A WhatsApp Community is a collection of WhatsApp group chats. The Cambridge Swing Dance WhatsApp Community is for CSD's dancers to find out what's going on in CSD and to chat with each other. Once you've joined the Community, you can then join the groups which interest you.
You'll need to install WhatsApp on your phone or computer.
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To join, contact us and ask for the joining link, or scan the QR code on the front desk at any of our lessons and socials. We're keen to keep out spammers, which is why the joining link isn't on this page.
These are the main groups you'll find in the Community:
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Announcements: CSD committee members use this to announce things like upcoming events and socials, or the start of a new teaching block. You're automatically a member of this group if you're in the Community. Only committee members can post to it (though anyone can reply).
Groups for everyone
These are groups which anyone can join:
CSD Community: a general group for our community members to talk to each other. Discussion of swing and blues dancing in general and at CSD, seeing whether anyone's going to interesting events, looking for housemates, organising pub trips, etc. are all fine here.
CSD goes to other festivals/events: For seeing whether anyone's going to an event and maybe organising a group to go. For really detailed discussion of events, like arranging group accommodation and travel, you're better off making another CSD goes to whatever group and adding it to the Community (you'll see some of the existing groups people have made).
There are also groups for specific dances. Here you'll find discussion of CSD's lessons and workshops, recap videos, and discussion of the dance in general. They are:
CSD Lindy Hoppers: for lindy hop, the most popular of the swing dances, which we teach on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Cambridge Blues Dance: for Blues, which we teach on Mondays.
Cambridge Bal Love: for balboa, which we teach at Shall We Dance? on Wednesdays.
Cambridge Shag dancers: for Collegiate and St Louis shag, which we teach at Shall We Dance? on Wednesdays.
CSD Solo Jazz Dancers: for solo authentic jazz.
Groups for specific people
These are groups for specific people:
CSD Swing DJs: for people who DJ on Tuesday nights. If you're interested in DJing, please contact us or talk to someone on the CSD committee.
CSD Swing Teachers: for our teachers. If you're interested in teaching, please contact us or talk to someone on the CSD committee.
CSD Volunteers: for the people who volunteer on the door of our classes and socials. They get in for free on that night, by the way 😉 Find out more about volunteering, if you're interested.
Please take note of the following guidelines:
For the style specific groups, messages should be relevant to the dance style specified in the group.
Please do not spam messages i.e. repeatedly post the same thing.
Please do not use rude or potentially offensive language.
Please respect the confidentiality of each other's numbers in the group and do not give them to others.
Please respect people's privacy, and check in if it's okay to message them directly.
Please do not discuss religion, politics, or other similarly divisive issues
By joining the WhatsApp Community you agree to adhere to our Safer Spaces Policy. We treat these groups as an extension of our real life dance spaces.
If you encounter any issues in any of the WhatsApp groups, we encourage you to get in touch with any of the Safety Secretaries through welfare@cambridgeswingdance.com.
You can mute notifications from a group (including the Announcements group) for 8 hours, a week, or permanently; see WhatsApp's help for how to do that. Traffic on the groups is pretty sporadic so muting for a while is likely to solve the problem.
You can also leave individual group chats without leaving the whole WhatsApp Community (with the exception of the Announcements group).
New joiners can't see old messages in a group. This is a feature of WhatsApp groups related to WhatsApp's encryption and privacy controls. You'll see new messages when they're posted to the group.