It Begins!
Oct. 3rd, 2010 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisRemember my previously ambiguous & vague posts here and here?
Like so many square dance clubs, DC Lambda Squares has been hitting a wall when it comes to recruitment of new dancers. We're still a relatively large club but it's pretty clear that we're now much more an A2/C1 club than the Mainstream/Plus club we were for many years.
Our board has been working on the problem, but they are only seven people and many of the traditional methods of attracting new bodies just don't work as well as they used to. We need new ideas and a change in our approach to marketing.
And here's my experiment: a series of monthly conference calls open to all to brainstorm on the given topic. All are welcome to attend: current dancers, lapsed members, future members, people in other clubs & organizations with similar challenges, etc.. I intentionally chose a Sunday evening for the open forum as that seemed to be the best evening to avoid colliding with a square dance event somewhere in the greater DC area. Yes, some noted the call time collided with football but they'll live. :-)
We've just finished our first such open conference call. With less than four days of advance warning, we were still able to get together ten people who are actively interested in marketing & recruitment.
We covered a number of interesting ideas --I'm going to work on writing up all of our talking points for distribution to the club membership & board-- on what we can do differently and how to restructure our marketing for greater effectiveness. I still have to ponder through all of the material to sort it all into a coherent & structured format. And there were questions raised which I need to ask various people which I can then relay back to the membership at our next conference call.
I have additional personal task beyond the DCLS issues: contacting the university down the road from us to see if they still have square dancing in their phys ed program and, if it has lapsed, seeing if I can help resurrect it.
I'm declaring this first conference call a success. Everyone agreed we should reconvene the first Sunday evening of each month to discuss ongoing or new business, even inviting special guests periodically to discuss success stories from around the US and Canada. If this project has ongoing life to it, I'm going to contact the IAGSDC board members (esp. the club liaison officer) to see if we can launch a pilot project on a larger scale to share success stories from every time zone.
Next call: Sunday, Nov 7, 8-9pm EST.
Like so many square dance clubs, DC Lambda Squares has been hitting a wall when it comes to recruitment of new dancers. We're still a relatively large club but it's pretty clear that we're now much more an A2/C1 club than the Mainstream/Plus club we were for many years.
Our board has been working on the problem, but they are only seven people and many of the traditional methods of attracting new bodies just don't work as well as they used to. We need new ideas and a change in our approach to marketing.
And here's my experiment: a series of monthly conference calls open to all to brainstorm on the given topic. All are welcome to attend: current dancers, lapsed members, future members, people in other clubs & organizations with similar challenges, etc.. I intentionally chose a Sunday evening for the open forum as that seemed to be the best evening to avoid colliding with a square dance event somewhere in the greater DC area. Yes, some noted the call time collided with football but they'll live. :-)
We've just finished our first such open conference call. With less than four days of advance warning, we were still able to get together ten people who are actively interested in marketing & recruitment.
We covered a number of interesting ideas --I'm going to work on writing up all of our talking points for distribution to the club membership & board-- on what we can do differently and how to restructure our marketing for greater effectiveness. I still have to ponder through all of the material to sort it all into a coherent & structured format. And there were questions raised which I need to ask various people which I can then relay back to the membership at our next conference call.
I have additional personal task beyond the DCLS issues: contacting the university down the road from us to see if they still have square dancing in their phys ed program and, if it has lapsed, seeing if I can help resurrect it.
I'm declaring this first conference call a success. Everyone agreed we should reconvene the first Sunday evening of each month to discuss ongoing or new business, even inviting special guests periodically to discuss success stories from around the US and Canada. If this project has ongoing life to it, I'm going to contact the IAGSDC board members (esp. the club liaison officer) to see if we can launch a pilot project on a larger scale to share success stories from every time zone.
Next call: Sunday, Nov 7, 8-9pm EST.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-04 09:39 am (UTC)Contact college gay groups and invite them to send people, run your ad in the school paper, and hold basic demo dances on campus like GW, U of MD College Park, or Georgetown.
Another idea is to copy the DRAW POWER of "Dancing with the Stars," which you might never have watched. ie, invite gay or gay-friendly celebs to an intro dance. Write a (paper) letter. Invite them not just to show up once but to JOIN:
-members of GMCW or DC COWBOYS or DIFFERENT DRUMMERS.
-would GMWC work in a tip dance routine as part of a song at some future show?
-WP's Gene Weingarten to come dance and write about it. Invite actress Linda Carter, she lives near here. Keep Ward Morrison on the invite list. Sgt Bret Parsons has a personal life. Invite WAMU or Maryland Public Radio if not NPR to do a story on the 'massive growing phenomenon' of gay square dance - Nina Totenberg.
-local pastors from UU churches, Bet Mish, MCC of Washington.
-Jay Fisette from Arlington or Jim Graham, Carol Schwartz of DC. Barney Frank.. (Pols being smart might ask if they can speak to the group for a few minutes so have an answer ready).
Ask them all to join and come back regularly, not just a one-time. The worse any of them will do is say no to the first time..
Another idea is to dance where OTHER people go instead of them coming to you. Especially at places that aren't already into square dance.
Is there dance space for a demo tip at the bear Happy Hour at Town twice a year?
Do you have a series of videos on Youtube? Do you even have a YT channel - YT is a place where people go?
Would Rich Morel let you do a tip at a BlowOff?
There's no such thing as bad publicity.