First Mainstream Class Report

Last night, kent4str and I conducted the first of 14 weekly Monday square dance classes. At last week's open house, we had three newbies; this evening, we had six. With another open house this coming Thursday with the Arlington Gay & Lesbian Association, we may yet gain a couple more dancers.

The new folks are square dance sponges! It was our general plan to show a number of basic moves gradually across the course of the evening, then practise & drill with variations on those moves. I always anticipate that new dancers would have some general confusion between their left & right, have difficulty finding the beat and generally struggling to coordinate their feet and their hands without doing damage to themselves or their dance partners. This --to my surprise-- didn't happen.

We started with the usual fundamental calls: circle left, circle right, heads/sides into the middle & back, etc. They ate it up. Over the next hour, we gradually added promenade, dosado, partner swing, allemande left and right & left grand. No problems, no hitches, no hesitation.

We pushed a little further: pass thru, U turn back, men/ladies promenade inside the square, couples promenade 1/2, etc.. No issues.

I suspect we could have added a few more calls but declined: with the open house on Thursday where we may recruit some additional bodies, we didn't want this lot to get so far ahead that we could never integrate the newer dancers effectively. As well, everyone at this point had a heady feeling of success and would be leaving the hall with a sense of accomplishment and happiness: I didn't want to threaten by possibly hitting a point of overload. Keep 'em happy & entertained and they'll come back again & again (and forgive the occasional off night).

Thus, we wrapped up and called it a night about 10 minutes before originally scheduled. It felt right, and from later comments I'm inclined to allow myself the indulgence that the evening was a success.

First Mainstream Class Report

Last night, kent4str and I conducted the first of 14 weekly Monday square dance classes. At last week's open house, we had three newbies; this evening, we had six. With another open house this coming Thursday with the Arlington Gay & Lesbian Association, we may yet gain a couple more dancers.

The new folks are square dance sponges! It was our general plan to show a number of basic moves gradually across the course of the evening, then practise & drill with variations on those moves. I always anticipate that new dancers would have some general confusion between their left & right, have difficulty finding the beat and generally struggling to coordinate their feet and their hands without doing damage to themselves or their dance partners. This --to my surprise-- didn't happen.

We started with the usual fundamental calls: circle left, circle right, heads/sides into the middle & back, etc. They ate it up. Over the next hour, we gradually added promenade, dosado, partner swing, allemande left and right & left grand. No problems, no hitches, no hesitation.

We pushed a little further: pass thru, U turn back, men/ladies promenade inside the square, couples promenade 1/2, etc.. No issues.

I suspect we could have added a few more calls but declined: with the open house on Thursday where we may recruit some additional bodies, we didn't want this lot to get so far ahead that we could never integrate the newer dancers effectively. As well, everyone at this point had a heady feeling of success and would be leaving the hall with a sense of accomplishment and happiness: I didn't want to threaten by possibly hitting a point of overload. Keep 'em happy & entertained and they'll come back again & again (and forgive the occasional off night).

Thus, we wrapped up and called it a night about 10 minutes before originally scheduled. It felt right, and from later comments I'm inclined to allow myself the indulgence that the evening was a success.

HRC's Corporate Equality Index

Every year, the Human Rights Campaign surveys major corporations in the United States to see how well (or how badly) these companies treat their lesbian, gay, bi & transgendered employees.

Click for the report.

This year, 138 companies earned a perfect score. I'm happy to report my employer was one of them.

This is largely a good news report: gains were made in almost all categories and in almost all economic sectors. Muck-raker that I am, I was mostly interested in founding out who the slackers were in the ratings. This was rather difficult to do, as the appendices sort the ranked companies multiple ways but ironically not by their actual equality index score. The "dirt" is actually in a few paragraphs on page 8 where we find that Exxon-Mobil, Perot Systems and Meijer Inc. each scored a perfect 0.

Other bottom-feeders include Archers Daniels Midland (15), Baklor Electric (15), Bayer (15), CBRL Group (15), Entergy Corp (13), Genuine Parts Co (15), H.J. Heinz (15), KB Home (15), Lauren Manufacturing (5), Nestle Purina PetCare (15), Newell Rubbermaid (15), Nissan North America (15) and Praxair (25).

HRC's Corporate Equality Index

Every year, the Human Rights Campaign surveys major corporations in the United States to see how well (or how badly) these companies treat their lesbian, gay, bi & transgendered employees.

Click for the report.

This year, 138 companies earned a perfect score. I'm happy to report my employer was one of them.

This is largely a good news report: gains were made in almost all categories and in almost all economic sectors. Muck-raker that I am, I was mostly interested in founding out who the slackers were in the ratings. This was rather difficult to do, as the appendices sort the ranked companies multiple ways but ironically not by their actual equality index score. The "dirt" is actually in a few paragraphs on page 8 where we find that Exxon-Mobil, Perot Systems and Meijer Inc. each scored a perfect 0.

Other bottom-feeders include Archers Daniels Midland (15), Baklor Electric (15), Bayer (15), CBRL Group (15), Entergy Corp (13), Genuine Parts Co (15), H.J. Heinz (15), KB Home (15), Lauren Manufacturing (5), Nestle Purina PetCare (15), Newell Rubbermaid (15), Nissan North America (15) and Praxair (25).