[Callers] mechanical sorting systems

The short version of this post is, how should I organize my dances? But, I'm sure if I ask that, the thread will have 100 replies and lots of confusion. My search of the list archives and web were surprisingly spotty on this question, with lots of anecdotes and no summary or comparison. And I'm not just asking for myself. While I've got a whopping 15 evenings of dance calling under my belt, I'm being called on to train some students to call for our college club, and they're asking the same question. So, I'm looking for one or more summaries from those wiser than I (ok, low bar!) of the kinds of systems for cards. This might better be asked as, what are the different approaches to programming dances, and what organizing systems make each of those easier? In a workshop of his last summer, Bob Isaacs related his system of colored cards for easy, hard, bouncy, flowy, sweetheart, and divorce-reconcile dances (I think those were the categories). Call easy dances first, call a sweetheart right after the break when they're most likely to dance with the person they came with. Save hard for festivals. Give them variety. But, I've wanted more categories, and what about finding the bouncy sweethearts? I'm really busy, so the idea of re-copying a hundred or more cards to make a new system doesn't thrill me, if I don't like my initial system. Maybe I'll get a database system to select dances with, and then have a set of alphabetized printed cards for the actual calling, though what if I'm wrong and need to change my program, as has already happened a few times when a ton of newbies shows up? I'm interested in hearing about anything particularly clever or efficient, especially if it doesn't involve a computer or tablet. A comparison of the different computer systems would also be welcome. I'm aware of programs by Will Loving and Colin Hume. I asked on one Facebook group for a comparison of these but got no response. Is the Caller's Box up to real-time dance selection at an event? That presumes wi-fi, of course, or at least cell signal. I'll toss in one amusing and possibly workable paper system, for a dedicated and extremely nerdy caller, which might be me... I heard recently (I believe from Angela DeCarlis) of a mechanical sorting system based on the Jacquard loom concept that became the Hollerith punched card system. I've never seen it in use. Does anyone do this? Figure out the ten or so characteristics you might want to sort on. For example, easy, medium, hard, bouncy, flowy, separates partners, sweetheart (keeps partners together), etc. Take a stack of cards and drill holes near the bottom edge, one per characteristic (you can drill a stack of cards if you sandwich them between wood and clamp them). Now, on a given card, punch out the rest of the paper between the hole and the edge of the card for each hole the card DOESN'T match. So, for an easy dance, you'd punch out the rest of the paper for the medium and hard holes (among others), but leave the easy hole intact. If you make a mistake, just fold a piece of tape over the gap above the hole to close the gap. Now, when you want to look at your easy, flowy, sweetheart dances, flip the stack so the holes are up, push a pencil or knitting needle through the "easy" hole and lift. Then, in the ones you pulled, push through the flowy hole and lift, and finally for that set poke through the sweetheart hole and lift. Those are the easy, flowy, sweetheart dances. If you want the medium or hard dances that are bouncy and that separate partners, you pull first the medium and then the hard dances, combine them, and then pull the bouncies from that set and the separators from that third pull. And so on. Good hole alignment and clean punching would matter, I think. If you are a real dance sorting fanatic, you could get like 30 holes around the card edges, but that would limit the writing space. I predict this will be all the rage, post-apocalypse...at least until we run out of cards. ;-) --jh-- Joe Harrington Organizer, Greater Orlando Contra Dance Faculty Advisor, Contra Knights, the UCF contra dancing club contraknights.org FB, Ig: Contra Knights contradancerjoe(a)gmail.com