Actually, I think it would be rather a good idea for them to promote writing 'in a tradtional style' or 'in the spirit of the tradition'. After all, all songs were written at some point in the past and to promote the position of song in the community, encouraging the writing of new ones might enable people to better understand the different roles traditional songs played in the past.

It is entirely possible that the input of someone of Dick's standing in the folk world might inspire some new thinking in EFDSS, so it wouldn't occur to me to knock him for making a generous suggestion.