Contra Survey Results
Robert Borcherding
information. Do not contact me for further information, contact Mac MacKeever
via snailmail or phone (listed at the end of the document).
Bob Borcherding
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CONTRA DANCE SURVEY RESULTS
DECEMBER 1994
I want to start by thanking everyone who participated in this survey. There
was a great deal of community pride reflected in the comments and materials
that accompanied many of the survey forms. I received forms representing 117
dance groups from 36 different states. My friends in the survey business tell
me this is a very good response rate.
The results are summarized rather than averaged to allow a better feel for the
distribution of the actual responses. I think this format will provide a good
representation of the data received while at the same time preventing any
group from being uniquely identified.
Here are a couple of things you need to know to understand the results:
In addition to reporting the total responses, I have also provided
a regional breakdown of many of the categories. The regions are based
on the first digit of the zip code (0 to 9). The columns with the
numeric headings contain this regional data (for example, the column
labeled "0" contains data from the New England area. A listing of the
states included in each region is contained in the table on page one
of the results. The numeric entries in these columns represent
the quantity of responses received.
When responses are grouped into a range of values, the lowest value
in the lowest range and the highest value in the high range represent
the actual lowest and highest responses received. For example: in
the table summarizing hall rental costs, the lowest cost (other than
free) that was reported was $15 and the highest was $300.
No group will be specifically identified in the summary and the information
connecting data to a specific dance group is not even included in my data base.
Every effort will be made to keep this private. In addition, name and
addresses provided to me with the surveys will not be furnished to anyone
(other than CDSS if they request it). Names will not appear on any mailing
lists as a result of participating in this survey.
Not all surveys were complete, so the results will not add up to 117 in all
categories. In addition, at times ranges were reported and some responses
did not exactly fit the structure of the survey. In these cases I had to
decide how to best represent the data I was furnished to the survey. I tried
to do this in a manner that best served the purpose of the survey.
Now for the results:
__________________________________________________________________________
Forms were received from the following states (listed
by "AREA'" number - the number following the state is the number of groups
participating from that state):
AREA 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CT-2 DE-1 MD-3 AL-3 IN-3 MT-2 IL-1 AR-2 CO-2 AK-3
MA-13 NY-9 NC-6 FL-2 KY-2 WI-2 KS-1 TX-5 ID-1 CA-3
ME-8 PA-4 SC-1 GA-2 MI-6 MO-3 NM-1 HI-1
NH-4 VA-4 OR-2
NJ-2 WV-3 WA-5
RI-2
VT-3
------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------
34 14 17 7 11 4 5 7 4 14
SIZE OF CITY (MEDIUM = POPULATION OF 50,000 TO 500,000):
SIZE TOTAL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-------- ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
SMALL 54 26 7 7 - 4 2 - 1 - 7
MED 45 6 6 9 5 6 2 3 1 4 3
LARGE 18 2 1 1 2 1 - 2 5 - 4
NUMBER OF YEARS SINCE SERIES BEGAN:
YR RANGE TOTAL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-------- ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
0 - 2 19 6 2 4 2 2 - - 1 - 2
3 - 5 21 6 4 4 - 1 1 - - 1 4
6 - 10 16 1 2 3 1 1 1 - 3 - 4
11 - 20 51 16 6 5 4 6 1 4 2 3 4
21 - 30 3 1 - - - 1 - 1 - - 0
31 - 84 4 3 - 1 - - - - - - 0
DAY OF WEEK DANCES ARE HELD:
SUN MON TUE WED THR FRI SAT
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
2 1 3 2 3 32 61
ADMISSION PRICE:
Note: When there were discounted prices for members, the nonmember
price was used because the discounted price required an annual
membership fee.
ADMISS'N TOTAL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-------- ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
$0.00 1 - - - - - - - 1 - -
$1.00 1 - - - - - - - - - 1
$3.00 12 1 1 - 1 4 1 1 1 1 1
$4.00 22 2 3 5 - - 3 4 2 - 3
$4.50 3 2 - - - - - - - - 1
$5.00 57 25 3 8 5 5 - - 3 2 6
$6.00 20 3 7 4 1 2 - - - 1 2
$7.00 1 1 - - - - - - - - -
AVERAGE ATTENDANCE:
RANGE TOTAL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-------- ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
24 - 40 33 9 3 5 1 4 2 1 4 1 3
41 - 60 32 8 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 - 5
61 - 80 23 7 5 3 2 - - - 1 3 2
81 - 100 15 6 - 2 - 2 - 2 - - 3
101- 125 8 4 1 2 - 1 - - - - -
126- 180 4 1 - 1 1 - - - - - 1
TOTAL DOOR RECEIPTS:
Total door receipts were calculated by multiplying the attendance by
the admission price for each dance series.
$ RANGE TOTAL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-------- ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
30 - 100 11 - 2 - 1 3 1 - 2 - 2
101 - 150 9 1 1 3 - - - 1 - 1 2
151 - 200 15 7 - 2 - 2 1 1 1 - 1
201 - 300 27 8 3 5 3 1 2 1 1 - 3
301 - 400 25 8 5 1 1 1 - 2 2 2 3
401 - 500 13 5 2 2 1 1 - - - 1 1
501 - 900 14 5 - 4 1 2 - - - - 2
BAND AND CALLER COMPENSATION:
These categories were the most difficult to summarize. There are many
different methods of handling this. I tried to convert what ever
information I had to a single band or caller payment. Many groups
split the money evenly among the individual musicians and the caller.
