Minutes November 29, 2023

The Board met at Virginia Winn's house at 7:30pm.  Some of us gathered earlier to enjoy some conversation and dessert.

John called the meeting to order at 7:33pm.

Present: Maris, John, Virginia, Marguerite, Fred, Dianne B., Dianne P.-Q.

Absent: Gail, Kenny, Karl

Karl has resigned from the board effective immediately. Kenny is in the process of relocating to Kentucky and might possibly be less available than when living in Myrtle Beach.  We do however continue to value his involvement and hope that he will be able to continue to advise us on relevant matters.

The minutes from the previous meeting were approved.

Dianne B gave the Treasurer's report and noted that our seasonal loss from operations is expected to be approximately $1000 for the interval from July - December 2023.  One person overpaid and this will be handled informally.  The CCOB played at the November dance and for this reason the gate receipts balance the expenses (which were quite minimal since the band was free.)  A motion was made to accept the report was made, seconded and approved.

Marguerite gave the Booker's report.  Some discussion was had about the nature of the commitment to bands and callers for the specific venue (e.g., either CFMA or Lake Murray.)  Some verbiage was discussed for inclusion in e-mails spelling out the nature of our somewhat fluid venue situation and -- in the interest of full disclosure -- being up front about our commitments to all concerned; and the timing requirements for notifying CMFA and LM about the need for their hall.  The  Booker agreed to provide this notification.

The board discussed, and a motion was made, seconded, and approved, to begin to use the 4th Saturday of the Month as the nominal date for our events; and that we would begin transitioning to this as soon as possible.  The two dances scheduled for January 2024 (Jan 13, and Jan 27) will take place, both at CFMA (Cloud 10 and Sherlock's Meow, respectively.)  The dance schedule starting in February will be 2/24 (TBD see discussion below; CFMA is not available and LM would be the nominal fallback, except for the possibility of Bill's Pickin' Parlor); 3/23, 4/27, and 5/25 all at CFMA.  The  second appearance of CCOB is being planned for 3/23.

Also in the discussion was the prospect of using Bill's Pickin' Parlor as a venue due to apparent interest of the owners in being inclusive of all varieties of live music (among other things.)  This was being actively investigated and the Board authorized the possible relocation of the February dance to Bill's from CFMA if that made sense.

A motion was made to accept the Booker's report, which was seconded and approved.

Other Business

Dianne P.-Q. brought up the idea of trying to use "Meetup.org" to better effect.  There was discussion; the Board approved a budgetary expenditure for fees to Meetup.org so that Dianne could further investigate how best to use it and to be able to model that on how it was being used effectively by the Charlotte group.

Staffing the table at dances needs to accommodate the times when Fred is planning to be absent.  There may be some ways to allow dancers who are interested in helping out to do that.  This could be possible with increased use of venmo or some other ways of reducing the amount of paperwork and the amount of money in the pouch (e.g., to find a way to keep just a minimum amount of money -- enough to make change -- instead of the entire amount needed to pay the talent.)

Child Safety policy.  On the back burner for now.

Mailing list updates.  Dianne B. reports that we have 139 complete entries (names, emails, and phone numbers for texting.)

The next meeting will be on Wednesday, January 10, 2023.

The meeting adjourned at 9:13pm.

/s/ Fred Druseikis