Minutes May 8, 2025

The CoTMD Board gathered at Virginia's house at 7 pm for snacks and conversation.

Board Members Present: Fred, Dianne B., Maris, Gail, Virginia, Marguerite, John

Board Members via Facetime: Victor

Board Members Absent: Kenny, Dianne P-Q.

Visitor Present: Tess

John called the meeting to order at 7:32 pm.

A motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting, April 8, 2025, was made, seconded, and passed by unanimous vote.

Treasurer's Report

    There were no significant transactions over the last month.  The bank balance remains essentially unchanged.

    The treasurer reported that City Parks department thinks we only need to pay $25 per event, rather than $25 per hour per event.  Pearl is on leave with no date being specified for her return, and her stand-in stated that the data entered into their billing system was accurate and was indeed the amount we needed to pay.  The City Parks employee seemed unaware of the previously understood conversation with Pearl that specified the latter, which we understood as the hourly charge for the minder.  This was received by the board as good news, but there was discussion about a concern that the new City Parks employee might not have fully understood the reality and whenever Pearl returns, or sooner, we might  be asked to catch up all the charges in arrears.  For this reason, at the moment, there is no need to attempt to economize (shorten) the hours we use Arsenal Hill since we have the whole space reserved from 5-11 pm on the specified Saturdays for one low price $25 per event.

    It was observed that this change improves the sustainability of our dance series.

    The Treasurer's report was approved by unanimous vote.

Booker's Report

    There was discussion about having dances in June 28 and July 26. The AC is in good condition at the facility, but there was still concerned expressed about the heat of the summer, with which we are all familiar.  Victor suggested that recorded music could be used.

    A motion was made seconded and approved to implement Victor's suggestion.  A social event including pot luck is being considered.

    Future dances:

    August     Tea & Whiskey    Caller: TBD

    There was discussion about hall capacity fire codes in Arsenal Hill.  We have explained the situation to City Parks and they have agreed to take it up with the fire marshal.  I'm unclear what the status of this is.

Election of Officers and At-Large Board Members

    May is the month in which the board considers nominations for corporate officers and at-large members.  The following slate was put forward:

    President: John

    Vice President & Booker: Victor

    Treasurer: Dianne B.

    Secretary: Fred

    At-large Members: Dianne P-Q., Gail, Kenny, Maris, Marguerite, Virginia

    The board recognizes that Kenny has not attended any meetings per se, but has contributed to many discussions on the e-mail list over the last year, as well as being an active contra-dance caller plugged into the broader community.  There was some discussion about possibly creating a different kind of board member category but the discussion didn't really suggest that it would serve any purpose. 

    The board approved the slate of officers and in doing so the continuing board members affirmed their desire to continue to support the activities and mission of CoTMD group over the next year.

Discussion of Gender-Neutral Roles in Our Dance Series

    Tess joined the discussion to express some concerns about language used by callers in the dance series and specifically how much of an outlier we are in comparisons to other dances she has intended across the country.  Specifically both Columbia and Charleston seem to be well behind in adoption of gender neutral dance calling  (presently clinging to the gents/ladies language) and she is concerned that this is problematic for our group.  Specifically, people may choose to attend dances depending on the use of gender-neutral or traditional calling.

    There was discussion.  One thought that came forward was the need to be clear to callers what our expectations are for use of gender-neutral terminology.

    The board thanked Tess for taking the time to come to the meeting and expressed appreciation for her candor.  The board did not take any action except to plan to continue the discussion at the next meeting after having had the opportunity to take into consideration all that had been said.

Next Meeting & Adjournment

The next meeting will be Wednesday, June 11, 2025.  The meeting was adjourned at 9:06 pm.

/s/Fred Druseikis

Minutes April 9, 2025

 The COTMD Board met at Virginia Winn's house on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.

We all like sweet things and enjoy each other's conversation, so we gathered at 7pm.  The meeting was called to order at 7:35pm.

Present: Dianne B., Gail, Victor, Virginia, Marguerite, Maris, John, Fred

Absent: Dianne P-Q., Kenny

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

Treasurer's Report

The last dance had a net loss of $113.11 overall, i.e. including hall and overhead costs. Dates for the Arsenal Hill venue have been cleared through September. There were some question about dance event plans for the end of the year.  Upcoming expenses are CDSS membership fees in April (this expense maintains our 501(c)(3) status;) liability insurance in September; Brevo (a texting service) fees will begin in September, which will be ongoing and based on number of messages sent.  GiveButter presently handles our text messaging until September, is free for our level of usage, but starting in September would require an expensive subscription to maintain texting capability.  It is our objective to have Brevo ready for use soon so the transition from GiveButter texting in September will be smooth; we don't have to start paying for Brevo until we begin using it.  A motion was made seconded and approved to accept the Treasure's Report.

Booker's Report

The Evil Twins (David Knight and Lorrie Fischer) inquired about the possibility playing in Columbia as they are planning a southeast tour to the various contradance venues.  There was discussion about our ability to pay their asking price; and concerns were expressed on two matters.  First regarding our group's ability to pay given our financial health; and second, being compensated at the expect level as musicians of their stature (our current level of compensation for out-of-town bands are "scant".)  Various views were expressed.  The consensus was that we should try to get them to come and to be prepared to pay their requested fee instead of playing games with our stated limits and travel expenses.

Marguerite requested that for personal reasons she be allowed to step back from VP/.Booker responsibilities for awhile.  She stated that she still very much wanted to remain on the board.  Victor was nominated to the position of VP/Booker; the board unanimously approved his appointment.

Dance Results

There was discussion about general matters for the dances at Arsenal Hill.  The hall is being rented for the 5-11pm time slot.  The minder has been very prompt and continues to be present.  The dances have not gone the full time and have all so far ended early.  This raises the question of whether or not we should attempt to save some money by renting the hall from 6-10pm.  This would reduce the rental from $150 to $100.  Concerns about shortening were expressed but no decision was made.

There was some question about whether or not the AC was functioning during the dance. There was some discussion about adequacy and the need for floor fans and ceiling fans.  There is AC but there may be some tricks with the thermostat.

Other Matters

Dianne B and John will initiate conversation with the Parks Department about the issue of hall capacity.  It was remarked that attempting to approach the fire marshal on this will absolutely pointless as we have no standing in any conversation with him or her.  The matter will need to be taken up with Pearl who we would expect to escalate the issue to the director or other official.  We have not exceeded the capacity limit yet, but it's clear that staff head count impacts the dancers (band + caller + sound + desk).  Also a handful of children affects it too.  The space is comfortable, easily accessible, in a great location, and sized well for our current attendance.

(In writing this summary I'd like to add that the central issue is to have a enough potential capacity to allow the dance series to be self-sustaining through donations; there are two ways to achieve this: one is to increase capacity to make our dance sustainable at the current donation level; or alternatively to increase the suggested per-dancer donation.  Some combination of the two is probably needed.)

There was a discussion about rates of travel reimbursement.  Our current model is $3/20 miles (basically a gallon of gas, not assuming a particular mileage efficiency); the IRS model is cents per mile traveled (50 cents per mile was mentioned, however the actual rate is 71 cents per mile for business and self-employed.)  There was discussion.  The board directed the Booker to no longer use a mileage travel component when discussing compensation with bands and callers.  The goal is to get a clear understanding of the compensation expected by the prospective staff and work with them in negotiation, leaving travel expenses out of the discussion.

Next Meeting; THURSDAY, May 8. (This is a DIFFERENT WEEKDAY than we have ordinarily had.)

Adjourned at 8:56pm.

/s/ Fred Druseikis

Minutes, March 12, 2025

COTMD Board Meeting

We met at Virginia's house at 7 pm and enjoyed each other's company while gorging ourselves on all manner of sweets, cookies, and pie.  There might have been something healthy there too.

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm.

Present: Dianne B, Dianne P-Q, Maris, Victor, Virginia, Marguerite, John, Fred

Absent: Gail, Kenny

The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and approved.

Dianne B presented the Treasurer's Report.  Donations to cover the additional costs of renting the Arsenal Hill venue had been received.  There were no additional expenses aside from hall rental and Facebook advertising, so the net financial status remained virtually unchanged.  Money accumulated in Venmo was transferred into the bank account. The report was approved.

Marguerite presented the Booker's Report.  The upcoming dances are:

3/29, Arsenal Hill, Caller: Victor, Band: Marshal Goers & Lucy Allen

4/26, TBD (see next), Caller: Tom Macklin, Band: Sherlock's Meow

5/24, TBD (see next), Caller: TBD (out of town), Band: ContraCola Open Band

The Booker's report was accepted.

The meeting continued to address issues identified by John in the meeting announcement.

There was discussion about the choice of venues.  The vibe of the CMFA space is not as agreeable as Arsenal Hill; it does however have greater capacity.  The CMFA space requires a lot more physical work to set up and take down because of the layout of the space and location of storage rooms.  The CMFA space is used primarily as a ballet studio, and it there was concern that the contra dance left the floor dirty.

Presently the Arsenal Hill space is being rented from 5-11pm (for a total of 6 hours), which accounts for the required "minder fee" of $150.  The CMFA space has no minder-fee requirement, and neither organization expects a percentage of donations; however ask a reminder, we have in the past made it a policy to donate 20% of admissions to CMFA to remind ourselves that halls cost.

The board approved the following motion as a statement of intent: "That the principal venue for dances should be Arsenal Hill with CMFA as a backup."  The motion was approved.

There was additional discussion about how to go about increasing the capacity of Arsenal Hill from 49 persons to something higher.  Victor thought he could see if he can find some documents circa 2014 that would explain why the capacity was reduced.  Maris was going to take a look at the door and outside steps situation to see how bad it is. 

John in discussions with Pearl O. has determined that there is no possibility of reducing the hourly rate for the minder.

There was discussion about the needs for the next dance and expectations were clarified.

The Booker is authorized to begin searching for bands and callers for next season.

There was discussion about exercising some fiscal austerity for June, July, and August, if dances are scheduled.  It was felt that out of town bands should not be scheduled if possible.

Dianne B has narrowed the search for a texting service (Brevo) to replace the one that GiveButter has here-to-fore provided as a benefit of their base-level offering.  She will be working through the details of how to adapt it for our use.

The next meeting will be April 9, 2025, at Virginia's house.

The meeting adjourned at 8:41 pm.

/s/ Fred Druseikis