General Interest Articles from our 2002 Grapevine Newsletter
The State of Northlands • The Year in Review • Impressions From a Northlands First-Timer • Closing Ceremony
THE STATE OF NORTHLANDS-2002
by Mike Mann
After my first storytelling program for an adult audience, I was sure I had failed miserably. When I called my friend, Anita Thompson, I said, "Anita, they don't move! Is that normal?" Anita said, "Yes, it is, for adults. Mike, you've got more to learn; you need to get to Northlands!"
Shortly after that I found myself packed into Anita's car with Anita's mom, Karl Hallsten and Anita, on our way to Elkader, Iowa. At the Northlands Conference we were embraced, welcomed and by the time we left we felt nurtured and linked.
All of us have these stories about our Northlands experiences. They make us a community: people with a shared history and common stories. Northlands is a community that flies in the face of the prevailing creed of American society. It is a creed that says, "There is no giver so you must get what you can." It is a creed of scarcity not abundance. I knew this creed. I spent 24 years in business learning its rules. And then I came to Northlands.
Nurturing Storytelling ... Linking Storytellers.
Northlands is a place where commitment to the common good is not just an option; it is what we do.
At the 2000 conference at Sunday morning breakfast I was having a conversation with a new Northlands member, John Walsh. John asked how such a wonderful conference comes together. I told him through a lot of volunteers and the hard work of one person, the conference chair. I told him I felt Northlands needed a staff person so a conference of this size doesn't have to be recreated year after year.
"Well, why don't you have one?" said John.
"Well, John, we already get a lot for the little money we have because of the way people share in this organization. We can't afford a staff person."
"Why not?" asked John.
"Umm, because we don't have the money?" I said.
"A staff person can pay for themselves," said John. Then he proceeded to prove to me how it could be done and he said, "You need to find someone who likes storytelling but is not a storyteller." He said, "Have you ever been to the Illinois Storytelling Festival? They have someone named Karen Wollscheid who does a marvelous job of working on the details. You need to find your own Karen." Well, less than a year after that, we found our own Karen. I think we did a pretty good job of it, too.
In a little over a year your Northlands Board has:
• Hired a Business Manager (Karen Wollscheid!) to handle the day-to-day duties of Northlands
• Updated the by-laws to include how we work with the Business Manager and created the new position of President-Elect
• Created an Endowment and deposited $5,000 into it for the future
• Suspended Grants and Loans to cover costs in case hiring Business Manager did not pay for itself
• Re-instated Grants and Loans after one year because having a Business Manager position does pay for itself
• Created a Youth Voices Concert and held a silent auction to fund and expand future Youth Voices Concerts
• Continued to operate and enhance the Northlands web site
• Planned the 2002 Northlands Conference
• Created 5 standing committees:
• Conference - John Walsh, chair
• Membership - Gene Gryniewicz, chair
• Marketing - Tina Rohde, chair
• Budget and Finance - Yvonne Healy, chair
• Long-Range Planning - Mike Mann, chair
For the future, we will be working on:
• An annual journal
• Establishing a fiscal calendar and an annual audit
• Redefining our Grants and Loans policy
• Expanding our Youth Voices concert
• Being involved in the 2003 National Conference in Chicago
• Creating a unique 2003 Northlands Conference
It is our job as the regional storytelling network to reach out locally to the state and guild organizations to help them gather more people in. Stronger local storytelling guilds and events means more people will become part of Northlands, which, in turn, makes Northlands stronger and more able to support and strengthen the National Storytelling Network. We are the link.
FROM THE SECRETARY ... THE YEAR IN REVIEW
Jenifer Ivinskas Strauss
At the January board meeting, the Board of Directors focused their energies on final Conference plans and other business:
• With the addition of Karen Wollscheid as our Business Manager, the Bylaws were revised. The Treasurer is now the Chair of the Business and Finance Committee, and oversees the daily-treasury tasks carried out by the Business Manager.
