Minutes, October 22,2025

 

 Minutes of the COTMD Board Meeting on October 22, 2025, submitted by M. Frongillo
[The agenda is italicized.]

The 10/22/25 COTMD Board meeting began at 7:27 pm. 

Virginia, John, Dianne Britton, Dianne Palmer-Quay, Gail, Maris, and Marguerite were present.
 1]  The August meeting minutes were approved by vote.

2]   Dianne Britton’s treasurer report indicated that we have lost $464 between August and October, despite some donations. We have a lot of expenses including insurance, monthly use of the hall, and cost of bands and callers. Our 2026 liability insurance will be $634. A formal motion was made proposing to keep the liability insurance, seconded and voted yes. Because Venmo is good for donations, a motion was made to continue having Venmo, seconded, and voted yes.

3]  Victor was unable to attend the October meeting. It was agreed that Sherlock’s Meow could be our band for January 2026.

4]  Comments on our most recent dance.
    A]  The potluck and lesson are both good for socializing and encouraging people to dance. Usually experienced dancers help beginners, but occasionally an experienced dancer may unknowingly confuse a beginner. It helps when the caller is alert and guides with positive professional energy.
    B]  Some experienced dancers are encouraging us to advertise with frequent posts about upcoming dances. Spreading the word in person also works well.
   C]  We need an agreement about naming the two partner roles in our dances. The available terms are Ladies and Gents, robins and larks, and right and left positional. No decision was made and no vote was taken as to what terms should be used permanently. Presently the terms are up to the caller.

5] Decide on potluck (or not) for our local dances (decide thru December?) We decided that we want to keep the potluck going through our last dance this year! 

6] First Thursday event at Boyd Plaza on November 6, 2025: Discuss who needs to do what when.
A] through G] 
Our treasurer is handling the intake and dispersal of funds for this event. The two callers, Victor Gascon and Dianne PQ are local and board members and will teach simple dances. Dianne B. Dianne PQ and Maris will handle marketing for this event. Parking is available at a big city garage on Taylor between Main and Assembly. We did not discuss making a list of dancers. Most people at the 10/22/25 board meeting planned to attend the Boyd Plaza event. We were encouraged to bring our friends. No motion was made and no vote was taken on this Boyd Plaza First Thursday event.

7] There were no additional agenda items.

8] The next Contra Board meeting will be Wednesday, December 10. We voted to adjourn the 10/22/25 meeting at 8:50 pm.

 MEETING AGENDA associated with the above minutes:

 1] Review/approve meeting minutes (August 13, 2025).  Those minutes are available at:     https://cotmdboard.contracola.org/
2] Treasurer's report.
3] Booker's report 
4] Thoughts and comments on our most recent dance, attendance etc.
5] Decide on potluck (or not) for our local dances (decide thru December?)
6] Discuss who needs to do what, as regards the special first Thursday dance event:
A] Someone will need to bring cash to pay the band ($260) and callers ($200??).  First Thursday is not paying these fees directly.
B] Can someone create and maintain a list of board members and experienced dancers who will commit to attend AND actually dance?  
C]The dance event details are nailed down, and we need to make a marketing effort, who can and will do what? The first Thursday event should be heavily promoted at our next regular Saturday dance, to bring out experienced dancers.
D] How do we get as many of our experienced dancers as possible to come help ] out (this overlaps with the marketing effort)?
E] How do we plan to pull "curious onlookers" into this dance, which is otherwise no more than a demonstration?
F] Since we are going to be paid $600 for this, we will have some "profit" to bank after all expenses.  How (and when) will we collect this $600?
G] What (if any) parking arrangements are there that we can push out to anyone who wants to attend this event?
7] Any additional agenda items should be introduced here (time permitting).
8] Set the next meeting date and adjourn.

Minutes, August 13, 2025

  Minutes of the COTMD Board Meeting on August 13, 2025, submitted by M. Frongillo
[The agenda is italicized.]

