BC Festival 2017 in Region 2                                                                              Thurs. to Sat. July 6, 7, 8, 2017
By Wendy Krueger, Co-Chair                                                        VENUE: Cloverdale Rodeo Grounds
 
                  British Columbia Square and Round Dancers and guests from near and far, you are in for a wonderful time in a few short weeks. Everything for BC Festival 2017 is worked out, procured, booked, arranged, designed, organized and ready to roll.
                  Our committee has done a wonderful job. Let me remind you briefly who they are.
Jean and Alex Galbraith worked tirelessly sending out advertising and promotional material.
Betty and George Langtry organized everything to do with camping and hotel accommodations.
Minnie Basaraba received all of the mailed registrations, deposited money, and sent out ribbons.
Cheryl Plume kept the budgeting and banking and bill paying straight.
Maureen Wilson designed our website and kept it updated.
Christine Dahl pulled off all of the secretarial duties.
Brent Mawdsley worked out the square dance programming and headed up the Sound Subcommittee.
Ellen and Les Robertson worked out the round dance programming for the afternoons.
Margaret Beatty programmed the rounds between square dance tips.
June Fitchett nailed down our security needs.
Dave Hammer planned and organized the opening and closing ceremonies.
Ken and Sally Crisp liaised with the caterers and created the Hitching Posts.
Darlene Austin helped organize and set up the volunteer luncheon and made the solo ribbons.
Frank McNeil made our Festival poster and took care of our advertising needs at the Valley Circle.
Blair Wallace took charge of everything to do with the souvenir booklet.
Margaret Stone visited Cloverdale businesses to promote advertising in the souvenir booklet.
Lana Antifaeff designed and made the decorations, working closely with Evelyn Zuberbier, who painted the murals.
Dan and Anita Adams worked with us till this March, when they had to step down for health reasons.
Several members at large cheered the committee along and they and others will be volunteering during the Festival to help keep people informed and things running smoothly.
David McVige and I co-chaired. We led meetings and did some of the odd jobs, made a few phone calls and such. We just generally helped keep things moving along. It has been a privilege to work with such a fine cast of dedicated people. None of us would be as good on our own as we are working together. A huge thank you to one and all.
 
Soon it will be show time, dancing morning, afternoon, and night. “No more rehearsing and nursing our part; we know every part by heart” to quote the Bugs Bunny Show (Warner Bros.) theme song. As I write this, we sit at 337 people registered for the Festival. It will be wonderful! I feel I cannot wait any longer!!
I can’t wait to see the floors full of dancers and all the banners displayed, to hear the music and the calling and cueing and the laughter and good times. It’s our time of celebration and joyous merry-making. Enjoy it to the full, everyone!
 
                 

BC Festival 2017 in Region 2                                                                                            Thurs. to Sat. July 6, 7, 8, 2017
By Wendy Krueger, Co-Chair                                                                                           VENUE: Cloverdale Rodeo Grounds
Here we are in March, only 4 months from our provincial FESTIVAL! I love the anticipation of a great event. I looked back at my first article about BCFestival 2017 which was published in the Valley Circle in September 2015 and I recall looking up “festival” in an on-line dictionary. Remember? This is what I reported:
FESTIVAL [fes-tuh-vuh l]   1. time of celebration marked by feasting and ceremonies or other observances, like dancing; 2. periodic commemoration, anniversary or celebration with dancing; 3. a period or program of festive dance  activities, cultural events, or entertainment; 4. joyous merrymaking, ie. dancing
 
It occurs to me that no one challenged my assertion that this is, in fact, an actual dictionary definition. The fourfold inclusion of “dancing” might have tipped someone off. But not square and round dancers.  Nuh-uh. For us, dancing is fun, dancing is a celebration of health and life, dancing is entertainment, dancing is all those things.
 
