[Squaredancing] Clark's experiences at the National Convention

[Clark Baker]

Two weeks and many e-mails have passed since dancing at the National
Square Dance Convention in Charlotte, NC and thought I would give you
my observations.

This was the 6th convention for my daughter and I and we have the
routine down pretty well.  I again signed up to call which allowed us
to stay in the "callers" hotel with convenient access to the
convention center.  With respect to dancing, we knew what to expect
and how to pace ourselves.  Attendance was around 8000 this year.

We spent two days driving down from Boston and arrived on Tuesday
night.  GSI was hosting a free caller school which some of Laura's
friends were taking so we checked into the hotel and walked over to
find the caller school.  After I dropped her off I attended the
Contralab sponsored Energizer dance.  Contralab hosts this dance and
their annual meeting right before the Nationals each year.
Unfortunately the dance was not well attended so I danced for an hour
or so and headed back over to the caller school.

Laura hung out with friends at the caller school for Wednesday while I
made my second attempt to preserve the recordings of the great Stanley
Winchester (see http://www.tiac.net/~mabaker/winchester.html).  This
time I was successful and now have digital version of his entire
public collection.  The first half of this collection is available on
my web page and the second half will appear as soon as I get it
edited.

Wednesday night the convention started and I give it two thumbs up.  I
and others I spoke with found it to be well scheduled, well run, with
few glitches.

The convention center was the right size for our convention -- we took
it over and utilized most of the space.  Flooring in the smaller halls
was black, plastic, interlocking tiles overtop carpet.  The large
halls were polished concrete.  Sound in the small halls was fine with
good sound isolation.  Sound in the large halls was too loud for my
tastes and there were some sound fights (e.g., between live music and
the adjacent Plus hall).  A/C was OK but not impressive.

I spent most of my calling time in the Challenge hall.  While I was
scheduled for C1, C2, and C3 as far as I know we did not have a square
for C3 so those times were dropped back to C2 or C1 plus teaching some
C2.  I usually called to 3 or 4 squares and I noticed that the morning
"intro" sessions had a full room of ~9 squares.  As expected, the
level was "soft" and I used my easiest cards.

In the late 1960's the National convention was unwilling to accept
challenge dancing so those callers created their own convention, and
scheduled it for one week before Nationals.  This year the Academy for
Advanced and Challenge Enthusiasts (see
http://www.ceder.net/aace.php4) attracted about 400 attendees dancing
A2 through C4.

As a caller I appreciated and made use of both the caller hospitality
room, complete with light snacks, and the secure bag check room.

When I wasn't calling I usually spent most of my dance time in the
contra hall.  We usually had one long line and occasionally two long
lines.  While virtually anyone at the convention could dance in this
room, few of them know that and most are kept away by the "lesson"
mentality which has been drilled into them by their prior dance
experience -- if you haven't taken the lessons, you can't dance with
us.

I dragged a few friends into the contra hall and they had a good time
and stayed around.  I also made an effort to dance with people who
poked their heads in, especially if they were wearing a Solo ribbon.
The contra hall is also a good place for single dancers since we are
more likely to change partners every dance, even if we are married to
someone (same as in the real world of contras).

The convention scheduled Doug Davis and Nasser Shukayr for a single
Hexagon presentation and I heard it was well attended and went well.
Several people were disappointed that it only happened once.

Each night I danced two hours of Hexagon in the back of the Plus hall.
Over the years we have built up a contingent of dancers who enjoy this
and have the knowledge.  With a strong Hex we can incorporate one or
two newbies and this year was no exception.  I was able to expose 4
callers and several dancers to this mind-bending form of square
dancing.  More info at http://www.tiac.net/~mabaker

My "stretch" experience this year was calling in the Handicapable
hall.  I have attended several presentations on calling for
Handicapable dancers by Michelle McCarty and this year she asked
several caller if they would give a try at call in this hall.  I was
happy to support her, her efforts, and the dancers.  With the
information she sent all of us beforehand, including a list of calls,
I was able to do a good job with my 20 minute slot.  Kudos to
Charlotte for bringing back the Handicapable hall.

