Hi fellow shared weight organizers :)
I hope you're doing pretty well. It's snowing here in Ottawa but the
red-wing blackbirds showed up in our yard this morning for the first time
so spring is pushing through!
I was wondering if any of you have resources that provide information on
benefits of contra dance (or trad social dance generally). This could be as
simple as your list of benefits, it could be newspaper articles, videos,
scientific studies... or other!
Why? It's interesting generally I thought we might all enjoy as tools for
advocacy. However, the question initially came up for me as I am working
on letter to our Finance Minister in Canada about some issues around
non-profit taxing ($50,000 income we have to charge tax.... ugh... it's
turned out to be quite difficult for our organizer which is all voolunteer
run and already cash strapped.) Anyway --- would love to hear your
ideas!!! :) :) :)
I've also posted this question on the FB Organizers of contra dance group.
So if you're on both, you'll likely see it there too.
Thanks so much!
Emily Addison in Ottawa
Hi fellow shared weight organizers,
Some of you may have heard about this but I wanted to share some exciting
organizer information from CDSS.
*Please share it with other organizers in your area! *This information is
for ANY traditional dance, music or song organizers (e.g., contra dance;
old time jam sessions; scandinavian dance; trad song circles; etc).
*SURVEY of TRADITIONAL DANCE, MUSIC and SONG ORGANIZERS in the US:*
CDSS wants to hear from you in order to inform their work in supporting
local organizers throughout the US! What you are organizing? What
challenges do you face? What support/connections would help you in the work
you do?
CDSS recently conducted a study of Canadian organizers (article here
<https://www.cdss.org/images/newsletter_archives/columns/CDSS_News_Spring_20…>)
and has taken the findings to further improve their support of local
organizers.
The US survey available until April 13th:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DCSRMZG
Note that multiple individuals from the same organization can fill out the
survey.
Please share widely with organizers in many traditions!
*NEW CDSS E-MAIL BLASTS for ORGANIZERS*
CDSS has just launched a new organizer email newsletter to support local
organizers of traditional dance music and song. The e-news will be emailed
out four times a year. Expect notifications about new resources, upcoming
training opportunities, inspiring success stories and more.
To join the email list, click here:
https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001l2jBILRzRVh_qG9X8…
Again - please spread widely!
Emily Addison
CDSS Canadian Initiative+
Here's a link to the blog post with the video from our January 31 outreach program (film at the Belfast Free Library followed by a focus group discussion with local teen dancers.)
http://belfastflyingshoes.org/teens-talk-contra/
We're delighted to share the insights of these five teens; we deeply appreciate their contributions, as well as the support of the program's funders, co-sponsors, and recorders.
For the Belfast Flying Shoes board of directors,
Chrissy Fowler, secretary
Here's a link to the blog post with the video from our January 31 outreach program (film at the Belfast Free Library followed by a focus group discussion with local teen dancers.)
http://belfastflyingshoes.org/teens-talk-contra/
We're delighted to share the insights of these five teens; we deeply appreciate their contributions, as well as the support of the program's funders, co-sponsors, and recorders.
For the Belfast Flying Shoes board of directors,
Chrissy Fowler, secretary
Wow!
Ammmaazing ideas so far.
Thanks so much to Chrissy for that mass of articles + Jonathan and Jennifer
too!
Here is a link to the recent CDSS Canadian survey I was involved with. Pg
40 of the report relates to this question --- some nice quotes!
