Here’s a breakdown of the rooms we typical reserve with some details.
CAC Spaces
Sala de Puerto Rico
Large room on the second floor of the Student Center with parquet floor. It holds our dances quite comfortably. The acoustics are best if you place the stage on one of the short sides of the room. We usually request three folding tables for this room for gate, flyers, and refreshments. This is our favorite room for dances.
Lobdell Dining Hall
The dining hall on the second floor of the Student Center. Although this room can feel a bit cramped with 10 squares, it has the advantage of having natural areas for socializing, plus a balcony for watching the formations from above. We use the existing tables for gate, flyers, and refreshments. Moving all the tables and chairs off the floor is usually the job of the CAC employees although they always appreciate a hand if they are running behind. Resetting the tables and chairs is our responsibility and is overseen by the person in charge of breakdown. Because of the hassle of resetting the tables, this is our second choice for dances, but it is a close second.
Morss Hall
The dining room on the first floor of Walker Memorial. It is far from the Student Center without easy parking for our caller and cuer. It is often too hot in the Summer (ask people to bring fans) and the tables and chairs must be moved and reset by the club. This location places a distant third choice to Lobdell and the Sala for dances, but sometimes, we just don’t have a choice.
Lobby 13
The lobby in building 13 by the elevators is not as far from the Student Center as Morss Hall, but it has many of the same problems. The temperature is greatly affected by the external weather simply because people are always cutting through the lobby and exiting to the outside. There is no nearby parking for our caller and cuer. At least there are no tables to move. The real problem with Lobby 13 is the acoustics. The lobby echoes in a way the makes it hard to hear what the caller and cuer are saying. We've been in Lobby 13 some in 2014 and have been finding ways to make the acoustics work better. (Comment from Veronica: Lobby 13 seems unpopular enough that we should only choose it over smaller rooms when we know we'll need the space – like during a class.)
W20-407 and W20-491
These virtually identical rooms are on the fourth floor of the Student Center. We can fit six squares in a pinch, but we are much more comfortable with only four. These are ideal rooms for our smaller dance workshops (squares or rounds).
West Lounge
This room is next to Sala and across the hall from Lobdell. It is a good choice for walkthrus when dancing is in either of these rooms. It easily holds 2 squares, and is a tighter fit with 3-4. Also reasonable for small workshops.
20 Chimneys
This is a big room, but it's carpeted, so we're probably not supposed to dance on it. However, we use it for walkthrus a fair bit. It's on the 3rd floor of the student center and we're no allowed to use the back door (that exists onto Lobdell balcony), so it should be a second choice to West Lounge. We don't usually book it, but Mezzanine Lounge is a near identical room across the hall from it.
PDR 1–3 (Private Dining Rooms)
These are small carpeted rooms located on the third floor of the Student Center between Lobdell and the Coffeehouse. Since they are carpeted, we are not allowed to dance in them, but they are ideal for meetings of officers and committees. We also use them for walkthrus occasionally, but they are not our preferred walkthrus room.
RRA & RRB
These mirror image rooms are located in the basement of Kresge. They're good for up to 4 squares, so while not a good choice for Tuesdays, they're great for smaller groups.
Classrooms
These are not booked through the CAC. This means they are available during the standard CAC “blackout” periods.
For small workshops (1-2 squares) 4-261, 4-265, 5-134, 5-217, 5-233, 5-234, 5-217, 36-156, and 66-168 are all reasonable choices
When filling in a request you'll want to list these preferred attributes: tile floor, flat room, moveable furniture.
36-112
This room can comfortably hold four squares, five in a pinch. 36-156, next door, can be reserved as a room to hang out in while not dancing.
DAPER Spaces
When we can't get good CAC spaces, we occasionally use DAPER spaces. Unlike CAC and classroom spaces which we can use for free, we have to pay for these spaces. However, when we can't get CAC spaces, it is sometimes worth it to pay for these spaces rather than use a classroom. These rooms are behind restricted access turnstyles, so we have to submit a list of possible attendees (however, often people are let in when they say they're there for the event, and names aren't checked).
As of 2016, the prices were T-Club $17.50/hr, MAC court $32.50/hr, and tables are $6 each (not time dependent).
T-Club Lounge
This space has wood floors that are good for dancing, fits 4 squares comfortably, and maybe fits 6 squares. This costs roughly $80 for a night. As of Summer 2017, we no longer like this space because of lack of accessibility, lack of seating (although we could pay for chairs, but there may not be much room for them), lack of nearby unlocked restrooms, and the hallway is warm (although the room itself does have air conditioning).
MAC Court
This space has track-like material on the ground. It holds 8 squares. It costs roughly $140 for a night and has air conditioning.
Other spaces
E15 Lower Atrium (E15-000LA)
This is a reasonably large space that can fit 6 or more squares. https://www-media-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/posts/event-rentals-at-the-media-lab-overview/ has details about the space and how to reserve it. We do not currently have a username/password for the reservation system, and have in the past just communicated via e-mail. If desired, it might be useful to ask for a login.
The normal price is $100/hour, with 2 hour required setup and breakdown each, and a required custodial charge. However, in summer 2017, they gave us a rate of $25/hour with 1 hour required setup and breakdown, and waived the required custodial charge, for a total of $137.50 per night. Chairs and tables are available from the adjacent Bartos theater at no extra charge.
- File a work request on Atlas ahead of time to request additional cooling when using this space in the summer (we have no data about using this space in the winter). The bathrooms, however, will be hot regardless of whether additional cooling is provided. It appears that a single Atlas request is sufficient for multiple consecutive weeks.
- Be careful when moving tables in and out of the Bartos theater. One week, a table leg caught a corner and the table broke.
- Since the required custodial charge is waived, be extra thorough about cleaning up.
When CAC rooms are not available, this is probably the best option.
Spaces worth looking into
The Community Art Center (119 Windsor St, a block from Royal East) appears to have a few spaces that would work. http://www.communityartcenter.org/space-rental-inquiries has information about space rental, but they did not respond to a webform inquiry in Summer 2017, so try using e-mail instead. http://schoolofhonk.org/ uses their space, so you can check some of their YouTube videos to get a feel for the space. Unfortunately their web page says space rental ends at 10 PM. I assume this means we have to be out of the building by 10 PM, but maybe we only have to end our event at 10 PM, in which case using the space may be more feasible. We do not have any details about cost at this time.
Unavailable spaces
E62-233
This is a large carpeted space with easily movable furniture. Unfortunately, the Sloan reservation page says that non-Sloan groups will be directed to the regular classrooms reservation site, and the schedules office says only Sloan groups can reserve Sloan classrooms. roomrequest@sloan.mit.edu also confirmed that this was the case.
Siteman Dining Room
This is large open space in E62 that is also only available to Sloan groups.