Monday, November 1, 2010

Minutes 8/24/2010

Attending:
John Wetzel
Connie Robinette
Lucy Gordon (hostess)
Dianne Britton
Fred Druseikis
Stephanie and Scott McCravy

Treasurer's Report: We have $1,215.00 in the bank.

Previous meeting's minutes accepted.

Publicity Report: The fliers are uploaded to website and made public with instructions on printing. Virginia got the papers taken care of. Connie has posts up on Facebook and Twitter about the schedule change. Dianne has emailed the schedule change alert and will send it out again in case people haven't noticed. She will change the subject field of the email to read "New dates." Fred wanted to remind the board that he has to renew the contracola domain name every year.

Election Results: Kenny Greer, Tim Sneed, and Leslie Minerd are indeed members at large on the board. A motion was passed to officially name them in the published minutes.

Need for Election Procedures: John expressed the need for a nominating committee, and Lucy suggested we need to keep this issue on the agenda throughout the year. Some issues the Nominating Committee (with the input of the rest of the board) would undertake are limitations/qualifications for serving on the board as an officer and creating a uniform nominating and voting process. A motion was passed to create a Nominating Committee. John, Lucy, Fred, and Connie volunteered to be on said committee. Lucy agreed to be chairperson. The Nominating Committee report will be a standing agenda item.

Pay Rates for Callers and Bands: Marolyn Floyd was notified of the increased pay for her calling and is very grateful. Much discussion was devoted to the issue of increasing the per person rate for bands and the possibility of hiring more out-of-town bands. As we have several issues/changes to deal with this season (i.e. schedule change and possible reserve fund), the discussion was deferred to later in the season as we see the effect of change.

Agenda Items for next meeting: Revisit hiring fourth out-of-town band and the issue of pay rates.

Next meeting scheduled for November 9, 2010

Meeting adjourned at 9:25pm.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

How to Archive the CDSS Annual Report

We don't want the archived reports accidentally changed, so the first thing to do is to save the report (on your computer) as a pdf document, which can't be edited at Google Docs but which can be easily viewed in most browsers. Give the file a name like "2009-2010-cdss-report.pdf".

Then upload the document to Google Docs:  Log into http://gmail.com as "contracola" and click on "Documents" to get to Google Docs.  Find the "Upload Files" link and click on it.  Choose the file to upload from your computer, and make sure the "Conversion Options" are set to NOT convert.  Then choose the folder "CDSS Annual Reports" (this will be the destination folder), make sure "Private" is selected, and click the "Start Upload" button.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

How to Post a NEW Schedule

1. Archive the current schedule.  Copy the current schedule into a new post on the COTMD Board website, giving it a title like "Schedule for 2009-2010".  Click "Post Options" and set the post date to a date in July or August preceding the date of the first date on the schedule.  Add a label to the post so the archived schedule can be easily found:  click on the "Show All" link, and add the label "Schedules Archive".

2.  Post the new schedule.  Copy the current schedule into a new post on the Columbia Traditional Music and Dance website, giving it a title like "Schedule for 2010-2010".   Click "Post Options" and set the post date to a date in July or August preceding the date of the first date on the schedule.  Add a label to the post so the archived schedule can be easily found:  click on the "Show All" link, and add the label "Schedule".

3.  Delete the old schedule from the Columbia Traditional Music and Dance website.  Get to the "back-end" of the Columbia Traditional Music and Dance website.  Under the "Posting" tab, click on "Edit Posts".  This will bring up a list of all posts you can edit or delete.  If the old schedule is not in this list, get someone who can login as the "contracola" user to delete the post.

Monday, August 23, 2010

6/29/10 Minutes

COTMD Minutes 6/29/10


Attending:

John Wetzel
Connie Robinette
Virginia Winn (hostess)
Lucy Gordon
Dianne Britton
Fred Druseikis
Stephanie and Scott McCravy


Previous meeting's minutes reviewed and accepted.


Treasurer's Report:

There is $1,258.00 in the bank. Scott wrote out a $75.00 check to CDSS at the meeting. This is for the renewal of our CDSS status as a nonprofit organization. Ensuring this status entails filling out a questionnaire, providing a financial report, and submitting the $75 check. Update on Cards and Fliers:Virginia will change the Prepaid Dance Cards so that they match the New Dancer Coupons, in that both will include a space to write in the date that each expires, so as to make things run more smoothly at the money table. She will also make sure all fliers reflect the change from the second Saturday to the third Saturday of every month. We will keep the full page, half page, and bookmark fliers, but do away with the tri-fold fliers. We should also put all of them up on the website so that people can print them out as they need them.


