Southern Lights' 30th Anniversary Dance
May 19th
Caller: Stan Russell
After long discussions and debate, Southern Lights has decided to put into action a plan to encourage participation in Square Dance Clubs and reduce attrition. We ask you to consider the following:
Problem: Declining membership in Square Dance Clubs.
Cause: There are many causes for declining membership in Square Dance Clubs. Some we have no control or solutions for, others we can influence. Losing members to age, declining health, and burnout are natural occurrences of any activity and can be understood. Losing members because of them not wanting to contribute time and efforts is a different matter. In the past few years the trend toward becoming an "Independent Square Dancer" has escalated and is yet another way Square Dance Clubs are losing members. There are many reasons people choose to become Independent. Such as: Not wanting to serve on a Square Dance Board, Not wanting to bring food to a dance, Not wanting to setup or cleanup before and after a dance, in general Not wanting to do the tasks it takes to help out the activity and keep it alive. We are sure there are other valid reasons as well.
The people going Independent are good people and many have been members of clubs for years prior to deciding to break their ties. They may be unaware of how their actions are hurting our activity if they do not take part in club membership and responsibilities relating to Square Dancing in general.
Effect: The long term effect on Square Dancing is almost as bad as if Independents just left the activity altogether. Independents go to dances and pay an admission fee; the same fee in most cases as do Dancers that are contributing members of other clubs going to the same Travel Dance.
The end result is that other dancers are seeing that by being Independent, they can take the easy way and just enjoy the Dances without doing any of the work necessary to put on a Dance which just compounds the matter. THIS IS NOT RIGHT. With more and more dancers not supporting clubs, the long term result is that there will be fewer and fewer clubs and fewer dance opportunities. Without Dance Clubs, who will rent the dance hall, retain the callers, pay the insurance, etc., etc? Yes there will be some local Caller Clubs, but the Opportunities for Callers will Diminish as well. There will be fewer Clubs to hire callers for a dance and fewer opportunities for dancers to see a variety of callers in their area.
We are sure that there are many reasons and rationalizations for going Independent, but the end result is Detrimental to Square Dancing.
Southern Lights Solution: In an effort to curb the attrition from Dance Clubs, Southern Lights is changing our fee structure. Beginning with our May 5th, 2012 dance, we will charge dancers who are Not Members of a Regular Square Dance Club $8.00 each for our Regular Plus and Rounds Dance. We believe that All Dancers should contribute to Our Wonderful and Unique Activity Equally. We Hope that this Policy will Encourage Independent Dancers to rejoin a Club and Become an Active Contributing Dancer to Keep Square and Round Dancing Alive.
This proposal is not meant to hurt or offend anyone, it is presented in the spirit of trying to Preserve and Continue the Activity that we all Love and Cherish. As Always, We Welcome Any and All Dancers and Hope That All Dancers Will Join a Club Somewhere
