Yesterday, Siddiqah and I had a party. About 45 people came out to dance and socialize, meeting up with old friends, and getting to know new people in our community.
I had a good time working with my co-host – hopefully she can say the same 🙂 as we discussed planning methods that would work for us, how we wanted to approach it, and what our expectations were of the day. I found that Google Drive was a great way to share spreadsheets and documents, allowing us both to edit and update information as we went along, as well as allowing dancers to sign themselves up. Dropbox.com works great for sharing music files!
For me, they were well met, costs were covered, a donation amount over $140 was made to be donated to Clara’s Big Ride, I had fun talking to people, also meeting new folks as well as seeing familiar faces.
I know it was still not a completely spontaneous, “bring your music and dance” kind of party, and I have realized that, if I am part of the organizers, it will never be that way. #controlfreak
Hopefully, as dancers and audience members attend these more relaxed events, and see how much positive can come of it, someone else will step up and have a totally free form event – if that’s what they want to do!
The biggest concern for me is always 2 fold – are the costs covered and did the attendees have a good time. Part 1 ensures that I am happy, and part 2 ensures that I did it right! Working with someone else, it’s also important to discuss their ideas of success too so that both of your expectations and goals can be addressed. Fortunately, we had very similar and definitely mutually workable goals for this event! And we both now have a better idea of what works for us and where we can shift things – if we ever do this again!
Both Siddiqah and I had a few personal things affecting our energy and focus levels during the weeks of planning this event, but we were really able to rely on each other for a great back and forth flow. It was nice to be able to delegate/take on the different aspects and feel that we were each giving 100% when we could, and on the days that we had other things to deal with, it was still ok!
At least, that was my perspective, I hope Siddiqah felt I did my part!
I am sure I speak for the both of us in gratitude { though I am sure Siddiqah will be creating her own post as well} to the volunteers who came early and stayed later to help with set-up, running the show, cleaning up and generally be there as support and helpful community members!
We are also so pleased to have hosted a place for some first time soloists, and up and coming dancers, who all gave great performances and shared their gift with us for a few moments.
I hope to see all of you dancing more and more at future events and that having attended and participated at this event, that you will take advantage of future opportunities as well!
So, who is hosting the next party?!?
And finally, if you have any feedback for us, please task this quick survey and add any comments below. It helps us as organizers to know where things went well and where things can be improved! You can click more than one statement and add one yourself if you noticed something we should know about!
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Having previously organized a number of class parties, and helped with other fundraising events, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect this time. Cooperative ventures can go horribly awry when you put two control-freaks together; but, I can honestly say that I enjoyed working with Halyma very much, and learned a great deal. She has a wealth of information, organizational skills, and the remarkable ability to get you engaged in learning the “how-to” without making it feel like an overwhelming task. She was open to suggestions, and it became easier to take on more responsibility and see positive results occur.
I’ll admit to feeling a bit intimidated at first, and not totally comfortable handling the whole money thing. I made mistakes, and didn’t always feel like I was doing a good job. It really bugged me to have to pay for the venue, especially because I’d worked at Canterbury for three years, and always gotten the dance studio for free, via the Community Association. But dealing with the City of Ottawa staff at the CC is a whole different challenge.
There are things I’d do differently next time, and you certainly can’t please everyone; but hey, live and learn, right? It was invaluable to have a supportive partner along the way; and as Halyma mentioned, the goal was to cover costs, and ensure everyone had a good time. Our volunteers did an amazing job, and it was really cool to watch emerging performers get up and test their talent in front of a supportive audience. I saw lots of smiles and socializing; we raised some money for the charity, and that made all the planning really worthwhile.
So…I took the challenge and survived…who’s next??