I see the clubhouse as a place that should be open to the Edmonton musical community(s) at large and must expand into an integral part of the Edmonton music scene and a hub of innovation and experimentation. I would like to offer a musician a place  to access to access and network with others musicians, a place to perform or jam with them, affordable recording and videoing resources, a place to try and develop new musical ideas and a place to learn, grow and improve one’s own musicianship.
This will be a place run by musicians for musicians of any stripe for any musical purpose. We just have to figure out how to make the endeavor to  pay for itself.

Wednesday & Friday Night Jams

The basics or Core of the club will revolve around the Open Jams for Members & Guests on Wednesdays and Fridays nights of each week.
For club personnel, we would need at minimum, a host for the jam, a person behind the counter (it is only a bar when we have a liquor license) and a Soundperson.
There are many ways to run a jam, so how will these operate?
1.    Open, free, Unsupervised Jams like when the club first started really going. In these, there is no structure, just if there is a space on the stage & you feel you can contribute you jump on stage & join in. The personnel onstage rotates in a haphazard fashion, relying on a performer’s courtesy to not hog the stage or instrument if there are other performers waiting to get on.
2.    Structured Reserved Spots by an individual or group Jams like they have been conducted for the past bunch of years. At WEMS, this type of jam was instituted in response to the first style of jams with people not being able to get onstage and it democratized stage access to ensure that a performer can get on and control the stage at a certain known time if the individual or group can get their name on the sign-up board.
3.    Hosted Jams would be an idea if we can find hosts that can run the thing effectively.  We will need a group of these people to draw from. 
There are a few sub-categories of Hosted Jams that I can think of:
-    A Regular Jam.The performer puts their name on a sign-up sheet & the host puts people together and controls the flow of the performances. This method does rely on the host knowing or at least talking to the performers on the list & (hopefully with knowledge of the other performers on the list) puts together a temporary act to put on the stage. This is the most typical method we see in the jams today in Edmonton.
-    A Lotto Jam. The performers put their names into a receptacle for their instrument. Names are randomly selected from the receptacles to put together the temporary band. The host will have to monitor this carefully as there may be vast technical differences in the temporary band member’s ability. The host will still control the flow of the performances. This could also be a part of a regular jam.
-    A Team Jam which incorporates a bit of game show fun. Not for the faint of heart. Performers put their names into a receptacle for their instrument. Names are randomly selected from the receptacles to put together 3 – 6 temporary bands. These temporary bands will compete that evening. The competition consists of each band playing in a random Style selected from a box of styles, a random Progression from an envelope of progressions, a random Key from the wheel of keys at a tempo set by the audience. The technical abilities of the performers are critical for this method.
-    Specific Time Ranges  for Levels of Ability. In this type, the musicians with less experience or ability will play earlier in the evening, with the jams developing into jams with more proficient performers as the evening progresses.
4.    Special Jams for a specific Genre or demographic. These jams would follow one of the previous 3 types of jams, only being restricted to the style or age group the jam is intended for.
5.    Jams featuring a special guest. Can use most of the previous four types of jams (Team Jam might be a little awkward if the idea is to have as many people play with the special guest as possible), but the evening would revolve around the special guest.
These jams could also be held on other nights of the week as well.

How does a night like these help the club financially?

1.    Everyone pays a cover charge of $5.00 to get into the club. Paying this allows the club to charge less for annual membership dues.
2.    Paying for non-alcoholic beverages, cups.
3.    Paying for pre-packaged foodstuffs & perhaps a hot dog cart or grill out back
4.    Invite a food truck to drop by at a pre-arranged time and get a kick-back? Maybe this would just be a feature of the club as I’m not sure how we’d be able to get any money going our way out of this.
5.    50/50 Draws – Make them a regular feature of the club for all evenings or events.
6.    New memberships.
7.    Donations.
All these methods for bringing in money to the club rely on reaching a threshold of numbers of members and guests attending the jam. In order to reach the threshold and surpass the numbers of bums in the seats required we need to give the members and guests reasons for being there. 
The jams have to become memorable again, in displays of musicianship, audience engagement and presentation. The venue speaks for itself.
Another challenge is to manage the levels of technical abilities in order to accommodate performers of all calibers in an evening. Advanced players need to be able play with other advanced players as well as help out the weaker or less accomplished players. 