The big planning decisions have largely been made for this festival, except for programming. What is programming? Programming is the levels of square and round dancing that will be offered over the three days of the event, and who is calling and cueing when and where. By looking at the levels and phases that people indicate are their top choices, our programmers will be dividing up the 75 hours of floor time to give the most people the most dancing pleasure possible. Where do I get 75 hours from? Well, it’s 32.5 hours in Shannon Hall, 32.5 hours in the Alice McKay building, and another 10 hours in the Cloverdale Recreation Centre. That’s a lot of programming. So please get registered soon, soon, soon. I can see from reports of past festivals that It doesn’t work out well when a large group of dancers wanting a particular level of dancing leaves it till the last 3 months to register. Halls need to be allocated for the numbers, so please help us get it right by registering quickly. Thanks to those already registered!
 
So maybe there’s a little time now to consider theme colours and maybe some fabric in those colours for a new outfit. As you may have gathered the colours are aqua and tan, and they do look so nice together. The festival décor will have a rodeo or western theme, and I noticed on line that southwest décor uses aqua and tan very effectively. I have gathered a few images of fabrics from the internet and put them on the BCFestival 2017 website, entitled Aqua and Tan sampler. Some of this fabric is upholstery fabric, not so suitable for clothing.  The one called “painted desert diamond print” is quilting material, 100% cotton. Close up it looks especially nice. Purists will say it is more teal than aqua, but that doesn’t bother me. I have ordered a metre and a half, not enough to make a whole dress with, but enough to use on the gores of a skirt alternating with solid tan. You can find it on etsy.com.
 
And the last thing I would like to mention for this month is food and beverages at the festival. The venue has a catering service that handles food for events and there are varied food choices available right there on site. Grilled choices like burgers and fries are cooked to order, and lasagnas and sandwiches and salads can be chosen and ordered in advance. There will be lots more information about this in your registration package, but for example, if a minimum of 15 people order the “officer’s lunch”, for $12.95 you get a deluxe sandwich on artisan bread, vegetables and dip or chef’s choice salad, dessert squares, and a soft drink, water, or juice.
 
I leave you with the same message as every time. Please register early as you can and ask all of your friends to do so, too. A great time is just around the trail’s bend!
 

BCFestival 2017 in Region 2                                                   Thurs. to Sat. July 6, 7, 8, 2017
By Wendy Krueger, Co-Chair                                                 VENUE: Cloverdale Rodeo Grounds
     December went by in a blur what with all of the wonderful Christmas parties and preparations and potluck dinners and yours truly did not write anything to be published in the January Valley Circle.
     Numbers mean a lot. A friend asks you how many of your family and/or friends came for Christmas dinner. She learns a lot from your answer, such as how much food preparation you did, the relative complexity of seating everyone, and the level of emotional intensity that the occasion brought.
     Your friend, knowing your family, will know how elaborate your menu likely was. Her “read” of your party includes the volume of food you bought and possibly the variety, too, because if your son hates pumpkin pie but everyone else loves it and only gets it at Christmas at your house, you will have made more than one pie. And if your daughters are the two vegetarians in the family, you prepared your turkey but also a meatless protein dish and your stuffing didn’t have giblets and you didn’t put it inside the turkey. If there were fourteen people, you prepared three vegetable dishes and salad, but if there were only six to feed, you made two vegetables and probably forgot to put out the pickled onions!
     Seating everyone can be quite a task, but having had your family for decades, you’ve probably got it figured out. Maybe you have an old door and sawhorses that make up a trestle table in the rec room when you have a large crowd, or maybe you serve buffet style and everyone sits in the living room with their plates on TV tables or on their laps. A smaller group probably was accommodated at your kitchen table.
     The pleasure, the fun, the outpourings of love and laughter, the good humoured joking, and the general furor of getting together of course rises with the size of your party. So your friend, who knows how your family “clicks,” with that one question, has gauged not only how hard you worked to enjoy Christmas dinner, but also your happiness with the whole event. And that, my friend, is what she really wanted to know all along.
     Your festival committee is preparing to put on a wonderful festival be it two hundred people or eight hundred people, like we had in 2005. The callers and cuers, venue, and décor will all be great!
     Here is a number that means a lot to your BCFestival committee. Our number of registrations for BCFestival 2017 as of January 10th is 195. We are forecasting the total number based on how many have registered so far.  If 195 were the total number for our event, it wouldn’t be big, but it would more dancers than, say, the Sweetheart Gala that’s on this month. The Gala, though, is a Plus dance.  Twenty squares of Plus. For Festival, maybe we should be able to anticipate that many Plus dancers AND at least thirty squares of mainstream dancers, AND a few squares of Advanced as well.
     How many more will register? Hmmm, maybe what has happened in the past could help us predict. In June 1993, Chilliwack hosted the provincial festival. By January 1993, 43% of the total was registered.
     QUICK! Do the math! If this is indicative of a pattern of human behaviour, and if the pattern holds true, OH MY GOODNESS!! Could it be? Is it possible? Both methods of predicting come up in the mid-400’s. YES, it could be, and YES it is possible. Wow! This is going to be one terrific event, and, for many of you, it will be the biggest event of your square dance experience. Right here in our own region.
     Come on! Let’s get those remaining 57% of registrations pouring in! We are on our way to one fabulous three-day party!!

