Our Side of the Mic

by Bob Riggs

As we enter the summer season we look outside and realize the beauty of our Colorado environment and the many recreations provided by having mountains to explore only a few miles away and fine weather to make each and every day enjoyable. As we view our world we can feel very blessed by the people we know and the opportunities we have. So as each of you enjoy the many summer activities include a dance every now and then.

Summer Dances: We hope to see many of you at: the State Festival, June 13-14 at the Crown Plaza Hotel/DIA, Denver, CO ... at the National Square Dance Convention, June 25-28 in Little Rock, AR ... at the USA West Square Dance Convention from August 14-16 in Pendleton, OR ... at one of the Saturday dances at Red Rock Ramblers in Lyons, CO ... Shaw Folk Rendezvous, July 11-12 at the Outpost in Denver, CO ... Buffalo BBQ on July 19th in Granby, CO ... Hi Country Weekend on August 1-2 in Westcliffe, CO ... 46th Peach Promenade on August 22-23 in Clifton, CO ... and don't forget to attend the many dances of your club and those dancing during the summer in your area.

Continuous Recruitment: As we look to our dance activity we must be "talking about Square Dancing so someone is talking about Square Dancing". If we are talking about square dancing we should be making sure that we are talking to people that would be interested in our activity as a recreation they might like to join.  To do this we must understand our "target market".  Our tendency is to recruit people like ourselves, or friends our neighbors.  This typically, means that we recruit folks that are our age and that live in our cultural surroundings.  The result is that our dance population is continuing to get older and older.  I would encourage all of us to do whatever we can to recruit from the empty nester age group.  The result will slowly be a younger community.  Always welcome everyone to our community of dancers.  Focus your recruiting efforts on those most receptive to being interested in participating in our recreation.  Collect names, snail mail address, email address and phone number ... arrange for someone to send some introductory information about square dancing immediately and then continuously remind each prospect of the opportunities to join the activity. If we work together to increase the number of dancers in our activity they will join existing clubs or form new groups to satisfy their need for recreation, entertainment and joy.  Get out and TALK ABOUT SQUARE DANCING.

Have a GREAT summer, DANCE somewhere, ENJOY!