Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sindbad
Depends how gender balancing is implemented. If it is 1:1 ratio I personally think it doesn't work. Having been to a few weekenders I have noticed that for the workshops there seem to be more men than women, mainly because women are out shopping or busy doing something else. Each to their own preferences I guess.
The ratio balances out during the freestyle when everyone is out dancing.
Personally I would like to see a ratio of 1:1.3 (100 male : 130 female). Mainly because many women can lead compared to the number of guys that can follow. That's my opinion, I am sure others will have a different view on this topic.
Personally I would like to see the gender balance stay at 50/50 as this alleviates the impact when the ladies who book and pay for their imaginary men find that they do not turn up
I have not done any classes at weekenders for a couple of years but when I did there were normally more women than men and occasionally so bad that it was not worth continuing with the class and is one of the reasons that I don’t bother with classes any more I'd rather spend my time dancing than queuing up
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dave the scaffolder
...I believe Ceroc are looking into this, however the general shortage of men in dancing will always be a problem. Whats the answer? I don't know ...
The man that did know was Arthur Murray. There are decades of direct response ads and PR available online for free.
http://bit.ly/murrayads
Note the predominance of ads in Men's magazines.
For those that can recognise it these are a masterclass in direct response ad layout and copy. Send for the free by mail offers and you might just get a letter mentioning his local dance studio. Local ads get the ladies in.
The PR idea of government supported dance classes for servicemen came from these mags - help "our boys" make up for lost time with the ladies.
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
If women booking early to get a place, and men leaving it till the last minute is causing problems (for the women at least), then an incentive to get the men to book early might help.
Could Ceroc implement the Easyjet principle - that those who book early get the cheapest tickets, whilst those who leave it later pay more as places dry up? This could be applied equally across the genders to avoid any accusations of discrimination. Would being able to save money encourage men to book early? If Ceroc get the money 6 months early, and invest it wisely, then presumably they could offset any potential loss by offering cheaper early tickets.
Just a thought.
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Twirly
If women booking early to get a place, and men leaving it till the last minute is causing problems (for the women at least), then an incentive to get the men to book early might help.
Could Ceroc implement the Easyjet principle - that those who book early get the cheapest tickets, whilst those who leave it later pay more as places dry up? This could be applied equally across the genders to avoid any accusations of discrimination. Would being able to save money encourage men to book early? If Ceroc get the money 6 months early, and invest it wisely, then presumably they could offset any potential loss by offering cheaper early tickets.
Just a thought.
Anorak corner: If you invest money wisely for six months that probably means putting it in a high interest account. Let's say that Ceroc has access to some great and safe money market investment account - they'd probably get not much more than 1% over 6 months, maybe 2% absolute max. Even if it was possible to find an investment account paying a risk free 10% pa for a business - if you do please let me know - that is 5% for 6 months. Is 5% enough to change booking habits? I doubt it would be.
So it really would be a loss maker to offer the kind of price reduction inducements that I imagine would be needed to get men to book early.
[I'm not sure inducing men to book early rather than late helps much as an early booker with a v low price is more likely to do so speculatively so that they get a space guaranteed but it's no great loss if plans change and they can't go. So it could actually generate more phantom men - you'd only find out by trying but that would be my prediction.]
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Maxine
Personally I would like to see the gender balance stay at 50/50 as this alleviates the impact when the ladies who book and pay for their imaginary men find that they do not turn up
Based on the balance at Camber and Southport shouldn't that be imaginary imaginary men (or perhaps there are simply more imaginary women than men)
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Twirly
If women booking early to get a place, and men leaving it till the last minute is causing problems (for the women at least), then an incentive to get the men to book early might help.
Could Ceroc implement the Easyjet principle - that those who book early get the cheapest tickets, whilst those who leave it later pay more as places dry up? This could be applied equally across the genders to avoid any accusations of discrimination. Would being able to save money encourage men to book early?
Ceroc do and always have done something similar (in theory). Early bird, slow bird, dodo bird etc.
In theory because the timed price increases haven't been consistently applied, and therefore have limited credibility.
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
It is rather simple.
It is women who shouted "we want gender balancing".
So it is women who need to deal with how that can be done.
The organisers can only do so much to try and please the "gender balancing crowd"
What I see is, ladies not liking the system, but also ladies asking for a system.
OK, politically correct hat off...... stop whining, you wanted it, so you got it... deal with it.
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
frodo
Ceroc do and always have done something similar (in theory). Early bird, slow bird, dodo bird etc.
In theory because the timed price increases haven't been consistently applied, and therefore have limited credibility.
:banghead: Of course. I forgot. But probably because, as you say, the price differential hasn't been applied consistently. So forget that idea.
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rtwwpad
Why don't you ask the powers that run this board to put a sticky up or make a new category in Social to find a man to share with. Allowing at least forumites to book with someone they may vaguely know or who someone they know may know (cue extended descriptions gag).
We've been giving this some thought, and I have created a thread in the test area which shows one idea on how this might work. We'd be grateful for feedback...
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
If it's only a question of supply and demand, then the problem is lack of information. If the booking website told you the current gender balance, it's you own silly fault if you're a woman and you book onto a weekender with 70% women.
Instead of hatching/doing/fit/extinct bird, why not auction all 750 pairs of tickets on ebay, perhaps in several tranches? Make it easy for people to then split the pairs and resell them. Perhaps the tickets would actually be vouchers that have to be completed and returned with 2 weeks to go, so that the details of everyone on site are known.
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
FirstMove
If the booking website told you the current gender balance, it's you own silly fault if you're a woman and you book onto a weekender with 70% women.
This is true for the followers who book in late and say "oh well, lots more followers, but I will go anyway"
It does not help the followers who have booked in earlier hoping for more of a 50 50 spread.
I think gender balancing is here to stay, for a lot of major functions. It has also been taken up in Australia.
Re: Gender Balancing - How Fair Is It?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Martin
It is rather simple.
It is women who shouted "we want gender balancing".
So it is women who need to deal with how that can be done.
The organisers can only do so much to try and please the "gender balancing crowd"
What I see is, ladies not liking the system, but also ladies asking for a system.
OK, politically correct hat off...... stop whining, you wanted it, so you got it... deal with it.
Martin you obviously just don’t understand women, we want it all