[Callers] Re: "Assigning" roles in the beginners' lesson?

HI all, I wasn't going to respond to this because in my group we do use colour-coded tags for Larks and Ravens and I am aware that most groups prefer not to do that- but then I did have a thought about our process that might be relevant to everyone. (Incidentally, I love our colour-coded tags for beginner-friendly/ beginner-oriented dances, so I'll put a plug in for them.  We put a call-out in our community for clear name tag holders of the sort that delegates receive at conferences.  We expressly collected two types, the ones that pin onto your shirt, and the ones that go around your neck with a string - to allow for people preferring one type of the other. A lovely volunteer made the tags for us. The lark tags are printed on yellow paper.  They have a lark-shaped bird's side-profile, whose beak points towards the right.  Below the image it says LARK in all-caps.  The raven tags are printed on green paper with the same set-up, except the raven profile points towards the left. So when couples stand beside each other, it is so visually easy for them and for the caller and for helpers to see if they are properly matched up with someone of the other bird role.... and then we teach them about the "beak rule" - if the couple is standing in the correct orientation relative to each other,  the beaks of each bird point inwards towards the other). Anyhow, we love this system but I recognize it isn't for everyone. What I wanted to share is about the way we assign bird roles. We have a basket with all the "bird tags" at the entrance table, and as people enter, our door volunteers explain that in the dance, there are two nearly equivalent roles, and new dancers should choose one role to stick with for the night.  Since people often come to the dance in small groups of 2 or more, we explain that if you want to be able to dance with a certain friend you came with, it will make sense for each of you to choose the opposite role so you can be paired up together. The volunteers also keep rough track in their head of odd-numbered guests who come in and choose a tag, so that they can encourage the next person who comes in to choose the opposite tag. This way by the time everyone comes together in a big teaching circle, we are pretty sure we have even numbers of larks and ravens. One of the first things I do, after the general introduction, is ask everyone to temporarily pair up with someone of the opposite bird role holding inside hands, to check if there is an excess number of one bird or the other, in which case our volunteers quickly come around with more tags, to fix the situation. (I'll also point out that we have many experienced dancers in our  group who enjoy being able to switch roles to fill a void, so these folks dance with a special tag, with the other bird role hidden behind the first one, in their plastic sleeve, for quick switches!) Anyhow, I was thinking - even without physical tags or other markers, would it still be worth considering an approach of assigning people their bird roles as they enter the hall? And that way you can advise people as we do, that if you are with a friend who you hope to dance with at some point in the evening, you should not choose the same role? Kat K in Hfx