Saturday Night as a Feature Night

When the club added being open on Saturday evenings, the evenings were supposed to feature specific acts or be for specific purpose as opposed to being a regular weekly jam night. 
A Featured Artist Night is a night where the artist, as a member of the Society, reserves the evening for musical performance centered on the featured artist or artist of their choice. This is a night where the club may be open to more than just the membership and their guests, but to the general public as well. The member understands that they are responsible for bringing in the audience and is expected to do some advertising of the event outside of what the cub is doing to promote the event. The artist will be able to control how the night is to function and use the club’s resources in consultation with the club staff. 
If the Featured Artist is not a member of the Society the same rules will apply, but the artist must provide a deposit which may be returned to the artist if the club meets its threshold financial target for the evening. 
These nights will see the act(s) performing splitting the cover charge with the club at whatever ratio is agreed upon. For example, if the artist is a member, then the expectation would be that the club gets a bigger slice of the pie, if not all of it. Or, if this is an evening in which the club is selling liquor, the artist could get a higher ratio of the cover money and the club makes its money on booze sales that night. 
At minimum, a cover charge of at least $10 would be implemented for any Featured Artist Night.

Evenings with Singer / Songwriters

This is very similar to a feature night, but in this evening, we’d have a more intimate performance with a singer / songwriter with Q & A with the audience and maybe an interview. The evening requires a Host / Moderator / Interviewer person to run the night. Capture it with audio & video, mix it down & put it out on ours and the artist’s channels or websites. We’ll use the same model for the financial deal with the artist as for the feature night.

Special Performances

-    Performances specifically designed for broadcast on You Tube with recorded audio & video mixed by the club volunteers. This is a night where the club may be open to more than just the membership and their guests, but to the general public as well.
-    Showcasing an Artistic Endeavor. An artist, individual or organization can reserve the clubhouse to showcase something artistic to a specific audience. A fee for this would be required. This is a night where the club may be open to more than just the membership and their guests, but to the general public as well.
-    High School or other group Battle of the Bands. The combinations of things that could be done with this are enormous. Since we don’t sell booze, we could have a night for each school leading up to the battle show. We can offer recording as a prize & whatever else we can scrape up. Charge admission & sell pop & munchies. Probably need more supervision from the club than normal. This is an event where the club will be open to more than just the membership and their guests, but to the general public as well.
-    Check Out the ‘Bucking Jam Palace’ in Calgary at https://buckingjampalace.com for a fancy idea of what I’m proposing here.
Partnering with Other Organisations
-    The Edmonton Jazz Festival has expressed interest in the past in having the clubhouse host an event or show. A member of their board has agreed to contact Ken Sangster, the Director of the festival on our behalf.
-    We will be approaching both the Edmonton Catholic and Public School Boards about the potential clubhouse could offer their music programs especially with  musically inclined high school students.
-    While approaching the Jazz Festival we will also be approaching the head of the MacEwan University Music Department Head, Ken Sangster.
-    We will also reach out to the U of A music dept and student union about the club.
-    Through one of our members, we will be approaching the Edmonton Rock ‘N Roll Society and will approach the Blues Society as well. There are other organizations, I’m sure.
How would this be financially beneficial to the Society?
-    If an admission charge is levied, WEMS gets a cut of at least 50%.
-    The organisation rents the clubhouse for a fee.
-    Sales similar to a jam nights.
-    .
Club Rental for Rehearsing / Recording

At $50.00 for a 6 hour session, this is the best deal in North America. I’d like to keep it at that for Rehearsals. It is within the financial reach of working musicians and students. Any evening that is not booked already; Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings, Sunday afternoon can be full instrumentation and any other afternoon without drums or loud instruments, is available for rehearsal.
Need one person to open the club for rehearsal and need a mechanism to allow the rehearser to leave without requiring a club member to lock up after them after.
If a sound person is required, the rehearser must strike the deal with the sound crew. If the full PA is to be used then a soundperson must be there and should be compensated. Most times, only the Monitor System would be required.
Recording is set at the same rate as for rehearsing & will stay that way until we can prove we can produce a good product with our volunteer staff.
For any Performance excluding the Jams, we will provide the artist with the recorded audio .wav files as part of the compensation package. If the artist wants a mixed version, the artist can discuss it with the sound crew.
The same with the video capabilities when that is installed.
I would like to use our collective learned capabilities from the sound and video programs to create a series of videos on You Tube, a collection of yearly best-of CDs for the club for performances and a voice for original compositions by club members. Couldn’t get much more M.A.P.L. than that if we also have the cover art & design by club members as well as manufactured locally.

Education

One of the stated raison d’êtres for the club is to promote amateur music and providing a space where one can learn by watching, listening and doing, so education is already considered a part of what the club exists for. 
-    Revive Saturday afternoon Yutes Day through the school boards.
-    Workshops.
-    Do something(s) in conjunction with the Edmonton Catholic and Public School Boards and college music programs.
I have no idea how this would generate income for the Society other than people paying a fee for Yutes day o a workshop. Working with schools requires them to pay the Society something.