Hello Smoothie,

My motivation is quite simple – without some kind of structured group, I'll have no place to dance except when I teach (which is usually people who have never done ballroom before) – which means I'll lack opportunities to learn new things, or push myself, and will actually degrade in skill (something I've already caught happening). Does it have to be USABDA? No, but at least they offer SOME kind of guidance, and their organization is a "hook to hang my hat on," in terms of publicizing things locally. In fact, whatever type of group, if any, that I manage to get together, *can't* become a USABDA chapter until we have 25 members. I believe they give us a year to get the 25, though I'm not sure why there's such a time limit. So if I only get 20 people, we'll in theory *have* to become something else. And in the meantime – well, I've never tried to get a club going before, and I'm sure the information I'll get from USABDA in the Bluebook will help me avoid at least a few mistakes.

So far as college kids go – having them participate in whatever gets going has been in my game plan all along. If I gave the impression of "focusing" on the "30's-40's" group, I erred. By saying I wanted to meet people in my own age bracket who were into dancing, I didn't mean I was excluding other groups! Someone in one of the other posts had referred to seniors and college students predominating – that's also been my experience, and I'm hoping a community will attract some of my peers, while also avoiding some of the instability you mentioned as inherent in college student groups.

So far as just renting a space and holding a dance – well, first I'd want to the size of the possible participant pool.

R