Emily, One idea would be to announce 3-4 months in advance you're planning on either not having a dance or planning to change the nature of the event. At the same time, you might solicit ideas from your participants on long-term ideas for your Saturday dance.
That way, other ideas, offers and suggestions would have time to be developed and put into action before any actual no dance day. It might not be like this in your area, but the general consensus amongst organizers seems to be that finding suitable locations for contra dancing can be difficult. So, I would suggest carefully considering having contra dancing become too much less regular at a venue. For instance, a Saturday community dance might be a plan for what you expect to be low months that might break even at the larger venue and the remaining months could be kept the same without cutting anyone's pay or changing a recurring data scheduled with a venue. It could also be that there is some pent-up desire for a slightly different format event for those dates that someone would be willing to step forward to sponsor in a bigger way than they would for the current type of event. By way of example, our group started organizing a series that focuses on (among other things) development of contra dance musicianship on a Saturday that another local group decided to discontinue sponsoring. It involves considerable investment but the return is cultivating new contra dance musicians who play exciting dance music and a better overall sense of timing and connection to the music on the floor with musicians maintaining an interest in being part of contra dancing. We have also taken on a date after another group decided against hosting due to a holiday weekend. Of course, we were fortunate to get a heads up well in advance and communicated that we would be interested in doing something on that day should they decide against it. Especially since your series is successful with the weekly events breaking even, I would definitely recommend talking to people first, giving folks a chance to offer to pick up the slack and offer their feedback about any changes (and give you a chance to respond to feedback with a request for assistance!) Peter On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 12:39 PM, Emily Addison <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi Dance Organizers! > > I'm pulling together ideas on budget for our dance committee meeting in > June. Our situation is this .... ...We've got a really vibrant dance > community where we get 100+ dancers at each evening dance (we're an urban > dance and have a mix of strong local talent as well as touring/national > bands). However, with various expenses, the last two years have been a bit > tough on us financially. > > *I'm wondering if you'd share your entrance fee rates and thoughts on how > high these can/should go before issues (e.g., accessibility, lower turnout) > arise? * > > *ANNNND if you have any additional brilliant ways of raising funds, that > would be great too! I've listed some options below but for sum (e.g., > fundraisers), we're looking for neat ideas.* > > With thanks! > Emily Addison > Ottawa, ON > > *Here's our fee structure:* > > - Membership is 25$ for full year, 15$ in January... This gives you > discounts on most of our dances (about 28 a year) > - Saturday night dance: 12$ regular, 10$ members/students, free 16 and > under > - Saturday afternoon workshop: 8$ regular, 7$ members/students .... also > a discount to do both afternoon/evening (17$ regular, 15$ > members&students) > - Tuesday community talent dances: 7$/5$ > - Family dances: $10 adult, free for kids > > It's our Saturday dances with hired bands/callers, paid sound, and a more > expensive hall that are loosing money. Our community talent and family > dances are breaking even. > > *Other possible forms of revenue include:* > > - Attracting and retaining more dancers > - Grants > - Fundraisers (what have others done?) > - Promoting larger donations OR doing something like a donation/tip jar > - Selling food, tshirts etc > - Avoiding booking dances on holidays/big events as #s may be down > - Other???? > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers >
