What If we did this

[davep]

What if?.....

Instead of having Living History Events set up like trade shows, with each unit with what is essentially a booth with a table and display, you eliminated all of that an replace it with .....

A fully functioning army base camp. All the Pyramid tents line up. A mess tent where the public goes and can taste period food and learn about rations etc. A supply tent were people could see all the elements used, you could even spice things up with several guys who have the personality of a supply sgt. Have the vehicle and armor pieces park in key postions. Have the camp guarded by several machine gun implacements. Have soldiers moving about. Have a mock attack from a German patrol, rather than the hookie public reenactments you have now. Smaller camps made up of pup tents, rifles stacked, soldiers playing cards, play guitars, etc etc. Guys cleaning rifles, Guys doing laundry, etc etc. Over by the armor, guys are repairing vehicles, working on engines, changing tires, etc.

Then you have the field hopsital, guys in the hospital, guys being taking to the hospital tent, doctors, nurses coming out. Ambulance drives in, bringing in wounded, later a jeep drives in brings in more wounded throughout the day.

And do this all over again in the German Camp as well.

The public walks through and observes history being acted out, they see one large American Army base, rather than going from one WW2 booth to another and leaving.

All under the banner of the "California Historical Group"


Anyone who is even slightly interested or has the "profile" of a reenactor, is going to be place into our environment.Trade show sells jobs don't work. You have to put them in the action. So they feel and see what we do.

Here is a great example with tons and tons of pictures
www.maam.org/wwii/photos/camp/ww2_camp.htm




I know back east to they come close to this... but nothing on the west coast.

[taishocat]

It would be possible to do a thing like this for living history, but what about the political elements within each unit? We know we all have our differences with each other, so how can we put that aside?

It should be more of a public education kind of deal rather than active recruiting, we're not the real thing after all haha and there's other opportunities for recruitment such as gunshows, chino airshow etc. We can have business cards and whatnot but the individual should decide to join up or not after looking at each individual unit and not only by encouragement by a reenactor. I'm actually neutral on the recruitment thing because a person should have options to look over every other unit rather than selecting one unit and then end up regretting on that decision. Well, that's just my opinion.

[mayo]

Some worry about recruiting fairness . It's not an issue. Every unit gets very few recruits at living history events. Even when we have recruited at LH events, in the past we have asked what the interested person is looking for in a unit, then directed him to the CHG unit most likely to fit their needs. If they were looking for straight Infantry we tried to recruit them, If they wanted a unit who is into vehicles, we directed them to 2nd ID or 2nd Armored. If they were interested in Airborne, they they were directed to the 101st AB unit.

If they were into German, we directed them to which ever German unit they may be interested in. Very few of them follow through. Most of the recruits come from the CHG website and interested people who seek us out. Right now we have around 40 paying members. 2 or 3 of them came from LH events. The key to having an event like Dave is talking about is to make it a public showcase for the CHG. We want them to join the CHG and find the unit they best fit in with. The reason is because they will then be happy and enjoy the experience. If they are happy, then they will become more involved and also recruit their friends. All political infighting is BS and detrimental to the growth of the CHG.

The goal once again is to showcase the CHG, not to wrestle childishly over the few people who want to join a unit. I think Dave's idea is a good one. I do not know if it would work at MTH or not. I do not have a crystal ball or a Ouiji board. It may be better to have a straight stand alone CHG sponsored event and call it something like "WWII, a Preparation for Invasion." Then have an encampment set up as like is was in preparation for the Invasion of Normandy with drilling and training going on, folks cooking food in a mess tent, laundry hung out, sentries posted, and HQ tent set up, stuff like that.

[barcelonablom]

Hmmm someone really likes his idea... you can't use Field of Dreams!

But I really like your idea too. I just think its a bit more planning and logistics than we think but it totally can be done. If we can get this rolling I can help in any manner needed.

Just don't let Parazilla eat me! (BIG guy in the picture in OP)

[kanowarrior]

Movie tent? That's a idea. Instead of a CHG booth that people see first with pamphlets, there could be a tent or movie area that people can enter, watch a promotional movie explaining reenacting, the various units and what they are about to see and experience. After that they can enter the area units are set up much like Chino.

[2ndarmoredpal]

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Re: What If?

Postby 2ndArmoredPal on 19 Aug 2009 01:18 am
I've actually been looking at an all WWII venue since last year after seeing the WWII event at Rockford IL last September. I think it would be amazing and have been trying to figure out how to do something like that, but I have been coming up with a few problems.

One is that German representation is typically not strong at public events, whether they are welcomed at the venue or some of the members don't want to be seen in public in German uniforms.

Another is that units want to stick together and do their own thing, whether that means being full-bore 1st person or jaw-jacking and talking about modern topics. It's very hard to get either camp to meet in the middle and work together, which is probably why we have so many units.

Lastly, most reenactors are not really actors and performers and feel embarrassed doing 1st person stuff.

But I love this concept. I think the best way to work to that level (if it's even possible) is to work on creating a non-timeline public event first and go from there.