Hi fellow organizers,
Following up from some discussion in December about low attendance, here in
Ottawa we're working on 'recovering' from a surprising attendance drop this
year. We're having a major strategy session later in the month which
includes talking publicity, programming, finances etc.
I'd love to hear about any ****innovative ideas you have for door
pricing****
Our current system:
$12 regular, $10 members and students, 16 and under free
Membership is $30 start of year, $20 in January. People who want to be
generous and buy a sustaining membership can pay $50.
Possible options currently on the table:
The easiest solution which would be the default is to raise the price for
all by $2 which some feel is a fair price compared to a movie. However,
others think paying $12-$14 every two weeks will be not only hard on those
with low incomes but also a psychological be a turn off for others.
Ideas I'm wondering about:
- $10/12 base, adding sliding scale up to $15... hopeful that people
would contribute more.
- Also communicating effectively (we don't do this at all now) on the
cost of running a dance. This would mean exposing what the average cost of
talent and sound but I think if people knew where money was going and how
little talent actually get paid for their efforts, they'd be more generous.
Your ideas??????
Any thoughts on the ideas above and in particular, anyone doing a great job
of communicating costs to their dancers?
Any other brilliant thoughts? Maybe different donor levels? Donation jars
(but how to do well)?
Other?
With much thanks!
Emily Addison in Ottawa
Just in case any organizer is wondering:
Yes, you may use these particular words and ideas
in your efforts to sustain and grow your community.
Here's a liberal copyright license:
I hereby place the text in the public domain,
though I appreciate knowing if any person makes use of the text or ideas.
Regards,
Mark Jones
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark R Dobyns Jones <markrdjones(a)gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Dec 17, 2016 at 11:07 PM
Subject: Sustaining your dance
To: A list for dance organizers <organizers(a)sharedweight.net>
How did you start dancing?
I asked that question of many people,
in my role as a dance producer,
in hope of learning better how to introduce more people to our dances.
It turns out that nearly everyone I quizzed did not first arrive
through their own initiative, to participate in something they had
never done before. (Nor did they first participate merely by seeing a
flyer, nor by viewing a web page - these are usually for the already
interested or initiated.)
Rather, most describe some one, or several people in their life that
made the occasion of going to a dance inviting, interesting or fun,
and they wanted to find out more, and see what the experience
might be like.
And to have the experience again.
And again.
That inviting person often was a friend, sometimes a family member,
sometimes part a group of friends, or a teacher or co-worker, and
sometimes it was someone that they did not know, who directly asked
them to come to a dance or festival for the first time.
I think each of underestimates the persuasive social influence we may
have, and that our friends and fellow dancers have, in inviting people
we know, and people we do not know--to the pleasures of dancing
regularly to live music, and to join our community.
Anyone organizing any group of people knows that no matter how many
there are involved, over time, people depart, for a variety of
innocent and benign reasons. Perhaps their work life has changed, or
they have moved; perhaps their family life has changed, or they have
become parents, or their lift to the event does something else that
evening.
My favorite metaphor for this is filling a bathtub with the drain open.
To sustain our dances and our communities (and any cooperative human
activity, for that matter), it is beyond desirable for us to invite
and welcome new people to our activities:
it is necessary.
It is necessary to personally invite people who may never have danced
before.
To invite people often, graciously, enthusiastically and with welcoming
tone.
And invite people you don't know, too.
And to welcome them back. Again and Again.
I welcome you to invite several people this year to join you at a dance.
And to invite your entire dance community to do the same.
It is nearly the only way to sustain your dance.
To have a community that understands that it is crucial for the
community to continue to invite newcomers to come, and to treat them
well after they arrive.
The total population of people participating in our favorite forms of
social dance is less than one tenth of a percent of the surrounding
population (except perhaps for some rather active rural areas, where
it may be higher). I believe thinking about attracting and retaining
the next tenth of a percent of the population is the means to sustain
and grow our social activity.
