Your advice: yes or no on poi club

spinners:
i have long contemplated to idea of starting a poi club at my high school,
now my spinning friends have gotten into the idea, but im still not so sure

the problem is that if its a school club you have to let anyone join, and i would like for this to stay small to prevent the mainstreaming of poi and general hysteria,

but there are some benefits to a school club: convenient place to meet and practice, some official - ness, page in the year book that we get to design.....

i also considered expanding the club to include all kinds of juggling and circus arts

so i guess my questions are:

club or no club?(no club means just me and my friends spining when we get together)
school connected or not?
will having a school club make it to mainstream or not?

any answears would be much appreciated, any other advice from people who have started clubs themselves wold also be great

i think it would be pretty cool to have a high school poi club, because there are so few(im assuming) but as someone so beautifully put it: i dont want poi to be the next yo - yo
thank you

peace, love and spinning

Don't worry about the whole "mainstream" question. I was alittle concerned when we started ours, but most people can't be bothered with the effort if they're not really into it. If 25 people join, by the end of the year you'll only have 10. But they'll be good.

I'm not worried about Poi getting big. If it gets massive, well, i'll just have more poiple to teach and learn from.

Good luck with the club. Most of us tend to meet informally and spin as well, so dont feel like it won't just be your friends. And look on it as an opportunity to make lots of new friends. Most of the people i spin with i didnt know 6 months ago, and they're all good good friends now.

I would agree with Mags.

It has no downside being official. Also means the teachers can't have a go at you!

Never know might make new friends there

I've thought about doing something like that too, then I realised the mentalitlity of some of the kids at my school and changed my mind >.<

thanks guys, ill probaly go along with it, aimee, thats pretty much why im worried too, i considered saying that to be in the club you have to be able to do butterfly or weave or something, but thats kinda cruel, i shouldnt be worried about making it mainstream cause ive gotten about ten people started already,

if anyone has any advice about how they organized their club or whatever it would be apreciated

i shouldnt be so protective of poi, i should share the adictiveness that is poi with the masses, but i cant help wanting to keep it to myself(and close friends)

much luv

yeah frodo, i realized that too, after i posted it, its just something one of my friends said when i asked her what the pros of having it be an official school club would be, even though being in the year book is pretty mainstream, designing a page could be pretty fun, i dont know, i guess im just torn between wanting to be official and being recoognixed and having too many people be into it

thanks for the help everyone

peace/fire

shhh! you just broke the first rule of poi club!!

I don't see the problem with too many people being in to it, apart from negative motivations which you need to get over as soon as possible.

One advantage of more people spinning is that they all get better faster. In most cases it seems number of people and local skill level are linked. So you're doing yourself a favor by making it a club, and doing a great service to those you're going to introduce a great hobby to. Free them from the TV!

yesyesyeyesyesyes...why?

1.like dom says, the more people you know that spin poi the faster you learn stuff yourself. as people get better, it'll give you motivation to do so also + you'll be able to feed off their enthusiasm.

2.you get to become someone's poi guru!

3.the more you teach poi moves, the more you think about them yourself and the better you become at thinking poi not to mention spinning.
4.you'd be surprised by what new ideas new spinners can give you.

5.you'll have even more friends + meet even more likeminded people

6.you can eventually train your new poi army to overthrow the evil oppressors and take over the world..... (or was that another story?)

^^ you must give tantra to be worthy to recieve! even if you are tall and stunning

if you're pupils get better than you do, there's even more motivation to improve yourself! besides, if you taught them the basics in the first place they'll always be thankful to you and you can look on in pride at your flowering proteges...

love to eveyone

im so bad about contradicting myself, hey bender, just asking, what rule did i break?

so it looks like this club is going to be a very general one, poi, staff, juggling, (contact too), flag, belly dancing, antykind of circus arts, whatever... this is good cause it will allow for more variation and intergration of ideas and styles and should work out pretty well

so ive just written two paragraphs and then deleated them caus ei couldnt get what i wanted to get across, oh well

Dom, at my school its more like free them from the homework , (or help them avoid homework)

ive already taught alot of people and me and my friends have got alot of people into it already, so i know what its like to teach people, two of my friends(Trillian one of them) are as good as me, but i havent let anyone get better than be yet


me and trillian are actually better than the girl we first saw do it, which in an evil way is quite fun

so im just rambiling of topic now

if anyone is part of a more general juggling club id appreciate it if they could tell me how that workes out

much love and peace/fire

I'm not entirely sure if you can "let" people get better than you or "keep" people at a certain level. After you teach them the basic moves, they'll start trying different techniques... adapting, changing.

I've "taught" a handful of people in the last few weeks and am quite happy to say that most of them are better than me. But, we pull each other up, and I'm learning faster than I ever have... Good luck!

don't worry 'bout the rules mate, 'twas a fight club reference.

hey, it might be a good idea to have you and your spinning friends put on a show for the 'mainstream' crowd so they get an idea of what its like

include explanations and maybe even some very simple lessons.. then, if anyone's interested you can start the club..

you could even say from the beginning that there has to be a limit because of the possibility of hysteria and chaos all round..

