New College Clubs

[apostle]

With me who just started the TLU Ballroom Dance Society at Texas Lutheran University, and with the fall semester approaching, do you know any other collegiate partner dance club (Ballroom, Swing, Salsa, Country, Argentine Tango) that just formed recently or about to be forming? This also includes competition and perfrormance teams.

The popularity of Dancing With the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance may have paved the way for new clubs.

Discuss any new club issues: Is the club connected to a huge dance scene? Any clubs in their first year had most of its members who were seniors that graduated? Do the clubs have quality instructors? Any space the club can use? How about finding good dance music? Are any clubs hosting big events?

 

[Anna]

We're not a new club per se but: we're not connected to a huge dance scene, but we do collaborate a bit with the swing club (they DJed a swing night we did). Each year we get about twice as many new competing members as the year before so we haven't had a problem with everyone graduating. Changing to a more competition/technique-focused instructor for our advanced classes made a huge difference in the quality of the team. Space is always an issue, so we use whatever space we can get--we're assigned some scheduled times in the gym's rooms and we used to practice in squash courts and basketball courts until the gym decided we weren't allowed to anymore. Now for extra space we've been using the common room of one of the dorms.

I'm guessing that a brand-new club could start small with a good instructor and some people who want to dance, then work on expanding in terms of membership, space, and funding from there.

 

[dancetiger]

Couple pointers:
1. When you start a club you need to know whether you would like to be a social or competitive club.

2. Are you going to quantity or quality? Are you going to try to recruit as many people as possible or get the most dedicated who will stay longer and put the money and effort into it.

3. Determing how much you want to advertisde to the community.

4. Figure out if you are allowed to bring people outside of the LTU.

 

[apostle]

Our club will be both a social and competitive dance program. We are at a small, undergraduate university of 1,400 students. The club is focusing on getting a lot of members as we attempt to replicate the success of the Beloit College Ballroom Dance Club and several other small-college dance clubs, which have about 70 members. The club is expected to get more members who are not of the TLU community (students, faculty and staff) than those who are, as of the three college clubs in the area (TLU, UT Austin, Trinity), we - TLU will be the only one that will open membership to the general public.

The club will hire professional ballroom instructors from either Austin or San Antonio. We are reaching a deal with the one that contacted us who is interested in teaching (see thread "New College Club: Need Professional Instructors in San Antonio/Austin, TX"). The swing instructors are amateurs of the local swing dance socieites. Our dance classes will be held in an aerobics room or an auditorium's stage. Although we will offer instruction in multiple partner dances, we will stress both American Style and International Style ballroom dances as well as Lindy Hop and East Coast swing dances.

The club is promoting worldwide primarily through posting on forums, and placing flyers on local campuses such as the UT-San Antonio and Texas State. Then it will promote on community calendars in local newspapers such as the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise and the San Antonio Express-News, as readers tend to be older, with exception of college newspapers like our Lone Star Lutheran (see thread "Is ballroom dancing for senior citizens?"). Several dance websites have posted a link to our club's website. This would help TLU get strong name recognition, even for a small university.

As far as fundraising goes, we should get funding from USA Dance chapters in Region V (and help reactivate the San Antonio chapter). And we will get funds from the Student Government Association. We will host the fundraisier dance Harvest Moon Ball. We should get corporate funding as well, though some other clubs are not allowed to do so, such as the one at Princeton. Different schools have different policies for clubs (see thread "Let's define YCN (Youth & Collegiate Network)").

 

[Anna]

Sounds like a good plan.

 

[Anna]

Oh, just wondering, are you running this all yourself or do you have other officers already? You'll probably want as many people to help run the club as possible (treasurer for sure, maybe team captain, social chair, publicity chair...)

 

[apostle]

Oh, just wondering, are you running this all yourself or do you have other officers already? You'll probably want as many people to help run the club as possible (treasurer for sure, maybe team captain, social chair, publicity chair...)

I am currently a one-man board. We will definately elect or appoint additional officers for 2006-2007, just around the time we have our first dance classes in September. Our Executive Board includes: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Publicity and Historian, as well as two Team Captains (one male, one female). We already have a faculty advisor.

 

[dancetiger]

Sounds like you have it under control, good job and good luck.

