[Organizers] Re specific comments on series budgets

Hi again fellow organizers :) I just wrote an email specifically on the technical numbers folks sent in. (MUCH THANKS!) It's pending approval as I attached a PDF summarizing the feedback provided and it exceeded the size of email approved automatically by the list... ... anyway, watch for that. :) However, I wanted to respond to additional comments that were provided... LOTS of great points! *Donald* I LOVED your suggestion about asking dancers to bring friends instead of additional donation (but having the option). We regularly ask dancers to bring new folks but haven't connected that to actually needing more people to break even. Getting the word out that we actually need their help sounds as though it can prompt action. :) *Walker* REALLY good to know that you think our prices seem steep and super helpful to know them in comparison with other larger dances. I know Montreal charges 14/12$ but they've got a smaller attendance and are the only org that I've seen that high. Re reducing costs --- we are definitely looking at that. As per my comments to Peter (below), we don't feel we can switch halls... ... this is pretty good rate for Ottawa and is in a key location with good acoustics etc making it ideal. And cutting the costs of bands/callers would be really hard because yes, we want to get top notch talent and we already feel that they are getting paid little. That's why I was curious about how much communities pay for sound. We're spending a fair bit there and REALLLLY like our sound guy/not having to deal with equipment but it seemed like one possible place to discuss saving if we can't get our revenue up (I'm still quite hopeful there). *Peter* I do really like your idea re reaching out the community and we were going to survey our dancers this summer so including our current situation in the context of the survey would be good. The notion of having dancers 'pick up the slack' is great! Re our venue... we did a MAJOR hunt about five years ago when we knew we needed to move. We're really happy with our current location for a number of reasons and the price is all right. The challenge is that it's owned by the city of ottawa and so there's absolutely no negotiation on the pricing. But there are many reasons that make this the best location for us (... ... and Ottawa is majorly lacking in dance floors/venues so we'er lucky to have it!). And we've got a community dance on Tuesday nights where callers/talent play for free, working up their skills. (I lead the community band that anyone can join to learn contra playing skills... weekly practices and then playing monthly on the 4th Tuesday.) We could move those to some Saturday gigs but we really like guaranteeing the quality of talent on the Saturdays + feel that anyone playing our 'bigger' dances should be paid (including the local talent who are working on their skills and occasionally play/call there). *Mark* I totally agree about having a popular & profitable series being the easiest way! We were there three years ago but then raised what we were paying bands/callers/sound in order to support them more and don't want to cut back again there. It's a good point about being willing to ask/having the courage to reach out for support. Our membership deal has been great for that as it's meant buy in from the community and a pool of money we can count on. But we haven't increased our membership in 5yrs even though we now organize about 10 more events where members can get discounts. I think we're nervous about making the membership an 'ask' again but you're comments make me feel more confident about that. And interesting about higher levels of donorship. It's not something we've discussed as a group as I think we'd like our series to be self-sustaining but it is something that I've added to our list of possible revenue sources to consider. I know another dance community who was recently struggling and through a simple ask, they got oodles of support from individuals who wanted to see the series continue. Your suggestion is great here. When you mention the raising of funds through a weekend like NEFFA, is that specific to the food or do the assets of the weekend as a whole go back to various dance series??? And yes, your point about grants ending making me nervous about using them as well! :) Emily