20 Jun
2016
20 Jun
'16
11:34 a.m.
Hello everyone!
I have recruited some of our younger dancers to start a contra club at
their university to help us bring in more people to our dances in an effort
to be sustainable. However, none of us are quite certain what's the best
way to proceed with this and what exactly to do with this club. Any of you
out there have associated university or college clubs? Could you put me in
contact with the people in charge so we can use their ideas and experience
with this?
Thanks!
Marie
ContraMontreal
20 Jun
20 Jun
11:44 a.m.
Unfortunately the people I know there have all graduated, but for
ideas: Green Mountain College has a club with some subsidy for van
transport to take students to area dances, and runs 1 or 2 dances per
year on campus.
web site description:
Contra club connects Green Mountain College students to the wider New
England community through a shared love of traditional music and
dance. This club integrates the GMC community into the folk music and
dance movement by teaching the basics of these dances to newly
interested students, faculty, staff, and other community members. The
club provides dance enthusiasts and gives the community the
opportunity to dance in the local region and beyond.
On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 1:34 PM, Marie-Michèle Fournier
<organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
11:56 a.m.
Hi Marie,
A little history for our group, then a suggestion that we plan to follow
this coming year:
At the University of New Mexico (unmcontra.org) FolkMADS (our local folk
dance org, folkmads.org) put on 8 dances in year Aug 2014 - May 2015, then
we formed a student organization and put on 8 dances, the last 4 with a
student band Aug 2015 - May 2016. We've had low attendance (10-30 dancers,
about half students), but with returning regular dancers. We've put in a
lot of energy without much growth, though the student band (
http://www.clarabyom.com/rusty-tap.html) was a very positive outcome.
This coming year we plan to *partner with other large student organizations
and put on joint events*. This will help guarantee larger dances, will
help with advertising, and will get people who already know each other to
dance together. I think this will increase the appeal of the dance.
We can also do more if we leverage ways to use student organization funds.
Good luck!
Erik Erhardt
(505)480-4462 StatAcumen.com
On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 11:34 AM, Marie-Michèle Fournier <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
12:01 p.m.
That's really interesting! Do you mean that you will partner with
organizations that do contra in other universities or organizations from
the same university that do other types of dancing?
Thanks!
Marie
On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 1:56 PM, Erik Erhardt <erikerhardt(a)gmail.com> wrote:
12:42 p.m.
The University of Maine in Orono has a Traditional Music and Dance Club
dance which promotes contra as well as other kinds of dance (though
essentially now I don't think it does anything but contra). In the past
they hosted a few small contras on campus (in dorms, the dining hall or
a large hallway somewhere where there was exposure to other students).
Recently they have gotten funds from the student government which covers
the entrance fee for students to the local dance each month in Orono
plus free pizza! The contact person is Anthony Viselli,
anthony.viselli(a)maine.edu, who also heads up the band that plays at that
contra.
Mary Anne
On 6/20/2016 1:56 PM, Erik Erhardt via Organizers wrote:
21 Jun
21 Jun
12:28 a.m.
Hello all-
While I do not currently work with a student organization at a university,
my profession is working with student orgs at universities.
Every school really is different in their bylaws and what is and is not ok.
I've seen a lot of different things to be successful.
At one school in the south, the christian based organizations partnered
with the swing club and had a large swing dance which included a lesson.
They did this 4x per year and got a few hundred people each time (between
local swing dancers, students who were in the swing club, and then
christian students looking to learn or try something new).
I think it is U of Chicago (or maybe it is UIC) that has a beautiful dance
hall, they use a student club to 'rent' the hall for occasional contra &
english dances.
Most schools will require that your club have a faculty or staff advisor-
typically this person just signs paperwork. They may or may not be an
active member in the organization. Have your students go to their favorite
professor to ask them if they want to sign on.
As for what does the club do? It's really up to you- they can co-sponsor a
dance on the college campus, or just be an 'enthusiast' group (like ski
club) that meets every so often but the real purpose is to help coordinate
rides to the local dance. It all really depends on the momentum and what
resources the campus offers. Some campuses will allow you to apply for
funds (think the same as a federal or state government- so, this is a once
a year type process most often - requires pre-planning, not a last moment
thing).
Most schools will require your club to have a constitution- they should
have a template for you to follow. The club will also need X officers and Y
members to be a 'real' club. The school should have some sort of
administrator (person in my type of job) who can help guide you with this
stuff. If you message me (off the list) the name of the university, I
could do some looking around to see if I know the person or can find their
name on a website for you.
Feel free to contact me off-list if you need more help & good luck!