https://www.cdss.org/images/community/CDSS-Canada-Organizer-Survey-Report-F…
Here's what's come from the FB OCD group's discussion so far... more for
folks to consider. :)
[[[Others shared these]]]]
http://goodtimes.sc/columns/wellness/santa-cruz-contra-dance/http://www.southfloridacontradance.com/what-is-contra-dancehttps://www.pinterest.ca/canadiansquarea/impact-on-health/https://www.pinterest.ca/canadiansquarea/press-contra/https://www.pinterest.ca/canadiansquarea/contra-dance/http://www.nhmagazine.com/September-2017/Swing-Shift/#.WgsFdHg5ANI.facebookhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/well/walk-stretch-or-dance-dancing-may-b…
Emily
On Thu, Mar 8, 2018 at 12:56 PM, <organizers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and generally trad
> social dance) (Emily Addison)
> 2. Re: Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and generally
> trad social dance) (Jennifer Sordyl)
> 3. Re: Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and generally
> trad social dance) (Chrissy Fowler)
> 4. Re: Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and generally
> trad social dance) (Jonathan Sivier)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2018 11:33:56 -0500
> From: Emily Addison <emilyladdison(a)gmail.com>
> To: organizers shared weight <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
> Subject: [Organizers] Ideas/resources on the benefits of contra (and
> generally trad social dance)
> Message-ID:
> <CAD7WKUWmogjnBPMKjFSJkNPcEBao9AB3ewWk7u+=beehS+xFLg@mail.
> gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hi fellow shared weight organizers :)
>
> I hope you're doing pretty well. It's snowing here in Ottawa but the
> red-wing blackbirds showed up in our yard this morning for the first time
> so spring is pushing through!
>
> I was wondering if any of you have resources that provide information on
> benefits of contra dance (or trad social dance generally). This could be as
> simple as your list of benefits, it could be newspaper articles, videos,
> scientific studies... or other!
>
> Why? It's interesting generally I thought we might all enjoy as tools for
> advocacy. However, the question initially came up for me as I am working
> on letter to our Finance Minister in Canada about some issues around
> non-profit taxing ($50,000 income we have to charge tax.... ugh... it's
> turned out to be quite difficult for our organizer which is all voolunteer
> run and already cash strapped.) Anyway --- would love to hear your
> ideas!!! :) :) :)
>
> I've also posted this question on the FB Organizers of contra dance group.
> So if you're on both, you'll likely see it there too.
>
> Thanks so much!
> Emily Addison in Ottawa
>
Hi All,
Apologies for the delay in getting these out!
Attached are the discussion notes from the dance flurry. It was a pretty
great discussion!
I found that I knew about some of the ideas but others were new or were
tweaks to something we do in Ottawa but could do better.
Hope you find some interesting ideas enclosed as well!
:)
Emily Addison in Ottawa
The 20th Annual New Year's Extravaganza in Topsham, Maine was about the
same as last year but down by about a dozen people from the 18th. NYE. It
has much to do with band and caller selection as it does weather and
competing events.
When we started we were the biggest New Year Dance deal in three states
with a Pad Thai dinner for openers and 3 bands till 2 Am and had 140
people... But now there's marvelous contra fun to be had in lots of halls
and that's OK.
We had 85 dancers last time.
So there's none data point for you.
Jeff
On Mar 5, 2018 10:16 PM, "Alexandra Deis-Lauby via Organizers" <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Are there any ball organizers on this list?
If so, have you noticed any attendance trends? Someone mentioned to me
today that they heard ball attendance was down this season.
Thanks,
Alex
Sent from my iPhone
_______________________________________________
Organizers mailing list
Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net
Are there any ball organizers on this list?
If so, have you noticed any attendance trends? Someone mentioned to me today that they heard ball attendance was down this season.
Thanks,
Alex
Sent from my iPhone
I'll be leading a discussion session at the 2018 New England Folk Festival
addressing low or no-cost tech tools you can use to leverage the efforts of
your limited volunteers towards greater effect. Have any great ideas to
share? Let me know ahead of time and I'll try to ensure they're covered in
the session materials or just come along and share in the session.
It's on the grid for High School Rm. 177 -- 6:00pm to 6:50pm Saturday April
21 -- Festival session listing is at
https://cgi.neffa.org/public/showevent.pl?E=S_1800_177 .
I created a Facebook event for the session at
https://www.facebook.com/events/179376749342433/ .
Hope to see you there!