Organizers October 2017

organizers@lists.sharedweight.net

22 participants
9 discussions

by Marie-Michèle Fournier via Organizers

Hi all, Both Montreal and Ottawa have seen lower attendance this fall and we got word that it's similar in Brooklyn. Are any other local dances seeing this too? Any idea what might be causing this? Since it happens to both Canadian and American cities I doubt it's the political climate. Thanks, Marie ContraMontreal

7 years

what to do about a dancer with dementia

by Katy Heine

For the last three years, one of our older dancers has been declining with dementia--and her husband, not a good dancer himself, continues to bring her to our dances. Invariably, they create chaos on the dance floor. Most people on the board of my dance organization feel it's important to continue to include these dancers until such time that the husband decides it's time for them to stop coming. On the other hand, I'm concerned with the effect that they're having on other dancers. I've heard at least one dancer say that she considered not coming to a dance when she saw that this couple was there--and certainly this couple's presence is diminishing the dance experience of many of the dancers who've come to our events for the high level of dancing that we were able to deliver in the past. Has anyone else wrestled with this sort of problem? If yes, what did you do (or not do) about it? Thanks, Katy Heine

7 years, 1 month

Re: [Organizers] record-keeping for sliding scale admission?

by Claire Takemori

Hi Dana , In the SF Bay Area, we use a sign-in sheet for liability purposes (I’m told) and dancers can self check “member, non-member, or student” and pay that rate. $12 non-member, $10 member, $6 student. However we also have $20+ “supporter” and “pay as you can” and negotiable family rate (at my dance we ask adults to pay and offer any amount for kids). I can send you a copy of that sign in sheet if that’s helpful. Another dance in our area uses a simple tally sheet for $5 youth, $10 others, $ pay as you can. I also put out a talent tip jar, since our rent is based on 40% of the door take, and our talent is underpaid at our dance compared to other dances in the area. I’ve found that most people pay the asked price, $10-12, and a couple pay extra or donate to talent and a couple pay less. Claire Message: 1 Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2017 19:04:17 -0400 From: Don Veino <sharedweight_net(a)veino.com> To: Shared Weight Organizers <organizers(a)sharedweight.net> Subject: Re: [Organizers] record-keeping for sliding scale admission? Message-ID: <CAAJTtiK9J9d3ELe80eQ5CCi5NESs7zOk+86kkNiyqaXypPZ0Qw(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Like Heitzso reported, I've successfully used a tally sheet broken into range values to manage statistics on a sliding scale admission scheme in the past (hint: make the most common expected price band amounts have the larger tally area). I've moved on from that since. For my weekly dance I didn't want to administer the complication of a true sliding scale, yet wanted to try a similar concept to see how our community might engage with our revenue issues. As a result we've gone to a "You Pick A Price" scheme, described here: http://mondaycontras. com/pages/you-pick-admission.php . This has worked out extremely well, with self-selected admission payments greatly skewed towards mid and higher amounts. Very few pay the least stated amount or lower and several give us additional donations on top. The net effect is we have been able to pay each of our performers something on the order of $10-20 or more on average vs. our prior standard admission scheme (while still enabling financially challenged folks to participate if they can't volunteer). I set up a cheap Android tablet with the Square POS (Point of Sale) app on it to manage the admissions scheme. After a short initial training period our door sitter volunteers have come to praise it and can process in dancers quite quickly. You can see our "process manual" here: http://mondaycontras.com/pages/volunteering/door-sitting-process.php . The Square app itself is free and cash transactions incur no charge - credit card transactions do pay a fee (we only offer cash sales publicly). The reporting is quite good and you can manage cash drawers and see sales reports by item. Should you decide to go with Square and find the information I've supplied to be helpful, I'd appreciate you signing up via one of the referral links from the groups I'm working with (you and the selected group will each get free credit card processing for 180 days/first $1000 of sales as a result): Concord Scout House, Inc. https://squareup.com/i/SCOUTHOUSE (preferred, greater use of credit cards) Monday Contras Dance Committee https://squareup.com/i/MONCONTRAS *Note: you must sign up by clicking on one of these links to obtain the credit*. There is no way to gain the credit if you sign up in their standard way starting at their regular web site or via the link included in a retail reader package. They are very firm on this. You do need at least Square's basic mag stripe reader to set up the app for the first time. However, they will send one for free upon request after sign up or will rebate $10 to cover a retail purchase (units available at Staples, etc.). Please give me a shout with any questions, Don On Sat, Oct 21, 2017 at 8:12 PM, Dana Dwinell-Yardley via Organizers < organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Hi all, > > Our dance in Montpelier is considering several models of raising > admission, including going to a sliding scale admission instead of a fixed > fee. > > If your dance does sliding scale, how do you keep good records on > attendance? We would ideally like to track how many people paid what dollar > amounts, as well as a total attendance figure and average payment. > > Also, does anyone do a tiered payment system ($8 low income, $10 regular, > $12 dance supporter, or something like that)? > > If you used to charge a flat rate and now do sliding scale, has your > average admission gone up or down? > > Thanks for helping us make a good decision! Our committee is meeting again > on Oct 29, so having responses by then would be very helpful. > > Thanks, > Dana > > -- > Dana Dwinell-Yardley > graphic design & layout > Montpelier, Vermont > 802-505-6639 <(802)%20505-6639> > danadwya(a)gmail.com > > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net > >

