pennsicdance: Pennsic XXXII Volunteering

[Catherine E. Dean]

Sorry folks, I'm about a day and a half behind on SCA-Dance and 
Pennsic-Dance posts due to mundane business.

Anyway, just want to chime in on the issue of volunteers for Pennsic.

>===== Original Message From "L.J. Sparvero" <lyev at verizon.net> =====

Judith?? wrote:

>>3.)  Lyev volunteered to either run thigns next year, or to be dance tent
>>scheduler (Tent Steward), i.e. the person who schedules classes and
>>evening dance events.

Lyev Wrote:

>
>To clarify slightly -- Greg is running things next year, I volunteered to
>do it only if no one else was going to volunteer ;-)
>

Katherine Writes:

I have a question about this.  I'm a bit unclear about how the decisions for
who will be running dance at war have been made in the past and how
they are going to be made in the future.  Is the dance coordinator an 
official Pennsic position which must be approved by the Pennsic A&S 
coordinator or Autocrat or is it something that is informally left up to the 
dance community to decide?

If it is someone else's responsibility, who is that someone and how do 
the decisions get made?  If it is made by us, how are we making that 
decision.  Do we take the first person to volunteer?  Do we give the 
previous year's coordinator first dibs at running things the next year?  Do 
we impose manditory term limits to make sure that different people get a 
chance to experience running dance and that a single person doesn't 
bear too much of the burdon?  Do we formally or informally adopt a 
system like the Performing Arts coordinators (maybe someone (Sophie?) 
can clarify this for me, but I think they have a three year term and during 
that term they train their successor)?

The decision seems to have been reached that Greg will be running 
dance next year.  This is fine with me if its a decision that a significant 
proportion of the dance community supports (which it very well may be, 
don't get me wrong, I'm not attacking anyone here).  HOWEVER, I recall no 
discussion of this topic on Pennsic Dance or SCA-Dance recently.  Maybe 
I just missed it, but a couple other people I've spoken to don't remember 
any discussion either.  It certainly was not decided at the pennsic 
planning meeting last week.  Were other people given a chance to 
volunteer at all?  How was the decision that Greg would be in charge 
made?  Did it involve The Powers That Be at Pennsic, or was it internal?  If 
it is our decision to make, I would have liked to see some more vocal 
discussion of it in this forum.

This also applies to the new positions that we're hacking out now on this 
list.  Are they going to be perpetual?  How will we decide between two 
candidates who volunteer for the same position (ha ha ha!)?  Will we take 
the first volunteer to speak up?  Will there be some sort of vote (oh, the 
horror of the logistics and the politics)?  Probably most of this can be 
determined informally, but what if?

In future, I think a) we should consider delaying any decisions about who
is running dance (or any aspect of dance) at war until after the previous 
war is over if possible, b) there should be a yearly discussion (either for 
the next pennsic or the pennsic thereafter, depending on how far in 
advance decisions need to be made) in which new people have a chance 
to offer to help and jobs are rotated as appropriate, and c) decisions 
should be made by concensus and an evaluation of the needs of the 
community and the burn-out of the previous coordinator(s) rather than 
assumption or tradition.

Thoughts?

Katherine

-----------------
Katherine Mercer
Editor, The Letter of Dance

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Catherine E. Dean
cdean at gwu.edu      
Jane Austen Aficionado, Renaissance Dancer, and Future Museum Professional Extraordinaire
I can recollect nothing more to say.  When my letter is gone, I suppose I shall --JA
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