Post 12

Wardle lists three ways in which newcomers try to belong to a new community.  The first is engagement.  This is where a common project is defined and the newcomers and already-members work together on it as to develop personal relationships.  The second is imagination, and this is where the newcomer "dreams" of how they belong to the group.  Imagination can work for them, but it can also be ineffective where they end up actually removing themselves from the community.  Alignment is the third mode of belonging.  Alignment is where the discourse community changes as to fit the newcomer a little.  Its a negotiation where the newcomers and the members change the perspective of the community to fit everyone at that particular time.
Trying to apply these to the OU women's cross country team, engagement comes though running.  On mileage days, the team runs together, at least they used to, and engages in conversation.  The first day of camp is when the newcomers really have chance to get to know the upperclassmen.  They typically do Dairy or Flat Dudes for an easy first run.  All the runners are able to begin getting to know one another and find common interests.  They talk about majors, activities, running, etc.  Almost always a story about experiences at State comes up.
Newcomers have high hopes for themselves.  They often wonder where they will fit into the team and if this means they are able to make varsity.  The problem is sometimes the dream of varsity is a long way off so they are discouraged about their standings on the team.  When this happens, some runners lose the interest which can create an alienation from the rest of the team.  This is what happened to me.
An example of alignment on the team might be something like how we can connect through an activity.  Sometimes newcomers bring a fresh perspective about an aspect of running that really improved their team or personal running ability.  They share this with the members of the team and sometimes the activity will be adopted and repeated each year.  Someone might describe how her team in high school went about doing run-outs before a race.  Usually these are done as a team and is never done the same from race to race.  A new way of doing this could be an alignment for the team.