{"items": [{"author": "Ken", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107668596049461", "anchor": "fb-107668596049461", "service": "fb", "text": "If you average -$14/night, how come the overall savings is going up?", "timestamp": "1345729563"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107677502715237", "anchor": "fb-107677502715237", "service": "fb", "text": "The -$14/night is an average over the 11 dances since our rent went up, which happened at the beginning of the year, the highest peak on the red line.", "timestamp": "1345730781"}, {"author": "Ken", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107677872715200", "anchor": "fb-107677872715200", "service": "fb", "text": "Got it. Thanks!", "timestamp": "1345730845"}, {"author": "Alex", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107678976048423", "anchor": "fb-107678976048423", "service": "fb", "text": "What's the big dip toward the end of 2010, Jeff? Is that when you and I joined the board?", "timestamp": "1345731053"}, {"author": "Edward", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107690816047239", "anchor": "fb-107690816047239", "service": "fb", "text": "Jeff - this is interesting. But, why did you smooth the lines? Given the dances are discrete events, I would make the graph with jagged lines so we can visually pick out each dance. It would also be interesting to try marking e.g. open band nights on the graph, or dates that clash with major holidays or big regional events, stuff like that to see if there's any predictability.", "timestamp": "1345732886"}, {"author": "Allison", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107692606047060", "anchor": "fb-107692606047060", "service": "fb", "text": "I'm going to do this for Brooklyn Contra, and I can report back if anyone's interested. We've been around for 1.75 years. My feeling is that this is a very similar pattern to how we're doing, except we started with savings from a Kickstarter campaign.", "timestamp": "1345733156"}, {"author": "Allison", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107692926047028", "anchor": "fb-107692926047028", "service": "fb", "text": "What are board member fees? Do you pay your board members something for doing the work? Are your board members elected?", "timestamp": "1345733205"}, {"author": "Will", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107703549379299", "anchor": "fb-107703549379299", "service": "fb", "text": "Thanks for posting this. The Downtown Amherst Dance is now almost 2 years old and has had wide variability in terms of attendance as well, and we've lost money on a few dances primarily due to weather (heat twice this year and tornado warnings once last fall). We too have a performer guarantee of $75 though I would like to see it go a little higher (at least one dance I know of guarantees $120 I think but I doubt we'll ever be able to do that because of lower average attendance).
Our formula is that we take out money for hall rental, door person and $35/per dance for annualized expenses such as website hosting, flyers, insurance ($550/yr), etc. We purchased our own sound gear through a $3000 loan which we just paid off a month ago mostly through separate fund raising, some through dance revenues. Sometimes we pay a separate sound person, but not always. We do the basic sound setup and if the band is able to do the find tuning then there is more $ for them. After expenses, we take out performer guarantees, then 20% of any remainder to the series with the other 80% of the remainder going to the performers.
Most of this was developed based on Chrissy Fowler's \"Dance Manifesto\" documents for the Belfast, Maine series, which I believe was based on something developed for Concord many years ago. I'm very indebted to Chrissy for sharing that with me when we were getting started.", "timestamp": "1345734878"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107750999374554", "anchor": "fb-107750999374554", "service": "fb", "text": "@Allison: \"What are board member fees?\"
Sorry, that was unclear, I've reworded it. When BIDA started, board members who were booked to play, call, or run sound generally declined payment. Now board members are paid like anyone else would be when they do one of those things. Time spent on organizational work, before, during, or after dances, is still all volunteer.
Board members are elected annually by whoever happens to come to our annual meeting, which is usually our April dance.", "timestamp": "1345741852"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107757419373912", "anchor": "fb-107757419373912", "service": "fb", "text": "@Edward: lines unsmoothed.", "timestamp": "1345742640"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107770986039222", "anchor": "fb-107770986039222", "service": "fb", "text": "@Alex: to look into your question I looked at income, and then realized it would make a good estimate for attendance. I've added that to the end of the post.
To answer your question, it looks like the late-2010 dip was several poorly attended dances in a row.", "timestamp": "1345744299"}, {"author": "Alex", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107782146038106", "anchor": "fb-107782146038106", "service": "fb", "text": "@Edward & Jeff: shouldn't it really be a scatterplot? I'm also a fan of trendlines.", "timestamp": "1345745938"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107924286023892", "anchor": "fb-107924286023892", "service": "fb", "text": "@Will: our formula is that we first pay fixed expenses including guarantees ($260 hall, $20 insurance, $75 sound, $75/performer) then if there's money left over we divide it up, with BIDA and each of the performers getting a share. This works pretty well for us, though one disadvantage is that we're taking much more risk of loss than profit: if one dance loses $200 it takes several dances that make $200 before we're back even because we eat all losses but share profits.
(Do you pay your door person? Ours volunteer in exchange for free admission, three people per night.)", "timestamp": "1345772024"}, {"author": "Will", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107927666023554", "anchor": "fb-107927666023554", "service": "fb", "text": "@Jeff - we pay a door person (my 16 year old son) because it was about the same money as giving three admissions and it was WAY less trouble than organizing and managing volunteers every week - keep in mind that ours is a near weekly dance with usually only one week off per month. I was partially inspired to do it this way because I lived in MD/DC area 20+ years ago and Leonard (can't remember his last name) used to have his son do admissions for the Glen Echo contra and swing dances. Less work for the organizing committee, a young man gets to earn some money, and everyone gets to dance more.
Our formulas are pretty similar, just the numbers are different. I know that some dances operate at a loss most of the time and make it up with fundraisers. I believe this is the case for Peterborough, NH where the hall rental is VERY high.", "timestamp": "1345772484"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107928872690100", "anchor": "fb-107928872690100", "service": "fb", "text": "@Will: \"it was about the same money as giving three admissions and it was WAY less trouble than organizing and managing volunteers every week\"
Makes sense. I do like that volunteering for a dance can help build a sense of ownership, and it can also be a good option for people who otherwise couldn't afford the admission. (Though we do also offer a $5-$10 sliding scale to try and be flexible.)", "timestamp": "1345772751"}, {"author": "Will", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107930872689900", "anchor": "fb-107930872689900", "service": "fb", "text": "We sometimes offer the door position on nights when Noah can't be there, but mostly we offer half-price for helping with closing. I agree with you about ownership, but when you're putting on 35-40 dances a year, it's a lot more work to organize it than once a month.", "timestamp": "1345773235"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/107654689384185?comment_id=107937362689251", "anchor": "fb-107937362689251", "service": "fb", "text": "@Will: we're twice a month now, so with special events we're probably averaging ~30 dances/year. But we also have an eight person board, which helps tremendously.", "timestamp": "1345774763"}]}