been because “let them be kids… and not worry about homosexuality, race, religion. Just let them live freely as kids.” Which is a nice sentiment, but seems to be missing something.
• One other good example of this kind of challenge are those challenges to books that talk about menstruation and are aimed at pre-teens. Since many of those 10-11 year olds (and older) have either already gotten their period, or know someone who has, how is the topic age-inappropriate?

Other dominant categories include other (at 583 challenges in the five year period) and violence (405), but I want to take a moment to discuss one more.

Religion and occult: 229 challenges were made in those 5 years because people felt a book encouraged children to explore the occult in some way. (Books in this category include Harry Potter, Wizardology, and The Bartimeus Trilogy. None of which, mind you, are actually accurate depicitions.

Historically, a few books about modern Paganism have also been challenged (this is a topic near and dear my heart, but should probably be a separate post.)

Archives of previous years:

Posts of potential interest that aren’t just retreading stuff I intend to say this year. Please note that how I phrase things or focus things shifts over time (I’m human, I learn, that happens), but I welcome comment on previous entries as long as folks are aware I may not quite go at it from that point of view anymore.

2005:

• Some of the sillier reasons for challenges out there.
• What book challenges are often about. Some background and overview.
  
• What are book challenges really about? (This is a post I’m particularly fond of - it talks about some of the underlying motivations for challenges.)
• What happens in a challenge - a look at some common approaches and library tools to deal with this kind of issue.
• Religion and sex - a look at two common types of challenge in greater detail
• Who chooses what you read - a look at where some of these choices come from and how libraries should aim for ‘and’, not ‘or’.

2006: (where I was focusing on some issues of the profession and how they relate to freedom of information access in part because I was finishing my MLIS degree that year.)

• Some of the challenges of selection and how things can fall through cracks (this post is more what-if and philosophical than many of my posts on this topic.)
• Professional ethics and other comments on access (following on from previous post in this list)
• Cataloging issues or barriers to finding books in catalogs.
• A discussion of how my commitment to freedom of information access more or less manages to live inside the same head as being part of a religious mystery-focused oathbound tradition (where information is not automatically available just by wanting it.) I should do a revamp of this one sometime.

2007:

• Discussion of Chris Crutcher’s work, and some comments on the difficulties of talking about the difficult stuff in life without describing it.
• (The rest of my posts from this year duplicate other things, and are probably not as worthwhile.)

Today is my birthday (I’m 33). I’ve spent a bunch of the past few weeks thinking about something specific - about creating the life I want to live in.

I’m single: almost three years post-divorce, and now back at a point where I’d like to consider the possibility of a serious relationship again. But to do that, I need to make space and continue working on balance (and on continuing to expand my social circles a bit.)

I have a still-new coven, and how do I want that to take shape and grow? And how do I give it space to do so, and ways to incorporate ideas and things that are not me? We’ve got a good start, but there’s still a lot of work.

There are a lot of things that interest me: how do I make time for them, or figure out which ones to do? Music is a big thing on the plate, and it’s somewhat emotionally fraught for complicated reasons. There’s writing, and there’s fiber art, and there’s baking, and all the books I want to read, and somewhere in there exercise would be a good idea.

I have an ongoing relationship with multiple deities (the joys of polytheism). How do I continue to nuture and expand and explore within that context?

I have dear friends, family of choice, and family of origin, all of whom I want to spend time with. How do I balance that against scheduling limitations, and other things that also matter to me?

And how do I make my home, my hearth, my work the kinds of space I want to spend time in - between doing the things I want, and managing the mundane responsibilities as well as possible (dishes, laundry, bills).

These things are, to my way of thinking, the most fundamental kind of magic: reshaping my own life at the most fundamental levels with focused intention and desires. But these are all big and complicated issues.

So, I started with a party.

I knew that what I wanted for my birthday was a day full of good food, good company, and great conversation. What I got was all of those and then some (there was also some fabulous mead, and some very thoughtful and caring divination readings.)

But how did I get there?

Well, first, I have loving and caring and generous friends (who are also good cooks) which helps rather a lot. My covenmate hosted (she’s got more space suitable for a larger gathering) and another friend brought homemade scones, a range of delicious fruit spreads, and there was all sorts of other goodness.

Now, a couple of years ago, I might have made a few plaintive noises about what I wanted. And I might well have gotten some of it (I have nifty friends, after all.) But this year, for a range of reasons, I felt a lot more comfortable being quite specific.

