Minutes March 16, 2022

 
Minutes March 16, 2022   COTMD
Present:
Dianne
Virginia
Marguerite
Bob
John
Karl (new member, see below)

The meeting began with the treasurers report, which was provided by Virginia, per info from Victor.  The report was essentially "no change since last board meeting".

No one had read the previous minutes, so those were not approved, and that will be handled at the next meeting.

John reported on his visit to the CMFA (Columbia music festival association) space.  Although the spaces are more suitable then they were before, John thinks they are still problematic.  The visit was prompted by information from Karl Smith, who was also invited to attend this board meeting, and agreed to do so.  This resulted in a drawn out discussion of the space, and the advantages of an in town dance venue.  Karl pointed out that John's notion of "sound leakage" from other Saturday events was not a real problem, as otherwise other users would have encountered this issue.  It was agreed that John and Karl would visit the facility on several Saturday evenings (as time and schedules permit) to see what Saturday nights are actually like at the CMFA space.

Karl seems motivated to try and make a central Columbia venue a possibility, and was offered (and accepted) an invitation to join our board.  The board voted formally to accept him as a new at large board member.

John pointed out that for the "best" (for us) room in the CMFA facility to be reasonably workable, it ought to have the following:
1.  A pair of powered speakers and a small mixing board that are permanently attached/assigned and wired into that room.  (We need only add mics and cables)
2.  Some kind of sound treatment on the two short walls of the room (behind band, and back of hall) to eliminate echo.
3.  A real "sprung" floor.

John said that if typical Saturday nights do not have audio bleed problems from other events (per Karl's report that this is not a real problem based on his understanding) then he would be willing to discuss possibility that CMFA might put proper sound system and/or echo treatment in the chosen room, with labor help and advice from COTMD.

We then discussed the "when should we open back up" issue.  After discussing the current covid outlook, we, as a board, formally voted to attempt to have a dance at Susan's Lexington facility (with option to shift it to another venue if appropriate) on the third Saturday of August 2022.  Marguerite will research band/caller possibilities for that date.

In light of rapidly changing covid considerations, we also decided to have our next meeting fairly soon.  So the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday April 20 (so as to avoid a meeting while everyone is finishing up their taxes).

The meeting was adjourned.