There is no scarcity of potential dancers.
~Mark Jones
Boston
Princeton Country Dancers has happily used a Roland keyboard
for our contra and English dances for many years, but it's finally wearing
out and needs to be replaced.
We are considering replacing it with one of the following:
Kawai ES100
Yamaha P-255
Roland RD-300NX
Kurzweil SPS4-8
Does your dance group use any of these (or different models
by the same manufacturer) and, if so, what do your pianists
think of the sound and feel? Also, how durable have the keyboards
been, ie how often have they needed to be repaired?
Thanks for your help.
Larry Koplik
Hi all,
In Rochester NY we are often blessed with unpredictably significant quantities of snow over a short time.
Generally speaking, it is known by 3pm if the evening dance will cancelled due to weather.
We are reviewing our procedures for canceling the dance, and wondered what other communities do to:
0) Decide if a dance should be cancelled?
We are thinking of basing it off Winter Storm Warning by National Weather Service
1) Let the community know the dance is cancelled
Easier if everyone knows to check for a Winter Storm Warning...
But post on website, and facebook event page are also done here
2) Compensate performers who have arrived or are en-route when the dance is cancelled.
In particular, touring performers who may be in the city on their way to the next gig...
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Bob Fabinski
Here's an after-the-event musician perspective,
on a non-snow, but icy-post-midnight travel,
with high humidity (dew point) at altitude
and declining temperature, just below freezing
25+ miles away from the dance.
~Mark Jones (Concord Massachusetts)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Jones <markjones(a)busybusy.org>
Date: Sun, Dec 11, 2016 at 9:22 PM
Subject: Fwd: [pvcd] OT - Gofundme for Ann Percival's medical expenses
To: Boston Area Contra Community <BostonAreaContraCommunity(a)yahoogroups.com>
Greetings,
Ann Percival and David Canteini were in a car accident in which their car
rolled over several times, on the way home to western Massachusetts after
the Wild Asparagus dance at the Concord Scout House dance on Friday night,
December 2nd.
News and link below,
for the Gofundme page
for raising funds for Anne Percival's
medical and home-care expenses.
~Mark Jones
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ted Soulos soulost(a)arps.org [pvcd] <pvcd(a)yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 11, 2016 at 12:33 PM
Subject: [pvcd] OT - Gofundme for Ann Percival's medical expenses
To: "Orin Nisenson orin@nisen." <pvcd(a)yahoogroups.com>
Hi all,
I'm sharing the link to a Gofundme page raising funds for Anne Percival's
medical expenses: https://www.gofundme.com/ann-
percivals-medical-expenses?ssid=835523030&pos=1
She was in a car accident recently and had some fairly serious injuries. I
know musicians are often self insured and that their medical expenses are
often higher than those for people covered by workplace insurance. Ann is
the guitar, keyboard, vocalist for perhaps my very favorite dance band,
Wild Asparagus. I contributed this morning.
See you on the dance floor.
TED
__._,_.___
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Catapult is built to bring the best ready-to-be-discovered contra talent
together for one fantastic festival over Memorial Day Weekend.
Have any favorite bands or callers on stage in your local haunts that are
ready to break onto the national circuit?
Let them know.
Let me know.
For all the details check out www.catapultshowcase.com.
ciao,
rah
--
Rob Harper
thatrobharper(a)gmail.com
(404) 307-3444
Hi fellow organizers!
Thanks for all the help brainstorming words.... wow... there were some
grand ideas. 'Tis much appreciated. :)
I've started playing with word clouds in wordle.net and wanted to share my
progress as it's pretty darn cool.
I'll attach a few jpgs of the word clouds in a follow-up email as I think
they may get removed from my message.
In case you want to try making dance clouds too, here's what I did:
- I couldn't run wordle in chrome so had to pull out explorer and update
java
- I used one of the 'advanced' options where you could select size and
hex coding. The list of words with coding is below. (I used the following
website for the colour/greyscale choices http://htmlcolorcodes.com/)
The following text seemed to be best outside of the word cloud itself so
that it was really clear.