And look! Wonderful things happened.

Why did it work?

Well, I was asking for help with things that the people helping generally like to do. That never hurts.

And while this was something of a production (both my covenmate and I spent most of Saturday cooking and otherwise prepping) it was the kind of production we generally *enjoy* doing a couple of times a year.

And third, it tied into other things. It’s a time to celebrate harvest and plenty and abundance - a gathering of great food and conversation and reflection on what to ponder as we move into the dark half of the year certainly fit very tidily in that. And, having poked our heads out and been sociable, we can now focus back on the coven building for a few months.

It’s not only a good model of friendships (and I am deeply grateful to everyone who helped make this happen - whether it was obvious stuff like cooking, or just showing up). But it’s very much a model of how I want to priestess. I obviously have Opinions and Ideas and Plans - capitals quite intentional. But I also want to be doing things I can do with people I care about, and find the things *they* enjoy and look forward to, and so on.

Getting that mix right yesterday? Very hope-inducing for my coming year and years.

The Witches Weekly blog asks a question this week. This week’s asks about Pagan Pride, in part saying “Do you feel it is just a day to gloat about being pagan, or do you think the genuine purpose behind it is to show that there are strong pagans in every community?”

I wanted to answer this one, because I’m both on the board for our local one and have some mixed feelings about it. Obviously, I think overall it’s a good idea - or I wouldn’t be putting my time and energy into it. (I’ve been Programming Chair or co-Chair for the last three years, and this year picked up some additional responsibilities.)

Incidentally - if you’re local, please come. Twin Cities Pagan Pride will be October 4th and 5th at the Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis. Much more info to come at the link, but there will be vendors, programming items, rituals, entertainment, and all sorts of other goodness.

Some background:
Our event is quite large. This year, I think we’re the only 2 day event in the US. (We discovered on doing our first one last year, that two days is actually easier on the people putting it on than one day was - plus there’s all sorts of additional opportunities and time available.) We have about 20-25 programming items planned this year (I’ll be doing a final count tomorrow as I prep the schedule.), 4 rituals, and other excellent things.

The way I see it, our Pagan Pride event serves several related functions:

• Providing a space for people curious about Paganism to come and learn more about various paths and local community options.
• Providing a non-threatening place for people who have family and friends who are Pagan (or who are just curious) to see a little of what we do (and for some general education.)
• Providing a place for different parts of our local community to come together and share ideas.

We’re lucky in the Twin Cities: we have a sizeable and diverse Pagan community. We have not one, not two, but three stores focused on the Pagan community (and a few others that are more generally metaphysical.) We have a long running full moon open circle, public Sabbat rituals on a regular basis, and a wide range of classes offered. (I’m currently taking a series on herbalism, and am signed up for an astrology class in October and a runes class in early December.) There are a number of active, thoughtful groups in town, who do good things in their own religions and paths.

But at the same time, all the separate paths and groups in the area don’t always get together that often - so it’s nice to have one time a year where people can see all sorts of different kinds of approaches in one place. I think that’s good for those of us who identify as Pagan - and I think it’s a great thing for people who are interested in a Pagan religion, but aren’t quite sure where to start.

I think we generally do a really good job - people learn, they talk, they have a good time. We’re pretty pleased. So what are my mixed feelings?

1) How good a job are we doing at truly sharing the Pagan communities in our area?

This is a hard one to answer. We do a good job of showing some of the variety and range of Pagan religions. But at the same time, not every group is represented every year (we actually have enough groups in town I’m not sure every group *could* be in a single weekend - but in reality, people’s time and energy and schedules have a role.) Some groups have an long-running presence. Some groups I contact never reply and don’t participate as a group.

So, is it a true snapshot of our community? We try, but it’s obviously imperfect.

2) How welcoming are we to people who are new (and often nervous) about Paganism?

Again, we try, but we’ve also had comments over the years about people who’ve come in, gotten nervous, and gone out again. Some comments have been about people wearing ritual robes or obvious jewelry. Some have been about the topics of presentations. Some have been about other behavior.

Overall, we’ve made a decision that we’re not going to tell people what to wear - and that other than basic public behavior issues, we’re not going to tell people who to talk to, or what to do. We do encourage people to be welcoming, and we do have some plans this year to help guide newcomers to some particularly useful places (by having a list of particular workshops and events of interest to people new to Paganism), but I still feel like we could do better at this.

