30 Oct
2023
30 Oct
'23
4:29 a.m.
I think it's important to listen to what Don Veino just wrote. Don is both
a caller and organizer. It's not fair to put the responsibility for
choosing role names on the callers. It's the organizers' responsibility to
make decisions about our dances.
Lisa Lunt
She/her
Jamaica Plain (Boston) Gender Free Contra Dance
On Sun, Oct 29, 2023, 4:17 PM Don Veino via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
As a caller and organizer, this is a hot button topic
for me. Please, if
you are organizing a dance, take responsibility for this decision and make
it clearly public to your participants in advance. I understand you may be
uncomfortable making this choice and possibly want to "please everybody" by
leaving it to the caller but that just sets up the worst dynamic for all.
My take is that the dance's organizers *own* the culture and
implementation policies of their dance. If you would not leave it up to the
caller to decide to do swing dance instead or declare the admission is half
off for a given event, then you shouldn't leave such a topic to them either.
"Traditional", Larks/ Robins, positional - alternating per event, whatever
- make the determination and let the people coming know in advance.
I personally will no longer accept bookings from a dance that doesn't have
a stated role term policy. I will call with the terms stated (or decline
the event). I had a booking for a longstanding dance which changed from
decades of "Traditional" to "Caller's Choice" after booking me,
with no
heads up. I first heard of it when I started hearing from people advocating
for one or the other terms, as "my choice". The organizers wouldn't make
the call and the publicity was already out there. Bad scene for all, not
the way to set up dance joy.
On Sun, Oct 29, 2023, 1:28 PM Sandy Seiler via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
<snip>
Currently terminology is the caller's decision. So it goes back and forth
from gendered to non gendered. That is not mentioned on the website, but I
do know that at least one of our callers has requested that the Lawrence
board make a decision about it so the callers don't have that
responsibility and possible fall out from it.
</snip>
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