Planting the Seeds for the DCFG Conferences
by Arthur Hull
“By 2005, the potential for building a community of drum circle facilitators was strong among us.
The DCFG was in its infancy. Founded by the “Three Musketeers” – Jonathan Murray, Jaqui MacMillan & Ken Crampton – it had only a few dozen registered members.
Back then, there were only two opportunities for a large group of veteran DCFacilitators to meet: the annual Seattle Percussion Festival and the annual Hawaii DCFacilitators Playshop.
Our DCFacilitators community would meet online through the Yahoo drum circle dialogue list. There was a constant call on that list that we DCFacilitators should all get together and have a conference.
At that time, the REMO drum company was sponsoring community drum circles downtown in Los Angeles. In meetings with John Fitzgerald, who was working for REMO as a community dot connector, he asked if I would be willing to facilitate one of the LA drum circles in exchange for the use of their REMO Recreational Music Center in North Hollywood. We both knew that I had recently completed a 3-Day drum circle facilitator training at that venue, so I would use it for the purpose of inviting our DCFacilitator community to gather.
So, I put it out on the Yahoo drum circle dialogue list, offering to make REMO Recreational Music Center available as an opportunity to gather as a community. Our community responded, and forty people showed up.
My heartfelt thanks goes out to Mary Tolena for helping organize the event’s presenters using the “Open Sharing” format she initiated in our VMC 6-Day Hawaii Programs.
It was an extra treat for us all that Remo D. Belli and Ami Belli attended the conference and participated as active members of our community.
Many of the same people who helped organize this first DCFacilitators conference were DCFG members, including Jonathan Murray, who was DCFG president at the time.
With a fantastic list of presenters at that event, I count that gathering as our first DCFacilitator community conference. At the end of that event, we all sat down together and started planning what became the first official DCFG conference.
And I haven’t missed a conference yet.
Share your Spirit,
Uncle Arthur {]]’;-)
Arthur Hull
Village Music Circles”
