Editor’s Page

This issue marks the beginning of the second year of an all-electronc Promenader. The feedback has been interesting. I suppose it’s no surprise that those who have commented on it either love it or hate it. People who are in the middle don’t bother commenting. It’s also no surprise that those who hate it are still mourning the loss of the paper version and are not happy about having to use an electronic device to access it now.

Most clubs are now printing a “table copy” of the club news and other articles, as well as multiple copies of the flyers, so hopefully our content is not totally inaccessible to those who do not access it online. We are mailing paper copies of selected sections to about 12 people who do not have any other way to access it.

Those who love it appreciate the easy access it gives to dance schedules and other useful information about what’s going on in the dancing community. If you see ways that we could improve the Promenader or the website, please be sure to let us know.

Classes

In this issue we had hoped to improve our presentation of class schedules, but that proved to be a more complicated challenge than we had thought. In addition to clearly identifiable classes, there are many clubs that blend instruction into their regular dances. As a result, the first draft of class listings looked almost like the full schedule of dances—adding to confusion rather than reducing it. So, we are still in the process of working out how to present this aspect of dancing.

Promenader Dance and support for club Recruitment & Retention efforts

As you’ll read in the Promenader Dance article found in this issue, the September Promenader Dance raised $238 for the RAF recruitment and retention grant program. This program is described in an article by Warren Olson in the Promenader section.

If your club would like to receive support from this program, please read Warren’s article and look in the Federation pages for the RAF President’s message and for instructions & form to fill out.

For next year, plans are afoot at the RAF to re-imagine the Promenader dance—making it even more appealing as a “Welcome Back” dance for established dancers and recent graduates to re-connect on the dance floor.

Site Map Pages Added

A new page introduced with this issue is a Site Map that lets you see the entire website structure and point directly to the page you want, without having to navigate through multiple pages. In addition, the Dance Schedules link near the bottom of the Site Map page lets you pick your favorite “view” from the entire dance calendar—past and future—in one look. This is a very handy way to reduce navigation steps and avoid waiting for intermediate pages to open. The link to the Site Map is located among the bullets above the buttons on the main home page.

Peter Emmel, Interim Editor