What a comprehensive and useful resource, Emily (and CDSS)! I've already dived into it a bit, and have forwarded to my board-mates. Cheers, Chrissy Fowler Belfast, ME ** ** ** Dance Calling | Transcription | Belfast Flying Shoes chrissyfowler.com<http://www.chrissyfowler.com> | westbranchwords.com<http://www.westbranchwords.com> | belfastflyingshoes.org/blog<http://www.belfastflyingshoes.org/blog> <http://www.chrissyfowler.com> (207) 338-0979 ________________________________ From: Organizers &lt;organizers-bounces+ktaadn_me=hotmail.com(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; on behalf of Emily Addison via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; Sent: Friday, September 7, 2018 2:22:37 PM To: organizers shared weight Subject: [Organizers] News on many new organizer resources coming out from CDSS! Hello fellow organizers! Instead of writing with my usual Ottawa contra dance volunteer hat on, I'm wearing my CDSS hat as I wanted to share some really exciting announcements that have just come out of CDSS all of which relate to dance organizing. (Note -- the announcements also apply to trad song and music organizers.) If you are willing, please share this info with local organizers in your network who might not be on shared weight. We'd like to let as many people know about these resources as possible and word-of-mouth is so powerful in the trad dance, music, and song world. * US organizers survey report out now! CDSS has just released the report outlining the results the US organizers survey conducted this past spring. I'm guessing a few of you participated in that survey... here's the link to the report: https://www.cdss.org/community/us-organizers-survey * New e-blast for traditional dance music and song organizers: The goal of this free quarterly e-blast is to support, inspire, and connect organizers. Shared weight already does this so well but this is another avenue of support if you are interested! Check out the first Shop Talk e-blast here: https://conta.cc/2PlKAEr You can sign up to receive the e-blast at the bottom of the first Shop Talk. * Online Organizer Resources Portal: This is a very exciting initiative from CDSS that will hopefully add to the set of tools available to us all! The goal of the Portal is to hold as many of the best resources as can be found that will support local traditional dance, music, and song organizers in their planning and decision making. While we do this well within the Shared Weight community, the Portal is more of a permanent location where you can go look for subject-specific resources.... see here for the list of topics: https://www.cdss.org/resources/how-to/organizers-resources#resources-by-top… (Shared Weight is listed as an online resources and soon the Portal will have permanent links to subject searches from Shared Weight.) BTW - As one of the individuals working on the Portal, I know that it will only be as good as the resources it holds. ANNNND I laos know that us local organizers have so many of the best practices and ideas already figured out. So we'll be reaching out from CDSS, asking for organizers to share resources on particular subjects over the next number of months. If you're super excited about the initiative and want to start sharing your local resources now, you can fill out this easy form: https://www.cdss.org/share-your-resource * CDSS's next online web chat - "Creating a Thriving Open Band": CDSS held it's first web chat back in June which had to be capped because of the high number of people wanting to register! The next web chat is September 20th and is focused on Creating a Thriving Open Band. More information on the workshop and the registration form is located in the e-blast: https://conta.cc/2PlKAEr Note: I am sending this from my personal email account as I'm yet not connect to shared weight through my CDSS account. However, if you'd like to discuss Shop Talk (the eblast) or the Portal, please email me at emily@cdss.org<mailto:emily@cdss.org>. If you have specific requests or want advice from CDSS, please contact Linda Henry at linda@cdss.org<mailto:linda@cdss.org>. With thanks! Emily Consultant @ CDSS working on organizer supports PS - I will also post this on the musician and caller Shared Weight lists as well as the ECD list as I'm guessing there will likely be interest there as well. Thus, if you're on more than one list, apologies!