Thursday classes suspended

As you are probably aware, since the summer holidays the number of people attending Thursday night classes has been declining. A number of long term members have moved on for various reasons, and with the lack of focus on promotion we didn't get enough new members to make up for it. We need at least about 15 people to turn up each night. Recently we only have had about half that - clearly not enough.

Therefore, last Thursday I unfortunately had to make the call to suspend the classes for the moment while I consider how to best take the samba school forward. You can call it reinventing the samba school, if you like.

This was not an easy decision, in particular because a number of you have been extremely loyal over many many years. I deeply appreciate that.

I feel the main reason for recent events comes down to me not putting in the time anymore to promote the samba school, both to new members and for potential gigs. This is mainly caused by my new job which is extremely demanding (fortunately also very satisfying!). In addition to that I also want to give Ruben the time that he deserves, so that leaves me on average with only about 1 or 1.5 hours per day for 'other' things including the samba school. Unfortunately by that time I'm also pretty exhausted so it's not the most productive time of my day.

On Thursday we did have a bit of a brainstorm with the people that did turn up, and there is certainly the potential to change things around a bit, in particular by me letting go of total control a bit and others stepping up in helping out. But I need to think this all through a bit which might take a few weeks - and we need to get new people to sign up somehow.

As a sign that this is NOT the end of the samba school, on Saturday I have excepted a gig for 29 July around noon at the C&K Kindy in West End, something we've done a few times now. Please block this in your calendars! I will also try to have a monthly get-together in Newfarm park where we can play and maybe even attract some new people.


Thank you
Remko