Southern Rhapsody Dance Society Debt Relief Fund
Donation protected
Nineteen (19) Years ago my wife & I formed Southern Rhapsody Dance Society for the sole purpose of “Perpetuating and Promoting “Social” Ballroom Dancing and Big Band Music by producing 3 day Big Band Ballroom Dance Festivals in various cities throughout the country.
We put together a package that includes a Beautiful Ballroom Venue with a LARGE Wood Dance Floor, Top Notch Bands playing a wide variety of Big Band Music encompassing all of the most popular dance tempos, Hotel Accommodations at upscale hotels and at least some meals. “Social Ballroom Dancing at its very Best”, is our motto and through the years we have received accolades of praise from our attendees that are far too many to mention here but, here are a few: “The Super Bowl of Social Ballroom Dancing”, “A Most Wonderful Experience”, “I can’t wait for the next one”, “The Epitome of Social Ballroom Dancing”.
In February of 2000 we began by producing 3 Dance Festivals per year, dropped the Valentine Dance in 2007, and it varied thereafter. This worked well until 2015. By well, I mean that at the end of the year, we made enough to pay all of our Credit Card Debt for the costs to produce those dances, including hotel rooms purchased, Ballroom Rental, meals, and our annual Dance Brochure. This does not include time spent and the personal expenses we incurred in order to personally promote these dances at Social Ballroom Dance Clubs as far away as Arizona. When we first started we were told not to expect to make a living by doing this and we certainly did not and do not. Every year we spend more than we take in, but up until 2014 we were able to cover the festivals from attendance and the additional expenses out of our own pocket. In order to make our festivals affordable to as many people as possible, we only took the costs to produce the festival and divided it by the number of people we “hoped” would attend, plus a small fudge factor to come up with our price to attend. So, why do we do it, if not for the money?
We do it for the same reasons you do. It’s “Good” for you physically and mentally. It’s a fun way to get the physical exercise we all need. It’s also Stress Relief from the pressures of life that we all need once in a while. When the music starts, it’s all about the dance, leaving all else on the other side of the ballroom doors. Most of all, for Madge & I, are the friendships we made throughout the 25+ years that we’ve been dancing. That’s what really keeps us going and want to share it with our friends here in the south east and our friends across the country that we’ve made at Decatur and Merle and Christie’s dance festivals. It’s also about “Quality of Life”, especially in our later years. Like most of our friends, we’ve worked hard all of our lives in order to enjoy our lives when work is done. That’s why we do it.
I must admit though, that when we look around the Ballroom or in the hotel lobby at our dance festivals and see everyone laughing, smiling and having a good time, I do feel a little proud of what we’ve accomplished.
So what happened to cause all this debt? When planning such an event you have to first find a venue that will accommodate your needs: Hotel rooms, Large Ballroom in the Hotel or connected to it, preferably with a wood dance floor (If not, a quality temporary wood floor will need to be rented.) Once the venue is established you have to negotiate everything with the hotel, the ballroom if separate, dance floor vendor, if needed, and the bands.
Now for the hard part, you have to sign contracts with all these vendors; about $50,000 worth, per dance. The ones from the hotel and ballroom come with “Guarantees” on your part as well as “Penalties”, if your attendance falls below a certain point. They will also ask for a hefty deposit either by Check or Credit Card. We use a major credit card company with a very high credit limit and high interest rate. If we do the planned 20th Anniversary Dance festival at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in August 2019, we will max out the credit limit and then have to dig into our savings before we even do the dance; no knowing if we will get the turn out we need to cover it. We just can’t do that. There is a limit that we can go.
Several things changed in the hotel industry, beginning in 2014. Prior to then, hotels did not charge us to rent the ballroom, if we included 2 dinners catered by the hotel. Now it’s provide at least one meal and anywhere from $500 a day to $5,000 per day to rent the ballroom. That’s what they get from large corporations and weddings. We can’t add $15,000 to the cost of a single dance festival. It would increase the cost to attend to where many of our friends could not attend, since most are on fixed incomes. So, we go with the hotels that offer the $500 per day rate but, there is a caveat to doing that. If we don’t hit the guarantee on the hotel rooms, the ballroom rent jumps to $5000 per day. Add to that the penalty you have to pay for rooms not used and the cost to produce the dance has risen another $20,000. It gets worse. Deduct what revenue you actually got from what you had planned and you are in debt to the tune of $25 – $30,000. Three of those over a period of 2 years is where we are.
