drousar
03-26-2008, 11:29 AM
Hello all, given the discussions recently regarding the council and competitions etc.. I thought I would start a new thread.
I very much believe in what the council represents and the guidance it makes efforts to provide. I have great respect for those individuals that take the time to commit to that effort and can just imagine the number of inquiries, questions, and comments they must field.
Grand Nationals is approaching soon and there is a council meeting scheduled for Noon on Sunday. What I would like to offer is for you is to post ideas, suggestions and any comments you would like regarding the council, points system etc... I will put those thoughts together and present them to the board for review and discussion.
I think it will help if they have an organized presentation of what those active in the community are experiencing, the things we really like and the frustrations we may be feeling in regards to what the council does.
If your not clear as to exactly what they provide, please check out their website at SwingDanceCouncil.com
To kick this off, I will share with you some comments and suggestions I have made at recent meetings or plan to make at the next one. They are just my opinions.
1) All events that choose to be WSDC recognized must adhere to the absolute structure of J&J, whatever that may be. Event directors can chose to be WSDC recognized, nobody forces them. If an event director doesn't feel their event fits, then they can chose not to spend the money to be a part of the council. Efforts have been made and the "Guidelines" have been changed to use words like "Must" and "Required" but directors still handle them as guidelines. I respect that fact that the council really doesn't want to force any event to do things, especially ones that run as a business. My opinion, there are so, so many other aspects to an event where an event director can be creative that a regulated J&J that takes maybe 2-3 hours of an entire weekend is not going to affect their business in a negative way. I would love to be able to look at a flyer, see the logo and know exactly what to expect. I have that with certain head judges, MCs and Event Directors. It would be great to have that with the council recognition as well.
2) J&J should absolutely be regulated as required splits of divisions from Beginner to All-Star. If any divisions are combined, no points are awarded. This includes Open divisions. If an event decides they need to combine a division to make a bigger contest, cool! All for it. But then points should not be awarded for a particular level.
3) There needs to be a bigger gap or point requirement from Int to Adv and from Adv to All Star. Intermediate needs more grooming time. It's a big difference getting into the world of performance and musicality. Int is so small it's easy to progress. Efforts have been made and the point requirement went up, but I still feel it needs to be more.
4) A representative needs to be on hand at each event or a council approved head judge on staff to regulate or oversee the execution of the J&Js. I know this can be tough given the number of events. A thought is to perhaps have regional reps that attend the national council meetings and, for a lack of better wording, are certified by the council to represent them in their region.
5) An informative seminar (Q/A) needs to be held at each council event to educate the competitor of the J&J structure, points, Relative placement, etc... would work great with a rep in place.
6) This thought is kind of out there and very hard to explain. More thought has to go into it, but Mario kind of reinforced a thought that I had. If you spend enough money and compete enough you are going to earn enough points to advance. A very valid thought which definitely makes the point system represent competition experience and not dance ability. If the purpose was to represent dance ability and success, maybe an algorithm of some sort could be built that somehow calculates some average representation of success. I don't know....something like.... an average of 5 points at 15 or more events in a certain level and then you could move up. PLEASE don't take those numbers as absolute. It's a thought provoking statement. I would just like to see a system that automatically looks up a competitor when they sign up for J&J and automatically places them in a division using some algorithm. Then they are told if you wish to dance in a different level, here's a petition form. You can imagine it's difficult to check 100+ dancer entries at a comp especially when a majority of them wait until right before contest reg closes. And the contest meeting is usually shortly thereafter.
Sorry for the long post. Thank you in advance for your participation. Please get your friends involved. It can only help. It never hurts to ask :)
I very much believe in what the council represents and the guidance it makes efforts to provide. I have great respect for those individuals that take the time to commit to that effort and can just imagine the number of inquiries, questions, and comments they must field.
Grand Nationals is approaching soon and there is a council meeting scheduled for Noon on Sunday. What I would like to offer is for you is to post ideas, suggestions and any comments you would like regarding the council, points system etc... I will put those thoughts together and present them to the board for review and discussion.
I think it will help if they have an organized presentation of what those active in the community are experiencing, the things we really like and the frustrations we may be feeling in regards to what the council does.
If your not clear as to exactly what they provide, please check out their website at SwingDanceCouncil.com
To kick this off, I will share with you some comments and suggestions I have made at recent meetings or plan to make at the next one. They are just my opinions.
1) All events that choose to be WSDC recognized must adhere to the absolute structure of J&J, whatever that may be. Event directors can chose to be WSDC recognized, nobody forces them. If an event director doesn't feel their event fits, then they can chose not to spend the money to be a part of the council. Efforts have been made and the "Guidelines" have been changed to use words like "Must" and "Required" but directors still handle them as guidelines. I respect that fact that the council really doesn't want to force any event to do things, especially ones that run as a business. My opinion, there are so, so many other aspects to an event where an event director can be creative that a regulated J&J that takes maybe 2-3 hours of an entire weekend is not going to affect their business in a negative way. I would love to be able to look at a flyer, see the logo and know exactly what to expect. I have that with certain head judges, MCs and Event Directors. It would be great to have that with the council recognition as well.
2) J&J should absolutely be regulated as required splits of divisions from Beginner to All-Star. If any divisions are combined, no points are awarded. This includes Open divisions. If an event decides they need to combine a division to make a bigger contest, cool! All for it. But then points should not be awarded for a particular level.
3) There needs to be a bigger gap or point requirement from Int to Adv and from Adv to All Star. Intermediate needs more grooming time. It's a big difference getting into the world of performance and musicality. Int is so small it's easy to progress. Efforts have been made and the point requirement went up, but I still feel it needs to be more.
4) A representative needs to be on hand at each event or a council approved head judge on staff to regulate or oversee the execution of the J&Js. I know this can be tough given the number of events. A thought is to perhaps have regional reps that attend the national council meetings and, for a lack of better wording, are certified by the council to represent them in their region.
5) An informative seminar (Q/A) needs to be held at each council event to educate the competitor of the J&J structure, points, Relative placement, etc... would work great with a rep in place.
6) This thought is kind of out there and very hard to explain. More thought has to go into it, but Mario kind of reinforced a thought that I had. If you spend enough money and compete enough you are going to earn enough points to advance. A very valid thought which definitely makes the point system represent competition experience and not dance ability. If the purpose was to represent dance ability and success, maybe an algorithm of some sort could be built that somehow calculates some average representation of success. I don't know....something like.... an average of 5 points at 15 or more events in a certain level and then you could move up. PLEASE don't take those numbers as absolute. It's a thought provoking statement. I would just like to see a system that automatically looks up a competitor when they sign up for J&J and automatically places them in a division using some algorithm. Then they are told if you wish to dance in a different level, here's a petition form. You can imagine it's difficult to check 100+ dancer entries at a comp especially when a majority of them wait until right before contest reg closes. And the contest meeting is usually shortly thereafter.
Sorry for the long post. Thank you in advance for your participation. Please get your friends involved. It can only help. It never hurts to ask :)