LA, Day #4

cuyahogarvr got up as soon as the alarm clock sounded at 7:30 AM in search of coffee. kent4str headed to the shower & was dressed shortly thereafter so he could go get the breakfast included in our convention package. I slept as long as I could.

I went to the 9 AM session of the Choreo Applications Committee. There were three issues to discuss: an upcoming motion at the general meeting Wednesday morning, putting certain documents onto the web for distribution and updates to a sight resolution document.

The upcoming motion is to assign the documents and pictograms for dance formations and arrangements to the definitions committee. The applications committee thinks the formations should be long to the definitions committee but the arrangements should go to the choreo applications committee. There may be a motion to amend the prior motion to split them... we'll see.

My 10:30 AM session was on teaching methods with Vernon Jones and Norm Wilcox. The title was a little misleading: it was more about the pros & cons of the traditional 30+ week Mainstream class vs. fast-track/blast/blitz/accelerated class of four consecutive Saturdays, 9 AM-3 PM. I'm happy to report that DC Lambda Squares has largely been implementing the recommendations of Vernon and others.

Following lunch, I went to the 1 PM "Advanced Choreography" with Ed Foote and billeyler. There was lots of good stuff here, including tips on sussing out a floor (attention allanh!) and some philosophical thoughts about the difference between Mainstream/Plus and Advanced. There were also some interesting get-outs offered, some examples of bad choreography and a number of great ideas for possible tip themes.

Next up was a "Wind in Your Face" dance advisory session at 2:30 PM with Mike Seastrom & Wade Driver. They offered some thoughts on what works for easy flowing choreography --follow the bodies, call early, cue dancers in advance for what's coming if it's at all interesting, etc.. There were also a few good lines, such as Wade's thoughts on keeping dancers on the floor to the end of the night: "Your dance has to be better than a piece of pie and a cup of coffee."

My last session was "Singing Calls - Changing Figures" at 3:40 PM with Tim Marriner and Betsy Gotta. While there are figures included on the call sheets with each purchased square dance recording, some are broken, some have bad timing, some don't flow and it's very likely that the caller might wish to use that same music for different levels of dancing; there are a number of reasons why one might wish to replace the given figure. Betsy & Tim also had great ideas for modifying the timing of figures to accommodate slower or faster dancers.

All of the panels, open committee meetings and sessions are done. Outside of dinner and dancing tonight, there's just the business meeting Wednesday morning... stay tuned for drama.

Dinner itself was very nice --kent4str was actually able to eat it. The awards and volunteer recognition were all very well handled and we wrapped up at 9 PM sharp. Outgoing chair Tim Marriner gave a very good speech emphasizing firmly & repeatedly the need to update our product, our look and our methods but in a gentle way I'm sure was designed to not upset the dinosaurs in our industry too much.

cuyahogarvr was back from his day of touring the city so we opted to cocoon in our room rather than join the Callerlab crew for dancing. Socializing is very draining so I'm happy for the rest right now.

LA, Day #4

cuyahogarvr got up as soon as the alarm clock sounded at 7:30 AM in search of coffee. kent4str headed to the shower & was dressed shortly thereafter so he could go get the breakfast included in our convention package. I slept as long as I could.

I went to the 9 AM session of the Choreo Applications Committee. There were three issues to discuss: an upcoming motion at the general meeting Wednesday morning, putting certain documents onto the web for distribution and updates to a sight resolution document.

The upcoming motion is to assign the documents and pictograms for dance formations and arrangements to the definitions committee. The applications committee thinks the formations should be long to the definitions committee but the arrangements should go to the choreo applications committee. There may be a motion to amend the prior motion to split them... we'll see.

My 10:30 AM session was on teaching methods with Vernon Jones and Norm Wilcox. The title was a little misleading: it was more about the pros & cons of the traditional 30+ week Mainstream class vs. fast-track/blast/blitz/accelerated class of four consecutive Saturdays, 9 AM-3 PM. I'm happy to report that DC Lambda Squares has largely been implementing the recommendations of Vernon and others.

Following lunch, I went to the 1 PM "Advanced Choreography" with Ed Foote and billeyler. There was lots of good stuff here, including tips on sussing out a floor (attention allanh!) and some philosophical thoughts about the difference between Mainstream/Plus and Advanced. There were also some interesting get-outs offered, some examples of bad choreography and a number of great ideas for possible tip themes.

Next up was a "Wind in Your Face" dance advisory session at 2:30 PM with Mike Seastrom & Wade Driver. They offered some thoughts on what works for easy flowing choreography --follow the bodies, call early, cue dancers in advance for what's coming if it's at all interesting, etc.. There were also a few good lines, such as Wade's thoughts on keeping dancers on the floor to the end of the night: "Your dance has to be better than a piece of pie and a cup of coffee."

My last session was "Singing Calls - Changing Figures" at 3:40 PM with Tim Marriner and Betsy Gotta. While there are figures included on the call sheets with each purchased square dance recording, some are broken, some have bad timing, some don't flow and it's very likely that the caller might wish to use that same music for different levels of dancing; there are a number of reasons why one might wish to replace the given figure. Betsy & Tim also had great ideas for modifying the timing of figures to accommodate slower or faster dancers.

All of the panels, open committee meetings and sessions are done. Outside of dinner and dancing tonight, there's just the business meeting Wednesday morning... stay tuned for drama.

Dinner itself was very nice --kent4str was actually able to eat it. The awards and volunteer recognition were all very well handled and we wrapped up at 9 PM sharp. Outgoing chair Tim Marriner gave a very good speech emphasizing firmly & repeatedly the need to update our product, our look and our methods but in a gentle way I'm sure was designed to not upset the dinosaurs in our industry too much.

cuyahogarvr was back from his day of touring the city so we opted to cocoon in our room rather than join the Callerlab crew for dancing. Socializing is very draining so I'm happy for the rest right now.

Happy birthday, vaneramos!

I know life has been difficult for you lately, but I hope you can find the energy to celebrate your birthday today.

Happy birthday, vaneramos!

I know life has been difficult for you lately, but I hope you can find the energy to celebrate your birthday today.

Returning to the Internet

The Marriott LAX charges $12.95/day for Internet access. I couldn't justify paying that a few days back but since I was in the hotel room for the evening, I caved in. We have 24 hours of access.

Ah, well... I've caught up on a huge tonne o' e-mail, several LJ postings, all my LJ reading and a number of other tasks. At the moment, I've obtained my money's worth. I may, however, hate myself in the morning.

Returning to the Internet

The Marriott LAX charges $12.95/day for Internet access. I couldn't justify paying that a few days back but since I was in the hotel room for the evening, I caved in. We have 24 hours of access.

Ah, well... I've caught up on a huge tonne o' e-mail, several LJ postings, all my LJ reading and a number of other tasks. At the moment, I've obtained my money's worth. I may, however, hate myself in the morning.

LA, Day #5: The Convention Wraps Up

This morning's activities were restricted to the general membership meeting and a handful of votes.

The motion to relax and rephrase the dress code --in essence be neat, professional and suitable to the event-- was accepted 89:7.

Until today, formations pictograms and arrangement charts were voted on by the whole membership. There was a motion to assign all to the definitions committee. There was an amendment to assign the formations pictograms to the definitions committee and the arrangement charts to the choreo applications committee was defeated 49:51. Instead, another amendment to allow the executive committee to delegate these items to committees as they see fit passed 65:15. The final amended version passed 89:10.

The motion to retire the glossary document not updated in 20 years and subsequently made obsolete by definitions documents was amended 84:4 to ensure the glossary was kept as an historical document in an archive available to members. The amended motion then passed 91:4.

For those who care, the 2007-8 membership was 1574: 1388 from the US, 41 from Canada, 145 overseas, 841 calling less than 50 dances/year & 507 more than 50 dances/year, 34 country/western music licenses and 9 reciprocal licenses. There are 874 voting members so a quorum is defined as 292.

If my notes are accurate, we had 248 attendees this convention: 158 callers, 59 partners, 18 VIP guests & their partners and so on.

Next year's convention is in Kansas City, MO. I'm not overly keen on the location but that's moot since our vacation time for 2009 will be dominated by the IAGSDC convention in Cleveland Washington, DC. There's better odds of attending the 2010 CallerLab convention in Niagara Falls, NY, since we can fly there immediately after the Independence Squares' fly-in and we could combine the convention with visiting my clan across the border in Ontario.

Everyone is heading to the four corners of the planet as I type this. We have a late checkout so we're packing now and will then seek out lunch. Dunno what we'll do until we go to LAX around 8 PM but I'm sure we'll think of something.

LA, Day #5: The Convention Wraps Up

This morning's activities were restricted to the general membership meeting and a handful of votes.

The motion to relax and rephrase the dress code --in essence be neat, professional and suitable to the event-- was accepted 89:7.

Until today, formations pictograms and arrangement charts were voted on by the whole membership. There was a motion to assign all to the definitions committee. There was an amendment to assign the formations pictograms to the definitions committee and the arrangement charts to the choreo applications committee was defeated 49:51. Instead, another amendment to allow the executive committee to delegate these items to committees as they see fit passed 65:15. The final amended version passed 89:10.

The motion to retire the glossary document not updated in 20 years and subsequently made obsolete by definitions documents was amended 84:4 to ensure the glossary was kept as an historical document in an archive available to members. The amended motion then passed 91:4.

For those who care, the 2007-8 membership was 1574: 1388 from the US, 41 from Canada, 145 overseas, 841 calling less than 50 dances/year & 507 more than 50 dances/year, 34 country/western music licenses and 9 reciprocal licenses. There are 874 voting members so a quorum is defined as 292.

If my notes are accurate, we had 248 attendees this convention: 158 callers, 59 partners, 18 VIP guests & their partners and so on.

Next year's convention is in Kansas City, MO. I'm not overly keen on the location but that's moot since our vacation time for 2009 will be dominated by the IAGSDC convention in Cleveland Washington, DC. There's better odds of attending the 2010 CallerLab convention in Niagara Falls, NY, since we can fly there immediately after the Independence Squares' fly-in and we could combine the convention with visiting my clan across the border in Ontario.

Everyone is heading to the four corners of the planet as I type this. We have a late checkout so we're packing now and will then seek out lunch. Dunno what we'll do until we go to LAX around 8 PM but I'm sure we'll think of something.

Happy birthday, rfrench!

Congrats on another birthday! Land safely! :-)

Happy birthday, rfrench!

Congrats on another birthday! Land safely! :-)

LA, Day #5: The Convention Wraps Up, Part II

Following the meeting, I updated LJ, recorded my own meeting notes and generally lazed about our hotel room for a brief while. With the convention over, we were on our own for lunch so we hopped over to Denny's for one last graze at the trough.

We checked out of the hotel at 3 PM --thank you, late check-out time!-- then asked the bell captain to stow our luggage while we hopped a free shuttle trolley to Manhattan Beach.

As expected, the winds off the ocean were cold and the pier is nothing as huge as the Santa Monica Pier, but it was pleasant nonetheless. The small public aquarium was a pleasant distraction; cuyahogarvr was dashing about photographing the local beach houses and various garden flowers.

We didn't really need more food but the lure of homemade ice cream at one shop was too good to pass up. Alas, I should have passed up the 'thin mint crunch' ice cream: while the thin mint cookies provided some flavour, the ice cream itself was totally devoid of any complementary flavours or tastes. Still, even bad ice cream is good ice cream.

The shuttle back to our hotel was as late in collecting us in Manhattan Beach as it was in collecting us at the hotel. Still, we were back in plenty of time to reclaim our luggage, chat with Clark Baker and still get to LAX & gate 67B with plenty of time to spare.

LA, Day #5: The Convention Wraps Up, Part II

Following the meeting, I updated LJ, recorded my own meeting notes and generally lazed about our hotel room for a brief while. With the convention over, we were on our own for lunch so we hopped over to Denny's for one last graze at the trough.

We checked out of the hotel at 3 PM --thank you, late check-out time!-- then asked the bell captain to stow our luggage while we hopped a free shuttle trolley to Manhattan Beach.

As expected, the winds off the ocean were cold and the pier is nothing as huge as the Santa Monica Pier, but it was pleasant nonetheless. The small public aquarium was a pleasant distraction; cuyahogarvr was dashing about photographing the local beach houses and various garden flowers.

We didn't really need more food but the lure of homemade ice cream at one shop was too good to pass up. Alas, I should have passed up the 'thin mint crunch' ice cream: while the thin mint cookies provided some flavour, the ice cream itself was totally devoid of any complementary flavours or tastes. Still, even bad ice cream is good ice cream.

The shuttle back to our hotel was as late in collecting us in Manhattan Beach as it was in collecting us at the hotel. Still, we were back in plenty of time to reclaim our luggage, chat with Clark Baker and still get to LAX & gate 67B with plenty of time to spare.