-----Original Message-----
From: emilyetbrent--- via Song Organizers <songorganizers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To: songorganizers <songorganizers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Cc: emilyetbrent <emilyetbrent@gmail.com>
Sent: Wed, Jan 29, 2020 4:30 pm
Subject: [SongOrganizers] Hello from Ottawa + CDSS resource-land
Hi fellow song organizer list members :)
Following up from Amanda's invite to introduce ourselves, I'm Emily Addison from Ottawa, Ontario.
I must admit to having a bit of imposter syndrome as I'm not currently a trad song organizer. However, I'm definitely interested in the subject and hope to participate in the list on occasion. I'm currently doing some consulting work for CDSS in addition to lots of local community organizing here in Ottawa. Part of my CDSS work has been to help establish this list so it's so exciting that Amanda, Lynn, Lynn and Suzanne have this conversation space possible.
At this point, I wanted to chime in to encourage you to check out the CDSS Resource Portal which has a brand new section for Singers and Song Leaders.
The greatly expanded Portal only launched a few weeks ago... almost all sections are new with the exception of dance organizers (launched fall 2018).
Hopefully you'll find some interesting song leader and organizer resources in the Portal. However, it's interesting to note that while I was able to dig up large amounts of material for dance organizers, I found relatively little for song organizers. (I feel like I'm opening a can of worms just saying this!!!!???)
There's so many reasons that this might be the case. For instance, there have been a few conferences for dance organizers which have produced a lot of resources. (As a side note, these conferences have happened largely due to volunteer interest and effort.) In addition, dance organizers tend to submit lots of articles to the CDSS News. As a long-time dance organizer, I also wonder if dance organizers might be more desperate to learn because of their somewhat higher stakes??? What I mean by this is that many dance organizers need to make close to (or more than!) $1000/night to cover expenses such as the hall, sound, caller, and musicians. If they don't make enough money to cover their expenses, their series will die. I know this type of stress has made my local dance community mobilize and work much harder on our Saturday night series than our $100/night once a month events.
(On a related note, I would I'd like to acknowledge that I've also heard from a few one song organizer that CDSS has historically focused more on dance than song. )
In any case, I'd like to put a call out to you all that if you know of some great song organizer and/or leader resources, to please let me know through this easy form:
https://www.cdss.org/share-your-resource
Almost all of the resources in the CDSS Resource Portal have been created by community members for community members.
Related - a year ago this month, we asked a small set of song organizers what they wanted to learn about. I've included that list below. It would be so wonderful to start building a robust collection of resources that meet some of these interests.
With much thanks and listening with open ears :)
Emily in Ottawa
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Vision (e.g., mission and goals; why we do what we do; motivations)
Community culture and vibe (e.g., how to make sessions inclusive and welcoming; what do inclusivity, accessibility, and community actually mean; how to lead by example in creating the culture you want to see)
Singer ability, confidence and participation (e.g., how to support singers who lack confidence or experience; how to be supportive of people who may have issues around tuning and tone; managing singers who take more than their share of airtime; ability, fear, personalities, politics; how to satisfy different levels of trad song knowledge)
Running/managing sessions (e.g., styles of facilitation; what makes a good facilitator; flow)
Venues (e.g., what makes an ideal venue; how to communicate with venue managers.)
Fundraising
Launching a new event/community
Growing/evolving your event/community
Marketing (e.g., how to promote in ways that attract new participants)
Advocacy/benefits of singing
How to support intergenerational community building at song events (e.g., encouraging youth participants)
Repertoire (e.g., setting norms for technology and lyric use; songs to pull people in and get them singing right away or otherwise carry a session; places to find songs; how to cultivate appropriate repertoire to make all singers feel welcome; how best to handle problematic or offensive songs)
The tradition past and future (e.g., the history of social singing; how to keep the tradition alive and evolving)
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