Minutes, May 19,2021

 COTMD Board Meeting 5/19/21  Minutes

After a long hiatus the COTMD Board met at Virginia's house at 7pm on Wednesday 5/19/2021.

Present:  Victor, John, Virgina, Marguerite, Dianne, and Fred.
By phone: Natalie.

The meeting was called to order at 7:30pm by John Wetzel. Fred took notes.

We agreed to improvise the agenda as this meeting was the first since COVID-19 restrictions went into effect in March of last year (2020.)

The minutes from the previous meeting -- November 2019 -- were reviewed and approved.

Victor presented the treasurer's report.  It should be noted that Virginia had decided to step back from the treasurer's responsibilities at the end of 2019, and Victor accepted the responsibilities.  Then COVID happened and financially the group went into hibernation as there were no dances being produced.  Victor reported the cash balance on hand based on the most recent bank statements. The board accepted the report.

Fred reported that he renewed the domain names used by the group (contracola.org) for two years with the domain registrar.  The cost was $35, which is being treated as a contribution.

Victor reported that he contributed $175 to the group and paid them as various CDSS related fees during the 2020 financial year.

Fred will provide Victor with the technical information needed for the treasurer to take over the domain registrar account for the group.

The board next considered the status of officers.  A motion was made, seconded, and passed, to re-elect the slate per the last election in May 2019.

President: John
Vice President: Marguerite
Secretary: Fred
Treasurer: Victor
At large: Dianne, Bob/Barb, Natalie, Casey, Kenney

Next the board discussed the status of dance production. The general question was when to reopen the dance series.

Two realities need to be accommodated: (a) that bands and callers are reluctant to take gigs given the general level of concern about the spread of covid; and (b) when we restart that  there is no continuity with previous dances and it may have been as much as 18 months or 2 years since a local dance was last produced.

What came out of that conversation was the following items:

(1) We won't be in the role of being "covid police".
(2) We need to warn dancers that they really really should be vaccinated; if they are not then "good luck."
(3) That social dancing was highly likely to spread covid.
(4) Victor and Natalie will be looking at ways of polling community sentiment about when dances should restart; we should set our reopening based on perceived demand.
(5) In the interim we can be a focal point for organizing car pools, etc, to dances elsewhere.

The Board selected July 14 as the next meeting date; to see what kind of sentiment is emerging for a restart date.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 9pm.

/s/Frederick C Druseikis
Secretary