[Callers] "booker" fee for tour planning

[Jack Mitchell via Callers]

I have also booked quite a few tours, and have also generally not taken a
"booking fee" outside of what I was getting paid to call the dances.  In a
couple of cases, I was booking the tours with a particular $ figure in mind
for us to average out per night.  The most satisfactory arrangements have
involved one person (sometimes, me, other times one of the band members)
collecting the money, pooling it, expensing people out for travel costs or
gas, and then dividing the rest up.

My reasoning: 1) I really enjoy getting to do multiple gigs with the same
musicians -- I get a chance to get to know them and their music, and we can
develop a good rapport over the course of the tour 2) I have discovered
that by far the easiest way for (1) to happen is to book it myself.

I generally try to pin the band down to a chunk of time they are available,
find out how many total gigs we want to do, and if they have a particular
number that they need to hit for it to make sense financially (in terms of
$ they won't be getting for teaching lessons, or doing whatever they are
normally doing as a day job).

Now on the side of being a booking agent for ONS type gigs, I would feel
more comfortable about asking a bit more $ to serve as booking agent and
caller (or even to serve as booking agent to find them a caller and band).
I have done that work a number of times, now, and think that my time
handling logistics is worth more than the $0 I have been charging for
it.....

J

On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 4:05 PM Bob Green via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Hi  Donna,

I have now booked 4 tours. Three of them have been completed and one is
scheduled for next June/July. It is an enormous amount of work...but then
so is learning to play an instrument well enough to be going on tour,  ;-)
In my case, I was traveling with my wife, who was also one of the
musicians, and two to three additional band members. In all but two of the
30 some dances involved, I was the caller (or in one case waltz instructor)
in all but 2 dances. Even for those two I was off calling at a different
location. In our cases, we have decided to pool all the payments caller,
band, teacher, and then divide the remainder after all expenses equally.
Last year the band was exceedingly generous and did give me an extra amount
for the organizing, but the was completely voluntary on their part. I
suspect we might be a little "tighter knit" than the typical arrangement.

Bob Green
St. Louis

On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 2:45 PM, Donna Hunt via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Hi
Just wondering aloud since this is not something I've ever seen discussed
here.  Do you (or a musician you're traveling with) take a "booker fee" for
planning a tour, or even a single community dance when there is a lot of
planning with the event host and time spent booking musicians?  How much of
a fee do you usually ask for from the event host or cut for yourself from
the total fee to the group?

Donna Hunt





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-- 
Jack Mitchell
Durham, NC
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