Provincial/Federation Reports - Canadian Square & Round Dance Society (CSRDS)

Alberta report to Canadian Square & Round Dance Society (CSRDS) Annual General Meeting

79 Callers/Cuers/Leaders – 78 Clubs – 11 Associations – 2579 Dancers – 1 Federation

3 Callers/Cuers/Leaders – 3 Clubs – 5 Dancers. Associations at 11, and Federation at 1

remain unchanged. Dancers, Clubs and Callers/Cuers/Leaders decline is very slight, which is very encouraging. We are hopeful that the decline of the recent past years has finally stopped and we are now in a turn around situation.

AS&RDF have adopted the CSRDS Logo (2 dancers) to be used as their Province wide Logo branding strategy. According to a recent survey the logo colours most associated with success are red and blue. The CSRDS Logo being red is an excellent choice. 3000 Society Pins bearing the Logo have recently been purchased by AS&RDF. These pins will be presented to new dancers, and all registrants at Alberta Convention 2008. The Logo will also be used in an Alberta wide newspaper ad for 6 weeks starting August 18, 2008. The ad will advise “Local information available at”: “www.squaredance.ab.ca”, a new website access. 5000 business cards with the Logo and bearing the same message as the newspaper ad have been ordered. These cards will be made available to all Alberta Clubs for their use. T-shirts with the Logo have been purchased to be sold at cost at Alberta Convention 2008.

We respectfully suggest that all Provincial Federations consider the use of the CSRDS Logo as part of their brandingstrategy, thereby implementing a Canada wide universal Logo.

The Alberta 2008 40^th annual AS&RDF Convention will be held in Wainwright, AB August 30, 31 & September 1, 2008. Registrations, after a slow start, are now being received in good numbers. The Dance Program duties will feature Callers and Cuers from across Alberta as well out of the Province Callers and Cuers from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. A big thank you to all the Staff and Volunteers for this and Past

Alberta Conventions for your hard work and commitment. Without your help these Conventions would not take place.

Thanks to the initiative of Jocelyn Perry, a dancer on Vancouver Island, the Federation has established a week in September as Square and Round Dance Awareness Week. For the past two years the province’s Lieutenant Governor has issued a proclamation announcing this week and many clubs and Regions throughout BC have staged square and round dance events, and radio and TV spots to bring awareness of the two dance forms to the general public. The Federation includes Round Dancing in this week as it feels that this activity has largely been ignored by the square dance world in its publicity events.

Paul and Ann Clements (Paul is Federation 1st V-P) from Powell River, B.C. are producing a DVD to show Round Dance Cuers how to present Social Ballroom Dance. The DVD will show round dance figures for seven or eight different rhythms that can be taught in a 10 week course and the spin off is similar to Square Dance ABC where some dancers will want more and can be directed to a Square or Round Dance club. Go to:

http://www.squaredance.bc.ca/articals/Introduction_to_Social_Dance_Program.pdf for details. The Federation is planning to commit $3,500.00 to this project and the DVD should be ready for the fall of 2008

The BCS&RD Federation is sponsoring participation in the B.C. Senior Games for 2009. A coordinator has been found, and a Memorandum of Agreement between the Federation and the Senior Games Committee has been drawn up. While participation in the games will be competitive, it is very strongly felt that this opportunity to bring awareness of Square Dancing to a very fit and active group of Seniors will result in some (many) of them wanting to participate in Square Dancing in their home areas.

The Federation authorized up to $2000.00 to engage a graphic artist to design new clip art. After a couple of false starts, where the graphic artist failed to follow through, Mary Anne Turner, was able to work with a Williams Lake artist to develop some new, more modern looking clip art. Unfortunately the artist’s computer suffered a total crash (it wasn’t a Mac!) and the figures for the clip art have been put on hold. At the same time an Oklahoma computer artist designed a fantastic new logo for Square and Round Dancing and this can be seen at http://www.squaredance.bc.ca/clipart.shtml This logo is available to all and is not intended to replace any existing logos - it’s just something new and exciting that might give our activity a new look.

