Restructuring El Camino Reelers Classes

El Camino Reelers (“ECR” for short) is a club in the San Francisco area which had been experiencing a constant year to year decline both in terms of class sizes and club membership. The club was losing money, especially on classes, but also on club nights. A number of members had died, experienced medical issues preventing them from dancing, or retired and moved out of the area. To arrest this decline the club decided on a new approach to reinvigorate their membership. The new plan involves a three track approach to recruiting and retaining dancers:

1. Monthly “Drop-In/Fun Nights” with no experience required.
2. A series of three partitioned blast classes, gradually taking dancers to Plus.
3. Club nights with both blast-level and full level Plus/Advanced dancing.

This detailed 23-page document describes how they implemented this plan: how they advertised, how they recruited, how they restructured their teaching and club groups, and how they integrated new dancers into the club. It contains a wealth of insightful thinking and planning.

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