BCFestival 2017 in Region 2                                                    Thurs. to Sat. July 6, 7, 8, 2017
By Wendy Krueger, Co-Chair                                                 VENUE: Cloverdale Rodeo Grounds
     Norman phoned me today. He told me he has been talking up the need to register for our festival next July (Yeah, Norm!), specifically to A dancers. He spoke passionately about the demise of the plans for BCFestival 2011 in Prince George due to lack of registrations. When the decision to cancel was made, Norm heard dancers say they were planning to register. Good intentions don’t put the funds in the bank. It is a powerful negative example of the possible consequences of failure to act. Could that happen to Festival 2017? I don’t want to even consider it.
                  Instead, let’s focus on how attending Festival 2017 will kindle enthusiasm for dancing, will meet our desire to experience a big event, and will showcase callers and cuers from around a wide area. These are all good and worthy outcomes. Also, the attendance of the elected dignitaries of Surrey and Langley, who are being approached to grace our opening ceremonies on Thursday evening, will help the public take notice of Modern Square Dancing. We aren’t dancing out in the barn anymore!
                  There could potentially be over 800 dancers in attendance at this festival if all of Region 2 came out. Wow, that’s a lot of people! And because we are all acquainted with one another and with the customs of square and round dancing, even though there’s a large crowd, everyone will be familiar with what to expect. Nobody will be unruly. Everyone will be considerate and helpful to each other. It will be great!
                   Let’s stir up some passion and get registered! Region 2, I am asking for 50 more registrations before the calendar turns to 2017!! Let’s break the 200 mark in the upcoming 4 weeks!! That’s about 50 more individuals, 25 couples, or one medium-sized club.
                  It has just been announced that Region2, under the inspiring leadership of Steve Edlund and Norm, is bidding to host the National Convention in Surrey in 2020! We have a lot to become excited about! Lots to look forward to. Lots to plan for. In 2017 the Provincial festival; in 2020, the National!  Whoohoo!
                  One last thought: ParticipACTION is planning a celebration of physical activities for Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017. Please, all square dancers, go to the site and click to vote for square dancing, as well as your other activities. https://www.participaction.com/en-ca/programs/participaction-150-play-list  Scroll through the screens, 10 activities per screen, till you get to square dancing on screen 18.

BCFestival 2017 in Region 2                                                   Thurs. to Sat. July 6, 7, 8, 2017
By Wendy Krueger, Co-Chair                                                 VENUE: Cloverdale Rodeo Grounds
      “This is a song that never ends…” my never-ending love for Square and Round Dancing, and the wonderful people that make it so fabulous. We see that passion on the faces of dancers all across this region, and everywhere else we go, too. When we get together to enjoy each other’s company and dance together, it kindles happiness, friendship, and the desire to do it all over again!
      We are going to get together in a big way in just 8 months at our Provincial Festival next July, and I see more and more Festival ribbons are taped onto your badges and you are wearing them to dances wherever you go. We have close to 150 registered right now, so people are feeling more and more sure about their summer plans as the weeks go by. They know where the fun is going to be and they aren’t going to miss out. The top three areas where the registrants live are Surrey, Abbotsford, and Langley. Hooray! But come on Chilliwack! Come on Burnaby! Come on Maple Ridge! We want everybody tied for the top! Strap on your rocket packs and blast over to the Festival website and get yourself registered. The registration cost has gone up to $45 per person ($25 for youth). After March 1, 2017, it goes up to $50 per person ($30 for youth).
 