Part of it, though, is about volunteers. I’d love to, for example, have a simple 30-45 minute workshops running every hour or two that just talked about “What is Paganism”, gave a rundown on different kinds of paths (the various witchcraft traditions, reconstructionists, etc.) and answered simple questions. But we need an actual person who’s willing to do that, who will do it fairly and with good information, and who would be willing to cover the same material 4-6 times in a weekend. And who doesn’t have other demands on their time.

3) How we’re trying to do several things at once.

My goal with programming has been to have a little bit of everything - but as I’ve been told on our surveys, this sometimes leaves people with too many choices. This year, I’ve been fortunate enough that scheduling has mostly made it easy to have some clearly defined ‘tracks’ within programming: we have 3 adult programming rooms (plus the ritual space), and I’ve mostly managed to schedule things so that there’s one ‘brand new to this’ kind of topic, one topic for people who’ve been around for a while, and one topic that’s sort of in the middle - usually some kind of specific technique or approach or interest.

But it does sort of get away from Pagan Pride’s core mission of being focused on people unfamiliar with Paganism. Our eventual hope is to split off a day for people who’ve been Pagan for a while into its own event, and have workshops on topics of interest to people in a number of paths - for example, on things like pastoral counseling issues, group dynamics, or specific magical or ritual techniques.

4) How aware the public is, anyway:

Also a tricky one to judge. Due to weather considerations and rental costs, we’ve chosen a site with some drive-by traffic, but not much walk-by movement that’s a little off the most travelled areas. (Oddly, renting the public spaces in our site is *far* cheaper than a park permit and tents: our choices are between a much smaller event outside, with possible rain or cold, or a sizeable one with lots of choices inside, but not much walk-by traffic. I think we’ve made the right choice, but it has consequences.)

We also do our best to get announcements out to a wide range of local news organisations and event listings - but that’s not always something everyone reads or notices.

What to do:
None of this means that I think Pagan Pride should go away. But it does mean that I think there’s some things we should always keep in mind.

• Why are we doing this?
• What are our core audiences - who do we really want to reach, and how?
• How good a job are we doing at that? Are there things we could do better?
• Are we really giving a well-rounded introduction to the Pagan community locally? Can we improve that.
• What feedback are we getting? Is it reasonable (suggestions we can do something about) or stuff that’s way out of our budget/resources/mission? How do we educate people about the realities of what we can manage in a given year?
• Is this the best way to do this goal? Are we going about it in the most practical way?
• What gaps are there in our local community that we can fill? Which ones are we duplicating?

Recent conversation with a friend applying for training with a particular teacher near her got me thinking about a common question. A number of groups or teachers ask some variant of “What do you bring to this group/trad?”. She found it hard to answer - and in talking about it, I admitted I found it hard to answer too, back when I got asked it. (And yet, it’s on one of our lists of interview questions for prospective members, because it really is an interesting question.)

Part of the problem is a standard interview issue. What do you say that fairly demonstrates the stuff you’re good at without coming across as being arrogant? There are obviously ways around this, and many of the standard job interview approaches also apply to religious groups.

But part of it is more complicated. After all - especially with experiential things, like an oathbound trad - you may not have a lot of specific information to go on. Learning about a group, you may not know all of the things that they particularly need or value.

I’m reminded of a long stint of volunteer work I did for LiveJournal (for the Abuse/Terms of Service team, which handles user concerns and some legal issues), where our manager was very attentive not only to whether people were generally competent - but how they fit into the overall team.

I have a real knack for explaining things about technology to people who are not technology users (but particularly parents and teachers or administrators concerned about student online behavior) in a way that is realistic but compatible with the site’s policies. I’d calm them down, give them meaningful options, and they’d go away.

On the other hand, there’s all sorts of things I didn’t deal with as well. I don’t do aggressive particularly well, and while I can cope with it coming towards me, I’m not always good at squashing a particular kind of trouble-making behavior (people keep trying to see if they can get me to back down.) Plus, there were types of cases I just didn’t much like doing. (Everyone has something like this.)

If the entire team had been made up of people like me, it would have been skewed and one-sided, and there would be gaps. And it’s the job of whoever the gatekeeper is for something like that to be aware of that - and to make some decisions based on it.

