Free Spirit Memberships

Why should I be a member?

We do get questions from people asking why they need or should become members. What do they get out of it? Where does your $20 a year go?

 

Why do we have memberships?

We are classed as a Club. Clubs have a membership fee in order for the incorporated structure to identify members who then can vote.

We raised this question at the AGM in 2022 and asked the question if we should go to a user-pays system, where we raise the prices of our events to cover true costs and don’t charge a membership fee. This was universally rejected by the community. The membership is $20 per year and has stayed the same for the last few years. We were told by our membership that people like to belong, to be part of something bigger and to support the community in the work that they do.

 

What does the membership pay for?

The membership fees helps pay for some of the costs that you don’t see.

• Music licencing ($800 per year) (so 160 members pay for this bit) which allows us to play any music at our events, at public performances and also covers this cost for our teachers, so they can keep their costs down.

• Insurance ($650 per year), which allows us to hold events. Events give dancers the opportunity to perform, and so the drive to learn new dances, to create new costumes, to improve skills, to experience the rush and fun of performing, to connect closely and work together with members of your troupe, to see new styles, props and performers and to connect socially with people from all across Perth, with whom you share a love of dance. Covering this cost for events, means that the teachers don’t have to organise their own shows or cover those oncosts themselves, again, keeping your class fees down. This also covers the dancers who donate their time to perform for community performances at festivals, fetes and fairs. This is a valuable education tool to show the general public what a huge variety of wonder is covered by the term 'bellydance'. The hundred of styles, fusions, techniques and costumes mean that there's something for everyone! You help change hearts and minds and inspire others.

• Website costs: It costs about $600 a year for us to have a website that has information, a store where you can buy things and be connected to classes, events, information and facilities. It's an important tool for our community.

• Storage fees – we have a lot of things that we need to store, from the mirrors and other studio items that we are keeping, so we can furnish our new studio when we get one, we have lighting rigs, speakers and tubs and tubs and tubs of things like the tablecloths, candles and decorations for the tables and backdrops for our events. We also provide storage at the teaching venues, enabling teachers to store mirrors and props.

• Event costs - it costs a bomb to hire venues and all the associated costs of running events. We strive to keep entry tickets as ridiculously low as they are, so more people can come to our events.

• So you'll see that we have a lot of costs we need to cover, and we ask a small contribution from those who benefit from our services, or those who want to help deliver those services, to keep costs down and our classes and events more accessible to low income earners and the wider community. A community like ours is all about making things as accessible as possible, so we can reach as many people as possible.

 

What's in it for me?

• By having an incorporated club structure, we attract the not-for-profit hire rate for venues. This means the studio hire fees are lower for Free Spirit teachers – reducing their costs. You will have seen a lot of this covers costs for teachers. By making things cheaper for your teachers, they can keep their class costs down, so if you’re attending a class, your class fees are less than they would otherwise be. By making dance classes more affordable - more people can afford to take a class - so that means more bellydancers in the world! More people to dance with. More classes to enjoy. More glitter to share.

• We hold events that you can perform at, giving you something to work towards, a reason to practice, the justification for buying or making new costumes - and the precious memories that are shared with your fellow dancers.

• We hold events you can go to, so you can see other dancers do amazing things just for you. Those moments you just had to be there for. A new style you've never seen before, the skilful manipulation of a prop you've always wanted to try, the poetry of a troupe dancing in unison, a new song to Shazam. 

• We create the space for you to hold a stall to sell your handcrafted wares, gifts for family and friends or preloved costume pieces, so you can reduce waste and give gorgeous things that you no longer use, a second (or third or fourth) life. This space also gives you the opportunity to score new items for your costume wardrobe at a fraction of the cost to buy new, to find new products and local suppliers of fabulous things.

 

$20 is three cappucinos, half a ticket to the Royal Show, four soft drinks at a food hall, one movie ticket or a whole year of warm fuzzies and the sense of belonging and doing something small, but awesome, for the dance community. It comes with a free side order of gratitude from all your fellow members and the Committee!