Minutes. September 19, 2017

Minutes. September 19, 2017

Members present:

Victor Gascon

Virginia Winn

Marguerite Frongillo

Connie Robinette

Jonathan Janzen

Dianne Britton

Natalie Weston

John Wetzel

The meeting began by approving the minutes of the previous meeting.

Virginia presented the treasurer's report. 

No reimbursements were reported to be needed by anyone.

The reports from our last dance were discussed. 

The mailing list was discussed. 

The booking report was delivered.

We discussed recruiting students and other community members as dancers and board members.   No new candidates have been identified. 

The selling of our old speakers came up briefly.  Jonathan will be sending Virginia a check as soon as he has the money.

We discussed mailchimp and the newsletter. 

Aaron was not present to discuss this, and he may need to resign due to being very busy and feeling unable to execute agreed upon board tasks.

There was discussion to encourage Aaron to stay, as is input is needed, even if he does not have time to do stuff like mailchimp.

The contra dance video is finished, and is reportedly of excellent quality.

We discussed the search for potential board members.

We discussed recruitment of students and other community folks.

There was considerable discussion of caller training, including a suggestion from Natalie that we might hold weekly classes for any candidates.

We discussed having quarterly pot lucks, and how much funding ought to go toward these, with no firm decisions made.

We had extensive discussion of the idea of expanding to two dances per month, and Victor offered a template for how this might be pulled off without creating additional stresses for the staff that puts on the dances we currently have.  Victor's suggestion was explained in detail and met with general (but informal) acceptance, as well as some pushback.  We agreed to table this issue for the future, and mull/discuss it in the meantime.  Formal decisions on this to be made later.  Heavy uses of donation jar (no front table staff)  taped music (no paid band and no sound tech) and volunteer callers (so that venue is the only cost item) is the basis for the idea of trying this out.  Any money collected above the hall rental would be divided equally and distributed to the caller, the band providing the recorded music, and the dance group.

The next meeting will be held on November 7, 2017.

The meeting was adjourned.

Minutes. January 10, 2017

Minutes. January 10, 2017

Members present:

Victor Gascon

John Wetzel

Fred Druseikis

Virginia Winn

Marguerite Frongillo

Natalie Weston

The meeting began by approving the minutes of the previous meeting.

Virginia presented the treasurer's report.  We lost money at our last dance, but only about $30.

No reimbursements were reported to be needed by anyone.

The reports from our last dance were discussed.  The primary issue discussed was the occasional "observer" (admitted free) who ends up dancing.  We informally agreed that this was not a big issue, but does need watching, and we agreed that it would help if we DO NOT provide observers with wrist bands, so that they can be more easily monitored. Victor will also remind those in attendance to make sure they have paid during the mid-point announcements.

The mailing list was discussed.  A few changes to the list will need to be made and those will be added, probably by Aaron.

Marguerite indicated there was no change on the status of bookings.  The group discussed the balance of out of town bands to local bands (60% to 40%) and agreed that we should retain this ratio as we move into hiring for the next season.  We also agreed to attempt negotiating down fees for "super bands" so that we can continue to afford them.

We discussed recruiting students and other community members as dancers and board members.   No new candidates have been identified.

The selling of our old speakers came up briefly, JWetzel reported that the speakers have been delivered to Jonathan, and he will be sending Virginia a check for them as soon as he has the money.

We briefly discussed our underwhelming attendance numbers, and possible strategies to turn that around.

Victor presented some nametag/button ideas and designs, and the group is to mull these ideas and designs over, for future action and decisions.

The pot luck dinner was discussed.  We are doing a "hybrid" pot luck in January.  We will be investing up to $100 of group money to provide part of the food (sandwiches, a dessert and beverages, as agreed in the November meeting).

Action item: John to contact Emerald Ballroom (Barbara) about how early we can arrive without impacting some other group finishing up.

We had another mostly fruitless discussion about devices to accept debit cards, and finally decided it was too small a problem to justify any effort we might make.

Natalie is going to look into "Midland Gives" as a possible future source of funding. It appears we already missed this year's deadline.

We briefly discussed the officers election slate lineup for next year.  Basically it will be identical to this years uncontested slate (unless somebody decides to throw a hat into the ring).

President: Victor

VP/Booker: Marguerite

Treasurer: Virginia

Secretary: John

The holding (or not holding) of the two summer dances was discussed.  We voted that we WOULD hold these dances:

A Techno in July AND

A Live dance in August.

The discussion of DOOR PRIZES and AFTER DANCE OUTINGS was postponed until the March meeting.

The next meeting will be held on March 14, 2017.

The meeting was adjourned.

Minutes. November 15, 2016

Minutes. November 15, 2016

Members present:

Aaron Davis

Victor Gascon

John Wetzel

Fred Druseikis

Dianne Britton

Marguerite Frongillo

Natalie Weston (via telephone)

Connie Robinette (via telephone)

The meeting began by approving the minutes of the previous meeting.

The Treasurer's report was tabled, since we did not have up to date financial information (Virginia was unable to attend).

No reimbursements were reported to be needed by anyone.

The reports from our last dance were discussed, with the primary theme being that the
problems we are having are common across the southeast as far as we can tell, and so are not likely to be the result of anything we are doing wrong. 

The mailing list was discussed.  Aaron has taken over the mailing list, and there was some discussion to clarify this issue.  Aaron is using mailchimp as the email list tool.  Content to be supplied by any of us who are up for supplying it.

Marguerite indicated there was no change on the status of bookings.

We discussed recruiting students and other community members as dancers and board members.   No new candidates have been identified.

The mission/vision statement issue was bought up, and it was made quite clear that this issue is settled, and that this is a matter of record in previous minutes.  Just some minor confusion about it having been voted on.

The selling of our old speakers came up briefly, JWetzel reported that this was just a matter

of getting the deal done (Jonathan is to purchase them).

Liability insurance  JWetzel reported that the Emerald Ballroom does have some liability coverage, which provides us with some protection.

The possibility of having a pot luck dinner was discussed.  We decided to try a "hybrid" pot luck in January, meaning that we would invest up to $100 of group money to provide part of the food.

Aaron reported briefly about the contra video he is working on for us.

We discussed leadership positions and possibilities.  Victor indicated he would be willing to

serve at least one more year as president.  John and Connie both indicated a willingness to serve in that role after that, should it transpire that no one else is interested in doing that.  Everyone serving at present seems to be willing to serve in their current office for at least one more year.

There was considerable discussion of the low attendance, with no new ideas as to how to

deal with this issue, other than to soldier on for now as best we can.

Summer dances for next year were discussed.  FOR THE MOMENT, and pending the results and attendance of future dances, we are going to hold off on:

A Techno in July AND

A Live dance in August.

We will need to check and see if we still need to pay for the hall on those months.

The official donation receipt form was unveiled, and the need for it discussed.

Jonathan' birthday party date has been shifted to January 27,which eliminates anyone having to choose between his party and our December dance.

The next meeting will be held on January 10, 2017.

The meeting was adjourned.

MINUTES, July 12,2016

Minutes, July 12,2016

Members present:

Amy Lacoste

Aaron Davis

Connie Robinette

Virginia Winn

Victor Gascon

John Wetzel

Fred Druseikis

Dianne Britton

Marguerite Frongillo

Natalie Weston

The meeting began by approving the minutes of the previous meeting.

The treasurers report was given.  It was also heavily discussed, as we lost about $900 in the last season.  This included discussions of various numbers such as "average cost per dancer", and more particularly, how to stop the loss of dollars to our organization.

We decided that at each dance, we will try to obtain a rough count of new and experienced dancers.  This will be done by a caller or other available person at mid dance, using a show of hands, and is not to be added to the workload of those working the door.

It was formally decided that we will terminate the use of "get in free" coupons. 

It was formally decided that we will terminate the selling of prepaid tickets.

There was some discussion of using meetup groups as a way to bring in more dancers.

It was formally decided to take no other actions (such as raising prices) for six months, while we see how things are going. 

This allowed us to finish with the treasurers report.

The agenda items New Reimbursements, Reports from last dance, and Mailing lists were dealt with very quickly (nothing much to discuss).

Fred brought up that there was interest in electronic/computer payments for people who do not carry cash.  This was discussed.  Victor agreed to look into the technical aspects of this.  There seemed to be general agreement that we could probably pull this off, providing that users of this method of payment would probably have to pay a one dollar surcharge to cover costs of the transaction.  BUT it would take time (and create problems for the door workers because of that).

We had a brief discussion about the continued search for potential board members.  No one had any people to suggest.

The latest draft of the mission statement was read twice, discussed briefly, and formally accepted by vote with no changes.  Our now official mission statement is as follows:

"Our mission is to encourage the growth and development of traditional music and dance in the South Carolina Midlands.  We do this by hosting contradances and live music events; by building community through teaching and demonstration of traditional dance forms; and by promoting events in the Columbia area."

We briefly discussed out summer schedule.

We were going to table all remaining agenda items for the future, but first we had a brief discussion of Aaron's proposed video.  We then tabled the rest of the agenda to be handled at future meetings.

The tabled (deferred) agenda items are:

WORK IN PROGRESS
  Aaron, contra dance video
  Links to dance videos on website (Tims idea)
  Posting our dances on dance related facebook sites (Poonam)
  Using meetup groups (although we discussed those today somewhat)
  Midlands Gives (Join as a promotional opportunity, Connie)

NEW BUISNESS

  Sell old speakers?

  Liability Insurance

  Website update (mostly other events)

The next meeting will be held on September13, 2016

People started yawning and the meeting was adjourned.