• The Northlands' Bylaws were revised and the officers positions now include: President Elect (also the Conference Chair), President, Vice-President, and Past President. Karl Hallsten took on the ominous task of revision. A Task Force was formed to review the revisions and advise the Board. New Bylaws were approved. If you would like a copy, contact the Northland's office.
• The Youth Voices Concert was added to the 2002 Conference and a Silent Auction was planned to raise money to sponsor Youth Storytellers at our Conference.
• The Membership Committee introduced the idea of an Annual Journal and Membership Directory to be sent in a June mailing to our membership.
• Northlands Storytelling Network will host the Sunday Concert at the National Storytelling Conference in Chicago, July of 2003.
In April, at the Conference site in Madison, the Northlands Board met before and after the Annual Conference. Below are the highlights of those meetings:
• Final Conference details were reviewed.
• Northland's Board members committed to recruiting volunteers from our membership for the National Storytelling Conference and Jenifer I. Strauss offered to be the Northlands' liaison to Nationals in exchange for advertisement for our 2003 Conference.
• The August Board Meeting was changed to September for the August 20th Conference Proposal deadline, allowing time for proposal review/evaluation.
• Grant and Loans were reinstated using old Bylaws. A Bylaws subcommittee was formed to revise Grants and Loans Guidelines and advise the Board.
• A new slate of Officers were welcomed:
President: Mike Mann; President Elect: John Walsh; Vice-President: Margie Reitsma; Secretary: Jenifer Strauss; Treasurer: Yvonne Healy; Past President: Tina Rohde; Members Elect: Colleen Shaskin, Leanne Johnson, and Don Falkos (Madison Liaison); Representatives: IL: Gene Gryniewicz, IA: Mary Schmidt, MI: Judy Sima, MN: Kevin Strauss, WI: Gwen Calvetti, Out-State: Karl Hallsten.
In September, the Board met at an environmental camp in McHenry, IL. This is traditionally the Conference Planning Meeting.
• School of Storytelling, Workshop and Showcase presenters for the 2003 Northland's Conference were selected from 72 submitted proposals, using a new subjective evaluation process devised by Karen Wollscheid. Karen compiled all the results, making the selection process for School of Storytelling, Conference Workshops, and Showcases fair and efficient.
• The first Annual Northlands Journal and Membership Directory was well received, thanks to Kevin Strauss, Karen Wollscheid and all who submitted articles.
• Grants and Loans Subcommittee revised Guidelines.
• The Board focused on Conference 2003 decisions regarding site changes, schedules and deadlines.
• A Personnel Committee was formed to conduct Performance Reviews allowing the Board and the Business Manager to evaluate progress.
• A Committee was formed for the Sunday Concert at the National Conference 2003, creating criteria for selecting tellers and producing the event.
In November, the Board met at an environmental center Hastings, MI. Aside from donating time and talent to a Fundraising Storytelling effort for the Pierce Cedar Creek Environmental Institute, the Board conducted the following business:
• The Board approved the Budget and Finance Committee recommendation to diversify our income by offering a "Charitable Donations" box on our membership forms, and initiating a "Matching Gifts" campaign. Plans to ensure the survival of our Conference in 2003 and beyond were initiated.
• The Board decided to move more of the Conference to the hotel to simplify transportation, become centrally located, and offer more networking opportunities for attendees.
• Conference Fees were increased to meet rising costs.
• Annual Membership dues were raised $5.
• The Long Range Planning Committee-Support Staff task force conducted an Annual Review with the Business Manager, and established goals for 2003. The next review will be held in June.
• Grants and Loans were reinstated, Guidelines were revised with $5000 available annually for Grant and Loans. The Board approved a $1000 grant to the Twin Cities Metro Storytelling Festival as seed money to pursue other larger grant money.
• An Annual Membership Report will be sent in January or February including a yearly Financial Report and Annual Summary of Minutes.
IMPRESSION FROM NORTHLANDS FIRST TIMER
Susan Black
Men in hats with beards and ponytails.
Women in fringed shawls and colorful clothing. (These people don't look like teachers.)
So many talented people all in the same place. So many talented people all on the same page - storytelling is a priceless contribution to the world.
Creativity abounds.
