Jeff, I think including a word for dancing w/ new people in the contra lexicon is a grand idea even if 'I'm dancing w/ newbies for a bit, care to join me?' is a great way to accomplish both including beginners/new folks to the community and setting an example of welcoming for other dancers. If you are looking for a simple marketing word, try "welcoming" or "welcoming newbies" or "teaching". Might not be as funny as "herding" (which is also true and I use sparingly), but it is simple and neutral in response. I'd stick w/ asking others to join you though. Tis volunteerism to give your time to new dancers, but tis community leadership to encourage others to do the same. Noah Grunzweig -----Original Message----- From: organizers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:organizers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of organizers-request(a)sharedweight.net Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 12:00 PM To: organizers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: Organizers Digest, Vol 21, Issue 1 Send Organizers mailing list submissions to organizers(a)sharedweight.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to organizers-request(a)sharedweight.net You can reach the person managing the list at organizers-owner(a)sharedweight.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Organizers digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Getting left-out people into a contra dance (Jeff Kaufman) 2. Re: Getting left-out people into a contra dance (Stephen Moore) 3. Re: Getting left-out people into a contra dance (P W Marsh) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 15:54:59 -0400 From: Jeff Kaufman <jeff(a)alum.swarthmore.edu> To: organizers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: [Organizers] Getting left-out people into a contra dance Message-ID: <20100524195459.GA9405(a)melfpelt.swarpa.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At dances I'll sometimes skip out on the initial partnering to see if there's someone who didn't end up with a partner but would like one. I've done this the most at dances where I have some sort of responsibility in the group (bida, the contra dances at swarthmore), but I try to do it whenever I notice people getting left out. This works pretty well at getting people in, especially new people. The main way it doesn't work is if I get asked to dance by an experienced dancer when I intend to be doing this. I can avoid that somewhat by making myself scarce refilling water pitchers or whatever, but sometimes people who are fun to dance with and will not be having any trouble finding a partner ask me right away. I can say "I'm sorry; I'm looking for a left out newcomer to dance with" but that's kind of strange and a bit of a mouthful. I think what I need is a name for this activity. Is there one already in use somewhere else? I'd like to be able to say "sorry, not this dance, I'm [name-of-this]ing". Another advantage of a name is that even if the person I'm talking to doesn't understand me at the time beyond "jeff won't dance, need to find a different partner", if they come talk to me later I can give more detail and it will have a name attached. Jeff