Re: [Organizers] Building Contra - Organizers

16 May 2016

Hi,

I'm a fairly new organizer in Winnipeg Manitoba. There are some folk
dancing groups here, such as international and English, who are familiar
with contra dancing, and they have been the bulk of my attendees for the
two dances I put on this season. I also do all the calling and hire/play in
the band. It's certainly not a one man show, as I have had lots of help,
from volunteering, to spreading the word about events, and great teachers
along the way, but I AM the only person in the city promoting contra
dancing to such an extent, or putting on contra-only events.

I have come up with a few ideas that are helping to build the contra dance
community in this city:

1. I offer my services to other organizations as a dance fundraiser. I have
put on a very successful fundraiser for a friend of mine doing missions
work. You simply approach an organization, like a church or other community
group, and offer to do a fundraiser for them. They do most of the legwork,
like renting a hall, advertising the event, getting volunteers, and
handling the money. I prepare (or arrange for someone else to do) the
calling and the music. Viola. In this way, you're able to mix the group of
people wanting to support the fundraising organization and the group of
people who already like contra dancing and just want to have a good time,
even if it means paying a little extra. Be aware: you typically get a very
unexperienced crowd, and should program accordingly. Two other
organizations have agreed to do this, which are set to happen in the fall.

2. Get in touch with other dancing groups and offer to do a "themed"
week/month, where they take a small amount of time out of their regular
schedule in order to try something new. Again, music of some kind must be
provided, and calling. I have done this with the English dancers, and I
volunteer teach at the international group, always contras. Other groups,
like Scottish, or sqaure dancing, might be interested.

3. Other ideas might be to host a special dance in a public location, like
a busy park or a university center, to get some exposure and get people
talking and asking questions.  Generally, a younger crowd is more likely to
attract more younger folk, but do keep it all ages and family friendly, as
well. Get creative with your advertising. I'm not a social media buff, but
making artistic handbills that make people wonder and intrigue them is a
good technique. Host an event, like a typical house party, and make sure
there's dancing and folk music, just to give people exposure. And of
course, you must always put on a good show so as to not leave a bad taste
in people's mouths. You want them waiting in anticipation for the next one.

All in all, if you want to build, you have to reach out - in order to take
in more people in, you have to give of yourself. Don't forget to let us
know what's happening and how things are working out for you :) I'll do the
same.

Greg

On Mon, May 16, 2016 at 8:10 AM, via Organizers <
organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

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 Today's Topics:

    1. Re: Admission Table "Cash Register"?
       (Claire Takemori via Organizers)
    2. building contra dance (Claire Takemori via Organizers)
    3. Re: Admission Table "Cash Register"? (Dan Pearl via Organizers)
    4. Re: building contra dance (Paul Pindris via Organizers)

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Message: 1
 Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 14:01:09 -0700
 From: Claire Takemori via Organizers
         &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;
 To: organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
 Subject: Re: [Organizers] Admission Table "Cash Register"?
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 Hi Don,

 What the Bay Area Country Dance Society uses is a sign-in sheet for
 insurance purposes.  Each person signs in and checks the column if they are
 a BACSD member, not, or a student.  No mark hopefully indicates a student
 or under-income donation.  This ideally gives us a head count as well as
 indication of how many member, public, student rates were paid.  No current
 way to track donation amounts.

 Claire (Campbell CA)

 Message: 1
 Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 15:36:47 -0400
 From: Don Veino via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;
 To: Lou Echeandia &lt;lecheandia(a)aol.com&gt;
 Cc: A list for dance organizers &lt;organizers(a)sharedweight.net&gt;
 Subject: Re: [Organizers] Admission Table "Cash Register"?
 Message-ID:
         <CAAJTtiKNd99_MOK6S8=vPKN6ybqm6F-rAp_4Y=
 B+8gixkDYeUg(a)mail.gmail.com&gt;
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 Thanks Lou, I like your gizmo!

 We have a somewhat similar approach built into our accounting sheet (see
 link below).

 One side is for the door sitter's use and includes a tally area where they
 make hash marks for attendance by type and record the various amounts
 including the final cash box content at the end of their shift.

 The back side is our committee accounting and talent, etc. payment records.
 Each data element labeled with a [XX] code in bold on that sheet gets
 entered into a google form -> spreadsheet for long term tracking and I've
 built some basic error checking in there.

