BEARS HOPING TO GET INTO DANCE CAMP,

We are anticipating that soon many of you will be asking about the status of your registration for Camp. The Registration Bears are just beginning their well-honed regimen for processing the applications. They organize them by date of receipt and wait for many registration forms to accumulate before they begin to process them. One reason (among many) for this "delay" is so that they may more easily work on maintaining the gender balance. (Guess which gender is slower to get their registration forms turned in?).

If you included your e-mail address on your registration form, you will be notified of your acceptance via e-mail. There will be an acceptance "packet" posted on the Dance Camp section of the Bear's website (thedancingbears.com). If you did not submit an email address, you will receive a paper copy of the acceptance information via US mail.

We know you are eager to know if you have gotten into Camp and we appreciate your patience. The processing of the forms is fairly intricate and takes time. As soon as we know that you are in Camp, you will be notified.

Keep dancin'
Linda

PS...if you think you might want to go to Camp, and haven't registered yet, now would be a good time to consider it!! The registration form is on the Bears' website under the Dance Camp tab.

BELOW IS IMPORTANT DANCE CAMP REGISTRATION INFORMATION...PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY

Hello All,

Dance Camp registration for our Memorial Day (May 23-26) Dance Camp is almost here. The registration forms have been sent to the printer/mailing agent. If your membership with the Dancing Bears is current, a registration form is scheduled to arrive in your mailbox on March 1. Please keep in mind that there can be delays because sometimes printers and the US mail service can mess with our careful planning. We will be posting the registration form on the Bears' website (thedancingbears.com) under the Dance Camp tab on the EVENING of March 1 (our webmaster has a day job!!). If you have not received your paper version in the mail by that time, please feel free to print off a copy from the website and mail it in. Please remember that all registrations must be MAILED, WITH A STAMP, to our Registration Bears. We use postmarks in our acceptance process. E-mailed or hand delivered registration forms will NOT be accepted.

A compilation of Dance Camp related LISTSERV ANNOUNCEMENTS WILL BE POSTED ON THE WEBSITE (thedancingbears.com) under the Dance Camp tab so that you can check out information from past announcements that you might have missed or forgotten.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR FAMILY BEARS...

We have a request for those families who are making plans to attend Dance Camp. In previous years there has been some confusion about signing up for accommodation preferences. We had families whose kids chose to stay in cabins other than the family cabin (which they were signed up for), as well as some who thought they would be in tents and ended up in cabins (in which they were not expected). This makes it a bit of a challenge for our on-site registration Bear to delineate how many family cabins (as well as other types) we need. If you request a family cabin, please be clear which family members will be in the cabin. If your teens want to be in a Women's cabin with their friends they need to be aware that the cabin will be not be an exclusively teen cabin nor limited to only certain teens...and it would be helpful to have their preferences noted on the registration form.

Thanks so much! We have limited cabin spaces and need to accommodate all of our campers!! Your help with this will make it a much smoother process for all to have their preferred accommodations at camp.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact Rashmika at rashmika@pobox.alaska.net or 562-6098 (Anchorage number).

DANCING BEARS DANCE CAMP IS CALLING FOR YOUR TALENT!!!

Greetings All!! It's that time of year already...we are organizing the workshops for the Memorial Day weekend Dancing Bears Dance Camp. This is a call to all musicians and instructors who are interested in participating in Dance Camp workshops. We are working on the schedule and need to hear from you.

We are looking for folks who want to teach us to dance, as well as musicians who will play for those classes. There have been lots campers requesting more music workshops so if you'd like to teach one, let me know that as well. In past years, in addition to our "usual" dance and music classes, our classes have included yoga, massage, Irish dance, juggling, rounds, and shape note singing--all taught by talented locals. It's a great way to be more a part of camp and you get paid a little!! We have more and more kids coming to camp every year so kid crafts or activities is another area to pitch in.

If you have a workshop in mind that you would like to offer, send me a short description and information on what your workshop would need in the way of music/supplies/space and we'll give it our consideration. If you know folks who might be interested but aren't on the listserv please share this request with them.

Feel free to contact me via email at ravenwoman@juno.com or call 907-258-1937 (Anchorage). I'm looking forward to seeing you at camp!!! Keep on dancin'!

Cost for this year's Dance Camp will be going up because the expense of making Camp happen is growing considerably. Camp tuition will most likely be $250...we are still working on the catering component and that will help us determine what we will need to charge to break even. Alas... However, the news isn't all bad. If you might be looking for a way to lighten the financial load for Camp "tuition", we have several scholarships available. Scholarships cover half the cost of your camp fee and entail participating in 7-8 hours of camp work, generally helping in the kitchen, but there are also some for other activities such as helping with the silent auction and camp and bathhouse cleanup.

Scholarships are awarded on a first come, first served basis. A scholarship does NOT guarantee that you will get into camp...you still need to register as usual. And you must be CONFIRMED as a scholarship Bear BEFORE registering as one. The details of the tasks and the registration process may be less confusing if we chat about them verbally, so if you are interested in a scholarship, please contact Linda Hearn soon to get the scoop!!