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Harper's Ferry Hoedown XI
I've survived another Harper's Ferry Hoedown, the 11th our club has held and the 5th I've worked on in some fashion or another.
The fly-in is a small one, about 130 people dancing MS through C1 in three separate halls to callers Betsy Gotta, Tim Marriner and Dayle Hodge. Most of my responsibilities were related to preparing the registration packages, ensuring we had all of the stationery, tools & information at the registration desk, putting together a prize basket for the raffle, setting up & tearing down sound equipment daily and general clean-up when it was all over. I didn't have shifts at the registration desk or selling 50/50 tickets as in prior years.
Overall, from a management side, I think the execution of this fly-in was even smoother than last year, which was itself exceptionally smooth and problem-free. It would appear that after 11 years, we're finally learning how to do it right. :-)
Hilltop House, our usual venue, is always a hoot. The original portion goes back over 150 years, but there have been extra wings and floors added over the years with, um, intriguing results. Technological innovations have been added sporadically over the decades: it does indeed have electricity to all rooms, but not necessarily grounded outlets. There is indeed hot & cold water to each bathroom, but the boiler dates back to WWII. Smaller rooms adjacent to larger rooms were originally quarters for servants for travelling ladies & gentlemen; now these smaller rooms are retrofitted to be small work spaces, TV rooms or the like.
If one thinks of Winchester House in San Jose as what a psychotic architect might design when his prescriptions run out, Hilltop House is what the same architect might create when heavily medicated: functional after a fashion, but with very odd quirks, a lack of an all-encompassing consistency and a series of heavily eccentric design choices, to put it mildly. In all, the place has a particular fun charm to it that makes our stay unique. And since the buffet dining is built into the room rates, our committee doesn't have to organize pot-lucks and our guests don't have to travel outside the facility for meals. Being a cheap bastard, this means I feel financially obligated to eat at each opportunity to get my money's worth out of our stay; since the food tends to naturally be heavy West Virginian cuisine, I'm sure I've gained 10 lbs over the weekend. I may skip further meals for the rest of this week. :-^
As a dancer, I spent more time in the A2 halls than anywhere else, but occasionally skipped breaks from dancing in order to shore up squares in the MS and Plus halls. Betsy's "Intro to C1" was a blast; I felt particularly proud about holding my ground when a C2 dancer attempted to "correct" me, my choice of location validated by Betsy a moment later in her next call. I just wish there was a C1 class anywhere in the greater DC area currently. With luck, we may have one in the new year.
There was a block of time set aside for non-staff callers; Alan Hirsch, Clara Welch and I all participated with host Warren Jaquith. I was very pleased with my set; while it wasn't my single greatest calling ever, it was in the top five, exactly what I wanted while performing for people who have never heard me on a mic before. Kent's went well too, I think, but I was focused on helping some new MS dancers in our square so I can only speak in broad terms.
We've pre-registered for next year (callers Warren Jaquith, Mike Kellogg and Dave Wilson), although our usual Room 46 was already reserved by a weasel from our own club (and we're going to razz him about that for the next 362 days until next year :-)). Instead, we've reserved Room 170 (dual queen-sized beds!) in the hope that we can bring Seattle husbands![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tdjohnsn and rlegters out east next year (hint, hint).
Our next big events on the books are Andy-rama with Andy Shore coming up January 21 & 22, followed by our Advanced & Challenge weekend, ACDC February 17-19.
The fly-in is a small one, about 130 people dancing MS through C1 in three separate halls to callers Betsy Gotta, Tim Marriner and Dayle Hodge. Most of my responsibilities were related to preparing the registration packages, ensuring we had all of the stationery, tools & information at the registration desk, putting together a prize basket for the raffle, setting up & tearing down sound equipment daily and general clean-up when it was all over. I didn't have shifts at the registration desk or selling 50/50 tickets as in prior years.
Overall, from a management side, I think the execution of this fly-in was even smoother than last year, which was itself exceptionally smooth and problem-free. It would appear that after 11 years, we're finally learning how to do it right. :-)
Hilltop House, our usual venue, is always a hoot. The original portion goes back over 150 years, but there have been extra wings and floors added over the years with, um, intriguing results. Technological innovations have been added sporadically over the decades: it does indeed have electricity to all rooms, but not necessarily grounded outlets. There is indeed hot & cold water to each bathroom, but the boiler dates back to WWII. Smaller rooms adjacent to larger rooms were originally quarters for servants for travelling ladies & gentlemen; now these smaller rooms are retrofitted to be small work spaces, TV rooms or the like.
If one thinks of Winchester House in San Jose as what a psychotic architect might design when his prescriptions run out, Hilltop House is what the same architect might create when heavily medicated: functional after a fashion, but with very odd quirks, a lack of an all-encompassing consistency and a series of heavily eccentric design choices, to put it mildly. In all, the place has a particular fun charm to it that makes our stay unique. And since the buffet dining is built into the room rates, our committee doesn't have to organize pot-lucks and our guests don't have to travel outside the facility for meals. Being a cheap bastard, this means I feel financially obligated to eat at each opportunity to get my money's worth out of our stay; since the food tends to naturally be heavy West Virginian cuisine, I'm sure I've gained 10 lbs over the weekend. I may skip further meals for the rest of this week. :-^
As a dancer, I spent more time in the A2 halls than anywhere else, but occasionally skipped breaks from dancing in order to shore up squares in the MS and Plus halls. Betsy's "Intro to C1" was a blast; I felt particularly proud about holding my ground when a C2 dancer attempted to "correct" me, my choice of location validated by Betsy a moment later in her next call. I just wish there was a C1 class anywhere in the greater DC area currently. With luck, we may have one in the new year.
There was a block of time set aside for non-staff callers; Alan Hirsch, Clara Welch and I all participated with host Warren Jaquith. I was very pleased with my set; while it wasn't my single greatest calling ever, it was in the top five, exactly what I wanted while performing for people who have never heard me on a mic before. Kent's went well too, I think, but I was focused on helping some new MS dancers in our square so I can only speak in broad terms.
We've pre-registered for next year (callers Warren Jaquith, Mike Kellogg and Dave Wilson), although our usual Room 46 was already reserved by a weasel from our own club (and we're going to razz him about that for the next 362 days until next year :-)). Instead, we've reserved Room 170 (dual queen-sized beds!) in the hope that we can bring Seattle husbands
tdjohnsn and rlegters out east next year (hint, hint).Our next big events on the books are Andy-rama with Andy Shore coming up January 21 & 22, followed by our Advanced & Challenge weekend, ACDC February 17-19.
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I miss Harper's Ferry. It'd be hard, though, to take Alex there. You may have noticed that John Brown is considered somewhat of a hero and damn near worshipped. Alex, a child of the midwest, who learned of some of Brown's zanier exploits before he got to Harper's Ferry, thinks the man was a certified loony.
It'd be an interesting visit...