Re: [Organizers] general vs board meetings

Larry Jennings had a saying that "the dance belongs to the organizers". By that he meant that it's the organizers who promote their vision of what the dance should be about, and make decisions accordingly. At the same time, the organizers are also custodians of the dance, in that one hopes the dance to continue on when individual organizers move on. These events needn't be big time democracy-in-action events. If you have people who are particularly motivated about some aspect of the dance, then they should join the organizing group and commit to following through. But having joined a smaller group, then when decisions are made (preferably by consensus) but which aren't in accord with an individual's ideas, people should trust the sense of the group and carry on. If I had to help to organize our dance by having open groups for every meeting, and rehashing previous discussions/decisions etc., I'd be inclined to walk away with frustration pretty quickly. We have a monthly dance (3rd Saturdays), we try to meet every other month as a group, and even then we spend 2 1/2 hrs working through out agenda. Between this and the time spent acting on decisions, etc., that's enough of a commitment for each of us. It's hard enough getting people to do this work. With email it is possible, in the event that a major decision is impending, like moving to a new hall, to get the sense of the community by putting the issue and considerations out there, and letting people provide their input by reply. There was an excellent suggestion a while back by someone who said that time should also be found to do some discussion groups among the dancers, perhaps in conjunction with a pre-dance potluck, to create a field for ideas, etc. You want your communities ideas and sense of ownership, but it need not rule every meeting. I clearly vote for option A. Stephen Moore Lenox (MA) Contra Dance On Mar 27, 2008, at 1:01 PM, jeffrey wrote: