One thing I might add as a former Treasurer: Make sure you let the treasurer know who is getting paid, and how much. Particularly if you have a special caller or band and are paying for mileage or some special expense, or if you pay different people different amounts for whatever reason. I've been in the uncomfortable situation of handing someone money and having them say, "this is not the agreed amount." I've also been the caller when the person with the bank asked, "how much do we pay you?"
Of course, it's not about the money, but smooth relations. I've also had some dance groups find out which bands and callers get along, musically and dance speaking, and which don't work as well together; e.g., Old Time band with caller who prefers not to call to Old Time, or just plain personality conflicts. If the latter, a measure of discretion is required by the organizers/bookers. --Jerome On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 5:17 AM, Alan Winston <[email protected]>wrote: > The Palo Alto, California Contra dance has a programming committee with > six or so members. > > The two main approaches to booking staff here are > - send out a 'call for dates' to local callers and musicians; if they're > interested in playing they let us know when they're available, and then > a program is assembled, working in chunks of three months at a time. > - Track out of town people who are coming to the vicinity for dance > camps, etc, and sometimes solicit them for off-cycle (we're usually > Saturday, > but can have a special Monday) dates, or participate in tours or > mini-tours where out of town people play local-ish dancers over a week or > weekend. > There's usually more lead time on this than on the other approach. > > I'm the "booking coordinator" for the committee, which means I send out > the call for dates, collate the responses, and make a proposed schedule out > of that. I circulate the draft schedule to the rest of the committee for > responses; they might notice things I haven't. (I don't always get to our > dance because I'm gigging elsewhere or have some non-dance thing going on, > so it's good to have other eyes and ears who can note when bands or callers > have off nights, show improvement, etc.) > > Another committee member tracks the out of town people more closely. > Another committee member organizes our American Dance Week and assembles > pre-and-post Dance Week gigs. > > To keep from getting all our hands crossed, we communicate on an email > list, and we've recently taken to using Google Calendar to track dates that > have been booked ahead of the regular booking cycle. > > This produces a lot of email but everybody on the committee is generally > aware of what's going on. (It doesn't work so well when trying to figure > out goals beyond our defaults of enjoyable evenings and nurturance of new > talent, and I'd actually like a bit more face to face than we get, but it > does work pretty well for divided responsibilities without a lot of > conflict or confusion, and it's less work for me as booking coordinator > than if I were trying to also regularly woo out of town bands and callers.) > > > Whether anything like this approach would work for you depends on > personalities - this is Silicon Valley and we're all fairly techy - and > your particularities of booking. > > > - Alan > > > > On 2/23/2014 9:52 AM, Dana Dwinell-Yardley wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> I am training to be the booker for the Montpelier, VT, dance under the >> guidance of long-time booker Cindy Taska. We are considering adopting a >> team approach to booking -- in case something happens to one person, to >> share the load, to share the knowledge, to allow for a balanced booking >> perspective, etc. >> >> We're finding it difficult to figure out how to share the job in a way >> that >> doesn't create more work for both people, though. Does anyone else book >> for >> their dance as a team, or do you all have one person doing your booking? >> >> Do you have any other booking tips or "best practices" of booking, things >> you do that are essential to making the whole process work well, while I'm >> asking? >> >> Thanks for the shared wisdom! >> Dana >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers > -- Jerome Grisanti 660-528-0858 http://www.jeromegrisanti.com "We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once." -- Friedrich Nietzsche