I've started two clubs. The firest one was the University of Nevada Reno Jugling Club which had everything circus arts, fire, rifle spinners, plate spinners. You can't stop someone from joining, but the ones that show up every time belong there. I don't know about where you guys are from, but here in the states, poi is becoming very mainstreem, and It's ok. No fear neccessary unless your pride is on the line. Even then accept that you will not always be the best and you will be passed.
I tought two 13 year old kids how to juggle, and everything I knew. Now at 16 they both have huge tricks like 50 catches with 5 clubs. They traveled with a childrens circus on the east coast. Heck I can't even do four clubs, but I take pride in having taught them their roots and keeping them motivated, and they never forgot me.
After I graduated the juggling club died with me and I teamed up with a fire staff guy Dave King. Together we started Controlled Burn a fire group in Reno. We get 150 to 200 people a night at out little "club meeting" It's a very diverse crowd. I have physicians and hippies, black and white, young and old, but if you treat everyone with respect, they will treat you the same. I can't controll who shows up but problematic people never show up twice.
So to sum it up, starting a club will reap many benefits, but has it's challenges. Teach as many people as you can, then become inspired by them when they pass you up. You have to keep learning.

'mainstreaming' of poi would be good. people who think it isn't tend to be the people who like the exclusiveness of being able to do something others can't, something people can look at and go 'wow, i wish i could do that' at, or even something people look at and go 'wow, i want to have sex with that guy/gal cos he/she can do that'... there's nothing wrong with any of those attitudes, and theres times when all of those motives cross my mind, but i wouldn't want to deny *anyone* the pleasure of poi or the other intangiable benifits of poi... you often see on martial arts lesson adverts a list of the benefits of learning a martial art- self defence, yes, but self-confidence, self-respect, dexterity, relaxation, exersise, the opportunity to meet new people... i get all that and more from poi. learning how to learn, and learning how to teach. learning how to see where something is the same as something else you've seen before but from a different perspective...

there's nothing bad about poi becoming popular, except it stops being exclusive. but what the hey, you were doing it back in '04 before anyone had heard of it...

personally, i'd like to see everyone issued with a stick at age five and told to go play with it. kids with sticks normaly pretend they're swords, but if they'd seen older stick weilders, they'd think it was a stick... before too long you'd have a world full of proficient stick handlers, and theres not much you can't find to do with a stick if you carried it round all day.

anyway...
-ben

(edited to have a point)
the point: clubs are good, m'kay? teach everyone. if they get better than you, they'll teach you stuff. better is subjective anyway, you're always better at doing it your way.

thanks to eveybody
thanks for your good points and fantastic attitudes

please dont think i want poi for all my self, i love it, and i like being respected forwhat i can do, but i would never refuse to teach anyone who wanted to learn, i shouldnt say taught, ive gotten people started

your right, i have no control over peoples skills, and id love to learn anything anyone could teach me

thanks again guys, youve all changed my perspective on this

Now your next step is to check out the Meetings thread under Help. Lots of good info and others in your shoes.

be hesus
if i had a dollar for every time i had heard that..........ID BE RICH!!!!!!!!

yo- i say- just doob it!! Now seriously, i say you have nothing to lose, & the world to gain from starting yer club. I think it's a great idea to include other arts as well (i.e. devil sticks, diabolo, staff, juggling...).The more diversity the better, i mean , u could be the one who changes how people percieve those of us who enjoy these types of things.. ( if i had a $1 for everytime somebody thought i was a hippie because i enjoy my fire arts, i would be a millionare! ) So BE FEARLESS and get on with yer bad self!!

I'm with mags on this one (literally!). start the club. if it gets big enjoy it. your not going to lose friends or the unique unity that poi provides amongst people. it can only be a good thing to spread the art of poi!

im going to do it, i just keep forgetting to get the forms you have to fill out from the office

its probaly going to ask me for a mission statment or something, what should i say? how can i say i just want to get a group of people together to spin and juggle to make it sound like a brilliant and inspiring ideal that will serve for the betterment of man kind? i suppose ill figure it out though, if theres one thing ive learned from school its how to bullshit properly

thanks for all your support

peace/fire
lyra

go ahead and start it =D

word of advice, tho -- if its gonna encompass more than just poi [staff, juggling, and/or other circus-type talents], then what sense would there be in calling it a 'poi club'?

haha...thats about all i have to say, i guess... *shrugs*

good luck
::me

oh oh... to answer your question [somehow?]

could say that it'll bring out talents people didnt know they had [or dont use that often, sitting in front of a computer or tv]...
check the hop.c front page for more reasons, too [under 'why learn to swing poi?']. and what would be so bad about learning to do something like this that has a bit of history behind it? [well, at least going back farther than more modern forms of dancing]

aaand im out of ideas...haha. hope that helped somehow...

i keep calling it a poi club because it started out as just poi, so i keep reverting back to that on accident, and becasue i dont have an official name for it yet, any suggestions? it would be cool if it was an acronym(i think that what its called), but im having troble coming up with anything

peace/fire

so...........lyra. We really ought to get started on this, huh?! Why don't we just start meeting, and then we can get the charter together later. SAW was a club for at least half a year before we did anything about making it official; plus, the only reason we would really need school recognition was if we needed a treasury account, but we won't need any money, so that isn't really necessary.
If we get it together soon, though, maybe we could do a float for the homecoming parade!