I used a similar system with Excel and Word, but added the capability to make the “role” a plug-in varible so I can create custom “cards” with traditional, gender-free, positional, or other terminology. It’s easier for my small brain not to have to read one terminology and call another.
Ric Goldman Portland, OR From: Maia McCormick via Contra Callers <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 12:11 PM To: Contra Callers <[email protected]> Subject: [Callers] Re: Caller nightmare I keep my whole dance collection backed up in Google Docs for precisely this reason 😅 after I left my box of physical cards on the subway en route to a gig and had to scrounge off the internet on my phone, I said, "never again". (My system is kind of convoluted but I've grown to love it: source of truth in a google sheet, mail merged into a google doc for readability and printability. Happy to discuss more/share samples if anyone is curious or wants to adopt it!) - Maia in NYC -- Maia McCormick (she/her) 917.279.8194 On Tue, Jan 21, 2025 at 2:54 PM Amy Wimmer via Contra Callers <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: My spouse and I are both callers who run a weekly dance. In the 20+ years we've been doing this I can only think of 2 times the caller was a no-show. The first time it happened there were 3 callers in the hall. While I drove home to get my dance collection the others called dances they had memorized. Since that time my spouse has brought his dance collection to every dance, just in case. But sometimes we're not there. What a great idea to leave a collection, even a whole program, at the dance! Gonna do it! Thanks for the tip! On Tue, Jan 21, 2025, 10:48 AM sdgola--- via Contra Callers <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I was greeted at the door once by Organizers telling me that the scheduled caller was a no-show. This was 5 minutes before the start of the dance (I was attending with the expectation of being a dancer). The money box had a few scraps of paper with dances written on them, so we started with those. I asked a couple of dancers to sit out and use their phones to look up dance figures while I got the dance going. The originally booked caller had forgotten, so I became the caller for the full evening. Now I carry a couple of printed programs with me. Sue Gola Princeton/Mt Airy On Tuesday, January 21, 2025 at 01:21:01 PM EST, Colin Hume via Contra Callers <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: On Tue, 21 Jan 2025 10:11:33 -0800, Gary Shapiro via Contra Callers wrote: > I haven't been a contra caller for many years, but last night I dreamt I was > at a dance and the caller did not show > up. There were no other callers in attendance. So I got up there wondering > what dances I knew by heart. I think I > knew how A Nice Combination went. Then I woke up and thought about it some > more. I decided that every dance venue > should keep a dance program, with instructions, somewhere. I've been in that situation at a Festival - the caller was delayed on the motorway - and I realised I only knew two contras by heart, neither of which was a good one to start with. I actually had my lap-top with all my dances on it, but it was at the other venue. I managed to remember Bob Dalsemer's "Maggie's Hobby". I now have some cards for a few contras and squares in my shoulder bag along with the other vital stuff like Mars Bars and cough medicine! And yet I can remember lots of quite complicated English dances! Colin Hume _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
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