The winner of the free registration is Chuck Sheehan!  Congratulations to Chuck!

      What could anyone do to encourage some excitement about the Festival? Here are a few ideas: post it on Facebook or any other social media you use; email your friends; buy someone a registration to the festival for their birthday, anniversary, or Christmas present.
      Who is looking for a way to help out? Contact David about visiting businesses in the Cloverdale area to ask them to advertise in our Festival program booklet. We will need people who are available in the daytime, weekdays mostly, to do that work. 604-864-7435
      Thank you to all who are presently helping in large and small ways. The committee appreciates your efforts. We will all have the most fun because we did it together!

BC Festival 2017 in Region 2                                                    Thurs. to Sat. July 6, 7, 8, 2017
By Wendy Krueger, Co-Chair                                                 VENUE: Cloverdale Rodeo Grounds
Now our BC Festival 2017 is only 11 months away! Your committee members’ excitement is increasing! We have our first 50 registrations on the books, so the Early Bird draw for a free entry is going to be made at our committee meeting within a few weeks’ time. The lucky winner will be contacted by phone and will be announced on the Festival webpage (bcfestival2017.squaredance.bc.ca) shortly after that. Oh! I hope YOUR name is in the hat!

Maybe the hype for our next provincial festival is beginning to sprout in your mind and you are hoping there will be a great turnout. After all, there is NOTHING like a well-attended square and round dance festival! It is fun and exciting to dance with crowds of happy people.

Maybe you are wondering: Is word of our festival getting out to the surrounding regions? Here is what I know from my travels this summer. Our posters were mailed to all the regions, enough for every club, as well as hither and yon. Committee members have seen them various places, even Circle 8 Ranch in Washington. Enthusiastic and dedicated callers, cuers, committee members and Region 2 dancers traveled this summer ready to promote the festival. Some traveled with our beautiful BCFestival 2017 banner and displayed it at Circle 8 Ranch, the Canada National convention in Regina, and at Penticton’s Peachfest Square Dance Festival. They had registration forms on hand. In all three locations, plus at the Chase the Fun weekend, additional copies of the forms were procured when the supply began to dwindle. Many people responded to personal invitations to attend by taking a form.

Maybe YOU are going to be doing some traveling to square dance at locations outside of Region 2 throughout this dancing season. Our committee would like to get your assistance to promote the Festival wherever you are going. David has been in charge of the banner, so contact him if you can take it along with you, display it, promote it at the event you are attending, and safely bring it back. His phone number is 604-864-7435. Email him [email protected].

Maybe you notice somewhere does not have a Festival 2017 poster, but should have one on display, like your local club! Did it get misplaced? The poster can be printed off of the website. We greatly prefer it be done in colour if you are going to do that. And the registration form can be printed off the site, too, or you will find it soon in the Valley Circle, and that one can be photocopied. Registration can also be done on line with your credit card. There is a small fee to cover the expense of that system, but then, it costs money to write and send a cheque too, or even to come to Abbotsford to pay with cash to our registrar in person. We know, you know that.
Come on, pitch in and promote the next BC Provincial Square and Round Dance Festival with us! Register now, get your Festival ribbon and wear it, talk about the Festival, and get excited!

