Banner Napping

Banner napping is a fun way to visit other clubs. The purpose of the visit is twofold: have fun dancing at the club and then "steal" their banner. This then obligates the club to return to your club at a later date with a group of dancers to retrieve their banner.

You can find formal and officious rules on varioius website that describe how banner napping works. However most really do not address how banner napping is generally handled today.

Here are some guidelines on how it is usually handled locally.

• Contact the club who's banner you want to steal to arrange a visit. They can then ensure that they have a banner available for you; in most cases it's a smaller "travel banner". And perhaps they may wish to make a party night out of your visit as well.
• Show up with 8 or more dancers. You may be allowed to steal their banner with fewer dancers with their approval. You should stay for the enitre dance since the idea is to have fun.
• Advise the caller/club of the dance level of the visiting dancers, especially if new dancers are involved.
• Usually the club's caller will put the dancers through a fun tip to make sure they "earn" the right to steal the banner. If necessary, the club may "loan" you a couple of dancers to fill your square. Any valid attempt to dance the moves are sufficient to pass the test.
• The visited club will need to arrange a return visit to your club in order to retrieve their banner. Same rules apply: 8 dancers, fun tip to earn the banner back, etc. With this visit, they are only entitled to retrieve their own banner, not steal the host club's banner; a second banner napping visit would have to be arranged in order to steal that banner.
• Some clubs may use banner napping as a way to visit clubs and advertise their upcoming open dance. In most cases the banner is returned to the clubs at the open dance without the need to "officially" retreive their banners.
• Stolen banners hould be retrieved within the same dance year of September through May. Remember that all club banners are essentially "on loan" to the napping club and must always be returned even if a banner retrieval visit can't be arranged.
• If a banner is Stolen/Retrieved from a Club that dances on the same night as your club it could disrupt each club's dance night. Small clubs are especially vulnerable. In this case, you might be able to take the whole club. Mutual agreement is the key. Widen your scope of clubs beyond the favourite few.