There is a successful organisation[ in a business sense] in Ireland,called Comhaltas.
Comhaltas raise a lot of money through charging competitors, to enter competitions, they also run examinations that provide the organisation with revenue, they also provide tuition on an international basis, and a national basis in England, They organise fleadhs[ festivals]on a regional and national basis, these Fleadhs provide money for Comhaltas, and give the local econonomy a major boost, of course the spin off of the fleadhs particularly the national fleadh, are the thousands of musicians who congregate and share music., all of whom spend money in the fleadh town.
it has been stated that EFDSS do not receive the same amount of funding and that is a valid point.
Comhaltas are clearly an organisation that is run in a business like manner[raisng revenue is a priority], I understand there is much opposition to EFDSS being run in the same business like way as Comhaltas, and to some extent I agree That competitions have a down side.,there appears to be much improvement over the last 5 years at Cecil Sharp house,
however, is not a successful business model such as Comhaltas worth studying, to see if any of its ideas can be used by the EFDSS. Dick Miles