We have recently received the videos taken at Nasser Shukayr’s presentation on Square Dance ABC and will be editing them and putting them into DVD form to be available for those interested in SD ABC. A copy of Jerry Story’s 4 CD set showing him calling ABC, was purchased by the Federation and given to each Region. Nick Turner came up with an initiative to create a Caller School Curriculum that will enable experienced callers to teach a total novice not only to dance ABC but also to call ABC in a two day school. He is working with six callers in the U.S. to create the curriculum which will be ready by this fall. The hope is that caller schools can be put on to encourage people to learn basic calling techniques that will enable them to put on an ABC dance in their community. Two things are aimed for in this project - getting Square Dance back into those communities where it has died and also to encourage people to take up the microphone and call.

Federation 3rd V-P Gord Ruedig, from Powell River B.C., is working on a pilot project to involve the Dry Grad High School graduation committees with square dancing as a means to raise funds for their graduation celebrations. This will be a great awareness opportunity for Square Dancing and if the pilot project is successful, the Federation will produce guidelines to help other communities with a similar project.

Go to http://squaredance.bc.ca/articals/Minutes_08/Joint_Fundraiser_FED_PROPOSAL.pdf for more details

John Corrigan, a caller from Delta, B.C. has volunteered to head up a committee to investigate the government program Participaction and the ways in which Square Dancing could get involved. In conjunction with this, B.C. has another fitness program called Act Now and the committee will also see if we can get involved. Go to:

http://squaredance.bc.ca/articals/Minutes_08/ParticipACTION_ActNowBC.pdf for the initial report by Paul and Ann Clements.

Several clubs in B.C. celebrated and will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2008 / 9

The Four Score and More Club Dave Abbs a long time caller in 100 Mile House, B.C., recognized 9 dancers in his calling area who were all over 80. At a dance, he presented them with a dangle for their club badge. However, Nils Hoeg, one of the octogenarians, wanted to take this further and brought forward a motion to the Federation Board of Directors’ meeting to have the Federation recognize those of its members who are actively dancing at 80+ with a badge honouring their achievement. Thus the Four Score and More Club was born and Nils has designed a badge which the Federation will make available, free, to all those over 80 who are still dancing. This will be my last report to the Society as President of the BC Square and Round Dance Federation.

It has been an interesting, challenging and often frustrating four years but the Federation has become much more visible and active in the province thanks to the hard work of the Executive and also our Society Delegates, Chuck Jordan and Marguerite Jordan. I would also like to thank Marion Knight for all her help and support. If I have a wish for the future, it would be to see far more active communication between the provincial organizations and perhaps the Society could facilitate this. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of Mary Anne and myself to thank the Society for recognizing us with the Award of Excellence This is a great honour and much appreciated.

July 2008

The Manitoba Square & Round Dance Federation is comprised of the Eastern Manitoba Square & Round Dance Association, the Western Manitoba Square & Round Dance Association and the Parkland Square & Round dance Association. Currently we have 19 Square Dance, 4 Round Dance, 4 Clogging and 2 Line Dance Clubs in the Eastern Association, 6 Square Dance and 1 Clogging Club in the Western Association and 2 Square Dance Clubs in the Parkland Association. This gives us a total 27 Square Dance, 4 Round Dance, 5 Clogging and 2 Line Dance Clubs.

Edith and I have been the President Couple of the Federation since October 2007. We will be in this position for two years. The priorities for the Federation continue to be dancer recruitment, and more recently, we have identified that dance leader recruitment is quickly becoming a priority as well. Over the next few years, these areas of concern will need be discussed and addressed.

On an annual basis, the Manitoba Square & Round Dance Federation sponsors our Annual Come Together Jamboree on the last Saturday of October, unless Halloween happens to fall on that date. This year it will be held in Brookdale, Manitoba on October 25^th. Dancers from all three Associations attend this event. In addition to this being an annual event, the Federation has also established the Crocus Merit and Crocus Long Service Awards. These awards have been presented to deserving couples since 2002. Until this year, each Association was invited to submit two nominations for these awards. As of this year, the limit was raised to four nominations per Association. These awards are presented at our annual Come Together Jamboree. If recipients can’t attend this event, arrangements are made to make presentations at an appropriate Association event.

