Minutes September 15, 2021

Minutes, September 15, 2021

Attending:

Virginia

Dianne

John

Maraguerite

Victor (via telephone)

The meeting began with a discussion of whether or not we could proceed without having a quorum, and all slightly unsure of what the rules were on that.  Once Victor joined us, it was clear that we did have a quorum, once we counted all the people who were not present, these being a minority of the board, so that we had more than 50% available to conduct business.

The treasurer' report was presented and approved.

The previous minutes were approved.

Victor reported on the private dance held at Susan's facility last weekend.  Attendance was 12 persons, who "had a blast".  The hold harmless waivers seemed to work pretty well, although owing to poor lighting conditions and tiny illegible numbers, the algorithm used to generate ID numbers for those signing the waiver may need to be re-visited.  Or, a magnifying glass and good lighting might solve all those problems.

There was a standing email based question that had already been proposed and seconded, that is, to allow John to retain a "callers stand" (stepstool) and a direct box, without having to pay for these, in light of his long service as our sound person.  The "ayes" had it, so John did not need to write us a check for those items.

A motion was made, seconded and approved, to allow Victor to put information about his next private dance on our website.  That information will only be placed there a couple of weeks before the event, and the exact verbiage of that notice is subject to review and approval by the board before being published on our website.  This is because any such notice has to make clear that our organization is not sponsoring the event, merely reporting the fact that it exists.

There was some discussion of whether it might be a good idea for those items of sound equipment that are not currently included in the gear that "stays set up and ready to use" (for example, our powered speakers) to "live" at Victor's house rather than store them at Susan's facility.  The reason for this is that there are too many people with access to that building, and no way to assign blame if expensive gear goes missing.  Victor agreed that he could store un-needed gear at his house, but only for the next couple of years, as he will not be in Columbia after that.  Victor also agreed to bring Fred and Dianne's sound gear back to Columbia when he visits Susan's place at his next event.

A general discussion was held as to when (if ever) things might open back up, contra-dance wise.  The general consensus seems to be that, at best, things might get back to normal by Spring of 2022, but it is also quite possible that things will remain in limbo all the way through 2022.

In light of the fact that our organization will not be sponsoring any dances in the near future, we decided there was no point in meeting as soon as two months out.  Instead, we agreed that Virginia would host the next meeting on Wednesday, January 19, 2022.

The meeting was adjourned.