November 2018 Shop Talk for Traditional Dance, Music, and Song Organizers

A quarterly e-blast for traditional music, dance, and song organizers

November 2018 News for Organizers

Welcome to Shop Talk!

This is the second issue of CDSS’s quarterly email blast for North American traditional dance, music, and song organizers. It’s chock FULL of resources and info about upcoming events , so take a closer look and prepare to be inspired!

UPCOMING: The next CD SS Web Chat for Organizers —

Increasing Youth Involvement

Are you interested in engaging more youth in your events? To learn more, join our next web chat on Wednesday January 16th from 8:30-9:30pm EST. Several organizers from far and wide will share stories about their successes on this topic, and we’ll include time for Q&A.

Stay tuned for an announcement that we’ll send to the Shop Talk email list providing info about how to register for the upcoming web chat. Once you’ve signed up, all you’ll need to do is grab your tea/coffee, find a comfy chair, turn on your computer, and listen in.

Recordings of the first two CDSS web chats are available on our website. To hear groups from coast to coast sharing their experiences with Boosting Attendance and Creating a Thriving Open Band, visit cdss.org/resources/how-to/organizers-resources#cdss-web-chats . Please share these links with any organizers you know who might benefit from this valuable resource.

UPCOMING: Dance organizers discussion at the Dance Flurry

(Feb 15-17 2019)

Share ideas and learn from other dance organizers at the upcoming Dance Flurry , a dance weekend in Saratoga Springs, NY. Over the last few years, these one-hour organizer sessions have been very popular, with participants representing over 40 dance communities from far and wide!

If you know of OTHER ORGANIZER GATHERINGS throughout North America that could be shared through Shop Talk, please email Emily ( emily@cdss.org ).

Portal Update: Finding Resources and Sharing Your Own

Back in August we launched The Organizers Resource Portal (AKA the Portal), a large collection of resources for dance, music, and song organizers. New resources have been added since then so make sure you check out what’s posted under topics of interest to you: https://www.cdss.org/resources/how-to/organizers-resources#resources-by-topic

We are looking for champions of traditional dance, music, and song to share their resources... could this be YOU???

If you think your organization does something particularly well (or maybe multiple things!), please reach out to Emily ( emily@cdss.org ) . We would love to feature what you are doing well, so that other organizers can learn and experience similar successes too!

Whatever you do well - please share it by filling out this form .

FEATURED RESOURCE: Shared Weight for Organizers...

of traditional social dance!

Have a burning question as a dance organizer? Want to talk to organizers in other communities? Or are you just curious about how other organizers do it? … then Shared Weight is for you!!!!

This long-running email listserv is a place where organizers share ideas and discuss a wide range of topics relating to organizing traditional social dance. In addition to signing up for the ongoing discussion, you can also search past posts. For more information and to sign up, visit the Shared Weight website.

There is also a Shared Weight for contra/trad square dance callers and for dance musicians - please share these links with folks in your community who might be interested.

BIG THANKS to Chris Weiler and Seth Seeger who founded Shared Weight and have continued to host it for many years!

FEATURED RESOURCE: CDSS Starter Kit for Folk Song Organizers

So far, the resources on the Portal are heavily biased towards social dance rather than music and song. However, we have a fantastic traditional folk song resource to highlight in this issue of Shop Talk.

The CDSS Starter Kit for Folk Song Organizers provides information on topics such as creating a vision for your event, venue considerations, publicity ideas, and how to run the actual sing. You can view the resource either as a web page here or as a PDF here .

Thank you to Julia Friend and Nicole Singer for leading this great initiative!

Reminders

CDSS Membership: Join CDSS as an individual or as an Affiliate group! Membership not only provides you with specific supports (e.g., access to grants, CDSS News), but it also provides CDSS with financial backing to create resources like this e-blast. It also supports CDSS as we approach large funders from a strengthened position, showing the reach of traditional dance, music, and song in North America.

Please consider joining and encourage others you know who love these traditions to join. Click here for more information .

Join CDSS's Main E-Blast List: In addition to Shop Talk, CDSS sends other periodic e-blasts featuring more general news about traditional dance, music, and song. You can join here .

Share Shop Talk with your friends: Please pass on this issue of Shop Talk to others you know in the traditional dance, music, and song world. They can join here: https://conta.cc/2PlKAEr

Our next issue of Shop Talk will be out in February.

Happy dancing, singing, and playing traditional music!

Emily Addison (Consultant) & Linda Henry (CDSS Community Resources Manager)

P.S. If you have suggestions about Shop Talk or material to contribute to The Portal, email emily@cdss.org . For specific requests or advice, email linda@cdss.org .