Guest Post: Jack Volunteers, by Sue Black

Sue Black of Naperville, Illinois, is a storyteller and teaching artist, enthusiastically sharing her passion for telling and writing stories with audiences of all ages. She has graciously given me permission to reprint the following story, which originally appeared on the Storytell list.

ONCE upon a time there was a storyteller whose name was Jack, and he lived with his fellow storytellers in a worldwide community. They were very poor – some of them, moderately successful –others, but the storytellers worked hard and made a living by spinning tales.

Jack was busy living and writing and telling and listening and following email, twitter, and facebook conversations. He thought maybe he would do nothing but bask in the sun in the hot weather, when he had a free minute or two, or maybe sit by the corner of the hearth in the winter-time. But there was always more work to be done, not just for himself but for others too, and it seemed as though free minutes were filled with thoughts of contributing to the greater good. After all, there were always calls and emails and letters and general announcements about events to support, conferences to run and record, workshops to produce, websites to host, and various other volunteer jobs that needed to be done. The community had needs and this roused Jack, and he went out and volunteered himself for the next day to a neighboring farmer; but as he was coming home he met his mother or his brother or his sister (that part of the story doesn’t really matter, I suppose). "Jack, what were ya thinking?" they asked. "You should have done it this way."

He knew there was more than one right way to get a job done and Jack was always willing to listen. "I'll do so another time," replied Jack.

On Wednesday, Jack went out again and volunteered himself to a cowkeeper. Again, as he walked home – feeling good about the work he’d done – Jack met up with some of his fellow storytellers. They admired his work, but couldn’t resist saying, "Jack, what were ya thinking? You should have done it this way."

By now Jack had a bit of experience in the matter. He felt good enough about the good work he was doing and the good of the work for the greater community, so he was able to slough off the criticism and simply say, "I'll do so another time."

So on Thursday, Jack volunteered himself again to a dairyman. Now this time Jack was paid for his services, not much, just a fine piece of cheese. In the evening Jack took the cheese and went home. By the time he got home he’d passed several storytellers who felt entitled to ask, after all Jack was getting paid, "Jack, what were ya thinking? You should have done it this way."

"I'll do so another time," sighed Jack.

On Friday, Jack again went out, and volunteered himself to a baker. When he got home there was an email waiting for him. It simply asked, "Jack, what were ya thinking? You should have done it this way."

Rather than send a reply with the words, "I'll do so another time’, Jack sat at his computer and stared in disbelief.

Ever persevering, believing he was doing what needed to be done, wanting to contribute and willing to accept some critique, on Saturday Jack volunteered himself to a butcher. By the time Jack got home it seemed as though his mother or sister or brother (that part of the story doesn’t really matter, I suppose) was this time quite out of patience with him. It seemed that way to Jack, anyway, that patience was gone and that his efforts were not appreciated. The mother or the sister or the brother was not really out of patience, but by then that part of the story didn’t really matter to Jack. And Jack knew there was a bright spot ahead, a happy ending, a princess and laughter and great riches not just for himself but to be shared with his mother and his sister and his brother and the greater storytelling community. But by then that part of the story didn’t matter anymore either. Jack was tired and discouraged and beaten down and had walked that fine line between service and greater good and needing kind words for too long.

So on Sunday Jack stopped. Rested like the good book said he should. And on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and all the days that followed, the volunteer work did not get done. Jack was not tired by the work, but exhausted by the voices that drowned out the joy of service. And I’m sorry to say this is one of those stories that just might not end happily ever after.

(Ah, but read the comments for another storyteller's response)

Festival: Sigana International Storytelling Festival 3rd - 5th July '09

(via Kenyanpoet)

This sounds like fun: the first Sigana International Storytelling Festival in Nairobi, at the Alliance Francaise coming up July 3, 4, and 5. Eight storytellers, from across Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Zamaleo ACT, the host of the Festival, as Kenya's premiere storytelling troupe, is a key player in the African storytelling revival, so expect a high quality lineup.

