Thread
Index
What do you think of the RSCDS?
Martin.Sheffield
March 15, 1998, 11:01 a.m. (Message 11260)
In the survey, answers to the question "What do you think of the RSCDS?" fell into 4 groups. A - only positive comments --- 25 B - only negative comments --- 3 C - mixed feelings ---------- 43 D - non-committal, irrelevant, or no opinion given --- 19 A: mainly comments of the type: "There'd be no SCD today but for the Society." "It's great that they train teachers and maintain standards." "Does a difficult job remarkably well." B: For example: "More interested in promoting their style than in promoting traditional dancing." Stuffy. Arrogant. Old-fashioned. Too age oriented. C: For example: "It did a good job in preserving a dance form, but took too long in coming to terms with new dances and dance development. It tends to think along old fashioned lines, but as this means it helps to maintain standards it is not all bad." "Has done a grand job (seriously!) but is becoming fossilised. I can't see the SCD world without it, but it needs to be prodded and pricked from time to time." "It is useful for making contact with other dancers throughout the UK (and World) Needs to be brought up-to-date." "It has done a marvellous job (but) now it is too dominated by older people, resistant to new ideas and tends to always be looking back to Miss Milligan instead of forward to new challenges." "Although hidebound with tradition and full of old fuddie-duddies who resist any attempts to change, I think the Society does a fantastic job." "The dancers and musicians around the world seem to have outgrown the need for a central association." " The branch near my university is lovely, lots of fun, whereas another branch I have danced with was very stuffy, not very much fun at all, and the average age was about 60. I think it has a tendency to have older members, which can discourage younger people from joining." (I should add that this kind of comment did not emanate solely from the under-25 group. Most of the American college students did not seem to know what the RSCDS was, and did not voice any opinion.) One person mentioned how frustrating it was to feel rejected by the RSCDS because of belonging to a group without an officially certificated teacher. Most of the respondents seem to be members, and a lot of them are teachers (can one be a teacher without being a member?). Does this explain why there were so few *solely* negative replies, and so many "They (we?) are doing a great job, BUT ..." ? I sense a high degree of frustration out there, as if people would like to do without the RSCDS, but don't know how to, or are afraid that the dancing world would fall apart without the Society acting as cement to keep the bricks together. I am tempted to send out another survey: What do you think of the Teachers Association of Cananda? What do you think of the Imperial Society of Dance Teachers? After all, the RSCDS is not alone in encouraging good dancing. There are other organizations doing good work. If anyone wants the whole text of survey responses (90 pages !), It can be sent. Martin, Grenoble, France. ------------------ http://perso.wanadoo.fr/scots.in.france
In reply to my words: >> If anyone wants the whole text of survey responses (90 pages !), It can >> be sent. A member of the list wrote: > >NO! This is totally unacceptable. It is implicit in the ethics of any >survey that individual results are confidential, and NEVER even shown to >outsiders, let alone copied to them. > >I consider any distribution of my reply or that of any other respondent >without explicit permission as a serious breach of confidence. Quite correct. In my mind I was thinking of a stripped down text without signatures or origins, but perhaps this too should remain confidential. In any case, nothing has been passed on anywhere, and rather than offend anyone, let me reassure you that your comments will go no further than my friend Sophie (as explained in advance). I will also mention to her your desire for anonymity. Martin, Grenoble, France. ------------------ http://perso.wanadoo.fr/scots.in.france