Organizers

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515 discussions

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

9 years, 8 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

9 years, 8 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

9 years, 8 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

9 years, 9 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 >

9 years, 9 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 > >

9 years, 9 months

Vacation reply

by via Organizers

9 years, 9 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

9 years, 10 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

10 years

talent info sheet and contracts - thoughts and queries???

by Emily Addison via Organizers

Hi Fellow Organizers, As many of you know (because I've already posted on this!), Ottawa Contra is trying to improve our talent info/contracts. I've been working with versions from your various dance communities as well as ideas that came up at the Puttin On The Dance session re talent. I've attached our draft as it is now and would love to get your thoughts on a few aspects. See below for five questions. :) Emily 1. *Does our cancellation policy look fair? Anything we should do different?* *If Ottawa Contra has to cancel a gig within three months of the event, we will compensate the talent for the full agreed upon amount. If the caller or band needs to cancel the gig, please let us know ASAP. Bands can substitute a member if agreed with Ottawa Contra (no additional pay). If you don't perform, we don't compensate. Please note that cancellation is difficult for us as we promote all bands/callers over the whole season.* 2. *I'm trying to open up channels for us to give feedback to the occasional caller/band when things don't go well. Does our wording on 'feedback both ways' seem good in terms of being able to approach post-gig to provide comments if there are particular issues (in addition to the emails we send when it goes really well!).* *Callers & Bands - Feedback both ways:* *We would like to foster an open dialogue of feedback from you to us and from us to you! If you are uncomfortable with feedback, please let us know ahead of time. And, if you have any feedback for us regarding any aspect of your experience with Ottawa Contra, please begin the dialogue!* 3. *Sit Ins/sharing mic... ... we'd like to (if talent willing) have options for a caller and 1-2 local musicians to get a bit of experience in order to build capacity. See what you think of how we suggest that. **BAND: · 'Sit ins'* *: If you are willing, 1-2 of our local contra musicians would love to 'sit in' with you for 1-2 sets. This is a purposeful attempt on our part to build capacity in our dance musician community – having locals get to feel your amazing energy will help them a lot! This is only if you are willing and we'll confirm with you ahead of time. (These sit ins could be mic'd or not.) CallErs: If you are willing, we would like to arrange a time of your choice during the evening where one of our local callers could call one dance. We would love for you to take a few notes and provide them with some constructive feedback on what they did well and what they could tweak (i.e., stop-start-continue). Our local callers would really benefit from calling with varied professional bands and from your tips! * 4. *Caller archiving: This is an idea from Belfast and Concord. What do you think?* *Archiving:* We have started an archive that lists past programs which you may refer to before/during the dance. Please record your called program there – name of dance, composer/author, comments, etc. This is shared with other visiting callers to get a sense of pacing, types of dances called, and challenges they come across . 5. *Gender-mixer dance... ... this is something some people on our committee want to try to help women especially who are scared about learning the gents role (it's true - we have many and 1 workshop a year isn't doing it). Also other reasons as some folks like to play with gender roles. However, we aren't interested in becoming a gender free dance and we have a lot of beginners every time who get confused when people change roles too much (it already happens a bit). What do you think?* *Gender-mixer dance:* (Optional ) In the second half, we would like you to announce (a full dance ahead) that there will be a gender-mixer for those who want it. Randomly choose a line for folks who want to play opposite gender roles, swap roles throughout the dance, etc. A few dancers do this regularly but some folks who are learning the opposite gender role want a more safe time to experiment where they won't be embarrassed if they make mistakes, etc.

10 years, 1 month

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