 In my experience, the need to manually record the attendance is sometimes
 forgot (particularly at the influx peak), resulting in deviation between
 the counts and the final revenue. I usually end up back-calculating
 attendance figures as a result.

 Thanks again for sharing your approach!
 -Don

 Our accounting sheet is maintained at
 http://mondaycontras.com/media/MonCon_Accounting.pdf

 On Sun, May 15, 2016 at 2:17 PM, Lou Echeandia &lt;lecheandia(a)aol.com&gt; wrote:

  Hi, Don,

 Our dance organization has chosen a low tech solution that seems to have
 worked well.  We put together a cash box and four tally counters (shown  in
  the photo) that yields statistics for correct
count for attendance as  well
  as a means for determining correct attendance
recieipts - or at least an
 means of determining error.  The associated Dance Cash and Tally Box  Record
  sheet provides a record and means of attaching
any receipts for expenses
 that might have been necessary for the event, as well as the receipt for
 the cash deposit at the bank.

 Hope that is useful,

 Lou Echeandia
 Treasurer,
 Oakland County Traditional Dance Society  (OCTDS)

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Don Veino via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;
 To: A list for dance organizers &lt;organizers(a)sharedweight.net&gt;
 Sent: Sat, May 14, 2016 8:46 pm
 Subject: [Organizers] Admission Table "Cash Register"?

 Hey all,

 Do any of you have/use a program for your door sitters which acts as a
 cash register?

 I've done some research to find a suitable simple program or app and have
 not found one yet. Most of the truly simple ones are targeted at
 restaurants/bars. There are some ticketing applications but they're aimed
 at theatres, etc. and nothing inexpensive at all.

 Need to keep it super simple for the door sitters and am hoping to use a
 touch screen Android tablet as the interface. Would love to greatly speed
 up the tally and cash box/accounting process for the night, improve
 accuracy and potentially create single use volunteer passes on the spot.

 I've started hacking up something on my own but before I spend too much
 time there I thought I'd ask what others have done.

 -Don
 _______________________________________________ 

 ------------------------------

 Message: 2
 Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 14:05:34 -0700
 From: Claire Takemori via Organizers
         &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;
 To: organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
 Subject: [Organizers] building contra dance
 Message-ID: &lt;EFC9D035-E973-48F0-84EA-F43FE8DF5B5A(a)mac.com&gt;
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

 Hi everyone,

 I just joined the list.  I?m a new programmer (I book band, caller, sound)
 for South Bay Contra in the Bay Area, CA.  I?m also helping lead the team
 of volunteers that manage the dance.

 We are trying to turn our dance into a sustainable one, as the past was
 often only about 20 dancers and it was not making ends meet.

 If you have ideas on how to bring new dancers, get advertising at
 colleges/schools,  create a dance that is welcoming and safe, I?d love to
 hear them!

 I?m also interested in what signs & policies you have for your dance for
 dancer safety (Creepers, unfriendly comments, etc)

 Thank you!   Looking forward to learning from your experiences!

 Claire Takemori (Campbell CA)

 ------------------------------

 Message: 3
 Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 21:54:08 +0000 (UTC)
 From: Dan Pearl via Organizers &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;
 To: &quot;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&quot;
         &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;
 Subject: Re: [Organizers] Admission Table "Cash Register"?
 Message-ID:
         &lt;152418869.3059305.1463349248497.JavaMail.yahoo(a)mail.yahoo.com&gt;
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

 1. Unless one has a trained small staff to work the admission table, I
 would recommend going as low-tech as possible.
 2. If you MUST have a breakdown between different classes
 (member/non-member, adults/kids, etc.) a tally works with reasonable
 accuracy.? If you want more accuracy, consider having TWO people work the
 table (especially if lines tend to build): one to do the cash, the other to
 take the tally.? An alternative would be to use numbered tickets (for a
 drawing during the evening) with different colors for different classes.?
 Just be sure to record the first number at the start of the evening!
 3. Consider not bothering with the tally.? At the dance I help run, we
 have adult/youth rates and don't bother to take a tally.? We operate on a
 basis of trust with our door-sitters and the mix of adult/youth varies
 during the year in unsurprising ways -- we just don't feel like we need to
 capture that information.

 4. Any system can be compromised by crooked door-sitter.? They can wink at
 their friends and wave them in for no fee.? They could pocket some money
 and not click the tally counter or put a tick-mark on the paper.? Anything!
 In summary, I'd say a) don't collect data unless you need it; and b)
 K.I.S.S !
 Dan