Minutes. January 10, 2017

Minutes. January 10, 2017

Members present:

Victor Gascon

John Wetzel

Fred Druseikis

Virginia Winn

Marguerite Frongillo

Natalie Weston

The meeting began by approving the minutes of the previous meeting.

Virginia presented the treasurer's report.  We lost money at our last dance, but only about $30.

No reimbursements were reported to be needed by anyone.

The reports from our last dance were discussed.  The primary issue discussed was the occasional "observer" (admitted free) who ends up dancing.  We informally agreed that this was not a big issue, but does need watching, and we agreed that it would help if we DO NOT provide observers with wrist bands, so that they can be more easily monitored. Victor will also remind those in attendance to make sure they have paid during the mid-point announcements.

The mailing list was discussed.  A few changes to the list will need to be made and those will be added, probably by Aaron.

Marguerite indicated there was no change on the status of bookings.  The group discussed the balance of out of town bands to local bands (60% to 40%) and agreed that we should retain this ratio as we move into hiring for the next season.  We also agreed to attempt negotiating down fees for "super bands" so that we can continue to afford them.

We discussed recruiting students and other community members as dancers and board members.   No new candidates have been identified.

The selling of our old speakers came up briefly, JWetzel reported that the speakers have been delivered to Jonathan, and he will be sending Virginia a check for them as soon as he has the money.

We briefly discussed our underwhelming attendance numbers, and possible strategies to turn that around.

Victor presented some nametag/button ideas and designs, and the group is to mull these ideas and designs over, for future action and decisions.

The pot luck dinner was discussed.  We are doing a "hybrid" pot luck in January.  We will be investing up to $100 of group money to provide part of the food (sandwiches, a dessert and beverages, as agreed in the November meeting).

Action item: John to contact Emerald Ballroom (Barbara) about how early we can arrive without impacting some other group finishing up.

We had another mostly fruitless discussion about devices to accept debit cards, and finally decided it was too small a problem to justify any effort we might make.

Natalie is going to look into "Midland Gives" as a possible future source of funding. It appears we already missed this year's deadline.

We briefly discussed the officers election slate lineup for next year.  Basically it will be identical to this years uncontested slate (unless somebody decides to throw a hat into the ring).

President: Victor

VP/Booker: Marguerite

Treasurer: Virginia

Secretary: John

The holding (or not holding) of the two summer dances was discussed.  We voted that we WOULD hold these dances:

A Techno in July AND

A Live dance in August.

The discussion of DOOR PRIZES and AFTER DANCE OUTINGS was postponed until the March meeting.

The next meeting will be held on March 14, 2017.

The meeting was adjourned.