Now, this doesn’t mean that if we get a prospective group member who’s just like me, or just like L, that we’re going to turn them down, because we’ve already got one like that. But it does mean that we might probe a little more for what the differences are - what strengths they have that we don’t have, what weaknesses they don’t share - and over time, encourage them into a position that continues to develop the new stuff and fill in the gaps.

Which still doesn’t help you answer the question. But it does mean that I think the ideal answer to it is something about “Here’s what I am that may be of particular interest to you in your setting.”

If I were answering that question today, I think I’d say something like this:

[but maybe shorter]

I’m a self-proclaimed geek. I’m not the earliest adopter of technology, but I’m usually at the end of the first wave, when I’ve had a chance to see how it’s most useful and how it fits my specific needs. And I do use technology - broadly and deeply, depending on what it does and what I want.

More than that, I’m a process geek. I am fascinated by how things work, how they fit together, and how to make connections between them. I am not interested in technology because it is new and shiny, but because it has the chance to make something better. Smoother, kinder, simpler, leaving more time for all the other passions and things I’m interested in. Better.

Information is my profession, my hobby, my toy, and my comfort. I can no more stop reading, stop learning, stop trying to understand, than I can stop breathing. But with that information, I bring a wide-ranging memory, a lot of background, and all sorts of other intellectual resources to whatever questions I come across. I don’t know everything - but I know a little bit about lots of things, and can often get up and running on figuring something out fairly quickly. (As long as you don’t actually require me to do the practical science and math parts, where my theory is a lot better than my actual skills.)

Experience is harder for me - but it’s something I know I must engage with. I know that I have to get my nose out of the book, and out of the library, and away from the screen, and I must go and try things. Over the years, I’ve learned more and more how to do that - and I deeply enjoy the time with wool twisting through my fingers, the feel of bread dough under my hands, the harp strings over skin, or the intricate dance and art of close group ritual.

More than anything, though, I’m a synthesist. I need to know the context of something to make sense of it. Facts and dates in history are meaningless for me without knowing the stories of the people who lived - and the arts they created. I am fascinated by the ways to approach library searches and information gathering - but they’re useless without real people’s questions.

I bring all of these to any group I’m part of. Past experiences have taught me not to overwhelm people (and mostly, how to avoid people feeling bad they don’t know the same things: I certainly don’t expect them to, I just think knowledge is nifty.) I’ll feel my way cautiously along until I get a sense of how much sharing of tangents and other unrelated information makes sense.

But I’ll also sit down some night, look at something that’s been going on, and come up with a new way to look at it. Or a new list of resources and ideas. Or a way to present something better. I can’t tell in advance what these things will be - I just know they’ll happen, and when they do, they often help.

As we move forward to considering new group members this fall, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want them to know about the group - and about what questions I hope they’ll ask me (at least, if I haven’t already shared the information.) So, a post about some of these related issues.

Sources of information:

First, there are a number of possible sources of information (in general terms). Some of these include:

Handouts/flyers:
Typically short (a flyer’s probably under 100 words) but enough to find out what’s out there, and check out their website or contact them for more info. Very general idea of their focus.

A profile on Witchvox or a local Pagan networking site.
These are usually brief - 2 to 5 paragraphs, maybe - and don’t have a lot of detail. However, they are enough to get the basic idea of what a group’s focus or interests are, and to weed out anything that absolutely isn’t what you’re looking for.

Website or other longer material:
Websites will have far more space and can give more detail. If you’re looking at a group in a well-known and widely-spread tradition or path, do some reading on the path/trad in general: it’ll give you an idea how the specific group fits. Make note of any inconsistencies: you probably want to sort them out or ask about them later.

Initial email:
I should do a post soon on “emails I’d love to get from seekers”, but in the meantime: emails should be short, to the point, and focus on any make-or-break information for you. Save your religious history, the weird thing that happened last weekend, and your esoteric view of the world for later. What’s a make-or-break thing? General schedule, location, medical considerations (allergies, mobility issues, etc.) and anything else that would make a group an absolute no-go for you.

Initial meeting
Commonly, there’ll be some sort of meeting in a public place. There’s two common options here: meeting in a coffee shop, or some sort of intro class or event. Either way, they’re an excellent way to get a lot more information about a group.