Reserve Fund:

John suggested that we put aside $400 in a reserve fund category now while we have the funds to do so. Connie agreed with that and added that we should do a mid-point or mid-season reassesment after we get a baseline of how the upcoming dance season is going in terms of income. John moved that we accept putting the $400 aside and that we will revisit this issue in a future meeting. Motion seconded and passed. Connie requested permission to hire a third out-of-town band for next season since we have the funds to do so. A motion was made to allow for a third out-of-town band and the motion passed.


Another motion was made to increase Marolyn Floyd's pay as caller from $25.00 to $40.00 ($35 + $5 for mileage). Motion seconded and passed. However, we do need to revisit the issue of what we pay in-town vs. out-of-town callers at a future meeting. Marolyn also mentioned having a dance to raise money for her friend's mission trip, and a motion was passed to allow the information for that event to be posted to our website and/or sent out in an email to our maling list.


Election Results:

Since the willingness (and capacity to serve) of some nominees is unclear, the publishing of the results of the board election will be deferred until those issues have been clarified. The board will make every effort to publish the election results before the commencement of the 2010-2011 dance season.


Future Agenda Items:

The following items were suggested as agenda items for future meetings:

> Putting together a written procedure for how to prepare for and conduct elections

> Review of the "pay rates" appropriate for callers and bands.


Next meeting tentatively set for August 24, 2010.


Meeting adjourned at 9:04PM.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Minutes 4/13/10

Minutes for COTMD Meeting on 4/13/10


Previous meeting minutes accepted.

Elections:
We will talk at the next dance (April) about what being on the board entails and approach experienced/dedicated/responsible dancers. Connie agreed to be the keeper of the slate.

Treasurer's Report presented and accepted. There is $1,499.00 in the bank.

John is going to check with Arsenal Hill to see if changing the dance to the third Saturday of the month is viable. This way we can coordinate with the Charleston dance on musicians and callers. We need to go ahead and lock in the dance hall while we can still get it at the rate of $75 a month.

Musician Outreach:
Nothing so far in terms of new, interested musicians. Lucy suggested looking into the students at the school of music, going to the Pickin' Parlor with John and also making announcements at the dance.

Next meeting tentatively scheduled for June 8, 2010.

Meeting adjourned at 8:42PM.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Minutes 2/9/10

Attending:
John Wetzel
Connie Robinette (hostess)
Dianne Britton
Fred Druseikis
Lucy Gordon
Virginia Winn
Marguerite Frongillo
Stephanie and Scott McCravy

Previous meetings minutes approved.

Treasurer's Report submitted and approved.

John submitted the 1099 form as is, and it was accepted by the IRS.

Community Outreach
Connie has been in touch with an environmental conference of Columbia College who are interested in having a contra dance for those attending the conference. After some discussion, the board decided that this would not be a conceivable idea.

Virginia suggested that the senior center may be interested in a demo dance sometime in the fall. Connie suggested that we do demo dances at church festivals.

John reported that our ad was in the actual paper for the Free Times, but Lucy only saw the ad on the Free Times website. Dianne and Fred met with the editor, and he indicated that we needed to give him a press release.

Musicians Outreach
The musician outreach committee met once and planned to meet again soon. It is hard to get people who want to play in a band, because most people would rather dance than play. Lucy suggested we have a scheduled event where we can invite musicians to play and learn; it would be better to have a more casual gathering than the sessions at the Publick House.

Contingency Fund Discussion
Fred presented two spreadsheets detailing our expenses from Fall 2007 through Spring 2009. We decided that we would look at the expenses in six months and see what we need to push through the year. We should maybe look at putting a spreadsheet onto googledocs so that it can be edited online by authorized persons. Dianne made a motion to take the figures from the current dance year and decide how much to put toward the contingency plan for the next meeting. Motion was passed. Fred pointed out that we have essentially been dependent on the graces of the City in terms of renting the hall. Connie suggested we go ahead and pay for the hall as far in advance while we can still pay the $75 rental fee, in case the price goes up and we are out of a hall.

Lucy pointed out that Virginia has paid for several items for the Community Outreach Committee and needs to be reimbursed. It was agreed that we need to be more aware of this issue and have those who contribute funds for supplies, etc, submit written bills or records so we can go ahead and reimburse them and have these things on record.

Elections are coming up, and there should probably be an email sent out as a reminder.

Meeting adjourned at 9:35pm.