Everybody seems to know everybody else.
Everybody seems to be willing to get to know me.
Delighted to put a face with the names I've seen on Storytell.
Friday pizza dinner, I'm wondering if this is a group I can fit into. By lunch on Saturday, I was on overdrive. Totally forgot the Storytell lunch table plans and sought out a safe refuge with my guild friends who were there. By mid-afternoon on Saturday I was wondering why all of this was going to have to end so soon.
Challenged continuously, in every workshop, to do more and to be more - to be better than I was before. For example, I can now tell a story about the homesick tomato wondering in the bowels of the forest for 14 dreary days searching relentlessly for the magic lettuce that will make it a complete salad. (Tom McCabe, questions to ask while writing) This story is not complete, however, without making a plaintive sound on my nose flute halfway through the forest, then singing with a joyful heart at the end, "The wondering tomato has finally found its mate. The lettuce has been cut, the carrots through the grate. A salad now is quite complete. Everybody eat!" (Mike Anderson, to the tune of itsy bitsy spider) Because Margie Reitsma forced me to examine the layers of the values I talk about, I can identify this story as one appropriate for programs seeking: compassion, perseverance, loyalty, and courage. Thanks to Marilyn Kinsella, I would look at the multiple places throughout the story where I could add sensory words and expand the image.
A wonderful place to be the real me, someone who loves a good story and would prefer to do nothing else than to hear one, tell one, or make a new one up.
Thanks to all who were there and welcomed me in.
CLOSING CEREMONIES
Colleen Shaskin
We are the old people…
We are the new people …
It has been a tradition, for at least the last eleven years, that the Sunday morning closing of the annual Northlands Storytelling Network conference include a chant and a spiral circle dance. The people new to Northlands, who, affectionately dubbed newts, came to the April conference for their first time this year are probably unaware that this spiral dance was sometimes referred to as the eye of newt dance by a small faction of the membership who felt uncomfortable with its ritualistic nature. Moreover, the ancient words of the chant left some people wondering what were we singing and why.
The words, the way I remember them, were:
We are the old people
We are the new people
We are the same people
Deeper than before.
Cauldron of changes
Blossom of bone
Arc of eternity
Hole in the stone.
When asked, no one seemed to know, for certain, the origin of the chant; and there were ripples of feedback that said some people thought of this ritual as being rather weird. Other people loved it.
Personally, I loved the dance because, for one last time before heading home, I could look into the faces of fellow storytellers and remember how their stories had impacted my heart; and the dance always ended in a huge group hug. I want to acknowledge that for some of us this was a comfortable way to end the time we had spent together ... for others, unfortunately, it was not.
This year I volunteered to lead the closing with Jenifer Ivinskas Strauss. We decided to try changing the tradition for a variety of reasons. I re-wrote the words to the chant:
We are the old people
We are the new people
We are the same people
Richer than before.
The memories we've made here
The friendships that have grown
The stories we've shared here
Will carry us home.
I hoped this change in words would hold more meaning for all of us.
Personally, I would like to have kept the spiral dance; but this year's rainy weather outside and the lack of available indoor space did not allow it.
Those of you who were present this year no doubt remember how I blundered through the song · even with the support of two delightful women who know how to sing and volunteered to help. Then Pat Coffey stood up and asked, "Could we pick up the pace?" And then Linda Gorham said, "I thought the song went like this ..." and she sang the chant, beautifully, the way she remembered it.
Ahh, it was lovely to hear everyone who added their voice to that song.
Perhaps the new words will become part of a new tradition, perhaps not; that will be determined by whoever volunteers to do the closing next year, and by input from other participants.
Another new adventure this year was our Youth Voices Concert. Kudos to all the youth participants! This is one tradition I surely hope to see continue.
One of the many things I love about Northlands is that there are so many members who add their own ideas, voices and talents to help create a unique and exciting conference every year.
Here's to traditions. May we honor them. May we re-create them and may we change them as we continue this artful journey into storytelling together! I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to all the wonderful people who helped make this year's conference a success.
With Love and Laughter from one of the Old People,
Colleen Shaskin