Dave, I agree with you. It is intriguing how this formula happened in the first place. You may want to contact Peter Barnes. He will give you the details.
Fixing would mean lowering the amount of pay someone has been paying, which is not something I would like to see happen. In New York city the fees for musicians has almost caught up with the fees for callers. Merle On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Dave Casserly <[email protected]>wrote: > Interesting. As a musician, organizer, and mostly former caller at this > point, I think it makes little sense to pay callers more. Sure, they might > work harder during the night itself, though that depends heavily on the > instrument and musician involved (it is a lot of work to play mostly melody > on fiddle tunes on sax for three hours, and I spend more time practicing > with a band for each gig than most callers spend on programming and > preparation for one evening). But in terms of what it takes to get to the > point of competently performing for an evening, it's not close. Musicians > use a piece of equipment that costs thousands of dollars and takes > thousands of hours of training and work to get to the point of being able > to play for a full evening. Callers don't. I know of no callers who spent > hours literally every day practicing calling for a decade, spent tens of > thousands of dollars on training for their craft, etc, but plenty of > musicians have done this. > > I called my first full evening, which went ok, though not seamless, about > two years after the first time I tried calling at all. I'd been to a > couple callers' workshops, had practiced calling a little bit, under 40 > hours total, and had probably spent some amount of money not exceeding $100 > on calling materials. I played for my first contra dance after spending > over $100,000 and 10,000 hours learning the craft of my instrument > (including attending conservatory, practicing 10+ hours per week for at > least a decade before playing my first dance, etc). I'm not saying that > everybody's experience is the same on both, or that they should be compared > in exactly those terms. But looking at just how it's a little bit more > work for the caller during the dance itself and thinking that justifies > paying callers really ignores the vast majority of what musicians do to get > to that point, and seems to me to be grossly unfair. > > > On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 2:28 PM, Jeff Kaufman <[email protected] > >wrote: > > > As a musician and a sometimes caller, I'm happy to have callers paid > > more. I think callers are working harder. > > > > As an organizer I'd rather pay everyone the same; it seems more fair > > and avoids ugly discussion about who deserves what. > > > > On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Merle Mceldowney > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > In New York city we have always paid callers more. A decision was > made a > > > very long time ago - beforei knew what contra dancing was - that > callers > > > should make more money. In New York city the callers made about thirty > > > percent more. We have raised the fees of musicians since then and not > of > > > callers, but they still have not caught up. There are still people > > around > > > who know the exact history and who made that decision. I am sure if you > > ask > > > any of the older musicians thay can give you the reason in a way that > is > > > less than friendly. Ask one of the older callers -and there > description > > as > > > to how this happened will be much nicer. > > > > > > Merle > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 27, 2014 at 1:26 PM, Sue Robishaw <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > >> Hi All, > > >> This is more curious than useful, but on this current discussion > and > > >> on previous ones I notice (and have paid a lot of attention to since > our > > >> new dance series is just in its first year) that usually callers and > > >> individual musicians get the same amount. Having done both (albeit for > > >> small dances) I find calling a LOT more work than playing and am > > surprised > > >> by this (unless it's a lone melody player). Do any dances give the > > caller a > > >> higher share? > > >> Sue Robishaw, U.P.M. > > >> _______________________________________________ > > >> Organizers mailing list > > >> [email protected] > > >> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers > > >> > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > *Merle McEldowney* > > > *212-933-0290* > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Organizers mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers > > _______________________________________________ > > Organizers mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers > > > > > > -- > David Casserly > (cell) 781 258-2761 > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers > -- *Merle McEldowney* *212-933-0290*
