Nancy, Your formula seems fair and well-reasoned. I think that any formula can work, but the most important thing in my opinion is to be transparent with the performers. It's really important to know what to expect and I value working with "open" organizers when I have my performer hat on.
For our monthly Belfast Flying Shoes dance, we do the following: 1. Each performer gets $100 guarantee, regardless of band size. 2. If a performer brings sound, they get an extra $50. If we hire someone else do sound, we pay them $125. (The $50 plus $75 for the hassle factor of hauling it separately and for monitoring the sound closely all night.) 3. We take out all standard expenses (about $315, to cover hall rent and other expenses like door prizes, publicity expenses, website mgmt, tasty treats, etc.) 4. Any remaining money is divided as follows: 20% to our kitty (to cover for snowstorm attendances, etc.) 80% to performers, divided equally. (We have never had a five person band with a separately booked caller, but if we did, we might consider something different, so as not to "penalize" the caller for being paired with a larger than usual band. If the caller "comes with" the band, we wouldn't worry about it since they'd know going into it that they'd not make as much as with a smaller group.) In times of lean attendance (ah, snow and sleet in Maine!) we pay out the performer/sound fees first, and just cover the rest from our kitty. Also, we have occasionally flexed our formula and given the performers a few dollars extra if attendance was lean and their take was particularly small and their drive particularly long (taking a bit less than our 20%) Once or twice we paid the caller a bit less than the musicians (if the caller was me, and the same circumstances of small crowd and long drive applied.) We don't have a maximum payout, but I'm curious if others do. And if so, what their formula is. Fun to hear how others handle these questions! Chrissy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.belfastflyingshoes.org home 207-338-0979 cell 603-498-3506 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 13 May 2008 08:29:43 -0400 > From: Dave Cain <[email protected]> > Subject: [Organizers] Payout formula when there are 4 muscians? > > Hi All, > > My husband is on this list, while I'm on the caller list... so I am > using his sign-in to post this message. > > Our dance committee is revisiting our payout formula and I'm > wondering how other dance organizers work their payouts when the band > isn't the typical trio. (For us, a trio is the standard.) When the > band is a four - person (or larger) group, do you adjust your > guarantee and payout formula? Do you do anything different when the > band is a two-person band? > > Currently, we split everything after expenses evenly across all > performers (band and caller), when the band is comprised of two or > three members. If the band is a four-person band, we pay our > guarantee, and then we split the overage 75% to the band, and 25% to > the caller. Our thought in doing this was not to "penalize" the > caller for working with a band greater than our standard of trios. > > I am looking for feedback on our existing payout formula and for an > understanding of how other groups operate. I plan to bring any > feedback generated from this list to our next dance committee meeting. > > Thanks! > > Nancy Turner > > _________________________________________________________________ Stay in touch when you're away with Windows Live Messenger. http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_messenger_052008
