What Chrissy Said! Without trying to open this discussion, I suspect it will still be a long while before we will be dancing in person, so having that discussion is setting up people to think they could be doing it soon. Instead talking about all the different ways we can connect-socials, food prep parties, games, online dances, etc-would be powerful. These are things communities can do NOW to reconnect. Sent from my iPhone On Jan 12, 2021, at 11:43 AM, Chrissy Fowler &lt;ktaadn_me(a)hotmail.com&gt; wrote:  An alternative could be sharing what groups are doing now, or have been doing during this time, to engage and inspire their dancers/musicians/leaders as well as members of your broader community. I’m on a Maine Arts Commission conference today, for arts orgs of all types, and there’s lots about reframing and reinventing. Also about positively connecting with constituents in a variety of ways, including out-of-the-box ones. Those sorts of topics could be more concrete (and would steer you away from what I would see as a potential morass of confusion and contradictions and uncertainty, as far as trying to project what might be useful strategies and imperatives for reopening... especially when so much is up in the air.) Cheering you on! Chrissy Fowler Belfast, Maine Get Outlook for iOS<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fak… ________________________________ From: Tepfer, Seth via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2021 11:30:10 AM To: organizers shared weight &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;et>; Emily Addison &lt;emilyladdison(a)gmail.com&gt; Subject: [Organizers] Re: [External] Your input in the focus for Dance Flurry organizer discussion? Would it be helpful to have public health professionals on the zoom who could help? Coming up with metrics to define a safe level to reopen could be a discussion point of how. Of course the discussion of vaccinated or not will be heated. Framing that discussion in a way to ensure a positive, constructive one will be critical. Seth Tepfer Director of Software Engineering, Oxford College Schedule an appointment: oxford.emory.edu/SethBooking<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.… 770-784-8487 seth.tepfer(a)emory.edu Use AskIT for fastest response: Oxford.emory.edu/AskIT<https://app.oxford.emory.edu/WebApps/OCIT/forms/A… <https://app.oxford.emory.edu/WebApps/OCIT/forms/AskIT/index.cfm> Preferred pronouns: he, him, his <https://app.oxford.emory.edu/WebApps/Directories/index.cfm?fuseaction=v.searchresults&searchname=tepfer> ________________________________ From: Emily Addison via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 2021 11:20 AM To: organizers shared weight &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: [External] [Organizers] Your input in the focus for Dance Flurry organizer discussion? Hi fellow organizers, I hope folks are doing fairly well. These are certainly interesting times. Given that some of you attend the annual organizer discussion at the Dance Flurry, I wanted to check in about the focus of this year's session. I've drafted a description for the session (see below). Do you have any thoughts? I feel as though February might be good time to start talking about how to restart our dance events, even if we don't know when. (The vaccine rollout is giving me a tentative hopeful feeling that gatherings might start in within the next year.) Any advice/thoughts are welcome including alternative topics. The only topic I'm wary of tackling are those that relate to when dances should open as I'm not a health expert and we won't be bringing in health experts to be part of the discussion. Thanks, Emily Organizers Unite - Talking about the HOW of restarting our events! Join our annual Flurry organizers discussion for a unique focus this year... talking about the HOW of restarting our events. Share your thoughts and ideas about how your community plans to restart dancing, re-engage long standing dancers, and attract new participants. (We won't focus much on the WHEN of reopening as those decisions depend highlighly on the pandemic and professional health advice.) ________________________________ This e-mail message (including any attachments) is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message (including any attachments) is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender by reply e-mail message and destroy all copies of the original message (including attachments).

I don't believe that involving health professionals would be constructive at this time. They are unlikely to be able to form a united consensus, or be sure of safety or timescales, at this stage of events. The future is too uncertain. There are new strains appearing; we don't yet know the real effectiveness of the various vaccines yet; there is great uncertainty about when we will have reached a sensible level of vaccination, etc. Whereas discussing the topics mentioned by Emily will be relevant for whenever we are able to start again and will be a good use of time, I don't believe that speculating on the future course of the pandemic will be productive at the moment. I have booked bands for September and November and live in hope. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html for Live Music Ceilidhs http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive DVDs

This is ALLLLLL great thinking! I'm so thankful to have some input as it's making me reframe the workshop. Sounds as though I should focus the conversation on what we are doing now to support our communities rather than getting too far ahead to what opening up our events will look like. I'm not in a position to create a panel of experts and I don't think there are any experts that can tell us right now about the technical-health related 'hows' of opening up. I am personally interested in talking about how to attract people back to our dances once they open up again but maybe that be left for now, or be a side discussion. Thanks for all the helpful thoughts! Emily On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 1:10 PM &lt;heitzso(a)growthmodels.com&gt; wrote: