ACDC 2013 Wrap-Up
Feb. 18th, 2013 11:30 amDC Lambda Squares' Advanced & Challenge square dance fly-in weekend has come & gone for another year. In all, we had just under 100 attendees, slightly less than last year. While we heard from some who needed to cancel at the last minute, there were at least five people who had registrations who neither cancelled, rolled-over their registration to next year or gave us instructions of any kind.
This was the first time we had used the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, just 1.5 blocks from our past dance location at the Almas Temple. It's so nice to have the hotel rooms and dance spaces in the same building. Sadly, the only room![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kent4str, cuyhogarvr and I could get was at the Embassy Suites hotel another two short blocks away. The Embassy Suites was a very nice hotel, BTW --I'd stay there again-- and the weather was very nice so the walk wasn't a bother.
A high school girls volleyball competition also has been descending on down DC this weekend the past couple of years. The kids are fine, but wow, they chatter a lot and the high-pitched giggling in every public space was beginning to make my ears bleed. Perhaps it's just my personal bias, but I can't help but think having the same number of boys in the same space would have been much louder and even more obnoxious so I'm choosing to count my blessings.
The dance spaces at the hotel were adequate. As much as I'd like to say they were flawless, there's no denying that the load-bearing pillars were badly position two of the smaller halls. We worked around them: the caller's table was placed at the opposite end to provide the best possible sight-lines, and the rooms were (largely) allocated according to dance population (Advanced got the largest hall, C3B the smallest). It worked out but I wish those pillars weren't there.
kent4str hosted an hour of GCA C1 guest spots, while I handled the Advanced. To provide padding in the middle of my A2 hour for the guest callers to scamper from Kent's to my hall, I called a brief tip which I thought was so-so: it was half sighted, half-read and while it was OK, I scored lower than I would have liked. Fortunately, there was a brief 10 minute block at the end of the hour in which I called a final set which was damn near perfect (sight-called the entire thing) so I believe I redeemed myself. Yay for second chances!
Half of the GCA board was present so we had a mini-meeting, just to catch up on the status of the caller school and convention planning for the upcoming IAGSDC convention. One board member who shall remain nameless continues to be as clueless as ever: he can't figure out why some people aren't responding to his email requests. I wanted to scream, It's because you never ask, you order, instruct, insult & belittle, but never ask! but decided it wasn't a battle I wanted to fight.
I'm interested in seeing what the surveys say about our ACDC event. We asked for input on the selection of callers and the hotel facilities, among other things. My gut feeling is that one particular caller isn't going to be receiving big accolades: one dancer who didn't know the caller previous asked me "Is that caller new? Seemed inexperienced and not really altogether here." Ouch. I also suspect the room layouts may get some comments --we may need to reevaluate the possibility of booking the same hotel again for next year.
I did get one good idea from a caller though: we should put clocks on each of the caller tables. I didn't realize it, but true, each room lacked its own clock so something to help the callers know how much time is left in their block would help. I'll see if I can find something suitable in time for our next fly-in.
This was the first time we had used the Four Points Sheraton Hotel, just 1.5 blocks from our past dance location at the Almas Temple. It's so nice to have the hotel rooms and dance spaces in the same building. Sadly, the only room
kent4str, cuyhogarvr and I could get was at the Embassy Suites hotel another two short blocks away. The Embassy Suites was a very nice hotel, BTW --I'd stay there again-- and the weather was very nice so the walk wasn't a bother.A high school girls volleyball competition also has been descending on down DC this weekend the past couple of years. The kids are fine, but wow, they chatter a lot and the high-pitched giggling in every public space was beginning to make my ears bleed. Perhaps it's just my personal bias, but I can't help but think having the same number of boys in the same space would have been much louder and even more obnoxious so I'm choosing to count my blessings.
The dance spaces at the hotel were adequate. As much as I'd like to say they were flawless, there's no denying that the load-bearing pillars were badly position two of the smaller halls. We worked around them: the caller's table was placed at the opposite end to provide the best possible sight-lines, and the rooms were (largely) allocated according to dance population (Advanced got the largest hall, C3B the smallest). It worked out but I wish those pillars weren't there.
kent4str hosted an hour of GCA C1 guest spots, while I handled the Advanced. To provide padding in the middle of my A2 hour for the guest callers to scamper from Kent's to my hall, I called a brief tip which I thought was so-so: it was half sighted, half-read and while it was OK, I scored lower than I would have liked. Fortunately, there was a brief 10 minute block at the end of the hour in which I called a final set which was damn near perfect (sight-called the entire thing) so I believe I redeemed myself. Yay for second chances!Half of the GCA board was present so we had a mini-meeting, just to catch up on the status of the caller school and convention planning for the upcoming IAGSDC convention. One board member who shall remain nameless continues to be as clueless as ever: he can't figure out why some people aren't responding to his email requests. I wanted to scream, It's because you never ask, you order, instruct, insult & belittle, but never ask! but decided it wasn't a battle I wanted to fight.
I'm interested in seeing what the surveys say about our ACDC event. We asked for input on the selection of callers and the hotel facilities, among other things. My gut feeling is that one particular caller isn't going to be receiving big accolades: one dancer who didn't know the caller previous asked me "Is that caller new? Seemed inexperienced and not really altogether here." Ouch. I also suspect the room layouts may get some comments --we may need to reevaluate the possibility of booking the same hotel again for next year.
I did get one good idea from a caller though: we should put clocks on each of the caller tables. I didn't realize it, but true, each room lacked its own clock so something to help the callers know how much time is left in their block would help. I'll see if I can find something suitable in time for our next fly-in.