7 years, 1 month

record-keeping for sliding scale admission?

by Dana Dwinell-Yardley

Hi all, Our dance in Montpelier is considering several models of raising admission, including going to a sliding scale admission instead of a fixed fee. If your dance does sliding scale, how do you keep good records on attendance? We would ideally like to track how many people paid what dollar amounts, as well as a total attendance figure and average payment. Also, does anyone do a tiered payment system ($8 low income, $10 regular, $12 dance supporter, or something like that)? If you used to charge a flat rate and now do sliding scale, has your average admission gone up or down? Thanks for helping us make a good decision! Our committee is meeting again on Oct 29, so having responses by then would be very helpful. Thanks, Dana -- Dana Dwinell-Yardley graphic design & layout Montpelier, Vermont 802-505-6639 danadwya(a)gmail.com

7 years, 1 month

Re: [Organizers] follow up to family dance questions

by Claire Takemori

Paul and all, I’m curious what the child age ranges are for the family & community dances? It sounds like they are young? So then all the middle school kids and older go to regular contras? I’m hoping to start a dance in SF bay area in CA, but not sure if it should be a family dance series, an old time square dance series, or? Thanks Emily for getting this conversation going Claire Takemori SF Bay Area Message: 1 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2017 23:47:18 -0400 From: Paul Rosenberg <paul(a)homespun.biz> To: Emily Addison <emilyladdison(a)gmail.com> Cc: organizers shared weight <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Subject: Re: [Organizers] follow up to family dance questions :) Message-ID: <6928B4B1-F53F-470E-992D-03CB7E80DC6D(a)homespun.biz> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hi Emily I?m curious: what were the two dances that DeLaura led at Ogontz? My series has been going since 1994. Generally it?s monthly from November through April. I am the regular caller. In the early years, I was inspired by seeing Peter Amidon and Andy Davis leading family dances, and I used a lot of their repertoire: Zodiac Chimes of Dunkirk Bridge of Athlone Black Joke Sweets of May Sasha Galopede Circassian Circle Old King Glory Brandy Rump Bump Gramma Moses Head and shoulders Down in the Valley Little Johnny Brown Step it Down Chee Chee Cha Heel & Toe Polka As the years went on, I learned more and more fun unique dances. Another factor in my repertoire change was my change in attitude. I became disenchanted with the evolution of the contra scene, with dance evenings becoming monotone. Contras only. No more circle mixers or squares. No more chestnut contras. Very few easy contras. Choreography that is ?unforgiving?. So I quit calling at contra series and for the last ten years or so, all of my dances are family and community dances. I find that lots of contra callers seem to want to groom the children to become contra dancers, and their choice of dances at the family dances are generally just simple contras. My goal is to provide a fun, exciting repertoire of dances appropriate for young children. Some may be a bit like contras, and some dances are totally different We have several dances that children request at most of the family dances: Spiral Hoe Ana (Polynesian sit-down canoeing dance I learned from Sanna Longden) Old Dan Tucker (longways dance I learned from a PE teacher) Zodiac Any dance with a ?Peel the Banana? figure, like Virginia Reel, Sweets of May, or Bridge of Athlone Funga Alafia (West African dance) Sasha Other dances the children love, but don?t request necessarily: Zemer Atik (Israeli dance) Looking for a Friend aka Hang Peng You (Chinese) 7 Jumps (Danish, learned from Marian Rose and many other sources) Mi Cuerpo Hace Musica (Puerto Rican) Dance du Castor (Quebecois) Baanopstekker (Dutch dance) Can?t Jump Josie (American singing game) Clap Your Hands (American) Buffalo Gals (Square) LaRaspa Chay Chat Koolay (West African) Yan Petit (Catalonian) Cshebogar (Hungarian) Le Bus (Quebecois) Damat Halayi (Turkish) Penguin Dance (I forgot where I got this) Marching Through Georgia (Square) Paul Rosenberg Albany, NY 518-482-9255 www.homespun.biz > On Oct 17, 2017, at 1:37 PM, Emily Addison via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > > Hi Paul, Perry, Jeff, Chrissy, and David, AND others too! > > Thanks so much for all the feedback. :) I wasn't online for about four days so I've just been catching up and am learning SOOO much! > > I'm going to follow up with a few of you regarding some additional questions that your posts peaked. > > I'm curious though about PROGRAMMING for FAMILY DANCES. > > This is something that Jeff and David both brought up... the idea of perennial favourites and consistency. > > I'm wondering if there are specific dances that your family dance series LOVES or goes over really well. For instance, I remember two that DeLaura Padovan did at the Ogontz family week that kids just went crazy for. And they clearly had done them previous years... everyone was SOOO into them. > > I hadn't thought about the idea of consistency and kids being able to ask for dances they really liked etc until Jeff and David raised these ideas. > > Having a repertoire of some super awesome crowd pleasers would be great. > > Thoughts???? > > Emily > > > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net

7 years, 2 months

follow up to family dance questions :)

by Emily Addison

Hi Paul, Perry, Jeff, Chrissy, and David, AND others too! Thanks so much for all the feedback. :) I wasn't online for about four days so I've just been catching up and am learning SOOO much! I'm going to follow up with a few of you regarding some additional questions that your posts peaked. I'm curious though about PROGRAMMING for FAMILY DANCES. This is something that Jeff and David both brought up... the idea of perennial favourites and consistency. I'm wondering if there are specific dances that your family dance series LOVES or goes over really well. For instance, I remember two that DeLaura Padovan did at the Ogontz family week that kids just went crazy for. And they clearly had done them previous years... everyone was SOOO into them. I hadn't thought about the idea of consistency and kids being able to ask for dances they really liked etc until Jeff and David raised these ideas. Having a repertoire of some super awesome crowd pleasers would be great. Thoughts???? Emily

7 years, 2 months

Liability insurance

by John W Gintell via Organizers

I am wondering whether most dance series have liability insurance - particularly small ones. Insurance for a dance series from CDSS costs $450, $550, … depending on the number of dances plus $85 membership fee every year. I suspect other sources would be more expensive. For a small dance with few financial reserves, the extra fees each year could easily drive it to extinction. I know that sone venues require that the group has insurance, but not all do. What is the risk of not having it? Any recent incidents in the past few years? I’d think possible suits could be from dancers or musicians/callers who got injured or thought they were treated badly, venues where there was damage to the site. What about ASCAP copy infringement suits? Have there been any of these? Anything else? John

