Swingin' Tern

From: Leigh M. Walker <lmwalker@eclipse.net>

Sent: Tuesday, December 3, 2019 4:53 PM

To: FP board <fullboard@folkproject.org>

Subject: Swingin' Tern 2019 year-end report

Swingin' Tern 2019 year-end report

Publicity. We have a large email list. A few new emails are added after every dance and a few people unsubscribe every month.

Booking. In recent months, Xander has occasionally been booking larger and more popular/expensive bands. Bands and callers are booked for the next six months, and Xander is working on the New Year's dance taking place a year from now.

Volunteers. Virginia is pleased with the response from our volunteers. For most dances, we have a full slate by dance time.

Sound. Jae has joined Sacha and Andrew setting up the sound every dance.

Church relations. We now have a good relationship with the church and the other groups who use the parish house. We will continue to work hard to leave the hall in good condition after the dances.

Dance promotion. For the next year and maybe more, roughly quarterly one dance (usually the second one of a month) will be free to dancers under 35. These dances will be noted on the normal ST flyer and in other dance promotion efforts. Doug will write flyers specifically for these dances, with input from Jae on making the flyers appealing both on paper and electronically. Jae has contacts that they will pursue at Drew and Seton Hall universities. We will offer pickups at nearby train stations and possibly otherwise. Further, at least some of the under-35-free dances will be lark/raven dances.

Transportation. Virginia is our contact for train-station pickups. When a dancer notifies her of an interest in getting a ride from/to a train station, Virginia will coordinate with people nearby that station.

Hospitality. Christy is now the hospitality coordinator for the dance. She arranges for places that performers can stay after the dance, and she is seeking more hosts.

Special dances and workshops. To start, next year have a during-the-break waltz workshop. We will also have a contra-with-flair workshop. These mini-workshops will be noted on the flyers and publicized elsewhere.

Swingin' Tern business cards. Doug is designing business cards to hand out to bands and callers and to leave at dances. No specific dates will be given; they will be for general promotion. Doug is seeking input from Christy (who promoted this idea) and Jae (who has experience with this).

New Year's Eve dance. We are re-instituting the Pot Luck for this year.

Roxanne is taking the lead and will coordinate it as part of her duties as a dance co-manager (along with Xander).

Lark/raven dances. Our first lark/raven dance was well attended. The at-the-dance survey revealed that attendees were evenly split among people who were favorable, neutral or unfavorable toward this terminology. In Doug's Facebook survey, people were somewhat more inclined to the favorable side. Given the responses and people's comments, in the near term we will have a lark/raven dance or two every quarter. After a few dances we will gauge people's reactions, both by looking at attendance and listening to what they say.

Booking famous bands and callers. Doug has noted that the Folk Project has given grants to venues to purchase equipment and considered whether we might seek such a grant to book some more famous performers. However, we are not purchasing equipment and also the financial implications of booking a famous band or caller are unclear (e.g., our most financially successful non-sponsored dance was when Perpetual e-Motion performed), so we will not seek such a grant. But everyone agrees with the spirit of Doug's suggestion, and we will seek to have more dances with big-time performers.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern