4 Apr
2013
4 Apr
'13
10:52 p.m.
Triangle Country Dancers (NC) has, for many years had an annual member
appreciation dance (the MAD). The event has changed to some extent over
the years, but has always been a free dance for members of TCD only. It
is a time that we recognize volunteers, elect a new board (by
acclimation of a proposed slate) and frequently have a potluck dinner.
It has even had a dance written for it -- Robert Cromartie's MAD About
Dancing. Frequently, as a part of the annual meeting, the Volunteer
Fairy put in an appearance (local dancer Chris Martin in red tutu), to
recognize volunteers with a kiss (with dark red lipstick involved) and a
Kiss (of the chocolate variety).
Jack Mitchell
On 4/4/2013 6:31 PM, James Saxe wrote:
[This is a topic I brought up a couple weeks ago on
the
trad-dance-callers list. Discussion on it there seems to
have died down, so I'm seeing if I can get some more ideas
here.]
I'm wondering what any of you, or other organizers of local
dance series that you know about, do in the way of special
events for volunteer recognition. For example, you might
have an occasional (annual?) volunteer appreciation dance.
Or maybe at some point during a popular event like a series
anniversary dance or holiday ball, a key organizer takes
the mike and publicly distributes small gifts (things like
compact discs, custom mugs, ...) to people who have helped
the dances happen over the past year. Perhaps you do other
things.
Whatever you do, I'd be interested in significant details.
If you have an special event (dance, dinner, ...) is it open
to all or just to volunteers. If participation is limited,
how do you draw the line? How does the funding work? (E.g.,
if volunteers get free admission to the volunteer appreciation
dance, does the organization pitch in to help compensate the
band for lost revenue?) If there's work involved, who does
it? The same volunteers who are ostensibly being honored?
(And is that a problem?) What else should I know?
Of course I realize that there are many ways to show
appreciation to volunteers, not the least of which is by
lots of people pitching in to help, so that, for example,
the person officially responsible for closing the hall on
a given night isn't in there alone for an hour sweeping the
floor, stacking chairs, putting away flyers, and doing all
sorts of other things that would go much faster with a few
more pairs of hands on the job. But my current query is
about the kinds of things organizers might do once a year
or so rather than week to week.
Thanks for any suggestions or experiences you have to share.
Cheers,
--Jim
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