     What a beautiful early spring day it is to sit outside and think about dancing at exciting big events in the coming months of summer.  Square dancing is the most fun I have ever had, period. I so enjoy my travels to square dance venues like Circle 8 Ranch in WA State, and to big and small festivals in Regina SK, Campbell River BC, Albany OR, Helena MT, Pendleton OR, Mt. Vernon WA, Lola MT, to name a few, and let’s not forget to give a shout out for the completely fabulous annual Pacific Northwest Teen Festival.  My love of square dance festivals started right here in Abbotsford when our region hosted the 2005 BC Square Dance Festival at the Agrifair grounds. I had only been dancing for 3 years at that time.  I was SO IMPRESSED with the chance to dance with people from all over BC and WA State, and to meet and dance to callers and cuers from all over as well. I was already starting to run a square dance club in the elementary school where I taught. I met Nick and Mary Anne Turner at the Festival that year, the authors/compilers of Moving and Grooving, a folk and square dance program for schools and community groups.  We became friends and I began promoting the M & G program to teachers and the BCTF. Dancing at the Festival opened my eyes to the wider world of Square Dancers that is out there. And, hey, it is still a kick to wear the outfit I sewed for that festival, featuring our raspberry themed fabric.
      So what is the thrust of this edition of my monthly article promoting BCFestival 2017? The fun you never knew you could have! A festival is like going on the rides at the fairgrounds when you are a kid. There is so much going on of all the things you love to do. The people are all happy. Everything you do is about the fun. And you can make some great new friends there, too. Not only will you meet people you’ll be so glad you got to know, but there will be some people there who turn out to be VERY pleased to have met you, too.
     Our Publicity and Promotion couple, Alex and Jean Galbraith, are working hard to get the word out to all the known world about BCFestival 2017. And they are counting on the rest of us to get excited and tell others about it. If you are behind the festival in principle, please register early. The venue payments need to be made out of those early registrations. We need money flowing in monthly to be able to smoothly meet our obligations. Apart from committee members, the first fifty registrants will be entered in an early bird draw for a free registration. Now there’s a good reason to register among the first 50.
     Yes, it is a beautiful early April day today as I write, one year and three months till BCFestival 2017. I am looking forward to it already! How about you?

     Walt Disney had a brilliant mind and one of the things he was so great at was marketing.  Disney’s marketing strategies are so successful that entrepreneurs everywhere study them and apply them to their own businesses. In this article, I look at promoting BCFestival 2017 through the lens of Walt Disney.
     The idea is perspective. I understand if you take a close look at Disneyland, you’ll realize that Disney used the concept of forced perspective to design the entire park to look bigger. How did he do this? Just like in a painting, where the size of things is adjusted to make them appear closer or further away, the sizing of trees and boulders on the Matterhorn is scaled, so the mountain appears bigger. This concept was used throughout their park.
     The members of the BCFestival 2017 Committee have a perspective that the Festival is a big project and an important event for Region 2, for BC, for Western Canada. We are proud to volunteer to put this on and we are going to pay attention to every detail and see it through to a rousing conclusion at the final dance on Saturday night, July 8. To the Committee for the next 16 months, working on the Festival is a big part of our commitment to square dancing, and to our enjoyment of our involvement in the activity.
      So BCFestival 2017 is big to us because we are committed to it.  Oh, look at the words committed, verb or adjective, and committee, noun. They are just about the same! I’d never thought about that before. A 'commit-ee' is someone who is committed to a cause.
      To a lesser degree than those on the organizing committee, every registrant to the festival becomes a “commit-ee,” meaning one who is committed to coming. I know you want to come, so I am asking you to register now!
“But Wendy,” you say, “I am not used to planning my life 16 months in advance.”
"Ahh, dear one," says I, "given the right conditions, however, you would do so." Consider scenario #1: If you have beloved relatives overseas and they are planning well in advance to come visit you, you will put them on your calendar. You might even mention it to family members who are still in the workforce, and they may well book their vacation to coincide with that visit. You might book a vacation rental in Tofino to ensure you get what you want. You might remodel your kitchen! Consider scenario #2: If you have a son, daughter, or grandchild planning to wed, they are very likely to be planning 16 months in advance, and you will be honoured to attend. You may go shopping for the perfect wedding gift, start looking for the right new suit or dress and shoes, go on a diet, even book your hairstylist appointment and manicure much further in advance than normal. 
     So deciding that it matters to register early is a matter of perspective.  And here’s a carrot, if you need one.  If you wait till late to register, not only will the price go up on Sept. 2/16 and Mar. 2/17, but also, your dancing preferences will not be counted in our program planning. We will be spending weeks working on those schedules and won’t be rushing any major changes at the last minute. Callers and cuers, too, to ensure your place on the program and to give us something more to brag about, we ask you to register early. And by the way, RVers, it really will put a wrench in the works if you leave it to register at the door. We can plan a spot for you only if you give us reasonable notice.
     Why NOT register NOW? “Well, Wendy,” you say, “I don’t know if I will fall ill. What if a terrific cruise drops in my lap or a grandchild is born? I don’t want to waste the money.” Yes, yes, that’s why the refund policy is there, and it gives you a generous window, up till May 15/17 to get all but $5 back for absolutely ANY reason. And here’s a tip: if you have a personal or family health or financial crisis after May 15th/17, trust me, we’re going to treat you real nice. I promise.
     Perspective. It makes all the difference. Just think about that half full/half empty glass and realize that YOUR glass is MORE than half full. In fact, it’s running over!

