WTF moment of the week.

I had made a suggestion that we might have a better shot at increasing our membership by inviting people to some actual scheduled events or practices. A demo in a classroom (because recruiting people whose mommies will have to drive them to events and practices is so successful!), con or library is NOT the same as an event with banners flying, pavilions pitched and a cast of at least dozens.

Quoted at me on SCA-West yesterday. No, I am not making this up. "Regarding the Society Media Policy" on the Society Chatelaine's page at http://www.sca.org/officers/chatelain/chatresources.html) :
Community Calendars:

.....Many local media outlets, either television or newspaper, have a free calendar for listing community events, either in the paper itself or on its website. There are also some local community-oriented event sites which are not attached to any particular media outlet. If the group wishes to place this sort of
announcement for a demo, as a way of attracting greater attendance from the public, this is permissible with courtesy notification to the Kingdom Media Officer. However, it is not recommended to place such announcements for events. If too many people respond to the announcement, a large number of spectators
looking to be entertained could easily overload the capacity of the event site or disrupt the event schedule.....  (Emphasis mine.)

Oooh, beware the nasty "mundanes." They might actually SHOW UP! God forbid we should, you know, inspire someone off the street to join our organization! Heaven forfend we should actually be organized enough to have a greeter at the gate and volunteers (of the stripe who are going to present our activities in a positive light before you go pointing out to me why muggles Always Get Us Wrong) to show our visitors around and get them involved and invested in the event.