Re: [Organizers] 3 Things

Thanks, Chris! Oh boy, I have been thinking a lot about this lately!! Our format is: 5:30 -- dinner (soup/bread/salad, locally made by a member of our dance committee, with help, local ingredients) 6:30 -- Family dance 7:30 -- Break, dessert, often music, either kids performing or adults jamming 8:00 -- Contra dance We charge $8 for meal/dancing; kids and teens are free. We get a consistently great turnout for the family dance and a very spotty turnout for the contra dance, sometimes big enough feeling, but often barely enough for one short line, depending on how successful we are at seeming cool to the local high school kids on that particular night. Also our after-8:00 experience level varies hugely. We use the same band (Old Sam Peabody) and caller (me) each month, unless I need to travel for work and then I get a sub. We're coming to the end of our second year. My # 1 thing that I wish I had known: When we let kids stay on and dance the first few dances of the contra dance it drives away some of the adult dancers, so we tend to either have a depressing-feeling mass exodus after the 2nd or 3rd dance as the families leave, or dance gypsy types come once, see that we're still doing Family Contra or Haste to the Wedding after 8 and don't come back. If we had had a cleaner transition from family to contra dance, right from the start, (as I believe you do so effectively at your Belfast dance, Chrissy) OR if we had just gone with our big strength and made it a family/community dance I think it would have helped. #2 Besides the wonderfully loyal and growing family following, we tend to get our best adult participation by inviting local friends who are new to contradancing but like a good time. I wish I'd anticipated that this would be one of our best avenues for attracting dancers and maybe started out with a class or something. We tend to get a very uneven experience level so it's hard to find enough easy but interesting dances. We're about to reach out to the trad music kids at the high school and see if we can pull them in more regularly. #3 Our committee has been by far our biggest asset. One guy's business sponsors renting the hall each month; a woman cooks the whole meal each month, one woman is homeschooling her 6 kids and they regularly help with set-up, slicing/dicing and desserts, our band is represented on the committee, etc. I feel really lucky to work with these great folks but I wish I had thought through a little more the importance of having diverse folks who can help draw in a wide range of community members. Bonus: #4 I wish I had thought through that adults don't want to eat dinner at 5:30 unless they're bringing kids, so we should have advertised from the beginning that dinner is served through 8 so folks could arrive at 7:30 and eat. It's hard to change now, since we made posters for the whole year, and we're in a set pattern. Can't wait to read everyone else's 3. Thanks, Delia Clark On Dec 11, 2009, at 7:14 PM, Chris Weiler (home) wrote: <>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<> Delia Clark PO Box 45 Taftsville, VT 05073 802-457-2075 deliaclark8(a)gmail.com