[Organizers] Re: Where is your home dance, etc? Need ideas/feedback about how to get new dancers to return

Jeff, I'm glad you're able to dig us into some of the particulars of the subtopic about youth leadership in contra. Certainly I agree that it is not as simple as I stated; my email was meant as brief, high-level bullets, not sufficient instructions for implementing. I think your questions are good jumping-off points, so I'll do that! If I had to wager, I would say that your experience with youth dancers in leadership may differ from ones that I've seen and experienced. Like, the "I" in BIDA is "Intergenerational" with engaging dancers of all ages right there as a primary goal; that alone is going to affect how you and other BIDA leaders current and past engage with potential youth leaders. And what I've seen in BIDA's policies, what you personally and advocate for, and what I've experienced both as a dancer and a performer at your series contrasts with some of the negative issues I've seen come up. So, by contrast, I draw upon experience both in dances I've been a regular at, as well as discussions with peers and younger peers about goings-on with various dances, in regards to how youth leaders are treated. You wrote: " They're initially excited and propose things, but then get frustrated as the long-time folks explain the issues and none of their proposals stick." Yeah, I think there's an experience gap that you allude to here and that's real. At the same time, it is definitely the responsibility for more experienced leaders to mentor newer leaders, and that mentorship means: 1. Explaining issues in a way that isn't discouraging. 2. Not merely using explaining as a way to shut down suggestions. On that latter point, I've found that - probably more often than not - initial suggestions both in contra dance and in my professional career working in teams usually are not the final solution. I'm sure I'm not saying anything you don't already know, but bringing it into this conversation here. Yeah, new leaders to a volunteer organization have a learning curve, and their suggestions may need work. But, _all suggestions_ I see as frequently needing work. A healthy committee takes those suggestions and integrates them into whatever ultimate decisions / policies / actions they take. (Again, I'm sure you've experienced this, but for the purposes of leading to my next point.) By contrast, what I've both seen and heard of from many youth leaders are things like: "Oh, Soandso has always done the website and that's the way they like it." "There's no way we could implement Larks / Robins because too many older dancers would hate it." "Soandso has always done Treasurer" "A special dance event would be too difficult" etc. The summary being that, as you said, youth leaders come in excited with new suggestions. Yes, they may need work. But instead of a committee coming together to form a consensus, youth leaders are shut down. And I think it's obvious how discouraging that can be. So, back to the purposes of this email discussion here, the suggestions I would come for include: 1. Come with a mindset of "how can we make this work / alter the idea to make it work" rather than "how will this idea not work" 2. Figure out a way to _try out_ ideas older members don't agree with. 3. On a youth-led idea that older members don't think are practical, do data gathering. Larks/Robins is a great example where practical data made it clear to the many dances who chose to implement it, as, again, BIDA certainly demonstrated, and my own dance in Amherst demonstrated. 4. (In regards to your point B) Specifically solicit ideas from youth leaders. Actively ask their opinions. Realize that experienced leaders have an innate power imbalance and that is a big reason why new / younger leaders don't speak up. " they don't feel like they've accomplished anything and don't feel useful." 5. Set them up in areas of success. Even little stuff, like, "We had to decide how to set up the fans in the room as we opened back up after the pandemic shutdown" was an opportunity where our group could just ... let newer+younger group members decide and do it with no need for full-committee approval. (Jeff, I think this basically is your "giving people responsibilities") 6. Let them fail a little. This is kind of a repeat of #2, but ... mentoring new leaders means letting them make some mistakes. They need to be able to take some risks. 6a. When they fail, continue to encourage and frame that failure instead as "trying something out and learning as a group". I think your last point is a good one, too. There's a 20-something / 30ish led new Fusion dance in the Pioneer Valley. And while one of the organizers has some significant committee experience, they're one of the least in-charge-y types on that dance's committee. So, lots of potential lessons for the OP and other readers on the group, and this email is hardly an exhaustive treatise on mentoring youth leaders. In short though, I have experienced and seen the dismissal of young organizers as a repeat, chronic, and widespread issue in contra dance organizations. It will take active work from older and more experienced leaders to change this. Best regards, Julian On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 11:12 AM Jeff Kaufman <jeff(a)alum.swarthmore.edu> wrote: Organizers mailing list -- organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to organizers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net