Policy & Goals Statement

When Bob Fisk, Bill Volner and Mac Letson first started talking about forming a new national Callers Association, one of the first things discussed was that with the advent of the BMI/ASCAP licensing requirement, many callers, cuers and contra prompters would want to have a choice or an alternative organization. There was a need for American Caller’s Association. Had there not been a significant need for American Caller's Association we would not have the large membership we have today.

Why an alternative? History has proven that when alternatives are not offered, bureaucracy and complacency set in; in many cases when only a single choice is available, all the positive and beneficial aspects for which a professional organization is originally established are greatly diminished and the good of a few suddenly outweigh the good of the activity.

American Caller's Association was established to work for its members and with the square dance activity to do what can be done to make square dancing bigger and better for all.

American Caller's Association is a non-profit organization with membership in the U.S.A., Canada, Europe, and New Zealand. In an effort to keep cost down to our members, American Caller's Association has only one paid employee, the office manager. The executive secretary and all other work for American Caller's Association is done at no charge by people that care about the square dance activity.

When American Callers Association was established it was agreed that we would operate from a framework of three general statements. These statements are as follows:

STATEMENT #1:
Put the fun and dance back into square dancing!
In order to insure that we leave the activity better than we found it, the emphasis MUST be placed on:

1. Length of beginner classes must be shortened to make square dancing more accessible to more people.

2. Change the existing programs to only three. Take the most useful and prominently used calls (basic, mainstream and plus) and incorporate them into one program called SQUARE DANCING; the other two should be ADVANCED AND CHALLENGE. (Since 90% of the dancers are in mainstream & plus, we cannot eliminate all of the plus calls)

STATEMENT #2:
Develop a professional code of conduct for Callers / Teachers.
The caller / teacher character and actions must be the best in all aspects of the dance activity, which includes caller/dancers, caller club officers, caller/beginner classes and caller/fellow callers. Commitment, Leadership, Ethics and Responsibility are all part of the word CALLER/TEACHER.

STATEMENT #3:
Work with all dancers and leadership organizations.
The square dance activity belongs to square dancers, and callers/teachers share a leadership role with dancers. The dancers must have a voice in all changes in the square dance activity, which includes what calls make up a dance program, length of classes, recruitment and retention of dancers. After all, dancers do pay the bills.