In addition to the above, the Federation is always available to assist Associations if and when necessary. All of us are working hard in promoting this activity and encouraging our fellow citizens to consider taking part in an activity that is healthy and so enjoyable. A big plus that is not mentioned enough are the lifetime friendships and associations that are formed.

Report to the Canadian Square and Round Dance Society

Square dancing in NS. Continues to be doing well, with Clubs having a number of special dances throughout the season ,

particularly for the Heart & Stoke Association of NS.

Last year the Federation was recognized by the Heart & Stroke Association of NS for outstanding volunteerism and was given an award for their efforts in the fundraising.

The Federation BOD.members are working hard as usual , and are continuing to try different avenues to keep square dancing alive in NS..

The Federation has set up a booth at the 50+ Expo. in Halifax to bring awareness of the dance to the public and generate some interest.

This is the second year this has been done and there has been lot of interest from the public, a lot of broachers and information on Square dancing are being picked up by the public at these events , and a good number of people coming over to the booth.

The Square and Round Dance Federation of Nova Scotia will be celebrating our 40^th anniversary this year and a special dance is planned for this event in Sept. 08, we are hoping to be able to have a lot of past executives attend .

All past executive as well as caller and Cuers will be invited to attend.

All in all the numbers of dancers are declining slightly but as said NS is doing relatively well.

Have a good meeting

Our regrets that we are unable to attend, but look forward to meeting you all at Festival 2010

Halifax.

This concludes our report for NS.

Valerie & Ralph Brown

THE ONTARIO SQUARE AND ROUND DANCE FEDERATION INC

Ontario has eleven Associations registered for 2008. This includes 138 Clubs, 168 Callers and partners, and 4271 dancers for a total membership of 4588. As usual, we have had problems getting Clubs to register promptly for membership and insurance - some are still “in process”.

We appreciate sharing with the Society the 800 number. It is always surprising how many calls we receive for information on dancing, schedules, locations, etc. We appreciate Marion Knight handling all the calls and relaying the requests for information to the responsible contacts.

Similarly, our web-site receives innumerable hits. The whole promotion and publicity area has changed with the new aspects of communication. It also well illustrates the necessity for detailed documentation of procedures and providing for back-up personnel.

The Federation made three awards this year under our Trillium Award Program. Merit Awards were given to Bev and Peter Piazza recognizing their valuable contributions to the dance activities in South Western Ontario, on the Federation Board of Directors, and also with the 2008 National Convention. Two Long Service Awards were granted to Hanna & Bob Logan and to Maxine & Jim Powell. Congratulations to all three couples.

We have continued our efforts with promotion and publicity. Marion Knight is doing a great job. The Federation has made efforts in getting the Province of Ontario to declare the second week of September as Official Square and Round Dance Week, but at the rate things are progressing, we might have something to report at the next AGM. The Eastern Ontario Square and Round Dance Association has been more successful. The City of Ottawa and several other surrounding towns have declared the second week of September as Official Square and Round Dance Week. Clubs, Callers, and dancers are planning public demonstrations of square and round dancing in malls and shopping centres. Articles will be placed in newspapers and local magazines to increased visibility and to recruit new dancers.

Several of our Associations have workshops to encourage dancers to improve their knowledge and ability to dance the level. Many dancers want to move to higher levels even though they are not able to easily dance all the movements within the level. Callers are encouraged to teach all-position dancing at all levels - even basics.

It has been an interesting dance year in Ontario. Some Clubs were forced to cancel some nights of dancing due to the record amount of snow received by nearly all locations. Most have several stories to tell of dancers faithfully coming out in spite of not being able to see over the roadside and driveway snowdrifts, being blocked in by passing snowplows, etc.

In closing, we would like to thank the Society for awarding the Convention to London for 2008. While we may not have a record number of dancers, it again proves the adage of “quality not quantity”.

PEI Report for the AGM CANADIAN SQUARE AND ROUND DANCE SOCIETY AGM - LONDON, ONT.

Membership for both clubs remains fairly constant and attendance is excellent with 5-8 squares on the floor for most dances.

Social events such as the car rally, picnic, golf tournament and BBQ continue to very popular.

During the year, we had the pleasure of presenting 1 60th and 3 50th wedding anniversary certificates.

Annual meetings for both clubs have been held and the new executive are now busy planning for another successful season of square dancing in