The unofficial mission statement

The mission statement

I emailed the teaching team the other day with a summary of our mission statement and so many of them commented that it was great to read and useful as well. I thought it might be a good idea to add some things in here also.

1. Once this Dec/Jan/Feb push is over.. we will slow down the opening of new venues and focus on really building what we have.

2. In general our teaching team have some new teachers and teacher training is key and part of the reason that I ( sadly ) relinquished Old Street recently. We have had two teacher training sessions i the last month and another one planned for early December.  There is much still to learn as a collective teaching team and creating an amazing team of teachers is a wonderful and exciting prospect. 

3. Training will also be created for outdoor gigs. We work hard to secure these events so we want to ensure more of our team are equipped to manage and enjoy a public speaking and teaching role. 

4. Once we kick off the new year with our ambitious plan to open 5/6 venues.. and if that goes ok.. we will then work on managing our venues and … creating a stronger dancer at Swing Patrol. The standard is growing no doubt but know we can move the standard more efficiently with the structure we now have.  This will involve more intermediate and advanced workshops including more guests from abroad. 

5. We are still intent on better systems. We have done a lot in 18 months but trying to automate as many systems as possible while still ensuring we offer the great personal relationship through our teaching team. This involved things like scanning registrations at workshop entry and so forth. 

6. Troupe will be a higher standard next year as the general pool of people is higher to choose from. Troupe will play a role in pushing the standard of the dance. 

7. More focus in Balboa ( more than nothing will be easy..:) 

8. More focus on the history of the dance. We already are in contact in what we consider history experts and having them run some guest seminars in 2012 as we really link the new buzz with the original charm. 

9. Streamline our systems. We want to ensure our door staff and volunteers and better supported and this includes better training for them.

10. Risks. This is about a great journey.. and as always we will take some calculated risks and see where that lands us. More on this later.

11.  A continued focus on working with the many great groups around England that think like us and love sharing this dance. We have a wonderful network of groups that we love co-sharing ideas with and that is a great encouragement for all parties to learn from each other. 

Anyway.. these are just a few thoughts to keep you in the loop of where we are heading . I hope they assist or are of interest. 

Scottie :)