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Are there estimates on RSCDS dancers?

Alexandre Rafalovitch

Alexandre Rafalovitch

May 23, 2006, 6:45 p.m. (Message 45354)

Hi,

Does anybody have estimates on RSCDS dancers. I am interested in any
numbers, but if somebody has number for specific categories below it
would be even better. The numbers can be very rough.
1) Active dancers (not retired and single visits)
2) Members
3) Teachers
4) Dancers who participate online (? = strathspey mailing list size)
5) Other interesting statistic I probably should have asked

The results (if any) may be worked into an article, but they are also
of interest for other reasons. Speed of response is more important
then precision here.

Regards,
   Alex.
Pia Walker

Pia Walker

May 23, 2006, 7:23 p.m. (Message 45355, in reply to message 45354)

Hi Alex

I think the answer would be a resounding NO
However, I think we would all like to know your result when you have
finished your research.

Pia
Thomas G. Mungall, III

Thomas G. Mungall, III

May 23, 2006, 8:02 p.m. (Message 45356, in reply to message 45354)

I suppose you could contact each of the Scottish dance groups VIA e-mail or
letter and ask for estimates of people attending, etc. You may wish to start
with the list located:
http://www.strathspey.org/groups/index.html

Note that this list is badly in need of updating with many of the links out
of date or broken.

Good luck!
Tom Mungall
Baton Rouge, La, USA
Alexandre Rafalovitch

Alexandre Rafalovitch

May 23, 2006, 8:13 p.m. (Message 45357, in reply to message 45356)

I am not THAT desperate. That's why I emphasized speed over precision. :-)

Surely, there are some numbers. Even if we have to go down to choosing
between 2,000 or  20,000 or 200,000 dancers.

Regards,
   Alex.
Pia Walker

Pia Walker

May 23, 2006, 9:08 p.m. (Message 45358, in reply to message 45357)

Phone up RSCDS and talk to Elspeth, she may be able to help you.
Or send her an e-mail.  I suppose you could guestimate that all groups have
at least 2 sets i.e. 16 people and multiply with the amount of groups.

Pia
S. Keith Graham

S. Keith Graham

May 23, 2006, 9:40 p.m. (Message 45359, in reply to message 45358)

On 5/23/06, Pia <xxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx> wrote:
>
> Phone up RSCDS and talk to Elspeth, she may be able to help you.
> Or send her an e-mail.  I suppose you could guestimate that all groups
> have
> at least 2 sets i.e. 16 people and multiply with the amount of groups.


If you are a member, I imagine that you can find out how many bulletins they
print and/or how much membership revenue HQ gets, and do some simple math.

The RSCDS knows how many members it has (at least had last year)!

There are quite a few non-member dancers, I'm sure, but that number would be
the start of a reasonable estimate.

They have also been putting together a directory of active teachers (and
hopefully would know how many teaching certificates they've ever granted and
perhaps have granted in the last 5 or 10 years).

So I'd start with RSCDS HQ, and make educated guesses from there.

Keith Graham
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Bryan McAlister

Bryan McAlister

May 24, 2006, 10:11 a.m. (Message 45362, in reply to message 45359)

When you say RSCDS dancers I presume you mean dancers using an 
approximation of the RSCDS style (i.e.most country dancers).

Presumably the RSCDS can tell you exactly the number of members and 
members of affiliated societies thereafter you have a balancing trick to 
play as there must be a significant number of RSCDS style dancers who 
are not members of either groups - set against this  there will be a 
number of dancers who are members of more than one group. (This probably 
only applies to Scotland).

In message <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxxxx.xxx>, 
S. K. Graham <xxx@xxxx.xxx> writes
>On 5/23/06, Pia <xxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx> wrote:
>>
>> Phone up RSCDS and talk to Elspeth, she may be able to help you.
>> Or send her an e-mail.  I suppose you could guestimate that all groups
>> have
>> at least 2 sets i.e. 16 people and multiply with the amount of groups.
>
>
>If you are a member, I imagine that you can find out how many bulletins they
>print and/or how much membership revenue HQ gets, and do some simple math.
>
>The RSCDS knows how many members it has (at least had last year)!
>
>There are quite a few non-member dancers, I'm sure, but that number would be
>the start of a reasonable estimate.
>
>They have also been putting together a directory of active teachers (and
>hopefully would know how many teaching certificates they've ever granted and
>perhaps have granted in the last 5 or 10 years).
>
>So I'd start with RSCDS HQ, and make educated guesses from there.
>
>Keith Graham
>Atlanta, Georgia, USA
>

-- 
Bryan McAlister
Martin

Martin

May 24, 2006, 11:21 a.m. (Message 45363, in reply to message 45362)

Bryan McAlister wrote:

> 
> Presumably the RSCDS can tell you exactly the number of members and 
> members of affiliated societies 

I doubt they keep track of members of affiliated groups, since these are 
not automatically members of any branch.

I never heard that the dancers I met in GB paid annual fees to the 
RSCDS, and I'm sure those that live abroad have little incentive to do 
so unless they attend Summer School. Although I have always encouraged 
my dancers to go to St Andrews (if they understand English), I don't 
think that any of them kept up their membership after going there.

Finding out how many dancers therer are around the world would be as 
difficult as knowing how many gardeners weed their own gardens.

One thing; the Strathspey list is unfoirtunately not a good 
representation either of members not of dancers (note that we 
occasionally read a message written by a non-member, non-dancer!).

Martin,
(member for the last 38 years, dancer a few more)
Pia Walker

Pia Walker

May 25, 2006, 9:30 a.m. (Message 45365, in reply to message 45362)

Which is why I said guestimate and 2 sets pr group - as this would average
most of the anomalies out across the board and give you an approximation (I
of course don't mean that an individual dancer is an anomaly :>)

Pia
Murray & Deanne Corps

Murray & Deanne Corps

May 25, 2006, 11:15 a.m. (Message 45367, in reply to message 45365)

But then you have New Zealand.  One Branch, 11 Regions, over 100 Groups,
about 1000 members and around 2500 dancers.

Have fun working that in around the world.

Regards
Murray
Ian Brockbank

Ian Brockbank

May 25, 2006, 12:13 p.m. (Message 45368, in reply to message 45367)

Hi Alex, Pia,

Very rough numbers:

RSCDS members: ~20,000
Gut feel 2-3 times as many non-members as members (more in Scotland &
Germany, less in other parts of the world - probably balances out).

So we're probably talking somewhere in the 50k-75k range.

Cheers,

Ian Brockbank
Edinburgh, Scotland
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
http://www.scottishdance.net/
Alexandre Rafalovitch

Alexandre Rafalovitch

May 25, 2006, 3:50 p.m. (Message 45370, in reply to message 45368)

That's a really good number.

What about the number of people online? Do we have any gueses about that?

Regards,
   Alex

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