"How do I join the Dorsai Irregulars?"

Over the years, we've had people ask us how they can join the Dorsai Irregulars. The short answer is: we don't really know! The Dorsai are a separate organization who handles their own recruitment and staffing. We merely tell them how many people we need to work each Anthrocon, and they provide the warm bodies.

Recently, we did get a more detailed answer on how the Dorsai recruit members, courtesy of Steve Simmons. Here is the complete answer:

Membership in the Irregulars is by invitation only. You cannot apply, and nagging around to get inducted is a pretty sure way not to get inducted. Our members run the general spread of humanity - men, women, old, young, professionals, artists, day laborers, straight, gay, conservative, liberal - you name it, you can probably find one in our membership (85 living as I write this, 13 deceased). But there are some things that I'd like to think we have in common, and we look for those things in potential members:

We want a willingness to work. We officially do at least a half-dozen cons a year, and another half-dozen unofficially. Those cons range from 150 attendees to thousands. It's unpaid work, and we want members who'll come and work for the joy of working together.

We want to see a level head, especially in a crisis. Much of our work is stressful, and we want folks who don't faint at the sight of blood, who don't respond to threats with threats, who understand that politeness and calmness defuses even the most stressful encounters. As we often say before cons, "Get out there and nice them to death."

If you are interested in authority and like to order people around, you're not for us. On the other hand, you'd better be able to do that when and as needed.

We find that a sense of humor is absolutely necessary to keep you sane when and after those "exciting" moments come up, and we indulge it to the full after the fact. We also write silly songs, silly con reports, and run some silly conventions of our own. We're very serious about our silliness. Stop smiling.

You have to have smarts. Not just intelligence (tho that's almost a pre-requisite; the great bulk of members have BSc/BA degrees, and we have multiple doctors, lawyers, and various flavors of PhD and post-doctoral folks), but also the ability to combine that intelligence with common sense. In fact, common sense with average intelligence is more likely to get you in than great intelligence without common sense.

We value stability and reliability, both in the short and the long run. We tend to be married, to have fewer divorces than the population at large, and we raise responsible children. We tend hold jobs for a long time, and hold on to our friends for a long time. While there are members who are exceptions to every one of these ("stuff happens"), anyone who starts as an exception is unlikely to become a member.

There must be a certain indefinable sympatico that says "one of us." There have been folks we meet who, on day one, we say to ourselves "There's a future member." Actual induction might take a couple of years as the person gets introduced around and the other members get to know him, but we knew from day one what the result was going to be. And sometimes it's the opposite - one day we wake up and say of someone we've known for 10 or 15 years "What about so-and-so? Why isn't she a member?" Then there's a nomination and a vote that proceeds at the maximum speed allowed by our rules.

So if you're interested, put yourself in a position where we can get to know you. Work cons where we work, say hi, see if you've got stuff in common with us. If there's a match, the right thing eventually happens.

But if we follow our own rules, you won't know you're under consideration. We don't inform the candidates. We used to, and it was a disaster. Now we keep it under our berets, and that works much better. New members are often astonished; see the bottom of this page for a typical new member induction.

I hope that answers everyone's questions!