A club isn't always just... a single evening of dancing.
Perhaps your club dances Plus on Tuesdays and Mainstream on Fridays. Perhaps a special event consists of several sessions with different dance programs. Or the same group meets on different days and at different times.
With the new Sub-locations Can you clearly map these differences in the Callers Caddy – without losing the connection between the events?.
What is a location?
In Callers Caddy, a location usually refers to the setting in which you are calling. This could be, for example:
- your regular club night
- another club
- a special
- a dance weekend
- a class
- a workshop
You can set individual preferences for each location. These include the dance program, the desired tempo, and your notes.
Up until now, a venue has always been considered a single unit. This is not sufficient if a club hosts several different dance nights or if an event consists of several clearly separate sections.
That's exactly what this is for now Sub-locations.
One club – several different sessions
Let's take a club that meets twice a week:
- Tuesday: Plus
- Friday: Mainstream
Both evenings belong to the same club. The dance groups will likely overlap. Nevertheless, you'll need different settings for each evening.
For the Plus evening, you'll want to save the Plus program, perhaps use a different tempo, and take your own notes. Different requirements apply to the Mainstream evening.
You could set up two completely independent locations for this. However, the caller's caddy would then act as if the two evenings were unrelated.
With a sub-location, you get both:
Separate settings for each session – but a shared music history for the club.
What does a sub-location cover?
About the new button „"Create sub-location"“ You create another suitable session based on an existing location.
The new sub-location will initially take over:
- the existing settings
- the stored dates
- the connection to shared musical history
After that, you can customize them individually.
For example, the existing location will become "Happy Squares":
- Happy Squares – Tuesday Plus
- Happy Squares – Friday Mainstream
Or from a larger special:
- Summer Special – Mainstream
- Summer Special – Plus
- Summer Special – A1
The sub-location is not a limited copy. It is an independent location that you can configure to suit each session.
Shared History: United against song repetitions
The most important connection between these locations remains: the playback history.
I call this principle Shared History.
When a club hosts dances on multiple days, the same dancers often attend, at least in part. If you play a new song on Tuesday and then the same track again on Friday, it won't seem particularly new to the dancers – even if they were technically two different events.
Shared History adds together the number of songs played across all connected locations.
The caller's caddy knows this:
Although this song was not played on that particular evening, it had recently been used in this club.
This allows him to better optimize his recommendations and helps you keep your music selection varied.
Together where it makes sense – separately where it is necessary
Not all information should be shared between sessions.
Therefore, the following information remains separate for each location:
- Notes
- Dance program
- tempo
- Appointments
- further location-related settings
This is important because the conditions can differ significantly.
You might want to note down different instructions for the Plus night than for the Mainstream night. Perhaps one group prefers 124 BPM, while another gets on better with 128 BPM. Or you might want to record completely different preparations for a section of a special event.
Only the music history is shared. The organizational context remains clearly separate.
Shared history even without sub-location
You don't necessarily have to create a new sub-location.
In the settings dialog of an existing location, you will now find the selection. „Sharing history with…“. There you can select a different location as the shared history base.
This is useful if you have already created several suitable locations and only later realize that they should use the same playback history.
If songs have already been played, the Callers Caddy will ask if you want to add these entries to your shared history. This way, your previous information is not lost.
Instantly identify linked locations
In the settings dialog, you can see which locations use the same history.
The historically significant location will bold and underlined Highlighted. Clicking this option allows you to switch directly to the settings of the respective location.
The connection is also visible in the location list. An arrow there indicates which location the history is shared with:
Happy Squares – Friday Mainstream → Happy Squares – Tuesday Plus
This ensures that the structure remains comprehensible even when you manage many clubs, specials, and individual sessions.
Multiple appointments per location
Additionally, you can now schedule multiple appointments for each location.
Each appointment consists of:
- weekday
- Start time
- End times
This allows a location to, for example, host an event on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons. About „+ Appointment“ You can add more times; you can remove appointments that are no longer needed individually.
Locations without appointments will continue to function as before. Therefore, you don't need to enter any times if you don't require this feature.
The Callers Caddy recognizes where you're calling today.
The dates also form the basis for the new automatic location recognition.
When the program starts, Callers Caddy checks the current day of the week and the time. If both match a stored location, it will ask you, for example:
Fittingly for today: Should we start the "Happy Squares - Friday Mainstream" location?
If you confirm the suggestion, the appropriate location will be selected directly.
If there are multiple possible matches, you can select from the appropriate locations. If there are no matches, everything remains as before.
The detection works with a tolerance window and can already 60 minutes before the scheduled start time It will make a suitable suggestion. This only applies as long as you haven't selected a location yet.
So you retain control at all times, but save yourself some repetitive tasks in normal club operations.
Also for specials with multiple sections.
Sub-locations are not only intended for regular club nights.
A special feature can, for example, consist of several program blocks:
- afternoon mainstream
- early evening plus
- late evening A1
All parts belong to the same event and likely use the same music. Nevertheless, you'll need a different dance program, different notes, or a different tempo for each section.
Sub-locations allow you to organizationally separate the individual sections. The caller's caddy still uses the shared history to recognize which songs have already been played throughout the entire special.
This way, a title you used in the afternoon won't accidentally reappear in the evening as a supposedly fresh recommendation.
More structure without duplicate data maintenance
The new sub-locations reflect the reality of a caller much more accurately:
A club can have multiple sessions. A special event can consist of several sections. The settings can vary, although the dancers and music used may remain partially the same.
That's precisely why the Caller's Caddy now separates between two types of information:
- Session-related information Things like dance program, tempo, dates and notes remain separate.
- Playback history can be shared.
The result is a clearer organization of your events and, at the same time, a smarter music selection.
The new location sessions, sub-locations, appointments, automatic start detection, and the Shared History are available Callers Caddy 0.135 available.