General Interest Articles from our 2005 Grapevine Newsletter
Hands Across the Northlands: Conference 2005 • New Conference Format and Procedures • Grant Awards
Northlands Conference 2005: HANDS ACROSS THE NORTHLANDS
Jenifer Ivinskas Strauss, 2005 Conference Chair
The Conference Committee has been hard at work, planning this year's Northlands Annual Conference: "Hands Across The Northlands." We are excited about the April Conference in Madison, and will be offering a variety of diverse and interesting pre-conference intensives, workshops, showcases, story swaps and concerts. We were thrilled to receive over seventy proposals this year! The board uses a subjective process for evaluating all proposals, with a numerical system and spreadsheets that allow us to review proposals in a fair and thorough way. A committee has been formed to review the evaluation process, guidelines, and call for proposals, in order to hone and clarify the process even more. When the Call for Proposals for the 2006 Conference is sent out, included will be the evaluation form, description of the evaluation process, proposal guidelines, and sample proposals. We hope that this communication will help presenters when they are creating their proposals.
New this year ... we will be offering our conference storytelling concerts to the community of Madison as the "Midwest StoryFest!" and attendees from outside the conference will be able to come to one, two, or all three of our concerts, including a Family Concert on Sunday afternoon. Kevin Strauss is chairing the concert committee and Yvonne Healy has put together a very dynamic marketing plan to reach out to the Madison community.
The Northlands Board of Directors would like to extend a sincere apology to our Jewish members and conference attendees. As the Conference Chair and a born and raised Jew .. I would like to extend my own personal apology. In 2003 we signed a contract with Edgewater Hotel for our 2005 conference without realizing that this year's conference dates conflict with Passover. By the time we realized this, it was too late to cancel or change our contract with the hotel. The conference is scheduled for April 22-24, 2005 at the Edgewater Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin. If this conflict with Passover affects you, we extend our apologies for this oversight. I am going to have my own "family explaining" to do this year, but luckily, the dates do not conflict again for 19 years. That should give us enough time to plan ahead.
GRANT AWARDS
Healing Story Alliance – $1,000 for graduate and college seniors or young professionals in the medical and mental health fields to attend the Healing Story Alliance Conference in February 2005 in Minneapolis.
"What About The Children?" – $250 general support for storytelling project for the upliftment of refugee youth ages 12-25.
LaCrosse Storytelling Festival – $250 for general operating support.
Ellis Elementary School, Round Lake, IL – $300 for
for the purchase of a "storytelling library" for the school's storytelling club.
Allerton Park, Monticello, IL – $250 for advertising for "Stories of Love" weekend of workshops storytelling and workshops at the park.
NEW CONCERT FORMAT AND PROCEDURES
This year's concert story submission process will be a little bit different from past years, in an effort to address questions and concerns brought up by Northlands members:
- This year, our conference will include three concerts under the title of "Midwest StoryFest!" A concert geared towards adults and teens will be held at 8:00p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, and a Family Matinee concert will take place on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. All three concerts will be open to the public.
- Storytellers will no longer submit stories to a particular concert. They will instead submit up to two stories to the Northlands Concert Committee. The committee, which is comprised of volunteers from our membership, will choose the strongest material and assign stories to concerts. Once emcees know what stories they will have in their concert, we will develop the concert themes.
- We no longer have time limits for story submissions. Keep in mind though that concerts are 75 minutes long and tellers who submit shorter material may be more likely to be chosen. If you think you have a really dynamite 36 minute story, make sure is is so good that we will choose your story rather than three other 12-minute stories. If you are new to the Northlands stage, send us a couple 6-8 minute stories, and it may be easier for us to fit you into a concert.
- Submit your best material. All story choices are "blind" so if you are a well-known performer and give us a mediocre story in your recording, we aren't going to choose you on the faith that you will "work on" your material more before the concert.
- Everyone who submits stories for concerts needs to be available to perform at any of the three concerts, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.
- Should the committee feel that after the first deadline passes, we don't have enough "good material" to hold three concerts, we will send out a second Call for Stories.