Kickstarter

I need your help to spread the word about the 2013 Contradance Calendar.

As a Kickstarter supporter, you made production of the calendar possible. However, subsequent sales of the calendar have not yet been enough to completely pay for this year's calendar nor, as I had hoped, to get a head start on the 2014 calendar.

I believe this is a marketing problem, not a product problem. I find that too many dancers around the country have never heard about the calendar. Flyers at the dance are easily overlooked (though I've sent packets to over a hundred groups). Ads will be appearing in the CDSS News and in your Facebook sidebar soon, but that impact is uncertain. My personal social media reach is limited. The most valuable resource is this Kickstarter network, and you will be the key to making the calendar a permanent fixture in the contra dance scene.

Here's what you can do. Share the calendar website--contracalendar.com--on your local dance email list or Yahoo group. Post it on your Facebook page and share what you like about the calendar. Mention the significant discounts for bulk purchases (single calendar, $20, 2+, $18, 10+, $12) Print out flyers (http://dougplummer.com/extra/flyer_color2.pdf) and take them to your local dance if you don't already see them there. Tell me what you think of the calendar, and I'll quote you on the flyer and on Facebook. Let me know if you want me to send you a flyer packet.

Here again is the easy-to-remember website for calendar sales:

contracalendar.com

Thank you, and I hope to see you at your local dance as I travel and shoot for the 2014 Calendar.

Doug Plummer

The calendar has gone to press! AdPro Litho in Mulkiteo, WA is the printer, and I was there this morning when the first sheets came out of the press. Here is what it looked like.

One reason the contradance calendar looks so good is that I have a great team. The designer, Joanne Kelly-Lauterjung, is a dancer and understands the community. She is living in Myanmar these days, and we worked on the calendar via email and Dropbox. AdPro Litho in Mukilteo is the printer, who did a fantastic job last year. Jenny Anttilla is the print broker who brought us together and manages our communication. 

He has tweaked the color and tonality of every single photo in the calendar. 

He managed the conversion from RGB to CMYK, a task that generally scares me. Every pixel is in gamut. The Delta E of his proofs are astonishingly low. The calendar is going to look fantastic because of this close attention.

I know just enough about color management to be dangerous. He fixed the color cast that I inadvertendly gave every image and made most of them difficult to convert to CMYK. Without adult supervision, this calendar could have looked dreadful. It looks like my next purchase is going to have to be a better monitor, and a newer monitor profiler.

I just looked over the latest proofs, and made some modest color changes to several images. I'll approve the altered proofs early next week, and then the files go to the printer.

I'm crediting each and every one of you in a Supporters section in the 2013 Contradance Calendar. I expect that someone's name is misspelled. This is your one and only chance to make sure it's not yours. We lock the design later this week. Would you scan the list and make sure I have you credited properly? And take a moment to consider the awesomeness of all this support? I certainly have. 

THANK YOU!!!

Lynn Ackerson, James Ahlischwede, Sharron Airey, Anita Anderson, Karen Anderson, Anonymous, Jaie Arianna, Karen Ashforth, Robert Atkinson, Janis Avery, Dave & Mary DeFelice Bartley, Jenny Beer, Donna Belle, Julie Bermant, Eric Black, Dina Blade, Kaye Blesener, Marion Bock, Marina Bovenkamp, Hope Braveheart, Shawn Brenneman, Alex Brick, Robert Broad, Susan Brown, Jim Brule, Alison Buffum, Susan McCroskey Burke, Anne Helene Cagney, California Dance Cooperative, Cheryl Cannon, Betsy Cannon, Amy Carroll, Valarie Cohen, Rebecca Collias, Dab Comly, David & Margaret Conover, Country Dance and Song Society, Hugh & Julie Covert, Carissa Craven, Nick Cuccia, A. Rima Dael, Blair Dunn, Roberta Dunton, Sue Dupre, Ellen Eagan, Pat Eaton, Becky Eggleston, Eugene Folklore Society, Deborah Fant, Matt Fisher, Kris Freeman, Paul Fussell, Susan McCroskey Gere, Mickey Gibson, Michael Gilman, Joshua Aaron Goldman, Howard Good, Ruth Kroman Gorrin, Charlotte Gould, Laura Graham, Stephanie Gray, Jacqui Grennan, David Griffin, Steve Guhin, Suzanne Hamilton, Susan Hannon, Beau Harbin, Robin Hayden, Haywood Contra Dance, Diana Herbst, Sarah Higginbotham, Ramona Holmes, David G. Huber, John Huffman, Lydia ievins, Cera Jackson, Linda James, Anna Jesionowski, Michael Karcher, Philip Katz, David Kennedy, Jacque Klas, Steven Krook, Joseph Kwiatkowski, Rachel Lachow, Eileen Landis, Woody Lane, Stephanie Latkovski, Judy Laub, Scotty Leach, Devon Leger, Marianne Tatom Letts, Richard Letts, Robin Lewis, Cindy Contra-Dancer Long, Looking Glass Music and Arts Association, Kathie Lovell, Mary Luckhardt, Laura Majerus, Laura Mandelberg, Robbin L Marcus, Karen Marshall, Bernice Maslan, Martin McClure, Mac McKeever, Cheryl McKinney, Juliet Minard, Lindsay Morris, Terri Nakamura, Sherry Nevins, Harvey Niebulski, North Bay Country Dance Society, Marianne O'Doherty, John Hutchison & Sally O'Neill, Ottawa Contra Dancers, Beth Parkes, Elizabeth Parry, Laura Parsons, Pam Paulson, Mariah Pepper, Mary Peters, Sharyn Lee Peterson, Susan Petrick, Laurie Pietravalle, Lori Pimentel, Portland Country Dance Community, Wanda Pratt, Chop Prince, Sharon Purcell, Marni Rachmiel, Loren Haralson & Dawn Marie Raymond, Eva Reich, Kathy Reid-Naiman, Jenn Richardson, Alan Roberts, Lisa Robinson, Felicity Rose, Nick Rose, Santa Barbara Country Dance Society, Sally Savage, Dorothea Schelch, Reed Schilbach, Alison Scott, Charlie Seelig, Susan Shapiro, Robin Shapiro, Lisa Siddons, Catherine Sisson, Catherine H. Smith, Barbara Smoody, Sue Songer, Jane Srivastava, Inti St. Clair, Mark Stanley, Natalie Stephens, Denise Sterchi, Carol Stone, Sandra Stone, Liz Sturgen, Alex Suarez, Isabel Sullivan, D Swanson, Emily Teachout, Julie Thomas, LuAnne Thompson, Susan Tomlinson, Hilary Turnberg, Coleen Van Nostrand, Jeri Vaughn, Joan Vermeulen, Dan Vilter, Mike & Bonnie Voss, Bryan Walls, Nora Warman, Lucia Watson, Elinor Welt, Dean Wenick, Sue Wiedenfeld, Meg Wilkinson, Christie Wolf, Peter Yarensky.