Merle, your point is very well taken. Policy now = peace later.
> In years past our board spent quite a bit of time discussing what to do
> when we had to cancel a dance. I really think it is important to have a
> policy on this. It is likely to happen to dance groups at some time or
> other, and it is really nice not to have to sit around and discussing it at
> the time.
Chrissy
Belfast, ME
Don's point speaks to me of how it affects others when dance organizers abdicate their responsibilities.
One time I arrived 25 min prior to the dance start time to find the hall locked. After I sat in my car for a bit, I was approached by a departing employee, who kindly happened to ask if I was there for the dance, and unlocked the back door to let me in. As dancers arrived, several came to me and asked if I knew that the front door was locked. One of them went downstairs to prop it open. Not until the dance had been underway for over an hour did the primary organizer arrive (the person who was supposed to have the key, at least according to the woman who let me into the building.) Some other folks who may have been associated with the dance arrived before that, but no one sat at the door taking admission (and I saw from the stage more than one person holding money and looking confused and then walking away with the money still in hand.) And then, at the break, the organizer came up to me with the money they had taken in, and told me my share was less than the amt I'd expected ("but what could they do, because that's all they took in?").
As a caller, I felt irritated by the whole thing, and it didn't inspire me to want to call that dance again.
But as an organizer, I was reminded of the deep and tangible effects that we have on our callers/musicians/dancers. If we are fulfilling our basic responsibilities (such as being there early, welcoming everyone into the hall) it sets a certain tone. If we aren't fulfilling our responsibilities, and folks have to actually overcome obstacles to call/play/dance at our series, then that sets a certain tone too.
I can't help but think the latter is a sure-fire way to send a dance into decline.
Chrissy
>
> As a caller, the only one that's been cancelled on me was the day
> Irene came to town. I'd emailed to ask if it was cancelled since the
> news was full of various things being cancelled and closed, but didn't
> hear back. I was halfway there and got a phone call, but not from the
> organizers.
Responding for NEFFA's Thursday Night Contra Dance in Concord Massachusetts
1. Do any of you have specific cancellation policies?
Yes
2. Under what circumstances would you cancel a dance? How do you go about deciding whether or not to cancel?
When our dance was in Cambridge, our policy was that we would cancel if
there was a snow emergency declared by the city. This was objective, but
a little ambiguous, as the city sometimes declared an emergency
starting at "11pm" or "9pm". In many cases, conditions were awful, but
the city was slow to declare. Now, our policy is to cancel if the
committee feels that traveling to the dance would be unusually
hazardous. If the talent can't make it due to lousy weather out of town, we may run the dance with local performers (we have a wealth of excellent local talent to draw from in this circumstance).
3. What happens if you cancel a dance? (Do you still pay the band/caller/sound provider the guarantee, if you have one?)
If we cancel, we pay the guarantee to the performers. We figure that the performers tend to need the money, and they are not responsible for the cancellation. As I often do the sound, I would not take pay for a cancellation. Yes, this could be a financial hit, but maintenance of goodwill with performers is important to us. The hall doesn't charge us if we cancel.
4. How do you get out the word to dancers?
Webpage. Facebook page. Facebook message to "attendees". Email list. Outgoing telephone message. Basically, everything we can. If we can swing it, we'll get a local to put a poster on the door.
> Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2012 10:37:24 -0500
> From: Chrissy Fowler <ktaadn_me(a)hotmail.com>
> To: "organizers(a)sharedweight.net" <organizers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: [Organizers] cancellation policy
>
> 1. Do any of you have specific cancellation policies?
>
Good question. Neither our JP gender free contra dance nor English country dance have one, and we should.
> 2. Under what circumstances would you cancel a dance? How do you go about deciding whether or not to cancel?
The one time we cancelled the contra dance it was for an evening dance when we had an afternoon dance. We were at the church when we decided. It had started to snow and there was a huge storm that evening and night - 2 feet I believe.
> 3. What happens if you cancel a dance? (Do you still pay the band/caller/sound provider the guarantee, if you have one?)
We don't have a policy. For English, our musicians and callers are gratis, and for both we do the sound.
> 4. How do you get out the word to dancers?
email and Facebook. We should publicize this better because it would be extra incentive for people to get on the list or friend us. We do try to get a sign on the church.
We had an emergency cancellation of an English because an oil tank had leaked and they didn't want anyone in the church. I was informed about 4 hours before the dance. I sent email. Someone was supposed to put up a sign but they didn't so a couple of people showed up and wondered what was going on.
Merle wrote:
> If we cancel, we pay band and
> caller for the gig. If the band can not make the dance we do not.
How much do you pay them if you do pay them? For us this year, paying guarantees for a 3 person band and caller would mean we're out $600, which is no small change, and would take a very long time to recoup given our small percentage of series income per dance. I do get the 'professional' angle though (and laughed at the anecdote about your musician friend racing out the door before the cancellation call... maybe I'll try that sometime.)
Chrissy
1. Do any of you have specific cancellation policies?
2. Under what circumstances would you cancel a dance? How do you go about deciding whether or not to cancel?
3. What happens if you cancel a dance? (Do you still pay the band/caller/sound provider the guarantee, if you have one?)
4. How do you get out the word to dancers?
I'd love to hear what others think about this topic, which recently came up in an exchange with Rich Dempsey, an organizer who attended the Puttin' On the Dance conference in November. (puttinonthedance.org) I've put our dance's experience below.
Chrissy Fowler
belfastflyingshoes.org
Belfast Maine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the Belfast Flying Shoes Dance in Maine, we send a detailed information letter to performers when we book them and again when we confirm the upcoming dance, but we don't have
anything in there about our dance cancellation policy, which we've done only once,
although we should have done twice. Once, a caller was traveling from a
long distance, and he canceled with me filling in for him, but the band
was local so they went ahead, and it was fine weather-wise.
We have evolved our committee policy re. weather cancellations - from leaning toward "let's hold the dance no matter what" to leaning toward "let's not encourage anyone to engage in risky behavior by driving in this weather, including us." The dance that we held in spite of treacherous roads was a key element in bringing us to this new place. (Yes, it was a bonding experience for the few who ventured out, but it was a huge money loss for the dance and was downright dangerous for the folks who did it, including us. Also, we hadn't thought to consider that the hall might not be open, which it wasn't - requiring another dangerous drive for one of the Legion members to open it up.)
Our stated
(spoken by phone) policy is that we do not expect performers to make any drives
that they personally feel are risky. If the perfomers can't make it but we choose to have the dance
anyway, we can come up with local performers who can get themselves to
the hall. We haven't yet had a situation where we wanted to cancel but the performers wanted to come anyway. All of these decisions get made over the phone, and when the weather forecast is threatening, we check in with the relevant parties ahead of time. (committee, band/caller/sound, etc.)
It's not clearly articulated in advance what exactly happens if we
cancel. We haven't paid anything to performers who didn't have to come to the dance, and performers haven't said anything about that being a problem. Once, when I was
organizing a dance elsewhere, we had to cancel at the last minute because the
hall was being used as an emergency shelter for folks who'd lost power
in an ice storm. That band wanted some remuneration, even though it was
beyond our control and we couldn't find an alternate space on such late
notice, and what we negotiated was that we'd hire them again very soon.
We get out the word via our networks (website, email list, Facebook, personal connections, phonecalls, DEFFA website) and via local radio stations (MPBN, WERU)