 

[apostle]

Here's another suggestion for new partner dance clubs or teams: Ask the school's recruiting staff to mention the club or team with information (along with photos), like I am doing for TLU Ballroom, so it can attract many incoming freshman and transfers. That way, it would not suffer the fate of having mostly graduating seniors.

 

[chocolatchica]

How could I go about strating a dance club at my college?? I mean where would you find an instructor and coach and the money for all that? How do you get it all started before anyone joins because when your just getting started there is nomoney. Right? I have NO IDEA how I would go about starting this. Please help!

 

[apostle]

How could I go about strating a dance club at my college?? I mean where would you find an instructor and coach and the money for all that? How do you get it all started before anyone joins because when your just getting started there is nomoney. Right? I have NO IDEA how I would go about starting this. Please help!

Try posting a thread where you want to find an instructors who teach in the metropolitan area the college is located, similar to what I did on DF. Or ask any the more established college clubs' presidents or the president of your local USA Dance chapter (or YCN coordinator) on finding an instructor.

Our club got started on February 21, 2006, but I did not charge dues, but I will do so as I hire a professional teacher. Most college clubs who offer membership to the general public offer higher dues than students of the college where the club is chartered. This is a good way for fundraising.

And by the way, I bought the music for the club, the club's domain name "tluballroom.org" and snacks for the club's movie party - all with my own money, since the club does not have the money until the fall.

 

[chocolatchica]

Oh ok! Sounds like hard work but a lot of fun! Thanks for the tips!

 

[ACtenDance]

How could I go about strating a dance club at my college?? I mean where would you find an instructor and coach and the money for all that? How do you get it all started before anyone joins because when your just getting started there is nomoney. Right? I have NO IDEA how I would go about starting this. Please help!

One source of money is your college. Go talk to someone in charge of student organizations or club sports on campus. Becoming an official student organization usually allows you to apply for a small amount of funding. I'd say the next thing to do is get a small group of people together that will help you start a club. Find some volunteer instructors. Make a website!!!! (college students love finding information on websites... so much more convenient). Start your club off just teaching the basics of social dancing to keep things cheap (no need for expensive, high-level instructors. volunteers will do) to get enough of a base membership so that you can find enough people that are willing to pay dues and create a core of competitors. Then try desperately to keep things running and growing.

 

[apostle]

One source of money is your college. Go talk to someone in charge of student organizations or club sports on campus. Becoming an official student organization usually allows you to apply for a small amount of funding. I'd say the next thing to do is get a small group of people together that will help you start a club. Find some volunteer instructors. Make a website!!!! (college students love finding information on websites... so much more convenient). Start your club off just teaching the basics of social dancing to keep things cheap (no need for expensive, high-level instructors. volunteers will do) to get enough of a base membership so that you can find enough people that are willing to pay dues and create a core of competitors. Then try desperately to keep things running and growing.

Our club originally started as a Facebook group about 25 students, but things did not go well when it officially recieved its charter. The club got started by the middle of the spring semester. Most college students join clubs in the beginning of the fall semester. When I attempted to be a volunteer instructor, no one has shown up at the once-scheduled classes at all, so at least a certified ballroom instructor is likely get people to show up. Most volunteer instructors do not teach beyond the beginner level. Worse, our club is at a small university. As a result, our club gave up its status as simply a student organization and will become more of a community organization, and would also attract students from the two nearby large universities without partner dance clubs.

However, our club will host workshops, and our swing classes will maintain volunteer instructors (also called "teaching assistants") who teach with the local swing societies and college swing clubs.

I have replied to a thread (Collegiate Dancing in Austin, TX) about our club's website and Yahoo! group. I am promoting the club to dance message boards to attract: donors, high-quality instructors, and experienced dancers. It may get television exposure on a news segment that deals with what's happening in the area!

By the way, if you are a newcomer, you may compete in an open intercollegiate competition. Our club will compete in competitions at Rice and UT-Austin, which would save travel costs, and many of our school's students come from all over Texas.

 

[Anna]

As a result, our club gave up its status as simply a student organization and will become more of a community organization, and would also attract students from the two nearby large universities without partner dance clubs.

Does this still mean your a student organization, or not actually officially affiliated with the university? Here we're officially a club sport, so we get money from the university, but we're still allowed to have non-university people take classes and compete with the team. So if you're not already, I'd really recommend being officially affiliated with the university in some way.