What Would Woody Do?

WWWD New Format Proposal

This is a proposal for the new format of What Would Woody Do shows. I think the WWWD events of 2007 have been wonderful events, that were woefully under attended. I am proposing a format change, and a sponsorship change, that is designed to take WWWD to a larger audience.

Sponsors
Since it's inception, WWWD has been sponsored by Democracy For the Heart of America (DFHA) as a free event. I want to turn WWWD into a multi sponsor event. I would like it to be sponsored by four organizations, DFHA, KKFI, Cross-Currents, and Building Sustainable Earth Community (BSEC). I propose that we sell tickets to the event, and split the proceeds between these organizations and the feature act, which I'll discuss below. An example would be that we sell tickets for $10, and give two dollars to each of the four sponsoring organizations and the feature. The advantage of this is that people who have paid for tickets in advance will show up, and if the benefits are for a good cause, they will spend the money. Selling tickets also makes it into a bigger deal in the eyes of the public, and will also encourage performers to have their presentations really polished.

The Show
The WWWD show will be three hours long, divided into three parts. The first two parts will be local songwriters performing their own songs of social conscience in a circle format. Each set will consist of three songwriters performing three songs, followed by a break for the remainder of that hour. This break (about 15 minutes) gives time for the crowd to mingle and the performers to speak with the audience members immediately after their performance. Then the final one hour we will have a feature act. This might be a local band, such as Checkered Past, The Herrmannators, or Bob Wolkenhorst and friends, or it might be an out of town act, such as Still On The Hill or Emma's Revolution. For out of town acts, we might need to adjust the percentages from ticket sales to make it worth their while to come to town. We can be flexible. A lower percentage for the sponsors when bigger acts are featured will probably be offset by greater attendance. The featured act would need to perform all songs of social conscience, but the requirement for all original would be lifted. Original music preferred and encouraged, but not required, since some wonderful acts who are generally social conscience acts, might not have a dozen social conscience songs of their own to fill an hour. Also, if we bring in out of town acts, we might want to adjust the schedule a little to let them go longer. Again, be flexible.

The Larger Event
We could have a one or two hour social and advocate event before the WWWD performance begins featuring local groups who advocate peace, justice, sustainability, etc. This means we would need to have the proper facility to support both a musical performance and tables. Ideally the tables would be outside the hall so that visiting the tables would be free, and tickets would only be required for attendance to the music event. This would encourage more people to attend, who might buy tickets. The venue size we use might also depend on who will be the featured act, and this might limit the ability to have tables outside the venue. The venue might also dictate a change to ticket cost and/or percentages to the sponsoring organizations, if we have to pay for the use of the venue. Using community college performance halls should help lower costs.

Dates
WWWD 2007 was always the last Saturday of the month. While there is a benefit to a regular date, I think we should move to a more flexible schedule, and focus more on the venue availability. Monthly might be too frequently as well. We need more time to handle logistics and promotion. I think more flexibility on the dates and venues is useful, and simply do more promoting.

Promotion
Ideally, it would be good to have WWWD Players perform on the KKFI Local Showcase show on the Thursday night before a WWWD Saturday event. We should also issue press releases to all media outlets in the region, just as BSEC did for it's conference. A KKFI Community Voices spot should be created for each show. Any appearances by WWWD Players on any KKFI, or any other media outlet would also be good. Of course, web sites and email lists would also be involved in promotion. We need to create a promotion check list that we can go through for each show.

Please give your comments and suggestions on this proposal to Jim Herrmann as soon as possible. I plan to meet with the Cross Currents board next weekend to pitch this proposal, and would like your input before then.