In 2017 we cut out all dances except for the only one that consistently made more than the cost to produce, our “Summer Nights at the Indiana Roof Ballroom” Dance Festival. It’s unique in 2 ways. First is the cost to produce and more favorable potential penalties from the Embassy Suites Hotel. Because we have been doing this dance for 19 years the Embassy Suites has been very good at giving us a favorable room rate and has been very flexible in providing additional rooms over and above our guarantee, when needed. Second is the Indiana Roof Ballroom, itself. This magnificent ballroom, built in the early 1920’s specifically for Big Band Music and “Social” Ballroom Dancing, has all the ambiance and history that one can imagine. Because we are the only company that produces an event that promotes what the ballroom was built for, we get a much reduced rental rate. It’s everyone’s favorite dance festival. However, all the money made at this dance that went to pay off the debt, actually only paid the interest and we are no better off today than we were in January of 2017.
Southern Rhapsody (We) needs you help to get this debt from over our heads so we can continue to provide at least the Dance Festival at the Indiana Roof and perhaps more in other locations in the future. If we receive enough to continue, we will apply for “Non-Profit Status”. If granted, we will be able to go after and obtain grants to subsidize future events, perhaps even a corporate sponsor.
We will run this request until January 31st. I know that you are probably being swamped by many worthwhile non-profits at this time. “Social” Ballroom Dancing is also worthwhile for your Health and Well Being.
Donations of $1,000 or more will receive a $150 Gift Certificate toward a pair of Dance Shoes and/or accessories from our account with Dance Shoes of TN. Any amount you can contribute is very much appreciated.
(Contributions are not tax deductible.)
Please help us to continue to provide “Social Ballroom Dancing at its very Best”.
Frank Deeter
Managing Member
Southern Rhapsody, LLC
Dba Southern Rhapsody Dance Society
We put together a package that includes a Beautiful Ballroom Venue with a LARGE Wood Dance Floor, Top Notch Bands playing a wide variety of Big Band Music encompassing all of the most popular dance tempos, Hotel Accommodations at upscale hotels and at least some meals. “Social Ballroom Dancing at its very Best”, is our motto and through the years we have received accolades of praise from our attendees that are far too many to mention here but, here are a few: “The Super Bowl of Social Ballroom Dancing”, “A Most Wonderful Experience”, “I can’t wait for the next one”, “The Epitome of Social Ballroom Dancing”.
In February of 2000 we began by producing 3 Dance Festivals per year, dropped the Valentine Dance in 2007, and it varied thereafter. This worked well until 2015. By well, I mean that at the end of the year, we made enough to pay all of our Credit Card Debt for the costs to produce those dances, including hotel rooms purchased, Ballroom Rental, meals, and our annual Dance Brochure. This does not include time spent and the personal expenses we incurred in order to personally promote these dances at Social Ballroom Dance Clubs as far away as Arizona. When we first started we were told not to expect to make a living by doing this and we certainly did not and do not. Every year we spend more than we take in, but up until 2014 we were able to cover the festivals from attendance and the additional expenses out of our own pocket. In order to make our festivals affordable to as many people as possible, we only took the costs to produce the festival and divided it by the number of people we “hoped” would attend, plus a small fudge factor to come up with our price to attend. So, why do we do it, if not for the money?
We do it for the same reasons you do. It’s “Good” for you physically and mentally. It’s a fun way to get the physical exercise we all need. It’s also Stress Relief from the pressures of life that we all need once in a while. When the music starts, it’s all about the dance, leaving all else on the other side of the ballroom doors. Most of all, for Madge & I, are the friendships we made throughout the 25+ years that we’ve been dancing. That’s what really keeps us going and want to share it with our friends here in the south east and our friends across the country that we’ve made at Decatur and Merle and Christie’s dance festivals. It’s also about “Quality of Life”, especially in our later years. Like most of our friends, we’ve worked hard all of our lives in order to enjoy our lives when work is done. That’s why we do it.