In those cases, I assumed there were typically 4 musicians. When the
dance was run by the band, I simply assigned the profits (if any) to
the band. I tried to make the results as representative as possible.
Some groups reported paying out of town artists more than local ones.
This ranged from only slightly more to a large differential. The
out of town amount is not reported here because it turned out to be
meaningless unless compared to the local payments by group.
There were only a couple of cases where recorded music was used and
then only because live music was not available in the area.
COMPENSATION METHOD:
Note: Groups that do not pay the caller or band are included in the
count under fixed amount below.
FIXED AMT SHARE OF DOOR MIX OF FIXED+SHARE
--------- ------------- ------------------
BAND 35 48 33
CALLER 47 40 30
AMOUNT PAID TO LOCAL BANDS:
$ RANGE TOTAL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-------- ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
NOT PAID 9 1 1 1 1 2 - - 1 1 1
20 - 50 12 - 2 - - 3 1 - 2 1 3
51 - 100 26 8 2 3 2 2 1 2 3 - 3
101 - 150 24 5 3 5 1 3 1 2 1 1 2
151 - 200 19 6 3 2 3 - 1 - - 1 3
201 - 250 10 4 3 1 - 1 - - - - 1
251 - 300 10 7 - 2 - - - - - - 1
301 - 450 1 1 - - - - - - - - -
AMOUNT PAID TO LOCAL CALLERS:
$ RANGE TOTAL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-------- ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
NOT PAID 21 1 3 3 3 3 - 1 3 2 2
10 - 25 20 7 - 3 - 2 2 1 2 - 3
26 - 50 38 8 5 4 4 4 2 3 1 1 6
51 - 75 15 7 3 2 - 1 - - - 1 1
76 - 100 14 8 1 3 - - - - - - 2
101 - 130 3 3 - - - - - - - - -
HALL TYPE AND COST:
I received many comments concerning the halls - ranging from having
a very nice hall and recognizing how lucky they were to having a less
than perfect facility and knowing how difficult it is to find just the
right place. There were many different types of halls reported. The
most frequent were: Churches (27), Community Ctrs/Town Halls (38),
Schools (13), Grange/VFW/Lodges (16), and Folk/Arts Centers (6).
Others included Senior Centers, a barn, private halls & dance studios,
and YMCAs.
A few dances had free use of a hall, but this was usually because the
organization operating the hall ran the dance series (community centers
or folk centers). This was also the case for dance series listed in the
admission price results that charged little or no admission.
HALL RENTAL COST:
$ RANGE TOTAL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-------- ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
NO COST 10 3 - 2 2 2 - - 1 - -
15 - 50 50 14 6 8 2 3 3 3 3 - 8
51 - 75 23 6 3 4 - 2 1 - 2 4 1
76 - 100 16 5 3 1 2 2 - 2 - - 1
101 - 150 6 2 1 - 1 - - - 1 - 1
151 - 300 6 2 - 2 - - - - - - 2
PROFIT / LOSS:
The majority of the groups reported that their dances work on a break
even basis. This is accomplished by basing the band and/or caller
fees on the door receipts. A few groups used other income sources
(including personal) to subsidize the dances and others operated at
a profit - often using the dances as a fundraising source for other
operations. Of the 6 groups that reported profits of more than 25%
of their receipts, four do not pay the band or caller and 2 have free
use of the hall (or the hall runs the dance series).
In general (and as you would expect) the groups with the highest
attendance and overall income pay their artists the highest.
In the figures below, 100% is the break even point. Lower percentages
represent losses and over 100% is a profit. The percentages were
calculated using only door receipts as income and dividing that by
the total expenses.
% PROFIT NO OF GROUPS % PROFIT NO OF GROUPS
-------- ------------ -------- ------------
46% - 75% 6 101%-110% 16
75% - 90% 8 111%-125% 10
91% - 99% 11 126%-300% 6
100% 57
ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE:
There were many different structures reported. I tried to summarize
them into the following 4 categories.
Organized and run by the band 8
Not-for-profit corporation 39
Informal board / volunteers 50
Privately operated by founder 19
BOARD OF DIRECTORS:
All elected by dance community 24
Some elected by community 7
Self perpetuated board/organizers 83
The number of board members varied greatly. The most common range was
4 to 8, but numbers as high as 37 were reported (this was a case where
the dance was run as a part of a larger organization).
19 groups reported having some sort of membership arrangement - usually
requiring annual fees.
INSURANCE:
Only a few groups reported any liability insurance. Several others
mentioned they were covered under a policy by the hall or sponsoring
organization. Most had no insurance. Many groups reported their callers
were insured through their own policies (Caller Lab).
CONCLUSION:
While some of the data needed to be massaged a little to fit into the
survey, I feel this is a fairly good representation of the data I
received. I mailed out surveys to just over 300 contra dance groups
and got responses from 117 groups in 36 states. This appears to be
a large enough sample for local planning (or whatever) purposes.
There are obviously many other ways this information could be summarized
other than what I have presented here. If you have a specific need
or interest please call and I will see what can be done (314-537-1643).
Thanks again to everyone who contributed. I hope this will be helpful to you.
Mac McKeever
1797 Golden Lake Ct.
Chesterfield, MO 63017-5122
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Robert Borcherding, please address E-Mail as follows,
from INTERNET: sempco!rob...@wupost.wustl.edu
UUCP: wupost.wustl.edu!sempco!robertb