Dear Shared Weight organizers,
Do you have experience in WordPress design? Do you love Shared Weight? Shared Weight is looking for a volunteer to help us on a well-defined website development task. Essentially, we need someone to create a wordpress site that will serve as a new website for: https://www.sharedweight.net
Here are a few details:
--> There would be a few additional pages to what is on the current site, but as you can see, our needs are relatively basic. (Template/model pages for each of the lists, FAQ for the whole site, etc)
--> The Shared Weight team would like to have some say into the look of the site but we also welcome your ideas.
--> You will not need to be responsible for maintaining the site - simply creating the templates will be a great help! We will provide all the content for the site and can even populate the content once you have created the template if you don’t want to do the initial upload of text.
Please email Emily at emily(a)cdss.org if you are interested in helping us on this project.
***An exciting heads up about Shared Weight*** The new wordpress site is part of an exciting new initiative for Shared Weight. Seth Seeger and Chris Weiler (Shared Weight founders) have partnered with Ridge Kennedy (Trad Dance caller listserv), Alan Winston (English Country dance listserv), and Weogo Reed (Contra Sound Forum) to collectively update and enhance the lists. All six lists will be hosted on an upgraded Shared Weight software platform with the new website and better mailing list software. We will also be doing lots more promotion of these lists. Emily (CDSS Consultant) is helping to coordinate some of this work and so am the contact for finding a wordpress volunteer.
Watch for more updates from the Shared Weight team over the next new months!
Seth & Chris
Hey fellow organizers,
I know some of us struggle with getting more organizers on our team. (We're
currently looking for more folks to help with outreach/promotion here in
Ottawa!)
Just wanted to share a quick strategy relating to the CDSS Shop Talk that I
sent out a few minutes ago.
I've posted info about Shop Talk as well as this list, the CDSS organizers
resource portal and the FB group for organizers on our local dance
community facebook group. I thought that a quick 'we can always use more
help' and 'check out these cool resources' might set the seed in some
dancers' minds.. ... ... even just making them aware of the broader
conversations is worth it.
I don't know how much merit there is in this idea but I just wanted to
share in case you liked it. I've included my post info below. (I made an
initial post and then followed up with a few comments underneath.)
Emily in Ottawa
-----------------------------------
A plug for those of you who might be interested in helping organize our
dances... ... ... we can always use more help!
A neat way to catch the bug is by watching (and even participating) in some
conversations that happen around organizing. As part of this, you might
might want to sign up for Shop Talk - it's CDSS's free quarterly e-blast
for organizers.
Here's a link to the May issue that just came out yesterday:
https://conta.cc/2HlZOXA
<https://conta.cc/2HlZOXA?fbclid=IwAR2N4jWQTE5IvafWfSIl3DF8Ys8sa0zcTzT1Brsln…>
In the issue....
- Heads up regarding an article in the upcoming June CDSS News which
outlines how to easily plan organizer discussions.
- Announcing the CDSS Web Chat: Building Safe Dance Communities which is
happening on July 11th
- CDSS Scholarships still available for camp sessions!
- News about an exciting collaboration among organizer, caller, and
musician listservs
- A survey for Open Bands to support resource development.
- Heads up regarding the upcoming CDSS Group Affiliates survey
- A call for volunteers interested in developing organizer resources.
- Join CDSS as an affiliate and individual member to help make resources
and supports like these possible!
===============================
And here are three other great links..
============================
There's a FB group for contra dance organizers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/111126912393768/
<https://www.facebook.com/groups/111126912393768/?hc_location=ufi>
=================================
There's an email listserv for organizers at Shared Weight
https://www.sharedweight.net/index.php?pagestate=org_about
<https://www.sharedweight.net/index.php?pagestate=org_about&fbclid=IwAR2wM4g…>
=====================================
And the Country Dance and Song Society has a big collection of resources
for organizers here: https://www.cdss.org/resources/how-to/organizers
<https://www.cdss.org/resources/how-to/organizers?fbclid=IwAR1H5cWZNb6RQBxyE…>
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…>
Virus-free.
www.avg.com
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…>
<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
Big hello fellow Shared Weight organizers,
The May issue of Shop Talk just came out yesterday!
