Shared Weight also offers a discussion group specifically for
organizers and the issues they face running dances. It might be
helpful to join this group, and query about the issue below, as well
as questions about children at dances. The link to the group is:
http://www.sharedweight.net/index.php?pagestate=org_about
Good luck!
Linda
On Oct 24, 2012, at 11:09 PM, Alan Winston wrote:
On 10/24/2012 5:06 PM, Ben wrote:
My concern is that we have "given someone an inch, and now he wants
to take
a mile." This guy, due to his occupation, is used to coming into an
organization and being the new sheriff in town, and I get the
distinct
feeling that he sees our dance group as one that he needs to "shape
up." I
am personally quite troubled by what I am seeing, but unsure of the
best
course of action. (In my view, he is a "bull in a China Shop" and
he has
broken quite a bit of china already...) I have seen other dance
communities
where a "dancer" does the beginner teach for every one of the
dances, and
when people in the community find that they need to make a change,
they
don't feel that they can, politically. (How do you "fire" a
volunteer??)
Have any of you had a similar experience? Any suggestions? Thanks!
My suggestion is that before you take any other action, you make
sure the rest of your organizers agree with you.
Once you're sure they're behind you, you could tell the guy that the
beginner workshop is part of what you're paying
the caller for, and while you appreciate his interest and community
spirit in trying to help out, the organizational policy
is that the caller should do it, and he should let them do it.
(I agree that once you get a volunteer who 'owns' the beginner
workshop, it's very hard to dislodge them without
hurt feelings.)
I've only ever heard of one dance that would spirit newcomers away
during the dance itself for a workshop; that was the
Westchester English dance. (That did mean that there was 45 minutes
when the weekly dance was an advanced dance,
which was fun for the advanced dancers; the one time I called that
dance I hadn't understood what the deal was fully and
had a designed a normal incrementally-complex English program).
Here's another way of thinking about this:
You have a vision for your dance. You're not making it explicit in
this post, but I imagine it involves valuing community and
inclusiveness over dance skill.
He has some other vision, and it sounds like it prioritizes (his
idea of) dance skill over inclusiveness on any given night.
Maybe you and the other organizers could make your vision explicit.
That might help guide everybody's actions.
-- Alan
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