Subject: RE: 2005 Getaway Program Information
From:
lamarca
Date: 04 Oct 05 - 05:39 PM
Janie, this is a post that's hard to write, and will probably get me flamed, but is one answer to your question:
"I am sometimes curious about how the infusion of a large dose of 'catters from out of the area has changed the Getaway. I imagine that it has lost something as well as gained by that change."
The FSGW Getaway was already about 20 or 25 years old when I first attended as a newbie. It was being held at YMCA Camp Letts, near Annapolis, MD. When I started coming, long-time FSGW regulars like BillD were already moaning about how it wasn't as good as in "the good old days at Prince William Forest Park..."
I thought it was marvelous! Perhaps because it was an Anniversary Getaway, there were more than the usual number of "Invited Guests", who were mostly known performers from the East Coast trad/semi-trad music scene, and many FSGW prodigals who had moved away and returned especially for the Getaway. One of my fondest memories from that era was sitting on the floor in an upstairs room of Letts Lodge, listening to Barbara Carnes and Jonathan Eberhardt swapping blues songs, while we all passed around an illicit bottle of Laphroiag (the YMCA frowned on alcohol, which meant we kept it discreet...). Because the majority of people who were there were local FSGW members, there were jam sessions all day in lots of different genres, as folks who normally jammed together had familiar tunes they could share - but because it was the Getaway, folks could drift from genre to genre and get outside their normal musical milieu as well.
As a newbie, I immediately recognized that there were "In" groups and Outsiders - the "In" crowd and Invited Guests all slept in Letts Lodge (a dubious privelege, given the mildewed carpets). Again, it was simple human social dynamics - these were people who had known each other for a long time, and had formed associations and networks that were hard to jump into. But the sing-arounds and workshops were places where even a newbie could participate and learn new songs, old songs, names and faces. I used to bring a tape recorder and tape hours of workshops, then bring the tapes home, where they sit mouldering to this day...
Over the years, I became more a part of the FSGW core - by volunteering to work. I served on the Board of Directors. I was on the Coordinating Committee for our Washington Folk Festival for three crazy-making years. I participated in philosophical arguments about the goals of the Society, and agonized over budget decisions to keep programs going. I kept going to the Getaway, always doing some sort of job to help out. I made signs, bought pumpkins for Dining Hall decorations, jockeyed microphones for the concert, did my kitchen duty (in the Letts Days, we did our own meals and everyone had to sign up for two-three hours kitchen duty), colored in Getaway buttons, washed 200 naked chickens for Pete the Spy's traditional(ly late) Sunday feast, etc. I'm now burned out - I feel that I've done my time, I've paid my debt to the Society...
Putting on the Getaway was (and is) LOTS of work. It's also expensive - camp rates have gone up, food costs have changed. And people's lives have changed - we've gotten older, many folks I first met in the 80's acquired children (now, how did that happen?) and the Getaway became either less important or too expensive or reached the tipping point between those priorities for many FSGW members. Enter the Mudcat. The attendence of so many Mudcatters has infused the Getaway with new blood, new music and enough people to almost make it financially viable. Without the Mudcat attendence, I believe that the Getaway would have died as an FSGW event.
BUT (and here is where I expect to get criticism) the Invasion of the Mudcat has created a whole new Insider/Outsider atmosphere at the Getaway, similar to what I felt 20 years ago. It is understandable that people who have formed associations with each other on-line would want to revel in inside jokes and a "Mudcat Ladies Cabin", etc, but please realize that some non-Mudcat members of the FSGW might feel that "our" Getaway has been highjacked.
While the Getaway has been preserved by the dedicated hard work of a number of folks who are both long-time FSGW members and Mudcatters, like Ferrara, Nancy King, Charlie Baum, etc., the fact still remains that the FSGW as an organization assumes all the financial and liability risks for the event. If FSGW signs the contract for the camp, we promise a certain guaranteed payment, which is calculated based on expected attendence, and the FSGW is liable for that amount even if Mudcatters who planned to come find that they can't. If a Mudcatter or FSGW member gets paralytic drunk and burns down a cabin, the FSGW is liable for the damages.
Finally, as I said before, putting together the Getaway is a LOT of work. This includes negotiating a contract with the Camp (which has to be done by an FSGW Board member because FSGW pays the bills), planning menus with the Camp Staff and making arrangements for necessary facilities, scouting out possible new camps, bringing and assembling a sound system (which, BTW, belongs to the FSGW), establishing a budget and trying to bring in Invited Guests within that budget, planning and scheduling a program (thanks, Rita, Nancy and Carly!), making signs, prepping the camp, cleaning up the camp, etc. As the Getaway has become more of a Mudcat event, the number of people who have volunteered to work on the local stuff has dwindled to just the FSGW/Mudcat members.
The old way of making ties within a volunteer group isn't possible here - local FSGW folks who have no interest in Internet chat groups can't get to know 'Catters over a longer time period, and 'Catters can't integrate into the FSGW by volunteering and working alongside other members except for the brief time you're actually at the Getaway. The disconnect has bred some resentment that I think that folks who hold "Dual Citizenship" in FSGW and Mudcat don't quite understand or acknowledge, simply because they are so comfortable in both groups.
I don't have a solution for the sociological problems between the two groups, but there is perhaps one way to make the Getaway more of a shared event. The FSGW has a long-time practice of "co-sponsoring" events with other organizations, where the Society lends the strength of its name, 503C non-profit status, insurance, financial and other resources to an affiliated group that also assumes some of the risk for the event. Perhaps it is time to consider a formal Mudcat Cafe organization, with a Board of Directors, and a network of dedicated volunteers who are willing to fully commit to working on financing and a budget to support the Mudcat system and making events like the Getaway and other Mudcat Gatherings happen.
OK - I now turn my soapbox over to the next person!
|
sj
