Free Busker Act for the animal shelter

[theballoonman]

wow instant karma.
just talkin about it bumped me from new member to member.
gotta go light a candle.


(i'm in california,rolling blackouts)
mike

[Ottawa Humane Society]

I am the person who placed the ad for the Buskers for the Humane Society event in September. I am sorry our request generated so much bitterness and heated discussion.I guess we volunteers get caught up in our cause, it is not easy to volunteer at the Humane Society if you love animals; there is so much abuse; we can ONLY do it because of the people who care about animals. We know of course they are not more important than people; we have families too and I believe we have our priorities right. We are withdrawing our request for a Busker performance and will look elsewhere. Thank you all for taking the time to reply to our request.

[Steven Ragatz]

This morning I sent this message to the Ottawa Humane Society:

<snip>
To whom it may concern,

As a regular reader of the performers.net site, I saw your request for performers to work at your upcoming walk-a-thon in September. The request clearly stated that buskers were asked to come and perform without compensation. After the request was submitted, a bevy of frustrated street performers replied with heated opinions debating whether or not being asked to perform for free was a reasonable request. The person from your office has since withdrawn the original offer.

As someone who has been a professional entertainer for many years, I can say that the Humane Society's request was perfectly justified and posted in the proper context and with the proper intent. I see no reason why the request for performers should be withdrawn simply because a handful of individuals have complained.

You may or may not get anyone to participate; nevertheless you shouldn't be put off by the attitudes of the performers.net readership. As with any Internet forum, there are those who like to post messages just to be heard. The individuals who post do not represent the attitudes of the performing community as a whole.

In the future, I hope that your organization feels free to submit requests for volunteer performers to the site again. There is never any harm in asking.

Steven Ragatz
Variety Performer/Circus Artist
<end snip>

If we, the readership, of performers.net wish to encourage promoters, corporate event planners, festival organizers, and clients in general, to post gig opportunities to the board, we should take care of our image in order to promote a supportive environment. Not everyone is interested in engaging in debate.

[Jim]

I second Steven's sentiment.

I think, as professional entertainers, we all deserve to be compensated for our work. However, many of us DO occasionally work for free for a client of our choice. There's nothing wrong with the way the Ottawa Humane Society asked for performers. It is our choice to either accept pro bono work or politely turn it down.

We need to be professional in our interactions with clients and with our postings on these forums. If you don't like the way a client offers a gig, a calm, professional, educational reply will be far more effective than a berating one. And like Steven said, we don't want to scare people away from posting opportunities that COULD actually be good opportunities.

Jim

[Ottawa Humane Society 2]

I am writing to you on behalf of the Ottawa Humane Society. I am a volunteer helping to coordinate the entertainment and activities for the 2001 Wiggle Waggle Walkathon (WWW), the Society's biggest fundraiser. I have been on vacation for the last couple of weeks, and asked a wonderful lady to help out in recruiting entertainment while I was away. Unfortunately I didn't provide her with all of the information and details that you would need to know. I apologize for that.

We are still very interested in securing a dynamic act for our event, so I hope you'll take the time to read the below details.

The WWW is a 5km walk for which most people come out and bring their dogs - but apparently there are also some cats and ferrets. All animals are on-leash at all times, by law.

This year we're hoping to create a festival/carnival atmosphere, and in order to do that, we wanted to have a couple of buskers. We're hoping to have two different acts, set up far enough away from one another as not to detract from either's show.

Here are some details:

Who: Ottawa Humane Society
What: Wiggle Waggle Walkathon
When: Sunday, September 9, 2001
9am - 12:30pm
Where: The Arboretum (Experimental Farm)
Why: Because it is a great cause - all living things require health, kindness and nurturing; not only people!!

The walk itself takes place between 10am-11am, so we thought we could have a show or two between both 9am-10am and then between 11am-12pm, while people are eating lunch. In addition, if you like, you could set up during the walk along the walk route at one of the water stops and do maybe a mini version of your show. That's completely up to you. Keep in mind that the surface along the walk route would be all grass and/or gravel.

We expect a turn out of about 2000 people, of all ages. There are a lot of families, but also a large young adult - middle age demographic. All said, I think you'd be guaranteed a pretty captive audience.

We can offer you a good-sized area on pavement or grass, whichever you prefer. We'll also provide free lunch tickets (I think we serve hotdogs or hamburgers).

We're hoping we can obtain your services free-of-charge since we're a non-profit organization with a low budget, but you would be encouraged to pass your hat and would of course keep all of the profits you make that day.

I hope I've given you enough details to make it sound promising! If so, or if you have any questions or would just like to discuss, I'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to email me at:

heather.logan@ccra-adrc.gc.ca

Thanks for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Heather Logan

[worldwidese]

Seems I started a needless controversy. My actual point was that it would be nice if the asking party would donate some of it's time also! This time to be used to rustle up sponsors who don't have the time, but would be only too happy to donate money to pay the performer, and get their company name in front of the public (exposure). Thus professional performer/buskers could be engaged and EVERYONE would be happy. For such a good cause sponsors are easy to get. For the record, I very much endorse this particular cause, and I myself am presently caring for 6 cats, none of which is officially mine, but were abandoned by people who moved away from the neighbourhood.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by worldwidese:
We wish you could pay too! Buskers are not in the high income bracket, and it's a lot to ask them to donate their time to perform for exposure. That doesn't pay the rent. There are plenty of high income folks and corporations who could help the Shelter by sponsoring the performence for a chance to get THEIR exposure. That way you would get better quality entertainment. All it takes is some of your commitee's time to get the sponsors.

[Prof Willie B]

Like everyone here, we do freebies when and for whom we choose, but we often get many more requests. We've found it very valuable to demand a fee and still pass a hat but give the hat to the charity.
Think about it for a bit.
You are paid, so you're free to do a great show without worrying, you can really turn the screws up on your audience and bottle mercilessly (one of my favorite bits is to drag a really straight representative of the charity on to the pitch to supervise, ala state lottery, and hold the hat). Volunteers bottling the crowd help. Make it their responsibility to make the fee money back, then, to make a profit.
If they put a great audience in front of you, you will prove why your show is worth paying for and if they don't you can demonstrate why it is not worth you doing it any other way.
The most important part is, it does educate the audience, and the organiser, into paying for what they get.
Try it some time, it works for me and I'd love to hear if it works for you. I have seen some astounding hats come out of small crowds and end up with a regular gig. The smiles are wide all round when the hat exceeds your fee.



[This message has been edited by Prof Willie B (edited 07-16-2001).]

[Rich Potter]

Worldwiese,

Sounds like you are a good candidate for this gig and to get compensated:

Ask for six vouchers from the humane society (or Ottawa shelter) to get your six cats spayed or neutered free of charge. It's a win-win situation, and guaranteed to generate publicity for you (responsible street-performer cat owner) and the shelter (helping people do the right thing, finding solutions, etc.) That amounts to between $180 US and $700 US in value, depending on where you live.

Just a thought.

--Rich
(who is allowed to live in a house with four cats)