My former group offers a short series of public (by donation to cover expenses) intro classes. These give a chance to see how group members interact, and give you a sense of the primary interests and focus of the group. (For example, the fact that ethics comes up early and often)

My new group is going the coffee shop route, because our focus as a group is a little different, and because I do my best in one on one conversations with new people. In practice, this will be at least two members of the group, plus the person interested, and we’ll sit down and talk to them a little about a range of things. (I’ll talk more about our “Interested in us?” process sometime soon, since we’ve got a potentially interested person we’re meeting with next week.)

Further conversations:
As you get to know a group, you’ll have further conversations with them - and often, many further bits of information will come out quite naturally. For example, a group may not talk extensively about their history in the first meeting (just briefly), but as you spend time with them, you might hear casual references to their teachers, other tradition members, etc.

The rest of this post is about the kinds of things you might want to find out from all of these sources combined.

What you might want to know:

Obviously, some things on this list will matter a great deal to you. Others may not matter much at all. Some may matter only in a purely practical sense once you attend group events. Pick the ones you’re interested in - though I’ve tried to give some context for why these pieces of information might be of interest early on.

Look over at my list of questions to ask yourself for more detail on some of these.

Location:

Meeting place: Can you get to it (by whatever form of transportation you’d be using) at the times events occur? (Many buses run different weekend schedules: at my former group, this meant getting to the covenstead by bus on weekends was quite complex and involved a long walk - not a great combo in a Minnesota winter.)

Kind of meeting space: It might be a private home, a rented space, or some combination. Is it the same consistent location or different ones, depending? Where they meet will have an effect on the kind of rituals they do (due to privacy and practical issues). Using a consistent space can build up a persistent energy and ritual focus, but using varied spaces can help make use of the best space for a particular ritual.

Questions related to your specific needs: Think about everything from allergies to mobility issues to any other things that would make a space better for you - or a big problem.

Focus:

Group focus: Are they working in a particular tradition, path, or religion? Is it an open group, a closed one, a teaching-focused group, a working group, or what?

Now and future: For example, you might want introductory training now - but if you’re looking for a long-term group commitment, you also want somewhere that isn’t just focused on training, but that has other things to offer. Does this group do that? (Groups that don’t are fine, too - just be aware in advance.)

Doing things together: Obviously, you probably won’t get a rundown of every single thing they’ve ever done - but it can be good to know what general things they do, or to get some examples of recent group events over the past few months. This might include questions like how often they do specific things (meditations, spellwork, etc.) in ritual.

General ritual structure/method of doing things: For various reasons, you may not get the full complex explanation up front (see the last section of this post for some reasons why), but you should be able to get a basic summary. Many groups will have attendance at a suitable ritual as part of their getting-to-know process, where you can see for yourself.

History of the group:

Length of time they’ve been around: Duration is not a good marker for quality - but a group that’s fairly new will have some differences than one that’s been around for 10 years. It’s good to know which one you’re working with.

Level of training/experience of group leaders: Again, number of years is not perfect - did they do 5 years of intensive training, or one year ten times? But how did they learn what they’re teaching and doing? Did they get experience helping to run a group before leading one?

Experience level of group members: This can be tricky - there are all sorts of reasons for shifts in small group membership - but healthy groups probably have a few members who have extensive experience, a few are fairly new, and some who are in between.

Be a little cautious of groups with one or two experienced leaders, and where everyone else is very new. There are some good reasons - for example, a training-focused group together only for the duration of training or a newly founded group in their first year or three. But it’s also sometimes a sign of a leader who can’t stand to be challenged, or of some other less than great dynamic in the group.

Community interaction: Is the group involved at all in the broader Pagan community? Do they belong to a larger umbrella organisation like Covenant of the Goddess? Do they sometimes participate in (or host) general public rituals, teach open classes, or anything like that? Not all groups do these things - but it can be a good way to learn more about the group.

Connection to other groups: Within a Wiccan or Wiccan-based setting, this is where we start talking about their tradition. How do they fit with other groups in the tradition? If possible, learn a bit about how the tradition normally handles things, and use it to compare with the specific group. (This is hard for small trads, though.) Ask more questions about any differences you find.

Lineage: Some traditions pass down an energetic connection to the tradition (and often the deities of that tradition) through what is referred to as ‘lineage’. If this matters to you, ask how you can confirm their lineage. (This is not a question to ask straight off: it’s a question for when you’re at the point where you’re seriously considering a commitment to them.) You may also wish to ask tradition-specific lists or resources for help.

