Diary Dates

Day School Saturday 21^st March. Walthamstow Hall School, Sevenoaks

Spring Dance Saturday 18^th April. Weald of Kent School, Tonbridge. 7.00 - 11.00pm

MC Jim Winter. Dancing to recorded music

Day School

The Day School for 2009 is at Wallthamstow Hall School in Sevenoaks again. However, this year we are not holding a class in the dining room, we are using the Vine Baptist Church hall just around the corner, (No more than a 3 minute walk from the school, honest!) it’s a good size with a lovely wooden floor. The other dance halls are Main school hall and Junior school hall as before. It is Rachel Wilton’s first year teaching for us. She is a very respected teacher based in London and has taught at many day/weekend schools.

Publicity & Membership Push

We are all aware that the number of dancers who are members of the branch has been decreasing over some years, I think for the Branch to be able to continue to function as it has been and hopefully into the future, we need to try and reverse this trend, if at all possible. I would like to make this an aim for all of us for 2009 and beyond. I would like to suggest to you that we all get involved in making our profile more prominent to the outside world. Well, Tunbridge Wells and surrounding area at least; by trying to increase our dancing numbers, as without that the Branch’s future might be looking a little bleak.

To help do this the committee has come up with two immediate initiatives. Firstly, the committee is offering a monetary prize to anyone who comes up with an idea that is judged to have a possibility of success in this aim. Secondly, we would also like a member to volunteer as ‘press officer /marketing manager’, for the Branch who will be co-opted onto the committee. I know we have a membership of many talents, so is there anyone amongst our members who feels they have the time and knowledge to take on this challenge? This person will need to communicate with the local newspapers, persuading them to accept articles, pictures etc. Obtaining funding from charitable organisations for special events, initiatives to promote the Branch that the membership could get involved with. Communicate with RSCDS headquarters with reference to ‘Dance Scottish’ week etc. And hopefully by making our activity, and where we do it more prominent to the wider world, this might encourage people to come and Scottish Country Dancing and join us. With this thought in mind we are already on a short list of branches to be asked to prepare a programme of dances for an HQ AGM social in the near future. I know this is like preaching to the converted, but it’s a start.

If you are the person up for this challenge or you are just bursting with good ideas, please contact Colin either in class; phone or via email (contact details below). I look forward to hearing from you.

Classes

The general feeling from both teachers and participants is that by having to combining the Monday & Tuesday classes it has worked well. Certainly the less experienced dancers are benefitting from dancing with more experienced people. What perhaps needs to be emphasised more is that the classes start at 7.30pm. The first half hour will always have more technique in it than doing actual dances, but no matter how well we might think we dance, technique is something that doesn’t just benefit yourself but also the others in the set. Classes are designed by the teachers to have progressive teaching throughout the evening, so you might find that by missing the first ½ hour, you miss out on something that comes up later.

It is appreciated that 7.30pm is not convenient to all, but please try.

It has been brought to the attention of the committee that late arrivals on Tuesdays don’t always warm up or join into whatever the teacher is doing at the time. Rather than sit and wait to be asked, the teachers would like you to join in at the bottom of the set, and will always try and incorporate you into the activity without too much disruption to the class if you wish. However, this might not be so easy if you arrive very late.

Class Teachers

September 9^th – February 12^th February 24^th – June 25^th

Tuesdays George Don

Thursdays Colin Pat

SERTA Workshop

The next South East Region Teachers Association workshop will be held on Sunday 19^th April in Reigate.

The morning session will be lead by Linda Hughes, a SCD teacher and Physiotherapist (retired); the afternoon session by David Ambrose who will talk about using computers, MP3 players etc to provide music for dancing. Remember these meetings are open not just to teachers, as long as you take/or are thinking of taking a dance group.

Please contact Sue Bush for more details.

Review of the recent HQ AGM

Alex Grey took over as Chairman, Ruth Beattie was elected as Chair elect. All other board positions were filled. The management board’s motion to broaden the bands of membership categories fell, an amendment by Aberdeen was accepted. New Zealand’s motion to allow a delegate attending the AGM to have voting rights of up to 3 people was carried. N.Z’s motion to allow non RSCDS members to join RSCDS branches was rejected, an amendment from the management board to examine constitutional & financial implications and report back next year was accepted.

The morning Member’s Forum discussion was on ‘Communication’.

The subjects discussed were 1) the magazine ‘Scottish Country Dancer’ is popular but expensive to produce & distribute. Conclusion was it might be better to produce an annual glossy magazine with quarterly news sheets for information. 2) Information from HQ was not always ‘user friendly’, so needed revising before passing on. It was suggested HQ produce their dictums in 2 forms, one for branch committees etc., the other for members. 3) Members said they were experiencing difficulty in communicating with the correct person at HQ and consequently getting the required correct information & within a reasonable time span. Improvements were being made to the web site, but not everyone can use that method of communication.

Branch HQ AGM delegates 2009 – if you wish your name to be put forward as a branch delegate to attend the next HQ AGM, please indicate this fact to Sue Bush by the start of Easter. 9^th April 2009.

Next Newsletter

If you would like to say something in the next newssheet please get in touch with Colin by either Tel: 01892 532712 or e-mail : csimpson@cmpmedica.com or give it to him at class. All contributions welcome. Remember this is your mouthpiece as much as the committee’s. Deadline for the next issue is mid March 09.