Preamble

This Statement of Mission and Guiding Principles serves to clarify the objectives of the Tango Social Club of Canberra (the Club).

The Club has a Constitution under the ACT Associations Incorporation Act 1991 which sets out its objectives and purposes as ‘To develop the Tango community in Canberra, the ACT Region, and Australia’.

This Statement of Mission and Guiding Principles is not required by law, but instead has been freely developed by the Club Committee in order to preserve the integrity of the Club on behalf of its membership, so that:

• members can support, participate in and benefit from Club activities in full knowledge of why the Club was established and why it continues;
• prospective members can make informed judgements about whether the Club is an appropriate organization for them to support, participate in and benefit from.

The Committee will use the Statement to guide the decision making it undertakes on behalf of the membership.

The Statement is a living document: all financial members of the Club may at any time make suggestions or requests about the Statement to the Committee. The Committee may from time to time, at its absolute discretion, amend the Statement. Any amendments to the Statement will be published in the Club’s newsletter.

Mission

To develop a community of tango social dancers in Canberra and the ACT region.

Guiding principles

Which tango?
1. The Club’s primary focus is on participatory Argentine social tango.
2. The Club recognises that the definition of Argentine tango is contested, and will change over time.
3. The Club recognises the importance of tango as a performance medium, and the fusions with other dance and theatre forms that this involves; but does not devote its resources to working in this area except to attract people 26 March, 2008 ">Activities: building the tango community
4. The Club’s primary focus is on the development of a community of social tango dancers.
5. The core activities of the Club will be:
a. providing regular opportunities for members to practise their tango skills in a relaxed social environment (i.e. practicas);
b. providing regular opportunities for members to dance tango in formal and semi-formal social environments (i.e. milongas);
c. providing regular opportunities for members to learn new tango skills;
d. providing information to members and the wider community about tango in Canberra and elsewhere;
e. organising demonstrations and performances of social tango to attract people to tango.
6. The Club aims not to have volunteer-based activities competing directly with the commercial activities of local teachers.
7. The Club encourages both commercial and voluntary tango activities outside the Club.
Independence
8. The Club is and will remain independent of any school, studio, teacher or other organisation.
9. The Club recognises that there is a wide range of tango teachers, tango ability, teaching skills and styles taught. It will make the best informed judgements it can as to the local, Australian and international teachers who will be most useful to club members for its various activities and does not expect that these decisions will necessarily be fair or equitable to all teachers.
Publicity
10. We aim to provide information without bias to members and the general public about all tango-related activities in the Canberra region and to provide sources of information for tango outside this area.
11. We will give priority to promoting activities organised by the Club, and to activities that give discounts or other benefits for Club members, over other activities.
Membership and voluntary work
12. The Club exists primarily through the voluntary work of its members and particularly its Committee.
13. The Club may choose to pay for the professional services of tango teachers and others, including those who are Club members.
14. The Club may reward volunteers who contribute significant work with reduced or zero pricing for Club events.
15. The Club may present gifts to members in recognition of exceptional contributions.
16. The Club recognises that its activities should be limited to those it can achieve without burnout of the volunteer skills and time available.
17. The Club recognises that the activities of the Club may be biased towards the interests of the volunteers, particularly committee members. Volunteers need to remain cognizant of this in all matters dealing with club activities.
18. The Club aims to welcome tango enthusiasts from other areas.

 Download the TSCC Statement of Mission and Guiding Principles [pdf 53kb]