[Organizers] Volunteers

[Mark Jones via Organizers]

I believe a profoundly useful point of view for any
organizer-producer, is that each and every volunteer, over time, may
have the potential to succeed you (or, as the case may be, relieve
you).

And...that some (few) volunteers may be sufficiently equipped or
motivated to grow into, besides running the dance, to participate on
your organization's board, or perhaps, be so vigorous in interest as
to help establish a new dance series.

This is the long-run future of having a variety of well-cultivated
volunteers and friends-in-aid: recent, long-time, younger and older.
It is not a slight task to welcome them, treat them well, and invite
them to appreciate the responsibility of aiding their own community
work well.

Treating your volunteers well is a broader topic than free admission to
the dance (and free admission may not be meaningful to some people.)

With the organizer, and with future organizers as represented by
present and future volunteers, there is a future dance and a future
dance community, and the leadership to sustain it.

Every musician knows that it is the organizer-producers that are
crucial for their gig opportunities, and for creating dances.

I relatedly view it as an essential part of growing the community of
dance to be alert to (the hard work and dedication that make)
opportunities for making it possible for young musicians to earn their
musical chops by playing regularly (another kind of volunteer).

Then there is the project of thoughtfully exposing and welcoming a
variety of new people who have never danced, whether younger or older
to your community.  One might call them volunteers.

Regards,
Mark Jones
Boston Massachusetts

On Wed, Feb 8, 2017 at 5:46 PM, David Chandler via Organizers
<organizers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> I'm interested in how other groups handle in-dance organizational tasks -
> collecting admissions, putting out refreshments, sound and perhaps checking
> shoes at the door. Do you use volunteers? Pay people? If volunteers, do you
> have a structured corps of volunteers you rely on or just ask for volunteers
> as needed? It would be very helpful if you mentioned how frequently you have
> dances, and roughly how many attend your dances.
>
> We (Country Dance New York) have a pretty formal system, and put on roughly
> 80 dances a year (weekly Tuesday and Saturday 9.5 months a year), getting
> roughly 40-50 for English and 60 plus for contra. Some people volunteer for
> only one or a few dances, but a lot of the work is done by "full-time
> volunteers," who do at least 8 tasks during the fall and/or spring. In
> exchange for this they get in free to every event. The tasks are also pretty
> structured - only members can work the door in order to increase security of
> funds, and attendance is kept on an iPad using Square so there is some
> training involved; refreshments involve buying food, refilling water
> pitchers and putting out a number of different things to eat at the break,
> then washing dishes and cleaning up. Volunteer coordinators line up people
> for each task in advance. In general this works very well - tasks get done,
> and volunteers who are short on cash can get in free. The downside, in my
> view, relates to our feeling dependent on the system and thus reluctant to
> consider other options for fear we would lose our volunteers. In particular,
> some have suggested that it would be more fair to lower our admission rate
> for those most likely to be in need (students in particular), or to go to a
> "pay what you can" system of some sort. The reports I've read suggest that
> "pay what you can" usually works out well, with perhaps increased attendance
> and no loss of income. However, we can't do that because if people could get
> in by paying what they can the incentive to be a volunteer would vanish and
> we are afraid we would not be able to get things done (or a very small group
> would have to do them, and burn out since we have so many dances). However,
> I have heard rumors that other dances don't have such a structured volunteer
> system and still manage to get these in-dance tasks done. I would love to
> hear how you manage getting tasks done with volunteers, especially if you
> have a "pay what you can" or very reduced rate for those in need.
>
> Thanks!
>
> David
>
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