Hi Emily, I have never seen anyone being uncomfortable about giving their e-mail address. A few of the older dancers just don’t have one at all! The biggest problem is getting them to write it legibly, so the door person always checks legibility before filing it in the cash box. We run two weekly dances, plus one or two monthly dances. On average we probably get a couple of new people most weeks. Sadly many of them only come once. I always check with all new dancers at the end of their first session; they always say that they have had great fun and that they will be back. Very few become regulars. I don’t think that there is anything that we can do about that. This type of dancing is just not for some people. They try it. They move on. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events & DVDs http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent From: Organizers &lt;organizers-bounces+john=modernjive.com(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; On Behalf Of Emily Addison via Organizers Sent: 28 June 2018 17:50 To: organizers shared weight &lt;organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: [Organizers] Welcome email to new dancers --- following up finally :) Hi All and especially Alex, Jonathan, Dela, Carol and John, Thanks for the comments and apologies for not writing back sooner regarding your comments on my initial post. Too many balls in the air here right now! I've followed up various parts below. Carol - I've included the 'old' and 'new' emails below. They're actually pretty close in content. I think the big difference is that the 'new' email comes from my personal email account (a real human!) and looks like a personal email rather than a 'form' welcome from mailchimp. Alex and John - awesome re your collecting new people's email addresses right at the front door when they arrive. Can I ask... 1. How many new folks do you have coming to your dances each time? 2. What's the percentage of folks who seem uncomfortable (or don't) provide their email addresses. 3. Alex - is it a requirement of getting the second dance free card that they provide their email address? How is that framed? (I'm not 100% positive but I think there are rules in Canada that prevent us for requiring addresses in lieu of a discount of sorts) Jonathan - way high tech re having a tablet right at the dance! Wow! Interesting stats over our last 10yrs of tracking 2nd dance free card returns... on any given year, we get about 22%-40% of cards handed out back. Seems pretty good but if all those folks became regulars we'd be overrun with dancers so we have more work to do on the 'after your second time' part. :) Delia - sounds like a really neat strategy. Unfortunately in Canada, our anti-spam legislation doesn't allow us to approach folks as an organization. But maybe we should be harnessing our regular dancers by creating an email invite that they can send out! Thanks for all this brainstorming. I really appreciate it as we tweak things further here in Ottawa! :) Emily NEW ================ Hi Barbara, Thanks so much for joining us at the contra dance this past Saturday. We hope you had a great time! If you would like to share what you especially liked or didn't about your experience, we always love hearing from new folks as we try to make the dances as accessible and fun for new people as possible. (If we don't hear feedback, we won't know what to work on!) You provided your email and checked off that you'd like to be added the main contra dance email list so I'll add you now. We send out one email a week so just watch for those. And here are few links in the meantime: Our fun facebook group: <https://www.facebook.com/groups/ottawacontra/> https://www.facebook.com/groups/ottawacontra/ Our website: <http://www.ottawacontra.ca/view/default.asp?home> http://www.ottawacontra.ca/view/default.asp?home I've also attached our beginners handout. Our next dance is the last of this season.... it happens June 16th. We start back up in early September for 2018-2019. Welcome to Ottawa Contra and I hope you'll join us on the dance floor again soon! :) Emily Emily Addison President - Ottawa Contra/Old Sod Folk Music Society <OCD2017_NewDancerBiFold.pdf> OLD through MAIL CHIMP ========================= Welcome to the Ottawa Contra Dance email list! Thank you for joining us at one of our recent dances, we hope you had a great time! At your request, we have added you to our e-mail list. We aim to send out just one message a week about upcoming contra dances and related events. For more information on Ottawa Contra Dances you can... * Check out our website: <http://www.ottawacontra.ca/> www.ottawacontra.ca * Join our facebook group --- a great place to connect with other local dancers!: <https://www.facebook.com/groups/ottawacontra/> https://www.facebook.com/groups/ottawacontra/ * Follow us on twitter: <https://twitter.com/ottawacontra> https://twitter.com/ottawacontra If you are totally new to contra dance, a special welcome. While occasional dancers catch on immediately, some dancers take a little while to feel the groove and meet folks. We are a super welcoming group and all of us started from the beginning at one point so we know what it's like! We have created a special guide to help answer common questions you may have, you can pick up a printed copy at the dance, or <https://gallery.mailchimp.com/22cc49b4bbe8214fcc3352c05/files/16a73c0c-f702-44e6-a6e8-8a691ddc5a6e/OCD2017_NewDancerLongForm.pdf> download our "New to Contra Dancing?" guide If you think you may have missed our most recent message and want to look back, check out the <https://us11.admin.mailchimp.com/lists/designer/*%7CARCHIVE%7C*> list archive. If you have any questions or comments, you can email us at outreach(a)ottawacontra.ca <mailto:outreach@ottawacontra.ca> . We hope you'll join us again on the dance floor soon. The Old Sod Ottawa Contra organizing committee.