A lot of work

[tdjohnsn]

So, the first night of Mainstream lessons was tonight. Ron did a really nice job.

How many new dancers would you guess we had?

We were in two parades (one with a dancing boot) and the women's march and had booths at both festivals, one of which we did tastes and demos at. We gave out well over a thousand flyers. We used contemporary music (In-grid mostly) for all the events and wore matching t-shirts with the slogan "keep it square" on them. No hay-bales in site!

Now how many would you guess?

We had an event to register domestic partners which we sent out press releases for and got a lot of publicity for the club.

We had Four "Taste of Square Dancing" events, two at our usual location, one at the Cuff for the western dancers, and one for the over-forties women's club that we actually hired Anne to come down from Canada and call for us.

Now how many would you guess?

All the names we collected (which wasn't as many as we would have liked, but no one wants to give their contact information out...I can't blame them. Who wants to add to all the junk mail and spam they get?) were called not once, but twice, and we had new dancer newsletters for everyone who showed up.

The club did the best job recruiting and getting out in the community to get exposure that we have ever done. So how many new students do you think we had tonight?

Six

Seven if Melinda's boyfriend's back held up okay tonight.

One was from the over-forties event, all the rest were personal contacts.

Comments

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

Aaaaughh. I feel for you.

I'll be interested to see how many new dancers come to the Times Squares open houses coming up -- and how many stick around for lessons.

[trulygrateful.livejournal.com]

Six new dancers on the first night of MS? Only six?

IIRC, Foggy City had only one (perhaps two) on theirs, but still...

I don't know if it would work, but if at least eight people from the club (preferrably those that started within the last couple years) brougth at least one person with them to the first night, perhaps there'd be more (and since the newbie would already know someone in the activity - longevity, too!)

Hugs from NYC. :)

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

After all the effort you guys put forth, I share your disappointment. On the good side, however, you have nearly a square which is vastly better than nothing.

This Monday is DCLS' open house... I'll let you know how many new folks we get.

[fuzzygruf.livejournal.com]

Foggy City's first intro night this year had 2 new people. They had done lots more recruitment efforts this year than the past couple of years.

Two days before the second intro, they got an email sent out to the sfmoviebears list, which includes 1000+ people. They also got anonymous donors to give a free movie pass to every newbie. They got another donor to give a free movie pass to every club member who brought a newbie. (This free pass was mentioned in the email.) I think they had 16 or 17 show up for that next Intro. I'm guessing they'll consider this type of push next year instead of spending so much money on other efforts.

[deege.livejournal.com]

The Times Squares did a ton of outreach two years ago (parade, multiple festivals and demos) and then we asked all of the newbies at our open houses to tell us how they heard about us. There were 22 new people and 21 of them came because of friends or word of mouth. Last year we didn't even do the pride parade and I think we did one demo somewhere, and we got about 18 people at the intros, all from word of mouth. Our members seem to be the best recruiters; everything else is visibility but doesn't seem to generate short-term, concrete results.

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

Yay! I was right!

Oh, wait - that's not a good thing in this case.

Sucks, dear, but Chesapeake Squares just cancelled their class for this Fall due to lack of interest, so maybe it's more indicative of something country-wide than of your recruting efforts.

Hang in there.

[typographer.livejournal.com]

Your lead-up had me ready to guess one. So the number, to my completely un-involved eye seemed so much better than I had feared.

Which isn't a very helpful reaction.

Sorry the turnout was a disappointment.

[dr-tectonic.livejournal.com]

Suck!
Perhaps you need to reach out to a new demographic: kittens!

[tdjohnsn.livejournal.com]

unfortunately, "kitten teamwork" is an oxymoron...

I love the way the kittens race in and out of the box...