10 TIPS ON RUNNING SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL DANCES

1. Hire a professional.
2. Once you have hired someone who knows music and teen dances in your area; you will realize that the music does not make the dance. People make the dance. The more people you have, the better dance you will have. Therefore, do what you can to advertise and promote your event.
3. When the professional arrives, treat them professionally. Since you have hired someone who is qualified: they will not make unreasonable demands of you, and you will not do likewise.
4. Know who is at your dance. If they are visitors to your school, have them produce a student card and sign in. Preferably, have the sign-ins accompanied by someone from your school, and remind students that they are responsible for their visitors.
5. Have very clear rules about acceptable behaviour. Make sure that everyone knows about them and that the rules are enforced.
6. Once people have entered the dance, they are not allowed to leave the area of the dance. Your parking lot can cause more problems than a poor DJ with a lousy sound system.
7. No matter what music you play, you can't please everyone. The perfect dance would be a Walkman dance. The DJ would stand at the back and hand out the requests. This would guarantee that everyone heard what they wanted to hear when they wanted to hear it.
8. Have your dances on a Wednesday or Thursday night. The DJ's are usually cheaper, and problems can be settled the next school day, rather than cooling off over the weekend.
9. Ask someone from your school's administration to be present at the dance. This will provide you with some support, and it will give them an opportunity to see their students in a different environment.
10. Start and end on time. A good running time is two-and-a-half hours. Even the professionals have a tough time entertaining for four full hours.

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