Our Side of the Mic

by Bob Riggs

Welcome to Spring in Colorado. Many new dancers have joined our activity in the last few weeks. We want to welcome you to our favorite recreation. As we begin this month there are many dances and events for the dance community. First and most important is the annual Fun, Friendship and Fame dance, held this year on April 12^th at the Arvada United Methodist Church, 68^th & Carr in Arvada. This event is co-sponsored by DAS&RDC and DACCA.

As callers and cuers we continue to hear from clubs the struggles they are having relative to their club operations. Many continue to report the difficulty in finding members that will volunteer to be officers. Others speak of smaller dances, lack of energy from club members to come to dances or help with banner stealing/retrieving, the challenges of club financials, and the aging of their membership.

To alter the course we are on, we as an activity must change the way and who we recruit. A survey conducted by Mike Hogan, Chairman of the Callerlab marketing committee asked callers what they thought the age distribution of dancers should be in 2025. The results are very interesting. Currently, there is a discussion about what target age ranges should be the emphasis of marketing efforts. Those involved in the discussion have identified 40-59 as the best age to focus marketing/recruiting activities. We expect a recommendation to come from the committee to those of us that recruit new dances. If we apply the recommendation we should see the age of our members begin to fall. Then, clubs with younger members will cause changes in the music, format and content of our dance evenings. For example: I recently entertained at a dance where we started with community square dancing and ended with swing dancing. The participants had a great evening. What can we do with this information and direction to improve the dance environment in Colorado?