Round Robin correspondence
Long before the internet, a group of a dozen or so square dance callers around the country exchanged ideas through a series of Round Robin letters. (Note: the Square Dance History Project would dearly like to locate any copies of these letters; please let us know if you know where some can be found!)
Here's how Al Brundage explained the process; he was speaking on the occasion of presenting the CALLERLAB Milestone Award to Ralph Piper:
"When the square dance activity was an infant, there were no magazines, note services, recordings, or other methods of gathering information on square or round dancing. Pappy Shaw dreamed up the idea that if the activity was to survive, we needed a method of communication so that ideas and dance material could be shared by the leaders around the country. I was privileged to be one of the 12 leaders to be included in the “Round Robin.” This consisted of one or two pages of ideas, gimmicks, new material, or just chit-chat about what was happening locally from each caller on the list. “Pappy” started it off, sent it to Ed Gilmore, and the idea was that the packet went around the complete loop about twice a year. When you received it you had two weeks to digest it, make notes from it, add your contribution and then mail it to the next person on the list. I received my packet from Bascom Lamar Luncefored who represented the Appalachian area and was full of ideas and material on our Southern Mountain Dancing. After adding my contribution, representing the New England area, I would send the “Round Robin” along to Floyd Woodhull in Elmira, New York (his Blackberry Quadrille on RCA Victor was one of the best and earliest instrumental pieces of the day – and I’m sure there are some old-timers here that still carry it in their record cases.)
"Floyd would send it along to Ralph Piper and I recall with much humbleness and respect the orderly and highly informational contributions of the person you are about to meet."
Subjects: Transitional/Western 1940s, Transitional/Western 1950s
Tags: Round Robin, Thad Byrne
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Here's how Al Brundage explained the process; he was speaking on the occasion of presenting the CALLERLAB Milestone Award to Ralph Piper:
"When the square dance activity was an infant, there were no magazines, note services, recordings, or other methods of gathering information on square or round dancing. Pappy Shaw dreamed up the idea that if the activity was to survive, we needed a method of communication so that ideas and dance material could be shared by the leaders around the country. I was privileged to be one of the 12 leaders to be included in the “Round Robin.” This consisted of one or two pages of ideas, gimmicks, new material, or just chit-chat about what was happening locally from each caller on the list. “Pappy” started it off, sent it to Ed Gilmore, and the idea was that the packet went around the complete loop about twice a year. When you received it you had two weeks to digest it, make notes from it, add your contribution and then mail it to the next person on the list. I received my packet from Bascom Lamar Luncefored who represented the Appalachian area and was full of ideas and material on our Southern Mountain Dancing. After adding my contribution, representing the New England area, I would send the “Round Robin” along to Floyd Woodhull in Elmira, New York (his Blackberry Quadrille on RCA Victor was one of the best and earliest instrumental pieces of the day – and I’m sure there are some old-timers here that still carry it in their record cases.)
"Floyd would send it along to Ralph Piper and I recall with much humbleness and respect the orderly and highly informational contributions of the person you are about to meet."