News from the cult
May. 30th, 2006 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisOne of my little catch-up tasks of this past weekend was reading my way through a backlog of magazines, newsletters and other such material. Alas, I discovered I left one stack at home by mistake, but there was lots of square dancing material to sort through.
Directions. For the uninitiated, CALLERLAB is the largest association of square dance callers in North America; one of its activities is defining the calls we use & how we use them, and grouping the calls into levels. The Plus Committee works on refining the definitions at the Plus level, as well as consider other calls for addition or deletion from the Plus level list.
In this particular report, it was reported that there were suggestions to add a number of calls to the Plus level, although only one suggestion ("triple scoot") was in the format required for consideration by the committee. Unless a convincing argument is made, I prefer to keep this call in A1 list with the other triple calls, albeit primarily for aesthetics.
Among the proposed but failed changes were the addition of:
Half breed thru is a funny creature, currently residing in the A1 list. It doesn't fit very well into any level so while I can't see why we'd want to move it to Plus, it doesn't clash there any worse than it does at A1.
Interlocking diamonds lives in the C1 list. I could rationalize moving it into A1 or A2, but to Plus? Nope.
Motivate is in the A2 list. Move it to Plus? Patently insane, IMHO. I can see no logic for this whatsoever. Motivate already crashes the A2 squares often enough... moving it to Plus is a recipe for disaster.
Remake the thar? It's in the A2 list currently, along with the rest of the remake family. Moving it to Plus wouldn't be a big deal although the aesthetics of keeping the remake calls together as they are currently appeals strongly to me.
Rotary spin is a C1 call so while I have read through the definition and can visualize it, I can't say I've ever danced it. And looking at the definition, I don't see any compelling reason to move it to Plus. It's not hard but it is somewhat more complicated than most of the Plus calls: harder than any of the diamond calls, say, but easier than relay the deucey.
The tag family is split between the Mainstream and the Plus levels (3/4 tag at Plus, the rest in MS). I could be persuaded that unifying the lot in Plus has advantages but I can't see a compelling reason at the moment.
In other news, I've decided not to run for the VP position of the GCA. I think I could be competent, but I currently think I lack of the connections & skillset to be good at it (the job is mostly running the caller school). I might be braver about taking a leap of faith but I could only gain the experience required to do well at the job as on-the-job training once per year: that's too infrequent for useful reinforcement and feedback. Worse, it's the most visible GCA function for our newbie callers so it's critical that the job be done right with a minimum of mistakes and trauma.
At the moment, the potential conflicts between being both a board member of the GCA and of the 2009 convention corporation may preclude continuing in a GCA role in any fashion until 2010.
Directions. For the uninitiated, CALLERLAB is the largest association of square dance callers in North America; one of its activities is defining the calls we use & how we use them, and grouping the calls into levels. The Plus Committee works on refining the definitions at the Plus level, as well as consider other calls for addition or deletion from the Plus level list.
In this particular report, it was reported that there were suggestions to add a number of calls to the Plus level, although only one suggestion ("triple scoot") was in the format required for consideration by the committee. Unless a convincing argument is made, I prefer to keep this call in A1 list with the other triple calls, albeit primarily for aesthetics.
Among the proposed but failed changes were the addition of:
- half breed thru
- interlocking diamonds
- motivate
- remake the thar
- rotary spin
- the tag family.
Half breed thru is a funny creature, currently residing in the A1 list. It doesn't fit very well into any level so while I can't see why we'd want to move it to Plus, it doesn't clash there any worse than it does at A1.
Interlocking diamonds lives in the C1 list. I could rationalize moving it into A1 or A2, but to Plus? Nope.
Motivate is in the A2 list. Move it to Plus? Patently insane, IMHO. I can see no logic for this whatsoever. Motivate already crashes the A2 squares often enough... moving it to Plus is a recipe for disaster.
Remake the thar? It's in the A2 list currently, along with the rest of the remake family. Moving it to Plus wouldn't be a big deal although the aesthetics of keeping the remake calls together as they are currently appeals strongly to me.
Rotary spin is a C1 call so while I have read through the definition and can visualize it, I can't say I've ever danced it. And looking at the definition, I don't see any compelling reason to move it to Plus. It's not hard but it is somewhat more complicated than most of the Plus calls: harder than any of the diamond calls, say, but easier than relay the deucey.
The tag family is split between the Mainstream and the Plus levels (3/4 tag at Plus, the rest in MS). I could be persuaded that unifying the lot in Plus has advantages but I can't see a compelling reason at the moment.
In other news, I've decided not to run for the VP position of the GCA. I think I could be competent, but I currently think I lack of the connections & skillset to be good at it (the job is mostly running the caller school). I might be braver about taking a leap of faith but I could only gain the experience required to do well at the job as on-the-job training once per year: that's too infrequent for useful reinforcement and feedback. Worse, it's the most visible GCA function for our newbie callers so it's critical that the job be done right with a minimum of mistakes and trauma.
At the moment, the potential conflicts between being both a board member of the GCA and of the 2009 convention corporation may preclude continuing in a GCA role in any fashion until 2010.