7 years, 2 months

Re: [Organizers] Ideas for connecting family dances with contra

by David Kirchner

Greetings from Minneapolis/St. Paul! We are in our fourth year of a once-a-month family dance immediately preceding the regular Saturday evening contra. We run 6:30pm - 8:00 pm with a break for a snack in the middle. The contra dance runs 8:00pm - 11:00pm. We charge $10/family of any size (and any definition), plus we tell family dancers that they are welcome to come to the first hour of the contra for free. That's plenty late enough for most families with small kids. Most families that stay just watch, but some kids do try it out. We have a somewhat unusual arrangement because we have two dance halls, a small one and a larger one. We run the family dance in the smaller hall, meaning that we can run right up to the start of the contra without interfering with sound setup, teaching session, etc. A lot of early-arriving contra dancers will stop to watch the family dance on their way in. Having the two spaces also means that we can have kids with extra energy to burn racing around in the small hall while the contra is starting in the big hall. We have a separate band/caller for the family dance and the main dance. We run the family dance on a shoestring budget -- everyone who calls or plays knows they'll probably get gas money and that's it. So far, we've been able to find callers and musicians willing to do it primarily for the fun and community spirit. We've found that we have almost no 'core' family dancers who are there every time. But we have several families that come 4-5 times a year. (We gave up on June-July-August dances this year, so we're doing 9 per year.) As with contra, word-of-mouth is the most important way we've gotten folks in the door. We did get some people through an interview my daughter and I did on a local bluegrass radio show -- you can find it at http://tapestryfolkdance.org/programs/family-folkdance/ (click play next to "family dance on the radio"). One thing you didn't ask about that I think has been important is the continuity of programming. Our three regular callers have an overlapping repertoire of dances, so kids will usually see some of the same dances that they did the last time. And kids that come frequently begin to know dances and can request specific ones. My daughter has called dances occasionally since we started (she's 12 now), and hopefully we'll get one or two other kids up to calling a particular favorite dance themselves. Another important point you didn't mention is safety. No dancing with small kids on dad's shoulders. No whirling kids round and round with feet off the ground. No kids wandering off by themselves to explore other parts of the building. NEVER have a situation where a kid is alone with an adult that is not a parent or other caregiver. And make sure that there are ingredients available for all food provided so that parents can check for allergy issues or other dietary restrictions. That's what we have going on here. It's working pretty well, except that we need some new blood on the organizing committee so that people can step aside before they burn out. But that's a common need for all sorts of community projects, isn't it? David

7 years, 2 months

Ideas for connecting family dances with contra

by Emily Addison

Hi All, Hope folks are having a good fall! I'm writing about a question regarding family dances and linking them more to contras. Here in Ottawa, we have four family dances a year... 3-530pm with a potluck after. They're always on the same day as an evening contra which starts at 730pm with a beginner lesson, dance from 8-10pm. There's not much overlap in audiences and we'd like to have some of the families with the younger and middle aged kids, naturally flow into the contra dances while maintaining our awesome contra dance vibe (not feel overly family dance). We're looking to learn from others on how they might have a better link between the two. I know Belfast does a great job and Syracuse also has Family dances rolling into Contras. If you do this, might you be willing to share some info? Things I'm wondering about include... 1. What is the timing of the different parts of the dance(s) 2. Is there food/potluck/? involved? 3. How does the transition happen between family and contra? 4. Do younger kids stick around and not dance when contra starts? If so where are they and what are they doing? 5. Anyone have a play space for younger kids in the evenings? 6. What do you do in terms of callers/bands for the family and contra portions? 7. Other things you feel are important details/considerations? Maybe you have a totally different model... Thoughts? With much thanks! Emily Ottawa Contra

7 years, 2 months

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Organizers October 2017