Hi All, I’ve been reading about the doom and gloom of square dancing from everyone. Everyone has a comment on how bad things are. We can all lament on what was, or where we think square dancing is going, but what really matters is getting new dancers in the door and teaching them. We can always adjust whatever program we use as we see fit to keep them coming back, but we need them to start square dancing first! Getting new dancers in to square dancing is our biggest challenge AND our biggest imperative! Several clubs have started new classes recently - I’ve been hearing anecdotes of large classes. Let’s hear about the successes and what the clubs did to attract and retain dancers! I’ll start: The Tam Twirlers in San Rafael, CA, started a class three weeks ago. In preparation for the class, a club member contacted our local paper in July and suggested they do an article on square dancing. The reporter visited our club in August, wrote the story, and we got front page exposure. We also printed 4x6 glossy postcards (VistaPrint) with fun pictures of our club members dancing. We selected the pictures carefully to show square dancing in the best light. The postcards were distributed throughout the county and businesses were willing to display them. We also exploited online tools as much as we could: we used meetup, Facebook, craigslist, we updated our club’s web site, we emailed prospects, and we advertised in the Patch and other local papers. Our two prior classes, which started in September, 2013 and January, 2014, were full of enthusiastic newer dancers. These dancers invited their friends and many came. We had 41 new people join us for an “intro” night. Bountiful refreshments were served, and the club was primed to welcome the visitors. 31 came back the following week and signed up for the class, paying for the 12 weeks of lessons in advance (our requirement). We have a partner rotation board so any singles have an easy way of getting a partner for each tip. We are three weeks along and the new dancers are having a ball! Who else has a success story they can share? -- Eric Henerlau Corte Madera, CA
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:30:54 +0000
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