Virginia hosted the meeting, which was called to order at 7:33 PM by John Wetzel.

Present: Dianne B. and Fred [both via phone,] Virginia, Marguerite, Dianne Palmer-Quay, Victor, Maris, and Gail.
We had enough members to have a quorum.

1] Review/approve meeting minutes (June 11, 2025).  Those minutes should soon be available at:     https://cotmdboard.contracola.org/
Minutes of last board meeting [June 11, 2025] were reviewed and approved.

2] Current Treasurer’s report:
We are down $387.02 since the last report at our last meeting on June 11, 2025.
The last dance, July 26, brought in $300.00 because we got the calling and music free! Neither band nor caller accepted money for their efforts, and Tyler was not there [though we missed him!] Our treasurer was able to deposit $312 in our bank account after that dance.
A motion to approve the treasurer’s report was made, seconded, and voted accepted.

3] Booker’s report:
Tyler is our sound guy for the foreseeable future.
We have 3 out-of-town talent dances coming up. We have already agreed that out-of-town talent is now compensated by $150 per caller or musician, and now we vote YES for $150 for out-of-town callers.
Our next dance is August 23, 2025, with Tea and Whiskey as our band and Dianne Palmer-Quay as our caller.
On September 27 our band is the Evil Twins [David Knight and Laurie Fisher] and Victor will book our caller, will talk with Kenny Stephanie Marie in Charlotte.
On October 25 our band is The McKenzies and Victor will book our caller.
For the remaining 2025 dates we may be booking more local talent. Victor has a special booking email address.

4] Thoughts and comments on our most recent dance, attendance etc:
The last 2 dances were “scattered” and we had longer breaks because of the heat. The potluck was well received.

5] Do we need to make any formal decision as regards making a "potluck" before each dance a permanent thing?
Gail suggested that we decide at each board meeting whether we will do a potluck for the next two dances. For the potlucks, organic paper products and cutlery were donated. If we have potlucks all the time, should we change who does the chores? We could decide to keep putting on potlucks for the next 2 months, saying “bring your own serving utensils & cutlery.”
Victor is cleaning out some drawers so we might put our stuff in drawers.

6] Latest news (if any) regarding Arsenal Hill capacity rules (ie. Fire Marshal news)?
Capacity will be dealt with when Ms Pearl Osborne meets with the Assistant Fire Marshal.

7] Renewing our liability insurance, (renewal looms). Treasurer to execute renewal if we so desire:
Liability insurance or next year costs $634, and we will need to send the check for payment in 3 weeks. A formal proposal was made to keep insurance, and we voted to keep the insurance.

8] Should we have (instead of "caller decides") a mix of 50% ladies/gents and 50% gender neutral calling (assuming we have enough callers of each type to make this feasible)?
Common dance roll terms are Ladies and Gents [traditional], Right and Left [positional], Larks and Robins. Previously we voted that the caller decides the terms used at that dance. By alternating callers, we become familiar with a variety of terms.

9] We seem to have another Sasquatch problem at our dances (people who are too strong, too tall or too clueless to dance with).
Gail reported that two female shaggers came to the last dance, and that Karl turned them too fast. If that happens at a dance, the affected dancer should report it to a board member [who would need to wear a tag showing that they are on the board] or to the caller. The caller could talk in a short simple way about safety.

10. Any additional agenda items:
A] Meetup, and reimburse Dianne Palmer-Quay?
People are coming because of Meetup, for which Dianne P-Q has so far been paying $200 every 6 months. It looks like it is working. John says that our group should pay. Victor and Dianne P-Q offered to share the cost so far. Charlotte used Meetup and within 3 months they became solvent. For us it’s the high overhead cost due to CDSS, Insurance, and $125 rent that make it necessary for us to have 60 dancers to break even. To save money, can we sign in for 2026 as a rollover nonprofit?

