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...And your little dog, too!
Or, so as not to offend anyone:
"...and your (only in the relational, freely chosen sense, and not implying any sort of patriarchal based property association unless in a consensual role-playing scenario freely entered into by both parties) different sized but equal in spirit (not to imply endorsement of any particular religion or belief system) persun of canine identity, too!"
Fly-ins are a lot of work, even if you are only peripherally in charge of things. Especially if the people who are in charge did not delegate well so everything is vaguely behind and out of control behind the scenes (to be fair, I understand completely why Justin does not delegate. Having control issues myself, letting go of things is really hard, and especially as you are getting the hang of it, the negative reinforcement makes it hard to stay the course. For example, Justin asked someone to make signs for him. The person could not find a pen so he just didn't do it. I think all of us who expect things to be done "just so" experience that over and over again...making letting go of control that much harder the next time.) As a result, by the end of Rain Festival, I am completely exhausted. I think I would actually be less tied If I was in charge of things.
In any case, the event seemed to go well and everyone had a good time. We graduated 4 students (this is the third year in a row that we have started out with 9 or ten people and ended with 3 or 4...gee, could we need to make a change?) and a lot of Portland's about to graduate students were up so I think they all had a really great time.
We didn't get to dance to Sandie much, maybe one or two tips. She only called A and C most of the weekend and we missed her Plus hour since a piece Ron wrote debuted that night and we were off at the concert (I am sure he will write more about it, but lets just say that the chorus who performed it was enthusiastic and leave it at that....) Local caller Stephen Cole is a lot of fun to dance too so we weren't hurting for good dancing. He is really supportive of the new dancers, and super passionate about square dancing and we all find him a pleasure to dance too.
As much as I hate being told to "think of the definition" during a dance, (to which my internal response is "jesus H christ, what definition? why the hell are we standing still?") I love workshops, and it was really cool doing "Coordinate" from waves during Stephen's Plus workshop.
The church location worked out okay. It is not the most attractive space, and the second dance hall was kind of small, but it was cheap (you might almost say "chirpy chirpy"! sorry..inside joke) and had a great kitchen, so unless something better comes along I suspect we will be using it again.
The dangles and t-shirts (which I was in charge of) turned out really well. I got some early registrations for the Hallowe'en fly-in too, so that was nice. Scheduling the GCA tips was a little fraut since there were very few GCA callers in attendance and I had a lot of spaces to fill. For the most part everyone stayed within their fifteen minute allotment of time. I had one caller head to the restroom right when his tip was supposed to start, but other than that everyone stayed on schedule.
I wish we had had the energy to go out to the bars with people afterwards each night but we just didn't have the energy.
Anyway, it is over now and a good time was had by all. Next years Rain Festival committee is pretty on the ball so the scheduling and registration part of things should go better for next year, and now I can finally concentrate on the Hallowe'en fly-in, first order of business getting contracts out to both the 2006 and 2007 callers, and then getting a location booked and then getting packets of registrations off to all the clubs.
"...and your (only in the relational, freely chosen sense, and not implying any sort of patriarchal based property association unless in a consensual role-playing scenario freely entered into by both parties) different sized but equal in spirit (not to imply endorsement of any particular religion or belief system) persun of canine identity, too!"
Fly-ins are a lot of work, even if you are only peripherally in charge of things. Especially if the people who are in charge did not delegate well so everything is vaguely behind and out of control behind the scenes (to be fair, I understand completely why Justin does not delegate. Having control issues myself, letting go of things is really hard, and especially as you are getting the hang of it, the negative reinforcement makes it hard to stay the course. For example, Justin asked someone to make signs for him. The person could not find a pen so he just didn't do it. I think all of us who expect things to be done "just so" experience that over and over again...making letting go of control that much harder the next time.) As a result, by the end of Rain Festival, I am completely exhausted. I think I would actually be less tied If I was in charge of things.
In any case, the event seemed to go well and everyone had a good time. We graduated 4 students (this is the third year in a row that we have started out with 9 or ten people and ended with 3 or 4...gee, could we need to make a change?) and a lot of Portland's about to graduate students were up so I think they all had a really great time.
We didn't get to dance to Sandie much, maybe one or two tips. She only called A and C most of the weekend and we missed her Plus hour since a piece Ron wrote debuted that night and we were off at the concert (I am sure he will write more about it, but lets just say that the chorus who performed it was enthusiastic and leave it at that....) Local caller Stephen Cole is a lot of fun to dance too so we weren't hurting for good dancing. He is really supportive of the new dancers, and super passionate about square dancing and we all find him a pleasure to dance too.
As much as I hate being told to "think of the definition" during a dance, (to which my internal response is "jesus H christ, what definition? why the hell are we standing still?") I love workshops, and it was really cool doing "Coordinate" from waves during Stephen's Plus workshop.
The church location worked out okay. It is not the most attractive space, and the second dance hall was kind of small, but it was cheap (you might almost say "chirpy chirpy"! sorry..inside joke) and had a great kitchen, so unless something better comes along I suspect we will be using it again.
The dangles and t-shirts (which I was in charge of) turned out really well. I got some early registrations for the Hallowe'en fly-in too, so that was nice. Scheduling the GCA tips was a little fraut since there were very few GCA callers in attendance and I had a lot of spaces to fill. For the most part everyone stayed within their fifteen minute allotment of time. I had one caller head to the restroom right when his tip was supposed to start, but other than that everyone stayed on schedule.
I wish we had had the energy to go out to the bars with people afterwards each night but we just didn't have the energy.
Anyway, it is over now and a good time was had by all. Next years Rain Festival committee is pretty on the ball so the scheduling and registration part of things should go better for next year, and now I can finally concentrate on the Hallowe'en fly-in, first order of business getting contracts out to both the 2006 and 2007 callers, and then getting a location booked and then getting packets of registrations off to all the clubs.
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Wow!
Just, wow.
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:-)
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Wish we could have been there... *sigh*
Did I mention we have our air fare booked for our visit in May?
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How long will you be here before you have to head up to Canadia?