Organizers

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496 discussions

by David Kirchner via Organizers

Hi all, We are struggling with the best approach to deal with a community member who attends many of our dance events but does not dance (or pay). This person appears to have some mental illness challenges. He frequently has a small child with him. He has occasionally been disruptive in a minor way (or the child has been), and he has been escorted out a couple of times for that reason. He often simply hangs out in the building while the dance is going on, often in nondancing space. He is not easy to talk with. Reactions on how to deal with this person have varied across the different dance communities that use our space and different volunteers within those communities. We are trying to put together a common approach. Thoughts? David St. Paul, MN

8 years, 6 months

Seeking one more caller for Feb 2016 contra tour of New Zealand

by Rob Lindauer via Organizers

I'm one of the dancers / musicians on the Allemande Joy 2016 contra dance tour of the south island of New Zealand. Julie Anspach (2016nzcontra(a)gmail.com) is organizing the tour. The last such tour was in 2012. The group will spend the entire month of Feb 2016 in New Zealand, taking a tour bus from the north to the south end of the south island, dancing about every other night in community centers, visiting local sites during the days, and staying in hostels. It's not a paid gig - we're all paying our own way - cost including air transport from LA is about $4200 per person. We're still short one person who can call. If you are a caller and are interested in joining the trip, please contact Julie asap for more info. Or, if you know someone who might be interested, please pass this note along to him/her. I'm not sure this forum will let me do so, but I'll attempt to attach the info letter on the trip. Info's also posted on Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/AllemandeJoy/ . Thanks, Rob L -- Rob Lindauer

8 years, 6 months

"Notice of Nonrenewal" of group's general liability insurance

by Rob Lindauer via Organizers

Hartford Community Dance's insurance carrier (Markel Insurance) just notified us that they will not renew when our current policy expires Dec 1. Apparently their underwriting guidelines have changed, and we no longer meet their guidelines. I'd appreciate suggestions on carriers. I think CDSS offers access to liability insurance; I'll be talking to them shortly. Are there other carriers dance groups (probably I should stick to US groups) have used with good experience? Thanks, Rob L -- Rob Lindauer

8 years, 6 months

Thanks - Insurance Issue

by Rob Lindauer via Organizers

Thanks to those who have already responded (and thanks in advance to those who will respond). My group is indeed a CDSS affiliate. We're not currently an NFO member. -- Rob Lindauer -- Rob Lindauer

8 years, 6 months

Puttin' On The Dance 2 organizers conference - archive now online!

by Emily Addison via Organizers

Hello Fellow Organizers, I wanted to share a new organizer resource that JUST came online... The 'Puttin' On The Dance 2' organizer conference archive is now available. I won't say anything more other than it's SUPER useful and worth looking through ... check it out! http://www.puttinonthedance.org/potd2-conference-notes/ Related - if you want to see more images from the sessions, look here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/puttinonthedance/albums Additionally, these two archives of conferences are also available: POTD1: http://www.puttinonthedance.org/potd1materials/ SWROC: http://cdss.org/swroc/post-conference/archive/ Most any topic under organizing has been covered at one or more of these conferences. I'm curious --- any topics that haven't been covered which you think are worthy of discussion??? (Although, yes, we can always talk about some of these topics more...) Enjoy! Emily - for Putting On The Dance 2

