Harvest Festival Hoedown 2009

[bjarvis]

We don't have HFH 2008 square dance weekend festival under our belt yet --it's coming up this November. Still, we need to plan ahead to the 2009 event sooner rather than later.

The committee has selected its three preferred staff callers. While each has verbally confirmed, I'm hesitant to name them here until we have signatures on paper, just in case negotiations for contract details crash & burn.

Sadly, the person negotiating for DCLS and the HFH committee is... me.

I can do the job and, being a caller (albeit junior), I have better insight into caller issues than nearly all dancers. I'm also a relatively senior member of the club, have experience as a club board officer and have been on the HFH committee for many years. The problem? As the caller coordinator/negotiator, I'm blocked by conflict of interest from being staff caller for our own club's event. Bummer.

I'd like to think I'm ready to move up to fly-in caller status, although I readily admit it's more of a stretch goal than something within my immediate and easily-attainable grasp. Still, the obvious place to start is with my primary home club's event. If I'm negotiating contracts for the next two seasons, the soonest I'd be able to actually participate as a staff caller would be 2011. Presuming, of course, that the committee & caller booker for that season believes I can do it and doesn't have other favourites in mind.

Ah, well... duty first, personal ambition later. These will be fun events with or without me.

Comments

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

"The problem? As the caller coordinator/negotiator, I'm blocked by conflict of interest from being staff caller for our own club's event"

Really? Is that the club policy or in the by-laws?

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

It's not in any policy or by-laws, but I feel viscerally that the optics suck: being in charge of hiring and then hiring myself seems so Dick Cheney.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Yah, there are political ramifications around that, but if any board members had suggested your name for the list and all agreed to it, that would be a go!

[airporter.livejournal.com]

In that case, it would be fine to take the position of course (and I think Brian'd do a bang up job, based on what I've heard) but the optics still might suck. Depending upon who's going to grouse and gripe, it might not be worth doing.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Well, of course there's that! ;-)

[allanh.livejournal.com]

As a caller who's both a club administrator and caller booker for MNS...trust me, I *do* feel your pain.

Hugs!

[airporter.livejournal.com]

I hear, and echo you, sir.

It's been years now since I've been treasurer for SATB; during the 2 1/2 years I held the position, the potential for conflict was ever present. I was the treasurer, a junior caller of the club, and a club caller's partner.

Given that my professional accreditation as an accountant could be affected by volunteer positions as well as paid employment, I played it very close to the cuff in creating/assessing even apparent conflicts.

The solution for me was like yours; reserve any personal ambition for when my involvements allowed it.

I abstained from all board votes on caller issues within the club - I contributed to the discussions where appropriate but within the scope of the treasurer's functions only.

My calling duties during the period were also on a volunteer basis, as Board volunteers are prohibited from holding paid positions in the organization - I simply subbed in at classes where needed and didn't concentrate very heavily on calling during the time.

Once out of the treasurer position, I became aware of how much easier these restrictions had made it for the other board members from other club members - in those rare instances where a conflict was perceived by a member, the board members were able to counter with the facts of my activities.

It was time well spent and I learned a great deal about the club's operations and my own ability to be tactful when I choose. I now exercise it occasionally. :)

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

I bet one of the callers will lose his or her voice during the weekend and you'll be needed to fill in for part of the time. This seems to happen a lot... I remember an HFH where that happened... ;-)

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I remember an ACDC where we lost two out of four callers to illness. Oy!

[canseefour.livejournal.com]

But one of them only missed half of a tip!

[airporter.livejournal.com]

Or to a wife's pregnancy bearing fruit?