16 Oct
2007
16 Oct
'07
3:09 p.m.
Chris,
I can tell you that in GR we have two dances. The
first is backed by the folk arts society and so
members get a discounted price, and I thought there
was a student and senior discount. The bands and
callers typically come from out of town and the hall
(gym) is more expensive.
The cost just went up to $8. The attendance has gone
down significantly over the past year. I don't think
it has much to do with price.
I'm more involved with the second dance which I helped
develop. We started with a $5 fee across the board.
We also started with a lead fiddler at $50 a night and
we paid the caller/ programmer/ mentor $50. We started
with a $75 fee for the hall but its gone up. We
raised the price to $6 to accommodate. The newer
callers took over calling the dances as a group for a
year without fees, it worked for both our benefits.
The programmer for the evening, or the main caller (it
still is a shared night), is paid $50 starting this
past spring. The main band are students of the
fiddler/ mando musicians, or musicians that like to
play for a dance but rarely have an opportunity, or
those that want to learn. They are unpaid. there is a
music sheet they try to keep to, it develops as the
musicians grow. (we also have an "icky" jam (slow
jam) some of these same folks come to monthly.)
An hour away in Kalamazoo the fee is $8 dollars, but
as a member of that community or a neighboring
community, you get a discount of $2. Students are $4
and families with more than three kids may get
discounts. Advanced dances are $2 more across the
board.
An hour another way is the HOlland community. They
have just raised their price to a flat $8 admission
ages 5 and under: free $5:full-time students (13+ with
current ID), seniors (60+) $20 family (all in the same
household)
volunteers $2 discount, other scholarships available
Lansing has two dances. One is $7 for Looking Glass
Members, $8 for the public, and $4 for students ( high
school, college) with ID. Children under 15 are
admitted for free! the other is - $8 / General
Admission
- $7 / Lansing Area Folksong Society Members
- $4 / First-time dancers and Students.
All the dances give discounts for volunteering at the
desk or doing other tasks. For a while GR and maybe
Holland gave $1 off to encourage treat sharing (we all
have snacks at break), but we were able to build it
back up as part of sharing community.
I don't feel at liberty to talk about the costs
associated with the dance but if anyone is interested
in comparisons, I will ask the two other West MI dance
communities, and the two in Lansing, if they would be
willing to share that information. There are also
dance communities in Goshen, IN and a small one in
Remus, MI.
I know that none of the dances really make money, as
far as I know, as a general rule. Pretty much its at
best break even or a little more, when there is excess
it goes back into the pot to help with scholarships or
a big band or caller or other events, or just to float
the boat when things go dry.
Does that help?
Laurie
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Today's Topics:
1. Price (Chris Weiler)
2. Re: Price (astro46(a)apricoto.com)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:09:18 -0400
From: Chris Weiler <chris.weiler(a)weirdtable.org>
Subject: [Organizers] Price
To: organizers(a)sharedweight.net
Message-ID: <4714558E.20505(a)weirdtable.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1;
format=flowed
Some of you may recognize this question from the
PVCD (Pioneer Valley
Contra Dance) list on Yahoo Groups.
How do you balance the price you charge for the
evening of dancing with
attendance? Charge too much and you loose people.
Charge too little and
you have trouble paying the performers and the hall.
Do you charge a
sliding scale based on ability to pay? Or
student/senior status?
On the PVCD list, a student sent a message
complaining about the rising
prices at some dances and the lack of a student rate
at others. She
complained that she and her friends could not dance
as much as they
wanted to. The response ranged from "right on!" to
"think about the
musicians!" to "grow up and decide how to spend your
money". (I'm
paraphrasing.)
Last month (after much deliberation) I raised the
price of my Mill City
dance from $7 to $8, but added a "young person"
price of $5. It's too
soon to know if it's had any affect or not. Last
month I had a couple
less people than usual, but due to the price
increase, the amount that I
had to pay the band was the same. The other dance in
town is still
charging $7 as well. When I took a survey in the
sign-in book earlier in
the summer, I asked if people were willing to pay
the new price
structure. I got about 10 yeas and 2 nays. I should
also mention that I
do not have a gate person and payment is on the
honor system. However,
the tally pretty closely matches my quick count from
the microphone
during the evening.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Chris Weiler
Goffstown, NH
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:56:39 -0500
From: astro46(a)apricoto.com
Subject: Re: [Organizers] Price
To: "'A list for dance organizers'"
<organizers(a)sharedweight.net>
Message-ID: <000e01c81004$c291d570$5685fea9@jmr>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
chicago charges $6 per person. no discounts for
students, though young kids
(below 12, as i remember) don't pay. it has been
this rate for several
years. local musicians get $50 each with a band max
of $200, and caller
gets $50. no one else is paid. hall is $150. in the
past some evenings would
make money, some lose. there are occasional grants.
over the last 8 months
attendance as fallen, so now most evening lose
money. remains to be seen
what will happen with this situation.
in chicago, considering the general cost of
entertainment (a beer is $3-$5),
there hasn't been much comment about the price. more
of an issue here is
transportation. more students might come, but don't
have cars to get to the
dance. taking combinations of trains and busses at
11:30pm can be
discouraging. or living 1-1.5 hours drive away can
seem daunting after a
days work.
jeffrey
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers
-----Original Message-----
From: organizers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net
[mailto:organizers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On
Behalf Of Chris Weiler
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 1:09 AM
To: organizers(a)sharedweight.net
Subject: [Organizers] Price
Some of you may recognize this question from the
PVCD
(Pioneer Valley Contra Dance) list on Yahoo
Groups.
How do you balance the price you charge for the
evening of
dancing with attendance? Charge too much and you
loose
people. Charge too little and you have trouble
paying the
performers and the hall. Do you charge a sliding
scale based
on ability to pay? Or student/senior status?
On the PVCD list, a student sent a message
complaining about
the rising prices at some dances and the lack of
a
student
rate at others. She complained that she and her
friends could
not dance as much as they wanted to. The response
ranged from
"right on!" to "think about the
musicians!" to
"grow up and
decide how to spend your money". (I'm
paraphrasing.)
Last month (after much deliberation) I raised the
price of my
Mill City dance from $7 to $8, but added a
"young
person"
price of $5. It's too soon to know if
it's had any
affect or
not. Last month I had a couple less people than
usual, but
due to the price increase, the amount that I had
to pay the
band was the same. The other dance in town is
still charging
$7 as well. When I took a survey in the sign-in
book earlier
in the summer, I asked if people were willing to
pay the new
price structure. I got about 10 yeas and 2 nays.
I
should
also mention that I do not have a gate person and
payment is
on the honor system. However, the tally pretty
closely
matches my quick count from the microphone during
the evening.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Chris Weiler
Goffstown, NH
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