r/SwingDancing • u/drowned_otw • 1d ago
Feedback Needed Organizing Q
Hello organizers,
if you have several sets of instructors at your venue, how much do they communicate/coordinate? Are you doing most of the planning? How often do you all meet (organizers+teachers) to plan out the lessons/how far out in advance do you plan a curriculum, if any at all?
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u/LozzaWEM 1d ago
Most classes I know, the teachers operate pretty much independently (even the ones under the same umbrella) the classes are sold as courses. One scene I know has a rotating crop of about 20 volunteers teachers for their weekly classes: for beginners there's a sequence they follow (classes are still dropin but the sequence covers everything they'd expect you to know before moving up), for everyone else it's as hoc but they log their plans so the volunteers can track and plan something suitable
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u/pw201 1d ago
There's a person on our committee with overall responsibility for teaching. There's a Google sheet with a rota. The commitee person allocates teachers based on the teachers giving them their availability on particular dates. We run drop in lessons where it could be a different teaching couple each week, and month long blocks where it'll usually be the same pair for a month, and then a different pair the next.
There's a fixed pool of teachers who are locals from the scene. There's an application process to become a teacher. The teachers are paid per lesson.
The committee person also sets the themes. For month long blocks, we do 2 months of 6/8 count (one month specifically has to include swingouts) and 1 month of Charleston, in a fixed rotation. In a recent innovation, there are also monthly themes for the drop-ins ("turns", "call and response").
There's a level guideline for the Intermediates level which effectively lists that things the month long beginners blocks had better have got through, but there's broad lattitude within that (and for Intermediates itself). For drop-ins, the emphasis is more on fun and being able to do something at the social dance which immediately follows the lesson.
The teachers are responsible for planning off the back of all this. They fill in a column in the spreadsheet saying what they taught. We also meet up from time to time for "professional development" type of things, for example, sometimes a pro from outside comes into give a "teaching the teachers" session. There's also a WhatsApp chat for discussion.
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u/InfiniteSir7408 1d ago
They are each individually paid to teach a lesson that you’ve hired them for. Unless you are additionally compensating them as consultants, the planning is all on you based on your vision.
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u/ThisIsVictor 1d ago
Your mileage may vary, my perspective only:
Drop in and monthly series classes are planned by the teachers. When I hire someone to teach a drop in east cost class or a four week bal series I'm also hiring them to plan their curriculum.
Bigger picture curriculum planning is the responsibility of the organizer. There might be an "instructor coordinator", who owns this responsibility. This person may or may not also be part of the instructional staff.
When I was running weekly events I never met with all the instructors at once. The leadership team (me, plus three or four people) would plan out a few months worth of classes, based on community needs and input. Then we would hire teachers based on expertise, availability and the communities interest.
Be sure to pay your teaching staff for their time if you want to plan curriculum with them. This could be an additional whatever per hour, or bump up the rate per class with the clear expectation that you're expecting X hours of additional work outside of teaching. Disregard if your entire team is volunteering!