What's that you say? You don't feel up to speed on the state of the African storytelling revival?

Well, here's a quick peek at a recent storytelling festival in Nairobi: (link),
and here's a link to Ntshengedzeni Collins Rananga's 2008 PhD Thesis, "Professionalising Storytelling in African Languages with Special Reference to Venda" (PDF, 1.1 MB). Note: it's really thorough... and really good food for thought, no matter what country you're in. This 430 page tome is going to provide lots of fodder for this blog. Includes lots of interviews with African storytellers (sadly, though, names are redacted).

If you're going to attend the Festival, leave a comment below.

Shout Out: Dale Jarvis, the Real Deal

I first got to know Dale Jarvis by his online presence. He's one of the few storytellers with stories on YouTube. He's one of the even rarer storytellers who has ventured into the virtual world of Second Life. I admired his choice of repertoire (at least via what I could hear on his podcast)-- in fact, a Corsican ghost story ("Goldenhair") had me and my six year old son spellbound in the car convinced me that I would have to hear Dale live and in person someday. However, seeing as Dale lives some 3,476 miles away from me in St. John's, Newfoundland, I didn't see this as very likely.

As luck would have it, Dale and I chose to attend the very same storytelling conference in Green Lake, Wisconsin, this year (Strange to think that Reykjavík, Iceland, would have been a shorter trip for Dale. And hah! I win the prize for longest distance traveled... Berkeley to Green Lake is farther than St. John's to Green Lake by just 23 miles! (and I flew via Phoenix)).

At the Northlands Storytelling Conference, I finally got to hear Dale Jarvis in person, both at a Friday night performance and at his Fringe concert Saturday.

On Friday night he told a Newfoundland Jack tale which delighted the crowd. It was at once a novelty (none of us in the room had heard Newfoundland folklore before) and familiar (the story had familiar motifs of Irish and English wonder tales), and told with aplomb. Dale's telling style was masterful-- confident on stage, with a strong, clear voice, thoughtfully placed gestures, rhetorical flourishes that harkened back to an earlier era, a playful attitude toward the audience, and a deferential one toward the story.

His fringe show the next night introduced not only more Jack tales, but put them in context (after all, he's a professional folklorist): Newfoundland and Labrador has had European settlers for more than four hundred years. So the stories from their home countries like Ireland and England (and France, Portugal, Spain, etc.) have had time to be passed down through generations, evolving, slowly changing. And in a traditional economy based on fishing, with isolated communities, the oral tradition lasted well into the twentieth century. In Dale's telling, he leaves in the rhetorical phrases that old tellers would use (e.g. "and he walked and he walked and he walked and he walked") that you rarely hear anymore from modern storytellers who by and large are not oral/aural craftsmen, and build their stories from images and sentiment.

Dale told a Jack tale that he himself had heard from a elderly Newfoundland woman, who heard it from her grandmother. He's the real deal-- a folklorist who's passing along the oral tradition (instead of assigning it a number and filing it away in a dissertation somewhere). He can tell us stories collected in Newfoundland, he can tell us about how the story was collected, where and when it was collected (whether by himself or by folklorists from earlier times), and by whom.
When was the last time you got to hear a storyteller do that? It has become all too rare.

Dale also tells local ghost stories in St. John's, on haunted hikes, and he's still collecting them... he's even got a column in the local paper sharing supernatural folklore.

You can listen to Dale on this recent interview with three storytellers at the Toronto International Storytelling Festival: (link)

And here, to end this mash note, if you'd like to learn more about Dale-- check out Brother Wolf's interview with him on collecting ghost stories at The Art of Storytelling with Children (link), subscribe to Dale's podcast via iTunes or this page, or visit Dale's very own storytelling blog.

National Storytelling Network: 2009 Annual Budget Released

The National Storytelling Network has, for what may be the first time in its history, published its annual budget on its public web site (link). Thanks, NSN!

