Hello everyone!
This is something I am trying to develop and I was wondering if anyone
had some that they like to use. I like the "if square dancing and swing
dancing met in a bar, you'd get contra", but as someone pointed out to me,
if the person you are talking to doesn't really know what square dancing is
like it's not very helpful.
What are your favorite elevator pitches? How do you describe contra to
friends, family or potential new dancers?
Thanks!
Marie
Communications for ContraMontreal
Hi all!
It's a pretty simple question to articulate, but for us the answer is
not so easy to put in words, so I am looking at other places for
inspiration!
Thanks!
Marie
ContraMontreal
Hi Fellow Organizers,
As many of you know (because I've already posted on this!), Ottawa Contra
is trying to improve our talent info/contracts. I've been working with
versions from your various dance communities as well as ideas that came up
at the Puttin On The Dance session re talent.
I've attached our draft as it is now and would love to get your thoughts on
a few aspects. See below for five questions.
:) Emily
1. *Does our cancellation policy look fair? Anything we should do
different?*
*If Ottawa Contra has to cancel a gig within three months of the event,
we will compensate the talent for the full agreed upon amount. If the
caller or band needs to cancel the gig, please let us know ASAP. Bands can
substitute a member if agreed with Ottawa Contra (no additional pay). If
you don't perform, we don't compensate. Please note that cancellation is
difficult for us as we promote all bands/callers over the whole season.*
2. *I'm trying to open up channels for us to give feedback to the
occasional caller/band when things don't go well. Does our wording on
'feedback both ways' seem good in terms of being able to approach post-gig
to provide comments if there are particular issues (in addition to the
emails we send when it goes really well!).*
*Callers & Bands - Feedback both ways:*
*We would like to foster an open dialogue of feedback from you to us and
from us to you! If you are uncomfortable with feedback, please let us know
ahead of time. And, if you have any feedback for us regarding any aspect of
your experience with Ottawa Contra, please begin the dialogue!*
3.
*Sit Ins/sharing mic... ... we'd like to (if talent willing) have options
for a caller and 1-2 local musicians to get a bit of experience in order to
build capacity. See what you think of how we suggest that. **BAND:
· 'Sit
ins'*
*: If you are willing, 1-2 of our local contra musicians would love to 'sit
in' with you for 1-2 sets. This is a purposeful attempt on our part to
build capacity in our dance musician community – having locals get to feel
your amazing energy will help them a lot! This is only if you are willing
and we'll confirm with you ahead of time. (These sit ins could be mic'd or
not.) CallErs: If you are willing, we would like to arrange a time of your
choice during the evening where one of our local callers could call one
dance. We would love for you to take a few notes and provide them with
some constructive feedback on what they did well and what they could tweak
(i.e., stop-start-continue). Our local callers would really benefit from
calling with varied professional bands and from your tips! *
4. *Caller archiving: This is an idea from Belfast and Concord. What do
you think?*
*Archiving:* We have started an archive that lists past programs which
you may refer to before/during the dance. Please record your called
program there – name of dance, composer/author, comments, etc. This is
shared with other visiting callers to get a sense of pacing, types of
dances called, and challenges they come across
.
5.
*Gender-mixer dance... ... this is something some people on our
committee want to try to help women especially who are scared about
learning the gents role (it's true - we have many and 1 workshop a year
isn't doing it). Also other reasons as some folks like to play with gender
roles. However, we aren't interested in becoming a gender free dance and
we have a lot of beginners every time who get confused when people change
roles too much (it already happens a bit). What do you think?*
*Gender-mixer dance:* (Optional ) In the second half, we would like you
to announce (a full dance ahead) that there will be a gender-mixer for
those who want it. Randomly choose a line for folks who want to play
opposite gender roles, swap roles throughout the dance, etc. A few dancers
do this regularly but some folks who are learning the opposite gender role
want a more safe time to experiment where they won't be embarrassed if they
make mistakes, etc.
This has been a difficult year for English dancing in NYC, with lots of
people not dancing because of disability, weather, etc. We are looking for
ways to get more dancers to come and join our community on a continuing
basis, and want to survey dancers (those who came only once, those who came
for a while and dropped out, and long-timers) about what might make dancing
more attractive. Rather than reinvent the wheel we wondered if any other
communities have done such surveys, and/or found good ways to expand their
English dancing community. Thanks for your help!
I'll post this separately on ECD.