The BCFestival 2017 website, Facebook page, and email address all went “live” on December 29th, 2015, three days ahead of schedule!! What a thrill to have accomplished all of this. The committee extends their heartfelt appreciation to Maureen Wilson, our website designer, and to Christine Dahl, our secretary, for the hours and hours of work they have put in to get all of this ready for us. With the utmost grace, these ladies withstood repeated interference from me, which I am sure had to be challenging for them. Congratulations and a big thank you, Maureen and Christine. We should do something to celebrate! I know--we are! This whole effort is doing something to celebrate the fabulous activity we all love.
With the preparatory phase finished now, Maureen and Christine will be able to relax. It is our Publicity, Advertising, and Promotion couple who will be gearing up for the next huge effort. Jean and Alex Galbraith have a lot of experience and ideas to bring to the campaign. But they are not undertaking this great campaign all alone. Let us all give them our utmost in enthusiastic support and willingness to help in every way.
Yes, DANCERS, CALLERS, AND CUERS of Region 2, of British Columbia and the surrounding area! We are on a campaign much like a political candidate’s election campaign. This campaign we are on is to SPREAD THE NEWS about BCFestival 2017, to SOW INTEREST AND ENTHUSIASM for the event, and to secure YOUR VOTE as the best, most worthwhile choice you can make for how you will spend your time on July 6, 7, and 8, 2017!! In the end, it is YOU who will CHOOSE what you do with your three days, and it is YOU who will DECIDE whether those three days are to be spent in the company of energetic, happy, outgoing FRIENDS OLD AND NEW, enriching each other’s enjoyment of life through this shared experience. Your registration form is YOUR BALLOT.
Imagine a world where dancing starts at 10 a.m. each morning and finishes at 10 p.m. each night. Imagine the only other things you have to do besides dance are eat, sleep, and visit with other dancers! That sounds like a wonderful world to me. That’s the unique little slice of Dancer Heaven we are creating for you for three days at BCFestival 2017 in Cloverdale (Surrey) B.C.
Registration is open now.  The registration forms are available online at BCFestival2017.squaredance.bc.ca. Click the “Register Now” button. You can download the form from the website and print it with blanks and fill it in by hand. Mail it in with your cheque or money order. Or you can fill in the form online and email it to us, and just send in your payment to the registrar by snail mail. Want to use on line banking? Email me.
If you have any questions, you can email the committee at [email protected]. You can ask for someone to phone you, or ask your question by email.
Visit the website BCFestival2017.squaredance.bc.ca and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bc.festival.2017/
BCFestival 2017 in Cloverdale—Yours to enjoy only 17 months from now!!