One of our local dancers was scheduled for a 9am seminar which Laura
and I attended.  It was a good thing too because it attracted only a
few people who weren't friends of the speakers.  Too bad since Desi
and Jill had a well thought out presentation on Youth, Family, and the
life cycle of dancing.  I heard that he gave a slightly different
version of this talk in a later time slot and the talk was better
attended.

This was Laura's 6th and last year in the youth hall and she said that
it was the best youth hall of her 6 years.  She notes that it was
dancing on carpet (no black plastic tiles) -- why not?

I attended no exhibitions this year.  Often I use this as a way to
rest my feet but didn't seem to need it this time.  Probably I was
doing less dancing.

All told I called about 5 hours over 3 days.  I spent $232 on gas and
$1031 on hotel.  I was disappointed with the hotel.  The room rate was
$129 which is OK.  However, it didn't include a breakfast.  I really
enjoyed the breakfasts last year with all the callers to talk to.
Also, on top of the $129 you have to add $9.35 state tax, $8.74 room
tax, and $2.58 special assessment tax.  Finally $18 per day for
parking and sometimes it was full but you still paid $18.  The lobby
was being renovated and was unusable.  The bar worked :-) For those
kind of prices, I wanted breakfast, free internet, and free parking.

Food: The local area seemed woefully unprepared for us with respect to
food.  Several times the easy to see and find establishments closed at
10 or 11 at night.  The nearest large breakfast place ran out of food.
The hotel had little to offer.

I heard from someone that the new light rail system was supposed to be
working in time for our convention but is delayed until September.
Had it been working we could have taken it to the restaurant area in
the city.  Knowing that it would not be working, the Charlotte
committee got the convention center to set up a great buffet next to
the large Plus hall.  It took me too long to figure out that this was
a great way to have at least one meal a day.  It had good food and was
reasonably priced.  I understand that the owner of this concession was
very happy with us and his results.

The restaurants in North Carolina have to post their health inspection
results.  The best would be 100.  Most of the places I ate in ranged
from 90 to 99 (a fast food joint).

Dress code: I continued to violate the dress code during the day.  I
understand that at least two "dress code" incidents happened and they
certainly were the talk of the convention and the e-mail lists after
convention.  I am not in favor of any dress codes for callers or
dancers.

Quality of calling: I was impressed with the large number of callers
who I don't know who can call good patter and belt out great singing
calls.  We have a lot of quality callers in this activity, many of who
are probably local or regional and just "doing their job" and doing a
fine job.

Rounds: There was lots of round dancing and I did none of it.  I did
see and talk with several leaders I know.

NEC: The NEC hosted an afternoon snack and beverage party one
afternoon.  I believe this is to thank callers for paying to call at
their convention.  I forgot to go and heard that it was thinly
attended.  The room was a little hard to locate.

Callerlab: Callerlab hosted an afternoon snack and beverage party on
the next afternoon.  I stayed for an hour or two and had nice chats
with several of you.  This was a benefit for Callerlab members.

ACA: I saw little ACA presence at this convention.  As far as I know,
all the dance programs were Callerlab programs.

One area in which the Nationals can do better is showing us what our
options are at any particular time.  There is a lot going on at once
and, unfortunately, even when you purchase the convention program and
the daily pocket guides, it is hard to see what your alternatives are.
The seminars, clinics, and panels are listed in one place, exhibitions
another, dancing a third (spread over many pages), etc.  Check out how
NEFFA presents their options.  Also, the NEFFA grids are posted in the
web in advance of their Festival: http://www.neffa.org/grid/index.html

I am appreciative for all the hard work and meetings that it takes to
put on such a large party.  Any insight I have had behind the scenes
of convention planning has shown me dedicated volunteers who are
trying their best given lots of rules and regulations and a limited
budget.  They want to put on the best convention possible and they
gave us a good show.  Congratulations and props to all of them.

------

ARTS: I knew that the ARTS board meeting was talking place on Sunday
and attended as an observer after dropping my daughter off at the
airport.  There were a few of us in the room so if this is of interest
to you, perhaps you will attend next year.

--
Clark Baker, Belmont, MA
cmbaker at tiac.net