B] Dance Display First Thursday Downtown Columbia:  NOTE: THE INFO BELOW IS DATED AND NOT ENTIRELY CORRECT (but is retained as a information about this meeting).
We would be seen outside in a covered space in front of the Art Museum.  We would need experienced dancers and a change in format to make it work. We would first do a 5-minute dance, then stop and announce, “It’s your turn to dance,” inviting everybody to dance. We’d have a total of one hour.
When would we do it? Suggestions were more than once a year, in possibly October, November, April, May, or June. To make arrangements, Maris would talk with Becca about details such as date[s]. We could use recorded music and we need time for a quick setup. A motion to do dance display[s] was made, seconded, and accepted by vote.

C] Gail asked if she could distribute “get in free” cards, saying there are only twelve left. John said that he thought we had formally discontinued this and will go through past minutes to check. He indicated she can go ahead until he finds we voted against giving out “get in free” cards.

 D] Marguerite asked if it’s it OK to ask the Scottish dancers to do a demo at our September dance. It would honor David Knight as a Scottish dance musician, and Scottish dancing as one of the “parents” of Contradance. She said she would donate $10 for each of the Scottish dancers’ admission. John granted the ok.

11. Set the next meeting date and adjourn.
We chose to meet on this October 22, and we adjourned at 8:49 pm.

Minutes June 11, 2025

The board members gathered at Virginia's house at 7 pm.  The there was pie! And lots of it.  And other goodies too.

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

Absent: Kenny

John called the meeting to order a 7:35 pm.

The minutes from the previous meeting were approved.

Treasurer's Report

In view of the need to create and end-of-the-year financial report for CDSS, various transactions were invoked to consolidate money in Venmo and GiveButter systems to the bank account.  The report was approved.

Booker's Report

June 27 event will be a pot luck with dancing using recorded music.  Victor and Dianne P-Q. will share calling duty.  Emphasis will be on skills and teaching.  There was discussion about using positional calling.

It was decided that "July 26 dance will be cancelled."  Except that it wasn't: there was a dance, Sherlock's Meow played, Victor called.  Sound was make do.  Caller and Band volunteered their time.  There was a pot luck.  The hall was paid. This was all decided via e-mail discussion after the generally positive vibe we had for the potluck and dance on June 27.

September dance band will be Evil Twins.  A motion was made and approved to pay a somewhat larger fee.

General Business

There was discussion about revising the payment schedule for bands due to the difficulty of getting bookings.  It has proposed and seconded that the going rate for musicians should be $150/person/night.  The motion was approved.

There was extensive continued discussion regarding calling traditional (Ladies & Gents) versus gender neutral (Larks & Robins).  There are concerns.  There is some feeling that this creates a lot of confusion for new dancers, as well as older ones too.  Discussion to be continued.

There was additional discussion about the status of hall capacity, which is currently capped at 49.  Various inquiries have been made, with assurances given that the respondent would get back in a couple of weeks.  It seem that this direct approach has gotten stalled because its now been a couple of months.  It is clear that City Parks needs to advocate for us.  It should be noted that there are a couple of reasons for seeking to increase the hall capacity.  The primary one is that have a increased number of people adds excitement to the event.  The band, caller, sound tech, desk, and wall flowers, anywhere from 5-10 bodies, through their presence, diminish the energy level of a specific dance.  Yet we don't have a dance without them  A secondary reason is that our model of a sustainable dance series requires a minimum head count to cover expenses.  A typical dance event costs something in the range of $500-$600 (including hall) to produce, but volunteers, for example the open band, can cut that in half.  At a donation of $10/person that means we need to have somewhere between 50 and 60 dancers; realistically the cap needs to be raised to 70 for us to be sustainable (at the current donation level.)

There was an offer extended to the Scottish dancers to use the hall on July 26 as it was believe that we would not be using it.  The Scottish group declined, thankfully, because we ended up using it ourselves on that date.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, August 13, 2025

The meeting adjourned at 8:58 pm.

/s/ Fred Druseikis