Growing a Successful Dance Club
A Humble Start 16 or 17 Years Ago
by Bill White, West County Swing Dance Club
Last Tuesday night, West County Swing Dance Club (St. Louis) had 341 of its members enjoying a typical weekly club dance. Crowds of more than 300 show up regularly on a weekly basis. But, I can remember back when our club was so small that all of our Board members would take a Basic I dance lesson so that it looked like we really had a class. Actually maybe only 2 or 3 were actually taking the class.
From that humble start some 16 or 17 years ago, we have grown until our members have numbered as many as 1000. Our newsletter has grown from the original two sheets of 8½ x 11 paper stapled together, to a 48 page, professionally printed quarterly edition.
How did this happen? It took a LOT of hard work and dedication by several devoted dancers to bring this about. Like many of our sister clubs, West County Swing dance Club started out dancing in bars. Actually, many bars. Bars whose owner got mad at one or more of our members and kicked us all out. Bars who sold to new owners or changed formats. Bars that failed. Their DJs would play swing music only for an hour or so and then switch. We couldn’t make announcements. Non swing dancers would get out on the floor, beer bottles in hand, spilling drinks on the dance floor. Bet you’ve had those same experiences.
In 1992 I was elected President of the club. We had a Board of Directors, but actually only 3 of us did 95% of the work. We were determined to somehow create a club atmosphere. We wanted to be something more than just a bunch of individuals who showed up at the same bar to do a little swing dancing. We wanted to create a feeling of camaraderie. Our treasury was going downhill fast!
Alma Walkenhorst told her recollections as follows:
History of West County Swing Dance Club By Alma Walkenhorst
West County Swing Oance Club has grown from a club, that in 1992, was held in low regard in the dance community, to one now that is looked upon with great respect.
Most of you probably are not aware that WCSDC “bounced” around for several months after leaving Garfield's and the Casa Lorna Ballroom in the late summer of 1992. At that point, we had nowhere to teach. Chuck Cotner, President at the time got us into the Jukebox on Tuesdays. There was very little business at the Jukebox and many times Board members took lessons so it wouldn't look so bad. If we had 5 couples, we thought it was terrific. In June of 1993, Bill White became President and we started having monthly dances at the Kirkwood Community Center. This was the beginning of Bill’s plan to create a “home” for WCSDC, as well as a sense of “club” and belonging to the area. As an incentive, we had free beer, snacks and free dance lessons. We were fortunate enough to get Terry James as DJ and he has continued to be a plus for the club. We had 47 people at our first Kirkwood dance.
Bill came up with the idea of honoring Pat Gangemella on her anniversary in October and had the Junior dancers do a demonstration in November, and a surprise birthday party for Sherry Marks, the South side’s club DJ. The dances grew in popularity where we always had a good turnout.
Things continued to grow and in the fall of 1993 we began teaching Basic I with volunteers instead of paying instructors who had no commitment to the club other than the money. At that time, Chuck Cotner, Edna Claunch, Gill and Joyce Bai, Bill White and I taught. later joined by Stan Ofstein.
In July of 1993, I obtained a membership mailing list that Chris Long had been maintaining. As I looked at the list, I realized we had very few members, and as a matter of fact, in September of 1993 we only had about 27-29 including board members, but we were mailing out about 450 newsletters with many coming back to us. We did a first class mailing to clean up the mailing list, so our newsletters got to the right places.
In the fall of 1993, Bill and I sent out over 350 “President's letters” to everyone explaining the improvements, and where and what we were teaching. As a result in October and November of 1993 we began to see an increase in active memberships at the Jukebox. Most of these memberships were previous members, so we knew the letters worked.
In January of 1994, the second part of Bill's plan, to give WCSDC a home, went into effect and we began teaching Basic I lessons at Kirkwood. Bill had had heart bypass surgery at the end of 1993. I followed the plan and arranged the location, advertising, flyers, instructors (Gill and Joyce Bai), took phone calls, and signed up people. We set up a structure where you got 4 lessons for $20, and club membership was required to take the lessons. As a result, we were able to contribute several hundred dollars to the club coffers. We did the same in February, March, April, and May. We began seeing a sense of “club” and fellowship, primarily at Kirkwood and our Spring Fling in 1994 was the last time we had to use our club reserve to meet normal expenses.
Recently, on a Tuesday night, we signed up 22 new members and 5 renewal memberships. That matched our entire paid membership roster back in 1992! Now we sign up that many in one night! Every year the club has a free Christmas Dinner for our members. Non members pay $10.00 to attend. A membership costs $15.00. Guess what.
Last December, we signed up 40 members in one night!.
Every Tuesday night, West County conducts 4 levels of swing dance classes simultaneously; Basic I, Basic II, Intermediate, and Advanced. Its not unusual to have 150-165 students per night. And the Board members only take lessons when they want to!