I am lucky enough to call Glen Echo, Washington DC my home dance. I do think publicizing role terms is a good practice. I think having younger folks organize is an excellent practice. And I think just talking to your regular dancers about how it might be for new dancers is worthy. Admittedly, you will likely hear a lot of "well they can just say no!" It shouldn't surprise me that older (whiter?) male presenting dancers don't easily recognize both the inherent power dynamic and that girls and women are frequently raised to be compliant, and may not feel comfortable or allowed to say no (but it does). Teaching that in the beginner's lesson is valuable, additionally, many organizations have produced posters with their values "we value diversity!" and such. But enough from this old person, what do actual younger people think?

Penelope where is your home dance?

All good questions. 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.

As far as I know there are no young board members on the Lawrence board currently, but I don't know for sure who is on the board anymore. LBDA Board membership is by invitation, not election. I resigned from the board in spring 2023 and I have not asked lately about who is on now. At that time I was the youngest at the age of 56. If I learn some gems from you my plan is to share them with Lawrence and Kansas City board members as appropriate. I have attended some of the KC board meetings which are open to the community. Kansas City is one hour east of Lawrence and I dance at both.

What I infer from your questions/response is that:

1. Younger people will be more likely to come and stay if we use non gendered terminology.

2. Either way it needs to be publicized on our website so people know what to expect. I know some callers feel "thrown under the bus", and understandable so, when they have to make that decision.

3. We need to figure out how to prevent creep factor. How do you suggest to do that?

On Sun, Oct 29, 2023, 10:02 AM Penelope Weinberger <pz_weinberger@hotmail.com> wrote:

May I ask, what role terms you use, and do you publicize that? Do you have any young organizers? Do you try to "make young people feel heard" or do you hear them? When young women come, are they descended upon by older established male presenting dancers who just want to welcome them but don't understand the negative effect that may have?

From: Sandy Seiler via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2023 10:54:44 AM
To: A list for dance organizers <organizers@sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Organizers] Attracting young dancers

Our community, like many others, has fewer young dancers than we would like. I am wondering how different factors influence that and what we can do.

Does the night of the week matter? We dance on a Saturday night. Would Friday be better?

Does frequency matter? We dance once a month?

Does location matter? We have a college (University of Kansas KU) Would a dance location closer to or on campus matter?

Are outreach strategies effective and what has your community found successful?

Thanks,

Sandy Seiler

Lawrence, Kansas