Sometimes the 'college club' is a great thing & sometimes it is... not
really worth all of the effort. Usually it all rides on how much effort (&
time) the individual student is willing to put into the project- with
balancing it with their classes, part time job, sweeties...etc.
Brian
On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 11:42 PM Mary Anne Eason via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
6:38 a.m.
Thanks Brian, this is very informative!
Unfortunately I had a nasty surprise when I looked up how to create a club
at McGill only to discover they currently do not allow new clubs because
they have too many. I will have to rethink the idea. I didn't see any
traditional music club in their listing, which is unfortunate as they may
have been a good option for a partnership, but I will go through them all
again to see if I can find an existing club that we might convince to work
with us.
Thank you everyone
Marie
On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 2:28 AM, Brian Gallagher via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
20 Jun
20 Jun
5:38 p.m.
Hi Marie,
The Downtown Amherst (Massachusetts) Contra Dance series has worked closely with the
Hampshire College Contra Dance Collective since our series inception six years ago. The
Collective is a registered student organization (so essentially a club) and can apply for
funding for events. The dances are free to Hampshire students but also open to the public
with a suggested donation which helped with their funding.
Prior to my working with them they would have one or two dances a year at irregular
intervals. Since our Wednesday night series (3 miles away from campus on the busline) is
unable to use our regular venue on 2nd Wednesdays, I encouraged them to hold their dances
on 2nd Wednesday to sync with our schedule. I also provided support in terms of how to
book and pay performers, referring touring performers to them that I couldn’t accommodate
in our series, and doing cross-promotion. For the last several years they have run seven
dances a year, 4 in the fall and 3 in spring.
My point in saying all this is to encourage you to partner and work with dance organizers
and existing dances in your area. You’ll get: 1) the benefit of their experience and
expertise; 2) cross-promotion for events; 3) experienced dancers from the community that
will help teach new folks; 4) additional income from community dancer admission/donations;
5) a bit of continuity for the student organizers on campus as they graduate (as in I
regularly check in in the spring to say, “who’s doing booking for next year and do you
have all your dates planned and room/hall reservations?” before the summer comes and
everyone disappears.
Also, university public relations and alumni offices are often very enthusiastic about
such “town and gown” ventures are they are called here in the states, meaning joint
efforts that bring students into the local community and local community folks on campus.
Hope that helps!
Will
On Jun 20, 2016, at 1:34 PM, Marie-Michèle Fournier via Organizers
<organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
--
Will Loving
Northampton, MA 01060
21 Jun
21 Jun
9:09 p.m.
I have worked with a few university groups in some capacity.
At Appalachian State University in NC, they have a campus events group
that put on a techno contra event a few years ago in partnership with
the group that would normally put on contra dances. The normal group
is Appalachian Heritage Council, but apparently techno was pushing the
definition of Appalachian Heritage a bit too far (contra is not native
to the Southern Appalachians to begin with....)
Maybe something like that would work at McGill if no new groups can be formed.
Besides that, I shared advice writing the club constitution at Salem
College and helped put on some events at Guilford College.
The main thing I have seen is that having someone on campus promoting
events and possibly putting on workshops is extremely helpful.
Guilford College is small, but they have a newsletter that goes out
with upcoming events and they were consistently able to get 60-80
students at an on-campus dance with a student body not much over 1000.
Salem College is also pretty small, but a couple of students made it
happen. One would knock on doors the evening of the dance to ask
people to come, and another gave workshops for students using a copy
of David Kaynor's Contra Dance Calling for Beginners by Beginners.
Those workshops helped give the students the confidence to come to an
evening dance where they would have otherwise felt ill-prepared and
not come.
Whatever you can do to make things as smooth as possible is helpful.
At Salem College, they didn't have a budget to start out, so we were
able to put together an open band donating its time, borrow a sound
system from the local contra dance group, and the students sold stuff
to raise funds for the caller. At Guilford College, we helped line up
bands and brought a sound system once because the one they normally
use had already been reserved.
Also, from an approachability standpoint, I have found that it works
best when it's primarily set up as an event for students as opposed to
looking like an event on campus where an outside group is just using
the space.
Peter
On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 1:34 PM, Marie-Michèle Fournier
<organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
3193
days inactive
3195
days old
organizers@lists.sharedweight.net
8 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
Brian Gallagher via Organizers -
Donald Perley via Organizers
-
Erik Erhardt via Organizers
-
Marie-Michèle Fournier via Organizers
-
Mary Anne Eason via Organizers
-
Peter Clark via Organizers
-
William M Loving via Organizers