#88: Where Things Stand Now

Preparing Your Gift:
The WCS Timeline

A Weekly Note Addendum released April 14th 2014.

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I hope that you have received Weekly Note #85: The Cult, the Council and The End by now and have read all of it. It was the last of the Weekly Notes, and a very fitting end to them it was, I believe.

I have also written and released a few addendum's here on my blog. They are The WCS Mafia and, my favorite, My Problem with Points (the article in which I name The Ten).

I love them and wish I'd said a lot of it much, much earlier in this three year race. But much of it I had not formed into words yet, and some of it I clearly wasn't aware of until just now, including the illegality of the harassment and violence against not only myself, but anyone who merely clicked "like" on anything remotely in favor of swing, good music, better instruction and fair judging over the last few years.

So I sit here today, as I have done so very often over the last year, wondering how I could have lost so much of my life to this, well... death parade. I don't know what else to call it. Of course, I've probably seen the worst of it. Many people chose to leave our corner of swing after...

#87: My Problem with Points (and The Ten)

The Deep Flaws in the
WSDC's Points System

I've already outlined a lot of problems I've had with the Points System in the past for you. Those all still apply. They haven't changed.

Today I want to talk to you about how Jack Carey designed them to serve his favorite dancers, and no one else. Let me tell you how. I'm going to break it down.

First, the Points System, as I understand it, was an idea first formed by Jack Carey during his time spent in Las Vegas. The World Swing Dance Council (WSDC), which has always been an extremely small handful of dancers, six at most, I believe, decided to develop the idea and grow the competitive side of swing with it.

In this case it was West Coast Swing (WCS) that bore the brunt, and as Annie Hirsch, with help from Skippy Blair and the rest of the Council, developed the Points system, they listened and leaned on the counsel and concerns of only a handful of professional dancers. Many of these went on to form the head of the notorious "Ten."