Re: [Callers] Caller Fees

At our series (a small local dance in rural Maine), we divide the door up into one share each for band members, caller, and sound (sound gets one share) for bands of five people or less. Once the bands get over five people, the caller gets a larger share. My experience of being both a caller AND a musician, is that calling is significantly more work than playing. I also find that it is more work, usually, to call for a large band than a small one. Communication is more challenging, and there is usually more doodling and chatting in the background from the band. Plus - for us - some of our larger bands are students and so the music isn't perfectly honed for dancers, which means that the caller is needed even more to help keep the dancers on the phrase since it isn't so crisply defined by the musicians (our dance also has a significant percentage of inexperienced dancers). -cynthia -----Original Message----- From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Dan Pearl Sent: Sunday, June 19, 2011 12:50 PM To: callers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: Re: [Callers] Caller Fees Interesting! I chair the Thursday Night Dance Committee of NEFFA, which runs a weekly dance at the Concord Scout House, in Massachusetts. I would characterize our pay as good. Here are the basics: 1. We expect equal shares for all performers (musicians/callers). In only very unusual circumstances will we pay different amounts. 2. Guarantee (per performer) is dependent on # of performers. 3 => $155; 4 => $145; 5 => $125; 6 => $104; 7 => $89. 3. Performers who travel a distance (say over 1 hour) to get to the dance get $15 extra. 4. Bonus *is* dependent on attendance. We assume that if people came out in droves to dance, the performers probably had something to do with it, and they should be rewarded. For a well-attended night, it is not unusual for performers to make around $200 each. For an exceptionally well-attended night, they might make $300 each. _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers