I had an interesting chat with someone this out this week and what we came up with is that there might be two reasons we could think of why a dance might leave role terms up to the caller (note, I myself am both caller and organizer):
  1. It's such a contentious issue in their community that no one feels that authority to or wants to take responsibility for making a decision. In this case I think it is a unfair to the dancers (who might want to know what terms will be called) and caller (who might have to deal with blowback at the dance) to pass that responsibility off to the caller. Alternatively,
  2. It's such a non-issue in their community that the dancers really don't care what terms are being used and the caller is the most likely person to have an opinion. We callers are an opinionated bunch! If a "callers choice" policy allows the dance series book more callers with a minimum of fuss, and the dancers genuinely don't care, I think that's pretty justifiable.
I guess there's also "3. the series is in the process of choosing new role terms" but I think that should be done with more deliberateness and communication than solely "caller's choice."

Harris Lapiroff

Dance Caller and Organizer
Boston Intergenerational Dance Advocates Board (Cambridge MA)
Pinewoods Camp, Inc Board (Plymouth MA)
https://chromamine.com/contra/

On Wed, Nov 1, 2023, at 8:08 PM, Jeff Raymond via Organizers wrote:
Hi Don, thank you for responding to my comment. 
Let me first say I'm delighted how folks younger than I are stepping up and keeping our tradition vital.
Before we get lost in a swamp with these threads and multiple responses I'll clarify my statement. 
It was strictly in response to someone who appeared to be making a blanket statement  that all dance series should require callers to use gender neutral terms as a way to draw in new dancers.
(Why it is in this thread).
That's a pretty much a control thing, in my mind.
I believe series should be free to set the stsndards as they wish.
I am glad to see the ever increasing inclusiveness of our events and feel, generally,  things are on the right track.
But in my belief individuals should be somewhat free to call, to dance, to play in a way they are most comfortable. 
We are all artists, in the end.
There is a saying  "people will cone fir the band but leave because of the caller" which if the organizers pay attention the market will sort out those who dancers find onerous and objectionable.
Culture shift is not a bad thing and in my mind nothing draws better than exuberance.
In the spirit of the joy of dance, Jeff 

On Sun, Oct 29, 2023, 4:14 PM Don Veino via Organizers <organizers@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@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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