How Else Can I Help?

If you are ready for the next step, here are some other possibilities.

• Be a Floor Manager for an evening. This is often the first "official" task dancers take on. It involves setting up before the dance, staffing the front desk before the dancing starts, recruiting volunteers to staff the desk for one dance during the evening, and cleaning up after the dance. It is usually done in pairs since it can be busy. But you get to dance every dance!

• Join the sound committee and learn about sound.

• Help decorate the dance hall for special dances (such as Halloween, December holidays, Valentine's Day, Volunteer Appreciation Dance).

• Billet out-of-town performers or dancers in your home.

• Join the Spring Thaw committee.

• Contact us with other ideas of how you would like to help.

Some bigger tasks 

There are several committees that are typically chaired by one person for one year, assisted by interested volunteers. Some of these are:

• Communications - maintains the mailing list and sends email reminders before each dance, maintains our Facebook and Meetup pages

• Contra Basics Coordinator - schedules volunteers to teach the basics class before each dance

• Floor Coordinator - recruits and trains volunteer floor managers who oversee the evening and ensure each dance runs smoothly.

• Flyers - designs flyers and handouts

• Housing Coordinator - arranges billeting for out-of-town performers

• Membership Coordinator - coordinates the sale of memberships and maintains the membership list

• President (elected position) - our chief administrator and spokesperson

• Publicity - responsible for all aspects of publicity and advertising

• Site Liaison - maintains regular liaison with the sites that host our dances

• Sound Coordinator - recruits sound specialists and volunteers who look after our sound equipment and help set up and adjust the sound system. Provides training to volunteers, if needed.

• Special Events Coordinators - Toronto Contra Dance hosts special events each year such as the Spring Thaw weekend and a Summer Dance on Toronto Island. Each of these needs a large group of volunteers and a coordinator who is responsible for overall planning and organization. The usual practice is that a person wishing to coordinate one of these events serves as Assistant Coordinator one year and then as Coordinator the next.

• Talent Coordinator - invites and schedules performers for the year

• Treasurer (elected position) - responsible for keeping track of our finances

• Webmaster - maintains and updates the website

Elected Offices

While Toronto Contra Dance is an informal organization, we do have two elected offices, President and Treasurer. These officers are elected at the Annual General Meeting and serve a renewable one-year term.