I’m forwarding this on behalf of Luke Donforth. Please make sure to copy him on any replies since he is not a member of the list.

 

All the best,

Chris Weiler

List Moderator

 

 

 

Long version:

When I (Luke Donforth) get an inquiry about calling for a gig that I can't do, I often refer them to the same handful of local callers that I know. But it's not always the most useful if the inquiry came from far away, or the folks I personally know are busy.

I'm now trying to create a caller database; with geographic home-base of caller, how far they'll travel, what they call, and contact information. Also, somewhere where folks submit themselves; a way to hang their shingle, as it were.

I know there are lists of callers out there, such as Charlie's excellent contra dance links, Ted Crane's extensive Dance Database, and the venerable Dance Gypsy. I was thinking it would be useful to have it in database format where it could be sorted and filtered. I'm also focusing on the callers, as opposed to the dances.

I've created a google form that allows people to submit information; with a linked spreadsheet that would allow people to filter based on what they're looking for (both geographically and dance style). My hope is to eventually develop a front end to help filter that information, but for now I'm just sharing it with organizers as a database.

The survey is at:
https://goo.gl/forms/62beEKCKsyysepGk1

The results (~50 so far) are at
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZIWfYyFwMHHm6MpyMCD_N8ssQcOD5s6ynduDDQUvsmQ/edit?usp=sharing


I'm primarily a caller and doing this from the caller end, and I'd appreciate feedback from organizers. (I've already reached out to some I personally know in the formulation of this.) I'm making some effort to prevent e-mail addresses from being harvested by spam-bots, and I'm not widely disseminating the database link. The more interest, the more likely I'll put together a public front-end.

If you think it's useful, you can also mention it to callers that you work with and encourage them to list themselves there.


I'm not on the Organizers Shared-Weight; but you can reach me directly at calling.luke@gmail.com


Happy dancing, and thanks for your feedback

 

--

Luke Donforth

​call​ing.luke@gmail.com