The Bay Area Country Dance Society (BACDS) sponsors a whole bunch of
dance series in the SF Bay Area, generally in San Jose, Palo Alto, San
Francisco, and Berkeley.
Our standard pay arrangement is that the band/caller/sound split 60% of
the door, with a full share for caller, three shares for the band, half
a share for the sound person. For contras, we have minimum payments.
Our English dances don't usually have a sound person. Our door prices
are $7 (organization members), $9 (non-members), $5 (student/low-income)
or what-you-can on weeknights, $8/10/5 or what-you-can on weekends,
going up to $10/$12/$6 for big-name traveling talent (with whom we may
also negotiate an adjustment of the split).
So the sound person has a guarantee of $25 and may well make more than
that at a well-attended dance. At some of our dances people on the
committee do sound and don't take money. Each of those dances has
equipment that lives on sight. The organization pays for replacements
and upgrades, but in many case the equipment was originally donated by
the organizer of the series.
It's a different story when we have annual balls or dance camps at halls
we don't ordinarily use, and we typically hire someone who has their own
equipment. That's more money.
-- Alan
