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
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
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