     The BCFestival 2017 Committee has grown in the past month. We welcome the help of Blair Wallace, Frank McNeil, Darlene Austin, Brian Penny, and Margaret Stone at this early stage in the planning as we set up our expectations and the routines that will steer us through the preparatory phase. It seems at this point that for every answer we nail down, two or three other questions come to mind. 
     What is next for YOU, the dancers, callers, and cuers who are anticipating having an exhilarating time at the very next Provincial festival, right here in Region 2? Well, the next thing for you to do, coming up in this month of January 2016, is to complete a registration form for the festival.  YES!! Registration opens January 1st, 2016.  The registration forms will be available on line at BCFestival2017.squaredance.bc.ca. You can print one right from the website. Forms will also be available at the clubs, as soon as we get them out there.
     “Oh, Wendy!” you say. “The festival is 18 months away!” Yes, it is and just think of how quickly the last 18 months of our lives went by!! July 2017 will be here shortly, and all I am asking you to do is plan to attend so our committee can plan the event.  The first step FOR YOU in the planning is filling out your registration form and sending it in with your payment to our registrar.
     Next, I want you to turn the pages in your five year calendar to July 2017 and block in these dates:  the 6th, 7th, and 8th.  Write BCFestival 2017 Cloverdale. And then write “I AM REGISTERED” in BIG, BOLD letters.
      I want to point out that the registration form is asking for your name and contact information and also for the 3 levels and phases of square dance and round dance that you plan to dance the most at the festival. When we put your top 3 together with everyone else’s top 3, we will be able to plan that satisfying and enjoyable program of dance offerings that will make BCFestival 2017 the highlight of your dancing experience.
     So don’t take a wait and see attitude. Don’t try to leave your options open. Putting on this festival is a big commitment involving lots of people and here it is, time for you to put it in writing that you are coming.
     I’m dreaming of a white Christmas and a white New Year—white with the pages and pages of registration forms piling up in our registrar’s mailbox. Remember the number 417. It will take 416 people dancing beside me in Shannon Hall for my dreams to come true in July 2017. It is a big, big dream.  Send in your form and dream big with me.
     WE’RE GOING TO ANNOUNCE IN THE VALLEY CIRCLE WHICH CLUB HAS THE MOST PEOPLE WITHIN THE FIRST 50 TO REGISTER!!
     Here is the committee roster at this moment.  Help is welcome in all areas: the names listed as heads of committees will ask members at large for help with their areas of responsibility.  See something you want to help with? Know someone you want to work with? Contact that person by sending an e-mail to our BC Festival 2017 e-mail address — [email protected] (Attention: 'specific committee member').  And when you see these people, thank them for the job they are doing!!
 
BCFESTIVAL 2017 COMMITTEE CHAIRS AND HEADS OF SUB-COMMITTEES:
Co-Chair —        David McVige (FVS&RDA)
Co-Chair —        Wendy Krueger (V&DCTA)
Treasurer —        Cheryl Plume (V&DCTA) 
Secretary —        Christine Dahl (AGS)
Registrations — Minnie Basaraba (AGS)
Housing/Accommodations — Betty and George Langtry (FVS&RDA)
Publicity, Advertising, Promotion —Jean and Alex Galbraith (FVS&RDA)
Scheduling — square dance program —  Brent Mawdsley (V&DCTA)
Scheduling — Round dancing between tips — Margaret Beatty (V&DCTA)
Scheduling — Round dance program — Anita Adams and Alison Hampton
Website design —  Maureen Wilson (SSW)
Decorations and Displays — Chilliwack Rhythm Reelers Décor Team Extraordinaire
Hospitality —      Wendy & David with an all-star line-up of other volunteers—send us your names, please
Ceremonies —  Dave Hammer 
Poster design — Frank McNeil
Souvenir booklet editor — Blair Wallace (Valley Circle)
Advertising sales — David McVige, Margaret Stone
Committee Members at large — Norm and Mary Cox, Kris and Anni Christensen, Al Gibbs and June Fitchett, John Corrigan, Darlene Austin, Brian Penny
Ex Officio Members — Ken & Sally Crisp (BCS&RDF president couple)