This is a broadcast email to all member contacts of The Morris Federation.
Please forward on to members of your team, as appropriate.
Isolation Update, 15th December 2020
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Please forward on to members of your team
An update on the Covid-19 guidance, and more online stuff coming your way while we wait for a vaccine. It's been an unusual year to say the least. Thank you to everyone for all your friendship and support during these strange and difficult times.
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Sad news
We are very sad to report the deaths of two of our dear friends:
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Gerry Bates of Sheffield City Morris, Grenoside Sword Dancers, and the Sheffield City Giants.
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Alan Whear, ex musician for Windsor Morris
Our thoughts are with their families and very many friends in the morris, folk, and giants worlds.
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Coronavirus Covid-19 update
Sally Wearing, our H&S Advisor, has updated the guidance for you (again again), and now includes two Risk Assessment Templates - for Practices and Performances, see: www.morrisfed.org.uk/resources/coronavirus-covid-19/.
There may be gin & tonic after that.
Before the last Lockdown, together with The Morris Ring and Open Morris, we wrote to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to explain what we do in our hobby, why it is important, and asking how far apart 'groups of six' need to be to not be 'mingling'.
We haven't had a definitive answer yet (letters are on the above page).
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Running Online Practices and Meetups
For many teams, it seems like getting back to in-person practices will be a long time away.
If you haven't yet dabbled with running online practices or meetups to keep in touch with team members, a few teams have sent us some hints and tips for getting going & using Zoom, so we've popped them on a web page (see link below). Or if you are feeling a
bit jaded about doing all this online stuff (most of us are from time to time), there might be some tips in there to help you mix it up a bit.
We are also around for a very informal drop-in session to chat about running Online Practices over Zoom, a Q&A-in session, on Sun 3rd January 10:30-12:30. So pop in for chat during these times and have a play with using Zoom (bring a cuppa). Before the session we'll
email you with info on how to install Zoom and join the workshop.
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Winter Workshops, Talks & Demos (LIVE on Zoom)
We've added a 2-session workshop on Clog Stepping for Beginners by Hadrian Clog, a talk about the Goathland Plough Stots Long Sword Tradition, a Virtual Ceilidh Calling Masterclass, and a Bucknell jig workshop, with Appalachian workshops and other events in
the pipeline.
A video of the first talk, on the Hastings Jack in the Green event on May Day and how it grew to 20,000 spectators, is now on the
MF YouTube channel.
We've been getting great feedback for the online events we've run so far, with over 60 participants at each session, so do please join us.
If you have a request for a dance or music or skills workshop or event, or can offer to do a talk / demo / workshop, please email president@morrisfed.org.uk.
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Other Morris & Related Events
The Lock In 'Christmas Party' by the Demon Barbers Roadshow on Sun 20th Dec 18:30-19:30 will feature plenty of dancing:
join the Lock In Christmas Party Facebook group
The International Mummers Festival on Sat 2nd - Mon 4th January will be online this year, keep an eye on: mummersfestival.org
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Folky Entertainment
A small selection of folky entertainment ...
Towersey Festival is holding a 2 night and 1 day online event on Fri 18th - Sat 19th December:
Towersey Festiv-all
'Live to Your Living Room' has spun off from Oxford Folk Weekend and often holds two online concerts a week over Zoom: livetoyourlivingroom.com/
The Official Folk Album Charts was launched by English Folk Expo in October: www.englishfolkexpo.com/official-folk-albums-chart/ and
Folk on Foot does a chart show.
Several regular folk shows on the radio or podcast including:
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In The Media
"My Albion" - Zakia Sewell embarks on a quest for Albion, through the songs, stories and symbols of British folk culture - BBC Radio 4, Tuesdays 11:30-12:00 from 17th November. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000pffy
Michael Murpurgo's Folk Journeys - BBC Radio 4, four episodes of 30 mins each:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000nllb
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Volunteers needed!
Anyone out there with some spare time who could help us deliver all this great stuff, we'd love to hear from you. Perhaps you can help improve our social media presence, or take on some IT work, or add news articles to our web site, or help organise our online
events - we need you! Even if you can only help out for a few months, please email Pauline at president@morrisfed.org.uk,
we'd love to hear from you.
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To see all recent emails from The Morris Federation see:
MF emails online
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Stay safe everyone, and enjoy the festivities!
Pauline Woods-Wilson
President, The Morris Federation
e:
president@morrisfed.org.uk
w:
www.morrisfed.org.uk |
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