There's a discussion going on at The Nut's Facebook page about how to recruit for a team, but I thought you'd all be interested in what Frank Lee (who is often a DERT judge) has to say about looking like you're having fun! So, remember - shoulders, smiles and fingers. Or, in Sinead's more catchy phrase, teeth, tits and toes :-) 

Ffion x

Please take a look at my blog on Welsh folk songs - caneuongwerin.wordpress.com


Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2015 08:46:37 -0800
To: 164866403667090@groups.facebook.com
From: notification+f62=9zty@facebookmail.com
Subject: Re: [The Nut] Does anyone have any tips on recruitment?

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Frank Lee
Frank Lee 6 February 16:46
Just be really good at what you do. Look like you're having fun. It's RAPPER, so don't be stiff and starchy. Get some fun into it and make it look like you're enjoying it. Don't pretend it's dead easy - it needs to look like a challenge, oh yes, and one other thing, make it look like its fun. If the audience isn't stamping and clapping, and cheering at the end, either you're not doing it right, or you're dancing at a Conservative party conference. If they are, recruitment will take care of itself. Mingle with the audience and be approachable, chat to them, don't be hell-bent on getting to the next pub. Make it look like you're having a good time. (Got the message yet? - I'm giving away DERT judge's secrets here for your benefit!) If that lot doesn't work, you might as well give-up I reckon. Oh, and the age thing, the team that got me hooked must have been in their 70s. I was 12. 'Nuff sed.
Comment history
Edwin Dyson
Edwin Dyson6 February 14:01
Offer to dance at your local ceilidhs in the interval. All team to attend in kit, dance with people and hand out marketing material
Ffion Mair
Ffion Mair6 February 13:25
Lots of good suggestions already. I just looked at our current team list to see what recruitment method has been most successful for us. Over half of our members were part of a Morris side or clog team before joining Tower Ravens. Almost half had danced rapper before with another team (mostly university and youth teams). Therefore making yourself known in the folk world is very important – going to festivals and days of dance, being present on social media, getting in local press.
We hold workshops once a year, just after the uni term has started. We once danced at a uni freshers ceilidh to get recruits but it didn’t work (at least not directly). Only one person has ever turned up to a workshop on spec – everyone else has come because they already knew someone in the team so I agree that getting your friends to come along is important, and that having a dedicated beginners day makes them feel welcomed.
We do carry business cards with us on dance outs and get several people saying they’re interested in joining. This has actually never materialised. One person did join us after seeing Thrales dance which, again, shows the value of getting other teams to be your friends!
Edwin Dyson
Edwin Dyson6 February 13:11
It is Paul, but sadly the most time and labour intensive. Hence talking to people in the pubs on crawls.
Paul Davenport
Paul Davenport6 February 13:10
We've done schools work, recruitment drives etc. the thing that works best is word of mouth and one-to-one persuasion.
Edwin Dyson
Edwin Dyson6 February 13:06
Fiund a local business that's shit hot on twitter etc, ask them to be your sponsor for a nominal sum. Get them to help promote you.
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Original post
Tom Sennett
Tom Sennett6 February 12:48
Does anyone have any tips on recruitment?

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