Here is a link: https://conta.cc/2HlZOXA
There are a number of items that I think you might find interesting
including an announcement about a collaborative project between Shared
Weight, some of the other traditional dance/music listservs, and CDSS.
With thanks!
Emily Addison
Consultant for CDSS and local organizer in Ottawa, Ontario
*In the May issue:*
- Heads up regarding an article in the upcoming June CDSS News which
outlines *how to easily plan organizer discussions*.
- Announcing the *CDSS Web Chat: Building Safe Dance Communities* which
is happening on July 11th
- *CDSS Scholarships* still available for camp sessions!
- News about an *exciting collaboration among organizer, caller, and
musician listservs*
- A *survey for Open Bands* to support resource development.
- Heads up regarding the upcoming *CDSS Group Affiliates survey*
- A *call for volunteers *interested in developing organizer resources.
- *Join CDSS as an affiliate and individual member to help make
resources and supports like these possible!*
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…>
Virus-free.
www.avg.com
<http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_cam…>
<#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
Hi fellow Shared Weight organizers,
I was curious as to whether anyone on this list had lingering questions
coming out of the CDSS Family and Community dance web chat last month?
There were a number of great ideas I was excited to learn about including
many suggestions on adding non-dance features to events in order to make
them feel special.
Related to community dance organizing, I also wanted to share a story from
our community dance this past Saturday here in Ottawa Ontario. The story
relates to the Belfast Flying Shoes community dances ---> They were one of
the groups featured in the CDSS web chat.
Note... the story is long... apologies!
The backstory: Ottawa Contra Dance has been hosting afternoon family dances
for approximately 8yrs. These are well attended (70-100 people each time)
but there is big turn over with kids aging out around 7yrs old and no
bridging into our evening contra dances. This year, we launched four
community dances using a very similar model to Belfast Flying Shoes (and a
few other community dances) in the hope that we could create a truly
intergenerational dance that would encourage school-aged families in
particular. The timeline is as such: 3-5pm afternoon advanced dance,
5-630 potluck for all, 630-730 community dance, 730-8 beginner lesson, 8-11
contra dance. (People who pay for the community dance can stay for the
contra beginners + first two dances for free; People who pay for the contra
can come to the community dance for free.)
It took us a whole year to plan the new series (e.g., the timing; pricing;
how the open band would work; sound; type of dances; etc). Mostly our
planning has paid off as the dances have been a blast. We just need more
school-aged families + a few more volunteers.
The cool thing: During the planning of the new series, our Board couldn't
imagine not having a beginner contra lesson before the 8pm dance. This is
a long tradition in our community and there were a number of us who felt
that the skills that are built in that workshop are too important to give
up and we couldn't see how else they could be taught.
Well.... Will Mentor was calling our afternoon advanced dance as well as
the evening contra dance this past Saturday and when he arrived, he
suggested we 'do as in Belfast'. Instead of running a beginners lesson,
simply bridge the community dance into the contra dance with some basic
dances from 730-8pm. That's exactly what we did (after checking with some
Board members). Instead of having a formal break & switch at 730, Will
took over the calling from Esther (our community dance caller) and
continued with those same dancers + others who were arriving in the hall.
He taught a couple of beginner contras and built the skills right in. And
our all comers band got to play with Will calling contras - a great
experience.
I know lots of contra dance series don't have beginner lessons AND we
didn't have as many beginners that night as we sometimes have but it was so
exciting to try something new to us and that we had been unsure of, with
the suggestion coming from such an experienced caller who wanted to make it
happen. I love these moments in dance organizing!
Emily
PS - I don't know if we'll keep the beginner workshops on community dance
nights next year or whether we'll give this model some more testing time...
we'll see! :)
PPS -> Shout out to Belfast! When Will suggested the idea, he said that
he feels the great success of that series has to do with the community
dance and how they've structured their model!
