Minutes 01/12/ 2016

Minutes of the COTMD Board meeting of January 12, 2016

Attending were:

Natalie Weston
John Wetzel
Dianne Britton
Virginia Winn
Connie Robinette
Fred Druseikis
Marguerite Frongillo
Victor Gascon
Gail Sullivan
Tim Piesch

The meeting was opened, and began by approving the minutes of the previous meeting (including one correction).

Virginia presented the treasurers report.  We lost $66 at our most recent dance.

There were no new reimbursements.

The reports from our last dance were briefly reviewed.

The mailing list status was briefly reviewed, and is now up to date with two new entries handled.

Marguerite presented the current status of her booking efforts.  The June band slot remains unfilled,
and is reserved with first right of refusal to Bob Buckingham (until the end of January).

Gail Sullivan agreed to serve on the board, and was voted in as a member at large.

The board discussed the need to move forward with the creation of a detailed mission statement, as distinct from the all inclusive
goals statement contained in our bylaws.  It is not intended that the bylaws be modified, only that a more specific mission
statement be created.  The board voted to establish a committee to perform this function.  Fred Druseikis, Connie Robinette and
Marguerite Frongillo agreed to serve on this commitee.

The board also discussed the "Review/Update Vision" task from our previous meeting, and decided that this was best handled by
the same committee just established for creating our mission statement.

The "work in progress" item called "Summer 2016 Dances" was discussed at length.  The board voted to do the following:
1. Have a "Techno Contra" dance in July.
2. Have a regular contra dance in August.
3. Implied but not stated outright was the following:
    A. We are temporarily moving from 10 to 12 dances per year (essentially until further notice).
    B. If an out of town band plays for the August dance, this may allow a local band to play one additional engagement elsewhere
       in the schedule.

The idea of sharing an afternoon dance with another dance group, such as the Columbia Swing group, was discussed briefly, and we
then decided to table the matter for future discussion, with points already discussed to be thought over and weighed for further
discussion at a future meeting of the board.

The Board went into executive session to discuss our budget, proposed capital expenditures and other issues. The board remained
in executive session until the meeting was adjourned.

NEW BUSINESS  The following items are carried forward from the last meeting, and were not discussed at this meeting owing to lack
of time.  So, the following may need to be on the next meeting agenda:

    Tim suggested that we add links to dance videos to our website.
    Poonam suggested that we post our dance events on other dance groups Facebook pages (not limited to Contra groups). We already
              cross-post with Lake Murray and Charleston, but we can expand to include Swing and Ballroom dance organizations, and
              perhaps even Meetup groups that we belong to.
    Connie mentioned the related possibility of joining Midlands Gives with other non profits, to garner some contributions and hopefully a lot of attention.

The next meeting will be on March 8, 2016.

Meeting was adjourned.