Hello to the list,
Here at the Burlington QCC dance we used to have a sliding scale
entrance fee but after much discussion and consideration among the
organizing committee decided to just have one price for everyone.
What we found was that the low end of the sliding scale became the
default amount most people paid. It also made our bookkeeping a
little more complicated because in theory you had many different
people paying a variety of rates at the door. We could have had 20
people paying $5 or 10 people paying $10 and there was no way to
tell. We've actually had an increase in young people since we evened
out our door rate. I don't think there is a correlation, but I
mention it because I don't think there is necessarily a strong
connection between door fee and attendance.
I think the key is the quality of the experience that people
associate with coming to the dance. We seem to always come back to
this as our main point: create a sustained quality experience and the
people will come. It is also worth recalling the price in the context
of the many other entertainment options that people might choose. In
some of our promotional emails I like to point out that you get both
a concert and a dance for the low price of $7 at the door, reminding
people that they are welcome to just come and listen if that makes
them happy. Its a bargain.
I appreciate Mark's point in creating a youth price as opposed to a
student price. It is perceptive that there are different forms of
education and life experience.
I suppose I should point out that my comments are my own and not
necessarily representative of the QCC organizing committee.
Thanks Chris for getting this list going! It is nice to connect
around issues unique to the dance organizing community.
Best,
Dave Cain
Waitsfield, VT