It has also released its IRS 990 tax statement for tax year 2007 (as a nonprofit, NSN's tax returns are public information. If you knew where to look, you could find this information). It's not that easy to locate though, so, here's a VERY brief summary of NSN's finances over the past years. I collected this information from its publicly available IRS tax returns.

. Tax Report dated Revenue Expenses Excess or deficit . oct 31 2000 $519,281 $464,248 $55,033 . oct 31 2001 $603,478 $510,590 $92,888 . oct 31 2002 $671,926 $559,091 $112,835 . oct 31 2003 $659,593 $650,004 $9,589 . oct 31 2004 $653,516 $636,889 $16,627 . oct 31 2005 $656,323 $728,608 -$72,285 . dec 31 2006 $610,903 $610,263 $640 . oct 31 2007 $573,350 $631,182 -$57,832

I'm not sure when NSN files, but I'll find out when the 2008 tax return will be available.

(I got the announcement via NSN's e-newsletter to members, at approx. 382 days after the organization's finance chair publicly announced the finances would be available "soon." I haven't stopped the clock yet on the widget below until I know more about if and when the 2008 audit will ever be published).

National Storytelling Network Financial Situation: They Tell Me it's OK

The Back Story:

So, the National Storytelling Network, the primary national organization for storytelling in the United States, hit a financial crisis recently. The impacts of that crisis are ongoing, and the particulars of the crisis has never been fully explained.

On December 5, 2007, NSN Board Chair Karen Morgan sent out an official NSN bulletin via email informing its membership that since at least 2005, expenses for the organization had exceeded revenues, and the organization was drawing down its savings. In addition to changes in financial and operational procedures at the time, the Board of NSN charged a task force of "elders," various respected board and staff members who had served NSN over the years, to review the finances and present a plan for the organization's sustainability.

They did, and their plan would have re-shaped the organization from a membership network to a quasi-foundation, cutting staff to a bare minimum.

An official email bulletin from NSN on December 31, 2007, noted that the Elders' plan had an annual budget of $234,000.

It also noted-- and this was news to us members-- that Executive Director Bobbie Morgan and the NSN staff had come up with their own counterproposal to streamline procedures and enhance revenue, with an annual budget of $623,000.

What they didn't tell us at the time was how big a budget NSN had before that.

The bulletin also announce that the majority of the Board decided to go with a modified version of the Staff plan and NOT the Elder plan, and that as a result, three experienced Board members were resigning.

As 2008 came along, no financial news was forthcoming from NSN. I spoke with two Board members at the time personally on phone calls, who assured me that things were looking up, that the tide had turned, and the organization would be fine. I asked that financial statements be made available to the members (not only for transparency's sake, but because of the large disconnect between a $234K and a $623K budget).

On April 14, a bulletin from the Board noted that the organization would need major restructuring to survive-- and that the Executive Director position was being eliminated.

On May 2, 2008, the Board posted an FAQ, and an explanation of the financial crisis (in the simplest terms. It didn't name names, but, if you knew who to talk to, you could find out who spent what-- and the names of the Boards of Directors (who nominally had fiscal oversight for the organization, even if they failed to exercise it) were public knowledge, although no one was reporting on this.

That FAQ noted that NSN would make available to its members the results of the audit and a budget for 2008, once it had been completed.

I've had various board members since that time assure me that the finances were in such a mess the audit was delayed, and that it would eventually be completed. Also that the financial report to those who attended the conference in summer 2008 was very well received. Also that the finances were looking good.
Also that I could get my very own copy.

That's all very nice, but without numbers, it doesn't mean a thing. I've posted public reminders on the NSN forum, which was set up for members to communicate with the Board. Repeatedly.

...for an entire year.

The NSN Board of Directors has been paying lip service to transparency since the crisis began. I'm attempting to hold them to it.

(The transparency, not the lip service.)