The ROC used to sponsor Square Dances on a regular basis. They were a fund raiser for us.
One of the last ones we did was in 1987.
The reference to "Electronic Boards" in the Union is to some "scrolling type" displays that were in the Rathskeller for a year or two. I had completely forgotten about them until now.
You'll also notice a reference to articles in the Poly. I'll have to see if I can dig any of them up, but for awhile the club would write "articles" for the Poly to publish. It was sort of "free advertising."
We broke even on the dance only as a result of a transferal of funds from other sources. We did not have enough people come in order for the dance to pay for itself. This has has been the trend in recent years. Our goal is to explore ways of increasing the income from the squaredance in order to have it not only pay for itself but also to work as a fundraiser.
Many posters were placed around campus in dorms, classroom buildings, and on bulletin boards. Not much more can be done in this area other than to ensure that as many places as possible are covered with emphasis on the dorms as this is where a majority of the students live and hence will provide the greatest amount of exposure.
While some posters were placed on the Russell Sage campus I feel that in the future a greater number should be placed there with an emphasis on the dorms and other common areas at Sage.
A radio spot was aired on WRPI. As this was a one time public announcement the effectiveness of this cannot be calculated. It is in my opinion that a greater use of this medium should be taken advantage of in the future as it both reaches people outside the RPI community and it costs us nothing.
One medium that was not used which is also free and therefor cannot hurt us to use is the electronic boards on the Rath level of the Union. A number of students use these signs in order to find out what upcoming events there are. In order to use these signs is a relatively simple process involving only the filling out of a form.
The final medium that was not used was the Polytechnic. I do not feel that it is worth our while to advertise in here as the cost to return ratio would most likely be very low. If in the future we do continue to write articles for the Polytechnic it would be practical then to mention the square dance in an article.
In conclusion while we did an adequate job of advertising this dance there is more that could be done in the future. Steps taken in this manner should ensure a larger attendance.
There are two factors that deterred people from attending. The first one is the cost. While for the general public $3.00 dollars is not that much, for a college student it represents a large sum of their money. In the future it would be better to work an arrangement such as UPAC does at its events where one fee is charged to RPI students and another to the general public. In the case of the square dance I propose that RPI students be charged a fee of $2.00 and the general public a fee of $3.00. Hopefully this lower price will encourage more people to attend.
The second factor that hurt the attendance at the dance is the perceived impressions that most RPI students have of square dances. RPI students on a whole are more likely to attend a party where either liqueur or rock and roll music predominate. Neither is the case at the square dance. I have no solutions or proposals to solve this problem.
A final factor unique to this year was the rain. I do not believe that people were encouraged to go anywhere due to the rain. This is an act of God and out of our hands.
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