ads3: Symposium Post-Mortem: Final Inputs

[Edvard Gayer]

Here are the last of the comments I've received...

My thanks to everyone who participated in this little exercize.  It looks to 
me like there are a number of things we can work on to make the next 
Symposium even better than the last one.  Some of the items are 
site-related, some are schedule-related, and some are class- or 
instructor-related.... but all of them are things we can keep in mind for 
the future.  The things I've come away from this with are:

1 - More instructors!  In an ideal world, no single instructor would need to 
teach more than 1 class.

2 - More timely class information!  The earlier we get our instructors and 
their classes identified, the easier it will be to schedule things to avoid 
conflicts, to permit people to teach _and_ take classes of interest to them, 
and the sooner we can get word out to the dancing public so they can know to 
come and have a good time!  Doing this requires calling for class 
information more aggressively by our Autocrat and class coordinator, and 
better response and earlier committment from our instructors.

3 - More tracks!  There will always be a need for a beginners track, even 
though the Academie teaches these types of classes at every University.  We 
want intermediate and advanced classes, but until we have more tracks, we 
can't schedule as many of those without putting the kabosh on some of the 
beginners' classes.  This applies to both the Western _and_ Middle Eastern 
tracks.  Maybe next time we try for 4 tracks instead of 2 or 3?

Here are the last inputs.  Again, my thanks to everyone who thought this 
through and provided their thoughts on the matter.

-Vard

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Here are my two sheckles worth:

Next time the Middle Eastern track should include beginner dance classes for 
attendees.

If possible, I would like to try holding lecture-style classes in the hafla 
room (we can then decorate the hafla room with rugs and such for the whole 
day).  This will improve cross talk with the European dance classes.  If 
issues were raised about noise coming from the ME direction into the 
European classrooms, this issue may need to be examined in more detail (i.e. 
let the negotiations begin -- hee hee).

If we can get the hafla room for the whole day, then we could possibly hold 
a planned performance class there. How does the Academie view music classes 
being held at a dance symposium?  I think that a class that tackled the 
subject of teaching a dance that would be performed later in the day, 
accompanied by a small group of musicians (melodic instruments and a few 
drummers), would be tasteful and interesting.  It could create opportunities 
for cross-cultural sharing. What do you think?

Overall I thought the whole day was excellently orchestrated and carried 
off.  Congratulations to everyone!

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Many instructors had requests for times and they got them. It was a simple 
case of not being able to please everyone. We can continue to try to 
accomodate as many people as we logistically can, but realize that everyone 
will not always get everything they want as sometimes this requires 
inconveniencing others.

The best way to avoid a case like this in the future is for the instructors 
to submit their classes WELL IN ADVANCE. This allows more time for 
instructors to review the schedule and more time for logistical creativity.

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As a newbie to all of this, I think things went well. But as you mentioned 
more classes would have been nice. The instructors knowing when to stop 
classes could have been better. The instructures knowing those that are 
beginners needs to be a little better also. Most assumed all knew the type 
of dances being taught.

I had a lively time though. The band was wonderful.

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Here's my two cents on the symposium.  Overall, it was a GREAT event.  We 
had a fabulous time and learned a lot.  We also brought a new person (her 
first event!) and she really had a good time.  The ball was fun, and the 
people at the hafla were incredibly welcoming.  My only problem now is that 
I haven't the time to do western dance, middle eastern dance, AND drumming!  
The one thing that I would LOVE to see in the future would be a real intro 
to middle eastern dance class.  Asim did a great job with his intro class, 
esp. considering that he had Scadians with no middle eastern dance 
experience AND non-SCA dancers in his class!  However, I would have liked a 
VERY basic class that actually taught some real DANCING!

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