8 years, 7 months

Re: [Organizers] sound system ownership

by Peter Clark via Organizers

I have been involved in a second group situation as you described where an established group allowed our new group use of their sound system. Initially it was free of charge, but eventually the established group requested a yearly donation of $150 to help with upkeep. Since our group's focus shifted to music workshops and open bands, we ended up acquiring a sound system that could be used by groups that included numerous new participants. That meant lots of mics and a feedback suppressor that could help with having a large number of mics open and musicians with emerging mic technique. Have you noticed any commonalities of which nights have good sound vs. which nights don't? When I have run sound, the biggest problems have resulted from musicians bringing their own gear. For example, a guitarist insisting on using an omnidirectional mic that caused feedback when used with stage monitors / a multi-instrumentalist wanting to use a switch to connect two instruments that required very different gain settings resulting in immediate feedback when the hotter instrument was selected. I have found it somewhat rare to encounter contra dance sound systems using ducking and compression and wouldn't consider them a must-have. The primary use I have seen with compression is on the caller channel because sometimes a caller will get excited and yell at volumes that are far too loud for anyone's enjoyment. I have seen bands resent the use of compression, since it prevents use of dynamics as a musical technique. Peter On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 1:16 PM, Dana Dwinell-Yardley via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Hi smart organizers, > > I wish I had some good suggestions to contribute to the conversation about > callers, but I don't think I can say anything better than has already been > said. Instead, I'll pose a new question! > > We are considering getting a sound system for our Grange hall. Right now, > bands either bring their own sound, or we hire a local sound person to bring > their system for the evening. Sometimes our sound is excellent, other times > less so. We'd like to make it more consistently excellent, making the dance > less stressful and more fun for everyone. > > Our main questions right now are about ownership and responsibility. There > is one dance series at our hall now, but a second series is being organized > to start this winter, and other groups use the Grange as well. Who should > own the sound system? Who will be responsible for caring for it? Who makes > decisions about it? What about insurance and storage and use by several > different groups? > > Also, the idea is to own a sound board, speakers/monitors, and a mic for the > caller, but ask bands to bring their own mics/stands/cables. Bands could > either run our system themselves, or we could hire someone for the evening. > > For those of you who have sound systems, how to you handle these things? Any > insights are welcome. > > Thanks, > Dana > > -- > Dana Dwinell-Yardley > graphic design & layout > Montpelier, Vermont > 802-505-6639 > danadwya(a)gmail.com > > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net >

8 years, 7 months

Re: [Organizers] Hard decisions when a caller lacks excellence

by Erik Barry Erhardt via Organizers

Thank you all for your feedback on this thread. I think my recommendation to our board will be to start recording some of the dances (with their knowledge, of course). This will help us, both for feedback for those callers who want this feedback to improve their calling, and for helping us with having evidence for those callers that aren't meeting the needs of our dances. Then we can provide specific areas for improvement, and if improvement isn't made, then we can have a procedure in place for taking them "off the rotation". This will require a little more work for a reviewer, but probably only in circumstances that require intervention. Thanks to everyone. Specific feedback is below: Walker, I agree that "banning" is too absolute. Mac, yes, my situation is for local callers who are part of our community and whom I don't want to exclude in other ways. We've also developed several new talented callers through our New Mexico Callers Collective (NMCC), so there is less pressure to rely on callers who don't meet our needs. Laur, yes, I agree that the challenge is honoring the relationships and getting consensus. Also, the opinions of a community shift slowly, so implementing change takes time. Jeff, I agree that we shouldn't hire this sort of caller. David, I like your idea for collecting evidence (through video or audio recording) that make it clear what is working and what isn't, and that this can simply apply for everyone. Lindsay, I agree that feedback strategies are really helpful. I like the recordings, they are objective. Peter, the NMCC has been developing training materials and caller skills for callers, with evaluation by our local org's board (FolkMADS). When we've asked for feedback via online forms, all we get are the most vocal being brutal, so we've stopped that practice. If the comments were representative, it would be different. Martha, I love Joseph in a Box! So glad you're all here to help! Erik -- Prof. Erik B. Erhardt, UNM Statistics, (505)750-4424 stat.unm.edu/~erike On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Martha Edwards via Organizers < organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > I definitely agree with David's suggestion about taking videos. We had > Joseph Pimentel here for a Callers Workshop, and he talked about How to > Give Feedback, which was to be perfectly objective - simply describe what > happened, without being judgmental or injecting personal opinions. > > That, of course, is hard to do - we found we were pretty much incapable of > giving feedback without injecting our own opinions. We had, however, > already bought a cute little video camera to record our dances, and found > out pretty quickly just how perfectly objective it was, and renamed the > camera "Joseph in a Box." > > No matter what your calling level, you will learn an amazing amount in a > short time if you have a Joseph in a Box. Boy, is it truthful! > > (Ouch) > > M > E > > > > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net > >

8 years, 8 months

Vacation reply

by via Organizers

8 years, 8 months

Elevator pitches for contra

by Marie-Michèle Fournier via Organizers

Hello everyone! This is something I am trying to develop and I was wondering if anyone had some that they like to use. I like the "if square dancing and swing dancing met in a bar, you'd get contra", but as someone pointed out to me, if the person you are talking to doesn't really know what square dancing is like it's not very helpful. What are your favorite elevator pitches? How do you describe contra to friends, family or potential new dancers? Thanks! Marie Communications for ContraMontreal

8 years, 8 months

What is the main goal of your dance series or organization?

by Marie-Michèle Fournier via Organizers

Hi all! It's a pretty simple question to articulate, but for us the answer is not so easy to put in words, so I am looking at other places for inspiration! Thanks! Marie ContraMontreal

8 years, 10 months

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