- All dances taught
- No partner needed
- No experience needed
- All are welcome
- absolutely no lessons required! (there's a beginner lesson at 7:30
which helps but is not necessary)
The words and coding I used are below.
:) Emily
CONTRA~DANCE:500:000000
always~live~music:300:000000
living~tradition:300:000000
vibrant:100:000000
welcoming!:300:000000
try~it!:300:000000
all~ages:200:000000
joy:300:000000
smiles:200:000000
super~fun:300:5E5E5E
community-spirited:200:5E5E5E
participatory:200:5E5E5E
very~simple~footwork:100:5E5E5E
social~dance:300:A1A1A1
trad~fiddle~tunes:200:A1A1A1
inclusive:100:A1A1A1
lively:300:A1A1A1
all levels dance together:100:A1A1A1
delight:300:A1A1A1
connection:100:A1A1A1
move:300:A1A1A1
celebrate:100:A1A1A1
One of the tools that I've used in the past is "Wordle". What's cool about
it is that it accentuates words used more frequently. It would mean (for
example) asking your dancers to respond to a prompt like, "Contra dancing
is...". Then put all the responses into a document and paste that into
Wordle. The result is usually quite striking. Of course you could just
generate the text yourself. I suspect that you all know about this but I
thought it was time to weigh in :-P What else does a Jewish boy do on
Christmas Day?
A joyous holiday of your choice to all of you!
Eric G.
Highland, NY
On Sat, Dec 24, 2016 at 4:09 PM, via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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> 1. Re: Word cloud words for a contra poster???
> (JD Erskine via Organizers)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2016 20:10:50 -0800
> From: JD Erskine via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
> To: organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> Subject: Re: [Organizers] Word cloud words for a contra poster???
> Message-ID: <585DF54A.3080005(a)shaw.ca>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 2016-12-22 1216, Emily Addison via Organizers wrote:
> > Hi fellow organizers :)
>
> snips
>
> > Things like... community, super fun, great exercise, live music....
>
> > Any ideas for words you find sell the experience???? ???
>
> Nice idea.
>
> > Has anyone made a contra word cloud before????
>
> No, simply used a few related words in event descriptions or on posters.
>
> Keywords/tags used here:
>
> Fun
> Live music
> All dances taught
> or
> All dances taught & prompted
> or
> Dances taught on the spot
> Try it!
> Intro session
> Bring your friends
>
> Sometimes:
>
> Tea & goodies
> Real Ale
> 50/50 Raffle
>
> as appropriate, natch.
>
> Some events here use All Ages as a tag, which in BC is also code for a
> dry/no-bar event.
>
> > :)
> > Emily in Ottawa
>
> Cheers, John
> --
> J.D. Erskine
> Victoria, BC
>
>
>
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>
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> End of Organizers Digest, Vol 26, Issue 19
> ******************************************
>
Hi fellow organizers :)
In Ottawa, we're working on a new poster ... the kind you put up around
town to try to attract to people who have never heard about contra before.
Yes, not nearly as effective as word of mouth but we'd like to give it good
shot!
The thing we're struggling with is how to communicate what contra dance is
in a way that will grab the uninitiated. This was raised by Marie-Michelle
on the list earlier this year... ... 'what's the elevator pitch'????
Our current plan is to create a word cloud somewhat like this:
http://coedtech.hdesd.org/2012/09/10/word-clouds-are-a-simple-way-to-visual…
We're looking for words to populate the cloud, mostly wanting to avoid
unfamiliar words (e.g., many of the figures etc) but instead go for words
that really sell the experience and that would attract brand new people.
Things like... community, super fun, great exercise, live music....
Any ideas for words you find sell the experience???? ???
Has anyone made a contra word cloud before????
:)
Emily in Ottawa