David Chandler
When you're handling booking for bands or callers, there are generally some
proper you don't want to book. When the reason is straightforward it's not
too hard to communicate ("you need to get more experience; play some
smaller dances and get back to me" or "on even days our series only books
local callers, ago the dates you suggested don't work, but what about
DATE?") but sometimes the reason is "we don't think you're very good, and
you've been doing enough dances that we don't think booking you for ours
will help you improve"? I'd like to just say "no" without getting into
reasons, but everything I write sounds either too short and curt or
overshary.
How do other bookers handle this?
Thanks Don and Lou!
I will check out https://civicrm.org <https://civicrm.org/> and would love to see the email produced by mail chimp. (they certainly have catchy ads!)
You could send it to treasurer(a)friendsofgreenfielddance.org <mailto:treasurer@friendsofgreenfielddance.org>.
Julie
> On Apr 24, 2015, at 4:08 PM, via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Data Base resource question (Julie Bermant via Organizers)
> 2. Re: Data Base resource question (Don Veino via Organizers)
> 3. Re: Data Base resource question (Lou Echeandia via Organizers)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2015 13:33:38 -0400
> From: Julie Bermant via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
> To: organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> Subject: [Organizers] Data Base resource question
> Message-ID: <9E04D02B-7B1D-43CD-B8C4-03B6E71D9C3A(a)jbermant.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Hi All,
> I am looking for a simple, intuitive program to manage finances (membership money,) and to send emails. I use Quicken to track our general finances, but have been struggling to find a data base that will track membership and send out thank you letters. Being able to send out other letters to our membership would be a plus. I am presently using Exceed, but it is clumsy and takes a lot of work to get out the letters, and though it is supposed to be able to email them, that function doesn?t seem to work.
>
> Any suggestions???
> Thank you!
> Julie
> Treasurer Friends of Greenfield Dance
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 24 Apr 2015 13:40:21 -0400
> From: Don Veino via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
> To: Julie Bermant <julie(a)jbermant.com>
> Cc: "organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net"
> <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Organizers] Data Base resource question
> Message-ID:
> <CAAJTtiK+BsPrMXCKq3SRVXKye4sOfMy__uCrzcCwtQkYvmGqLQ(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Have looked into this space a bit but not implemented anything so far. That
> said, this looked interesting and is a free and open source product:
> https://civicrm.org/ .
>
> -Don
>
> On Fri, Apr 24, 2015 at 1:33 PM, Julie Bermant via Organizers <
> organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>> I am looking for a simple, intuitive program to manage finances
>> (membership money,) and to send emails. I use Quicken to track our general
>> finances, but have been struggling to find a data base that will track
>> membership and send out thank you letters. Being able to send out other
>> letters to our membership would be a plus. I am presently using Exceed, but
>> it is clumsy and takes a lot of work to get out the letters, and though it
>> is supposed to be able to email them, that function doesn?t seem to work.
>>
>> Any suggestions???
>> Thank you!
>> Julie
>> Treasurer Friends of Greenfield Dance
>> _______________________________________________
>> Organizers mailing list
>> Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net
>>
>
Hi, Julie,
Not so much for finances but for emailings and tracking and identification of membership status by date as well as absolute status, you might look into a website, Mailchimp.com. Their "Entrepreneur" entry level allows up to 2000 contacts and 12,000 mailings per month - free, and no credit card info is required.
It takes a little work but once you establish your method your mailings will be relatively simple. The mailings go out in bulk but to only the members in your contact list you specified. The mailing can be scheduled but there is no automation in the free service.
I can send you an example of one of our recent mailings if you like.
Regards,
Lou Echeandia,
Treasurer,
Oakland County Traditional Dance Society,
Southeast Michigan
On Apr 24, 2015 1:33 PM, Julie Bermant via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
> I am looking for a simple, intuitive program to manage finances (membership money,) and to send emails. I use Quicken to track our general finances, but have been struggling to find a data base that will track membership and send out thank you letters. Being able to send out other letters to our membership would be a plus. I am presently using Exceed, but it is clumsy and takes a lot of work to get out the letters, and though it is supposed to be able to email them, that function doesn’t seem to work.
>
> Any suggestions???
> Thank you!
> Julie
> Treasurer Friends of Greenfield Dance
> _______________________________________________
> Organizers mailing list
> Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net
Hi All,
I am looking for a simple, intuitive program to manage finances (membership money,) and to send emails. I use Quicken to track our general finances, but have been struggling to find a data base that will track membership and send out thank you letters. Being able to send out other letters to our membership would be a plus. I am presently using Exceed, but it is clumsy and takes a lot of work to get out the letters, and though it is supposed to be able to email them, that function doesn’t seem to work.
Any suggestions???
Thank you!
Julie
Treasurer Friends of Greenfield Dance