[SCA-Dance] [SCA-dance] Notes from the Future of KWDS meeting

David Learmonth david.a.learmonth at gmail.com
Mon Jun 25 22:41:27 EDT 2012


Hi!  Firstly, thank you Urraca for providing the notes for everyone!
 (including myself, who missed the first few minutes of the meeting)

Second, I'll add a few quick notes:

- ACCEPS - So, my credit card worked, and I believe that Emma's did as
well.  Roselyne told me afterwards that hers didn't, so she just sent in a
cheque.  So hopefully it is improving, but of course we should always have
an alternative method.  (I'm sure we will always accept cheques, since
other countries won't necessarily be compatible).

- KWDS 2015 in Germany -  Sorry, I forgot to ask Judith if she had a time
of year in mind.  I expect she'll respond if she sees these messages.  The
main question here would be what makes the most sense?  Summer is better
for travel, but more expensive for flights as well, potentially.  I believe
that Academia is usually in March, but I don't know their plans for 2015,
whether they would still have both events or replace Academia, and when?

- KWDMS 2013 in NY - I had a question that afternoon from the middle
eastern dancers who came to the Caroso ball, they were wondering if there
were plans for more ME dance / World dance at KWDS next year?  I had missed
part of the talk, so I couldn't answer.  (I knew there would be some good
Music classes for sure, based on Deonna's background)

- Oh, and based on the success of the event in May of this year, St.
Cecilia at the Tower, I expect that there is definitely potential to expand
the music portion of the event, if people are considering it.  (just my
opinion of course.  it can be tough for scheduling perhaps, and you may
want to leave some time slots with just 1 class when it is a special
teacher.  But I know that St. Cecilia was pretty neat, and that was 4
tracks, mostly not dance music.)


And just 2 other opinions from my end:
1.  I love the idea of the Master Class / Day.  I do find that sadly I
don't get around to learning from everyone else as much as I should, but
having an initial day or something with basically 1 track, where various
teachers teach their specialty (and perhaps any guest teachers), would
likely be Very productive for the group of us.  The classes don't
necessarily have to all be completely NEW either, since we don't all get to
learn from each other that often, it might just be a class in each person's
specialty area, that perhaps they have taught before to a level where they
are quite happy with how it works out.

- If one is concerned that not everyone would be interested, at least for
the European Dancers, one could probably just have a single alternate room
for socializing and open dancing available.  (and then one could decide if
we also need a separate class for musicians or anything, or if it would
just be advertised that to show up a day earlier would be just if you
wanted to do this type of thing).

- Of course this idea came up during the meeting, so no pressure for Deonna
to try to adjust her event for it.  But it is definitely a neat idea.


2.  The Cost of KWDS:   Yes, this is definitely something that has always
come up, and that a lot of local groups / kingdoms don't always understand
the cost structure.  As suggested, it is definitely more of a Conference,
than a normal SCA event.  As such, we're typically competing years in
advance for sites with other conferences, or in particular, Weddings.  So
it can be tough, but I agree not to be afraid of the big site.  Ohio
definitely had a nice site for us to use, with excellent rooms, and from
what I saw, the sizes were pretty good (and plenty big enough for the balls
in the evenings).

- For reference, I believe this was the biggest budget yet (2009 was closer
to $5000-$6000 total for the event (with photocopying and everything, but
not including dorms, which we managed, but were just a flow-through cost to
the university), and fortunately not as large a downpayment as far ahead of
time.  I think we were $500 a year ahead, and 3/4 of everything about a
month before), but then for anyone who has been looking for sites, there
has definitely been inflation occurring in the prices.  (Oh, and we did get
some discount as a non-profit group.  I didn't hear whether they did this
year or not.)

- Oh, and I do think that having just an Evening rate is a good idea.  I'm
not sure that so far we've had too many takers on this (often just due to
unfortunate scheduling conflicts), but I definitely think it is inviting,
and can be a good thing for about 3 possible crowds:
  - Spouses who would like to attend the party, but aren't as devoted to
the classes (or just want to go site seeing)
  - ***Local SCAdians whose main focus isn't dance and music, but again
would like to enjoy the evening atmosphere
  - Non-SCAdian dancers who may just want to attend for a portion

*** I think that this should be an excellent opportunity area for the SCA,
because few events have the level of musician quality, and size and scope
of the site, as KWDS tends to try for.  To me, this is one of the sorts of
experiences that the SCA strives to achieve, and that it can be an
inspiration to people in pursuit of "the dream".


By the way, the Masque was really neat!  Very well done, quite
professional.  I think it was beyond our expectations.  I definitely think
it is neat that KWDS can have some unique features that vary from year to
year as well, such as this.  :)

Yay Dancing!
Darius


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