LA, Day #3

I don't think any of us slept very well last night. Our room's thermostat seemed to be experiencing mood swings... we were alternating between hot & cold all night and not in a good way.

While kent4str and I went off to our convention sessions, cuyahogarvr headed to Disney. Must be nice.

My first session was "Putting the U in Fun" with Jim Mayo and Tim Crawford. In summary, many callers are focused on intricate choreography to the expense of being entertaining and fun.

Next up was "Simple Sight" with Tim Marriner and Daryl Clendenin. For the most part, it was a variation on things I'd already been doing with a slight variation on emphasis: whereas I've been looking for two adjacent couples and then for any sort of corner relationship to determine if they're in or out of sequence, this session emphasized looking for the corner relationship and then matching couples. Not a huge variation. On the good side, it was the first time I have seen the "rubber band method" in action despite reading about it so many times previously.

The third session I attended was "Marketing Applications" with Tim Crawford and Tom Ruderbach. There was good information about devising a marketing plan, focusing on a target demographic and such. The bigger portion was on revving up the enthusiasm of current dancers & callers as the current dancers are the single best means of finding & recruiting new dancers.

The last session I attended was on "CRaMS" (the Controlled Resolution and Manipulation System), a system of resolving a square focusing on the positions of key dancers and their right-hand lady, by John Jones and Jerry Story. The intro went on a bit too long, cutting into the actual demo time. The information on CRaMS was a quick overview --perhaps too quick. We'll order the recording of the session and I'll have to spend a huge amount of time studying this thing to see what else I can get out of it... my head is far too full at the moment.

Dinner was very nice... we shared a table with otterpop58 and billeyler, among others (photos later). Alas, kent4str's gluten-free dinner left a lot to be desired so we needed to go get dinner for him at the bar later in the evening.


Thanks to Betsy Gotta pulling strings to get a public announcement made after the awards, all of the GCA callers & friends collected in one corner of the ballroom for a series of photographs; allanh will be receiving copies for the next GCA newsletter.


While the other callers danced in the ballroom, we headed back to our room to snuggle with cuyahogarvr and generally go to bed early.

LA, Day #3

I don't think any of us slept very well last night. Our room's thermostat seemed to be experiencing mood swings... we were alternating between hot & cold all night and not in a good way.

While kent4str and I went off to our convention sessions, cuyahogarvr headed to Disney. Must be nice.

My first session was "Putting the U in Fun" with Jim Mayo and Tim Crawford. In summary, many callers are focused on intricate choreography to the expense of being entertaining and fun.

Next up was "Simple Sight" with Tim Marriner and Daryl Clendenin. For the most part, it was a variation on things I'd already been doing with a slight variation on emphasis: whereas I've been looking for two adjacent couples and then for any sort of corner relationship to determine if they're in or out of sequence, this session emphasized looking for the corner relationship and then matching couples. Not a huge variation. On the good side, it was the first time I have seen the "rubber band method" in action despite reading about it so many times previously.

The third session I attended was "Marketing Applications" with Tim Crawford and Tom Ruderbach. There was good information about devising a marketing plan, focusing on a target demographic and such. The bigger portion was on revving up the enthusiasm of current dancers & callers as the current dancers are the single best means of finding & recruiting new dancers.

The last session I attended was on "CRaMS" (the Controlled Resolution and Manipulation System), a system of resolving a square focusing on the positions of key dancers and their right-hand lady, by John Jones and Jerry Story. The intro went on a bit too long, cutting into the actual demo time. The information on CRaMS was a quick overview --perhaps too quick. We'll order the recording of the session and I'll have to spend a huge amount of time studying this thing to see what else I can get out of it... my head is far too full at the moment.

Dinner was very nice... we shared a table with otterpop58 and billeyler, among others (photos later). Alas, kent4str's gluten-free dinner left a lot to be desired so we needed to go get dinner for him at the bar later in the evening.


Thanks to Betsy Gotta pulling strings to get a public announcement made after the awards, all of the GCA callers & friends collected in one corner of the ballroom for a series of photographs; allanh will be receiving copies for the next GCA newsletter.


While the other callers danced in the ballroom, we headed back to our room to snuggle with cuyahogarvr and generally go to bed early.