The COTMD Board met at Virginia Winn's house on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.
We all like sweet things and enjoy each other's conversation, so we gathered at 7pm. The meeting was called to order at 7:35pm.
Present: Dianne B., Gail, Victor, Virginia, Marguerite, Maris, John, Fred
Absent: Dianne P-Q., Kenny
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
Treasurer's Report
The last dance had a net loss of $113.11 overall, i.e. including hall and overhead costs. Dates for the Arsenal Hill venue have been cleared through September. There were some question about dance event plans for the end of the year. Upcoming expenses are CDSS membership fees in April (this expense maintains our 501(c)(3) status;) liability insurance in September; Brevo (a texting service) fees will begin in September, which will be ongoing and based on number of messages sent. GiveButter presently handles our text messaging until September, is free for our level of usage, but starting in September would require an expensive subscription to maintain texting capability. It is our objective to have Brevo ready for use soon so the transition from GiveButter texting in September will be smooth; we don't have to start paying for Brevo until we begin using it. A motion was made seconded and approved to accept the Treasure's Report.
Booker's Report
The Evil Twins (David Knight and Lorrie Fischer) inquired about the possibility playing in Columbia as they are planning a southeast tour to the various contradance venues. There was discussion about our ability to pay their asking price; and concerns were expressed on two matters. First regarding our group's ability to pay given our financial health; and second, being compensated at the expect level as musicians of their stature (our current level of compensation for out-of-town bands are "scant".) Various views were expressed. The consensus was that we should try to get them to come and to be prepared to pay their requested fee instead of playing games with our stated limits and travel expenses.
Marguerite requested that for personal reasons she be allowed to step back from VP/.Booker responsibilities for awhile. She stated that she still very much wanted to remain on the board. Victor was nominated to the position of VP/Booker; the board unanimously approved his appointment.
Dance Results
There was discussion about general matters for the dances at Arsenal Hill. The hall is being rented for the 5-11pm time slot. The minder has been very prompt and continues to be present. The dances have not gone the full time and have all so far ended early. This raises the question of whether or not we should attempt to save some money by renting the hall from 6-10pm. This would reduce the rental from $150 to $100. Concerns about shortening were expressed but no decision was made.
There was some question about whether or not the AC was functioning during the dance. There was some discussion about adequacy and the need for floor fans and ceiling fans. There is AC but there may be some tricks with the thermostat.
Other Matters
Dianne B and John will initiate conversation with the Parks Department about the issue of hall capacity. It was remarked that attempting to approach the fire marshal on this will absolutely pointless as we have no standing in any conversation with him or her. The matter will need to be taken up with Pearl who we would expect to escalate the issue to the director or other official. We have not exceeded the capacity limit yet, but it's clear that staff head count impacts the dancers (band + caller + sound + desk). Also a handful of children affects it too. The space is comfortable, easily accessible, in a great location, and sized well for our current attendance.
(In writing this summary I'd like to add that the central issue is to have a enough potential capacity to allow the dance series to be self-sustaining through donations; there are two ways to achieve this: one is to increase capacity to make our dance sustainable at the current donation level; or alternatively to increase the suggested per-dancer donation. Some combination of the two is probably needed.)
There was a discussion about rates of travel reimbursement. Our current model is $3/20 miles (basically a gallon of gas, not assuming a particular mileage efficiency); the IRS model is cents per mile traveled (50 cents per mile was mentioned, however the actual rate is 71 cents per mile for business and self-employed.) There was discussion. The board directed the Booker to no longer use a mileage travel component when discussing compensation with bands and callers. The goal is to get a clear understanding of the compensation expected by the prospective staff and work with them in negotiation, leaving travel expenses out of the discussion.
Next Meeting; THURSDAY, May 8. (This is a DIFFERENT WEEKDAY than we have ordinarily had.)
Adjourned at 8:56pm.
/s/ Fred Druseikis