I must admit though, that when we look around the Ballroom or in the hotel lobby at our dance festivals and see everyone laughing, smiling and having a good time, I do feel a little proud of what we’ve accomplished.
So what happened to cause all this debt? When planning such an event you have to first find a venue that will accommodate your needs: Hotel rooms, Large Ballroom in the Hotel or connected to it, preferably with a wood dance floor (If not, a quality temporary wood floor will need to be rented.) Once the venue is established you have to negotiate everything with the hotel, the ballroom if separate, dance floor vendor, if needed, and the bands.
Now for the hard part, you have to sign contracts with all these vendors; about $50,000 worth, per dance. The ones from the hotel and ballroom come with “Guarantees” on your part as well as “Penalties”, if your attendance falls below a certain point. They will also ask for a hefty deposit either by Check or Credit Card. We use a major credit card company with a very high credit limit and high interest rate. If we do the planned 20th Anniversary Dance festival at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in August 2019, we will max out the credit limit and then have to dig into our savings before we even do the dance; no knowing if we will get the turn out we need to cover it. We just can’t do that. There is a limit that we can go.
Several things changed in the hotel industry, beginning in 2014. Prior to then, hotels did not charge us to rent the ballroom, if we included 2 dinners catered by the hotel. Now it’s provide at least one meal and anywhere from $500 a day to $5,000 per day to rent the ballroom. That’s what they get from large corporations and weddings. We can’t add $15,000 to the cost of a single dance festival. It would increase the cost to attend to where many of our friends could not attend, since most are on fixed incomes. So, we go with the hotels that offer the $500 per day rate but, there is a caveat to doing that. If we don’t hit the guarantee on the hotel rooms, the ballroom rent jumps to $5000 per day. Add to that the penalty you have to pay for rooms not used and the cost to produce the dance has risen another $20,000. It gets worse. Deduct what revenue you actually got from what you had planned and you are in debt to the tune of $25 – $30,000. Three of those over a period of 2 years is where we are.
In 2017 we cut out all dances except for the only one that consistently made more than the cost to produce, our “Summer Nights at the Indiana Roof Ballroom” Dance Festival. It’s unique in 2 ways. First is the cost to produce and more favorable potential penalties from the Embassy Suites Hotel. Because we have been doing this dance for 19 years the Embassy Suites has been very good at giving us a favorable room rate and has been very flexible in providing additional rooms over and above our guarantee, when needed. Second is the Indiana Roof Ballroom, itself. This magnificent ballroom, built in the early 1920’s specifically for Big Band Music and “Social” Ballroom Dancing, has all the ambiance and history that one can imagine. Because we are the only company that produces an event that promotes what the ballroom was built for, we get a much reduced rental rate. It’s everyone’s favorite dance festival. However, all the money made at this dance that went to pay off the debt, actually only paid the interest and we are no better off today than we were in January of 2017.
Southern Rhapsody (We) needs you help to get this debt from over our heads so we can continue to provide at least the Dance Festival at the Indiana Roof and perhaps more in other locations in the future. If we receive enough to continue, we will apply for “Non-Profit Status”. If granted, we will be able to go after and obtain grants to subsidize future events, perhaps even a corporate sponsor.
We will run this request until January 31st. I know that you are probably being swamped by many worthwhile non-profits at this time. “Social” Ballroom Dancing is also worthwhile for your Health and Well Being.
Donations of $1,000 or more will receive a $150 Gift Certificate toward a pair of Dance Shoes and/or accessories from our account with Dance Shoes of TN. Any amount you can contribute is very much appreciated.
(Contributions are not tax deductible.)
Please help us to continue to provide “Social Ballroom Dancing at its very Best”.
Frank Deeter
Managing Member
Southern Rhapsody, LLC
Dba Southern Rhapsody Dance Society
Fundraising team: Friends of Southern Rhapsody (10)
Frank J. Deeter
Organizer
Pleasant View, TN
Del Sudkamp
Team member
Diane VanNostrand
Team member
Donna Larson
Team member
John Crisler Wilson
Team member
