2025 February Newsletter
CANE COUNTRY SQUARES NEWSLETTER
FEBRUARY 21, 2025
2025 Welcome
2025 is here and we hope everyone had a good break over the holiday period.
Dancing is now in full swing and all our sessions are back and going.
With the new intake of beginners about to start on 18th Feb, we are hoping for a good turn out for our first class of the year.
Just a reminder about the 2025 program:
Tues - 6pm start. Alternating Beginners with full SSD.
Fri - 6.30pm start. Alternating MS & Plus.
What were you doing over the break?
At the end of 2024, many of our members were taking time out. Some were catching up socialising.
These cool kids decided to have fun Fridays and super sick Saturdays while there was no dancing.
In this photo, some were socialising while Adrian was busy working on stage with his guitar at ATW.
What did you get up to??
Session Start Times
Just a reminder to all dancers that the hall is opened early before the session starting time.
We would like to start dancing by the session start time to maximise our dance time for all levels. If you’re able to arrive slightly earlier, that would help.
2025 Updates
Door Entry Fee
Just a reminder about the changes to the door entry fee for 2025. Each session will be $8 per person.
Hall Hire
We have received some news in January, from the Rum City Band who own and run the hall, that we would like to share with our members.
Matt received a text message from the Hall Treasurer - Unfortunately due to rising costs, we have made the decision to increase all hall rent. As of 1.2.25, fees will be a straight $50 per session. ie: morning, afternoon or evening. Kind regards Rum City Silver Band Inc - Committee.
Our current rate for hall hire had been $10/hour or $15/hour with the airconditioning.
Matt spoke to the Treasurer and while we have been very honest with advising when we have used the aircon and making sure we have paid the extra for the use of it, other groups have not.
From looking at our current hall hire costs, this increase has doubled our hall hire each week. We feel at this stage, it’s not in the best interests of our members, to raise the door hire this late before dancing starts.
The CCS committee met a few weeks ago and we feel that with regular attendance, we should be ok. Matt has assisted further and lowered his equipment hire fee to help the club. The CCS committee has accepted as long as it’s temporary.
The other part of the news from the RCSB committee is they are looking into offloading the hall. They are all getting older and without new members, they can’t sustain the hall. They will put it to a vote with all RCSB members first and then advise all tenants. While this is not the news we want at the start of the year, at least we know and we will monitor the situation.
SD Tips
2. When at large dances, if a dancer has fallen down and needs medical assistance, it's best for another dancer to be with them and the other six from the square to form a circle around them and hold their hands up to signal there is a problem. The caller will advise where first aid is required but keep calling. By keeping the dance going, it stops the entire floor staring at the dancer that is injured.
Proposed Dance Program Changes
Just an update on the “proposal”. Matt is a part of the Callerlab committee that is discussing the 50 movement list behind the scenes. This is in preparation for the vote that will happen around April 2025. If the proposal is successful, this list will become the new 50 movement mainstream list. Therefore plus will start at minimum of 50 movements versus the current 29movements.
The current discussions on the committee are centered around using the existing SSD movement list and determining if any movements should be removed. If so, the committee would look at what you could add from the old Mainstream/Basic list to bring it up to 50movements.
We will continue to monitor how this is progressing in the coming months.
New for 2025 - Eftpos machine
At the end of 2025, our past club Director & Caller Shirley Kelly purchased the club a square eftpos machine. As technology has moved quickly and these square machines are quite simple and cheap to use, she is hoping this machine would be an asset to the club as many dancers may prefer to pay via card versus cash.
Shirely presented this to Matt at the end of 2024.
The Cane Country Squares committee would like to thank Shirley for her donation and we hope our dancers appreciate the ability to pay via card. canecountrysquares.blogspot.com
Beginner Notes
With beginner's classes commencing, it’s a good time to remember that people learn in different ways. Some learn by listening, some by reading and some by doing. We need to be patient with these dancers and help them. When it comes to progressing to the next level, it’s generally recommended by Callerlab for dancers to get 2 years of experience before moving up. Sometimes exceptions are made by the caller/dance teacher as some dancers learn quicker than others and therefore can cope with moving up sooner. Sometimes moving up too soon can also cause issues. You don't want to struggle and break the square down often. Always talk to your caller/dance teacher for their honest opinion.