Expectations and commitments:

Time: Weeknights? Weekends? At times you’re able to attend, or times you have other commitments? How often do they meet, and for how long? Does this fit into the rest of your life? For training groups, ask about how much time they expect you to spend on at-home work on a daily basis.

Costs and expenses: Charging for training is a complex conversation in Pagan settings, as a number of traditions forbid charging for initiatory training, some groups ask for dues for expenses, and some teachers charge significant amounts for training. Are this group’s practices in line with the rest of their tradition or path? If that’s not relevant, do the costs seem to be in line with what they say they value?

Other expenses: Beyond this - there are always going to be some expenses associated with a group. These might include sharing in supplying consumables for group ritual, bringing potluck food, and so on. You may also need to acquire specific personal ritual tools, books, or other things. I’ve got a post breaking down some of the costs of group work for the curious.

Group practices: Ask about any group practices or approaches that you care about. For some people, this is working skyclad. For others, it’s questions about the role of gender in ritual. For some, it’s about focus on specific deities, cultures, or other aspects works for that group. Again, my list of individual questions has lots of things to consider.

Behavior:

Finally, we move into the more nebulous things. One thing I really want to know about any group I’m interested in - Pagan or not - is how they behave, how that behavior fits with their stated values and priorities.

I always suggest people interested in a group make a serious attempt to see a group in action in ritual, in some sort of teaching setting (whatever makes sense, depending on how they train), and in some social settings. This gives you a good range of data - and should give you a chance to see at least one situation where something doesn’t quite go right, and how people deal with it.

One of my favorite things is to observe how someone treats waitstaff in a restaurant: it’s often quite revealing. (In general, any ‘treating someone who is lower on the status pole’ setting will do.) How do a group’s leaders treat students or less senior members? How do they treat each other?

It’s important not to make a decision based on a single interaction (unless it’s truly a deal-breaker for you). Everyone has bad days - but more importantly, people come from different cultures and backgrounds. What looks like a no-holds barred painful argument to many Scandinavian-derived Minnesotans (my current home) can be totally normal wrangling in the Irish or Italian homes of the Boston area where I grew up. It’s good to see how people treat each other after a disagreement, not just the disagreement or frustration itself.

Approach:

I’m really fond of the idea of figuring out what my victory conditions and my fail conditions are for choices.

For example: the new coven? My idea of a success for it is if we have a few people who are deeply interested in what we’re doing, willing and able to participate regularly and sincerely, and we have ongoing things to do together.

I don’t, however, care about having lots of people (and in fact, that’s a failure condition for me: I really do best in communities smaller than 10-12 for closer emotionally-involved work). I enjoy well-staged rituals, but I don’t care if I don’t have them. I care about having a reputation for cluefulness and general competence - but I don’t care about being popular or whether people not involved directly in what I’m doing agree with all my choices.

These things shape how I make choices for my group - just as similar things shaped my own search for a group. I wanted a group I could learn from, a group that I could build a solid structure with. What I found was much more than that - there were things in my tradition I didn’t know I wanted or was looking for, but found, which is both the way it should work, and yet something you can’t plan for.

When someone won’t answer:

It’s quite possible to hit on a topic that gets into a discussion that’s usually considered private to the group. And, for some groups, there may be oathbound material - or simply material that gets very complex to explain unless you take quite a bit of time.

For example, I can do a general description of how we approach constructing our ritual circles. But if you want me to start getting into details or specifics, that’s a much longer conversation - and really not suitable for an initial meeting, because some pieces of it are things we talk about only with people who really need the details, or they just plain take a while to explain the different facets of. So, initially, we start with some basic stuff, and delay the long/involved conversations until someone is a student.

Some of it is for privacy/safety reasons. I’m glad to give general information about where we hold meetings (neighborhood/area of the city), but I’m not going to hand out my home address on a first contact. (And, because I’m somewhat averse to answering my phone, I’ll give people my email address long before I do phone number, unless they have a particular need for phone calls.)

This topic deserves a longer conversation, but this at least gives you a place to start.

So I could reference it in a post elsewhere, I just posted a version of the Tam Lin story I wrote for a ritual over here (Complete with further explanation!)

I do have more posts with content in progress - the start of the school year always scrambles my brain and my free time a little, but I’m getting back into the swing of things this week.