I have been a member for over 35 years. These days I'm not a very active member - think I probably suffered Burn-out from the 70's when I was. During that time, I was on the National Executive (Board of Directors for a charity) as well as many committees and sub-committees.

EFDSS (as it's title seems to indicate) has always been acused of being more concerned with dance than song. Many years ago, Lawrence Heath (in his excellent BORFOLK cartoon strip) renamed "EFDSS" to "DEAFAS" - Dance Earnestly And forget all About Song. While I agree that there is a bias towards dance, this is not as great as might be expected considering the large majority of dancers in the membership. I should point out that I am primarily a singer - as anyone who has partnered me in a Ceilidh will testify !

The large number of "Dance" members is not so surprising, dancing needs organisation, clubs etc, whereas a singer can float around clubs and sessions and even sing on his/her own in pub or other gigs.

The magazine (English Dance and Song), the Annual Folk Journal, and the library at CSH are all worthwhile perks of being a member. I agree that if you're far from London that the library may not be very accessible, but even I living in the suburbs, have to make a special journey up to town to use it.

There are local branches of the EFDSS all over the country, some more active than others, but if your local branch is very dynamic, get in there and do something about it.

The EFDSS is what you make of it - YES I do recommend you to join.