Minutes, November 19, 2019

Columbia Old Time Music & Dance

Board Meeting - November 19, 2019

MINUTES

The board met at Virginia house.

ATTENDING (in person)

    Casey, Fred, John, Jonathan, Marguerite, Victor, and Virginia

ATTENDING (by  phone)

    Natalie

ABSENT

    Dianne (illness)

The group gathered 7pm and socialized a bit.  John called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.

REVIEW OF MINUTES

The minutes of the previous board meeting, held September 17, were read and discussed.  There was additional discussion of "exit strategy" options mentioned in the minutes as some had not been part of first conversation.  No changes were proposed and no motions were put forward in that regard.  The minutes were approved.

TREASURER'S REPORT

Virginia presented the treasurer's report.  There was discussion of the current loss rate.  The report was approved by voice vote.

Virginia submitted her resignation from the Board role of treasurer but to continue as member at large.  Victor volunteered to fulfill the Treasure's rol for the remainder of her unexpired term.  A motion to so recognize this change was made, seconded, and approved.

By board action therefore Victor Gascon is now Treasurer.

A random discussion later in the meeting concerned tax reporting technicalities.  Victor agreed to do this for John, as he was already familiar with the process.

DANCE REPORT

The October dance was well attended, headcount in the mid 40's.  The November dance didn't see as large attendance, head count in the very low 20's.

It was observed that although Susan does make an effort to have water put out for the dancers, we are coming up short on cups.

Via e-mail the week before the November dance, the board approved the purchase of 10 signs for placement on routes on the way to the venue.  That e-mail chain is included in these minutes by reference.  Summary: we agreed upon the need, a simple design, and responsibilities for placement; and we bought them for a good price.  General feeling was that while e-mail is workable, it could have been done a lot faster with face-mail.

Having signs, there was discussion about sign placement at the November dance.  It was observed that the signs are hard to recognize in the dark.  Victor volunteered to accent a few of them with some reflective tape to help improve their visibility in the dark.  Board members seemed to have different feelings about placement and visibility, but it was agreed by all that we'll get better at this as we have some more experience with it.

A second issue is that the owner is concerned about the presence of these signs, so they need to be removed after the dance, and put up within an hour or two at most before the event.  Marguerite was appointed to be the "sign wallah."

BOOKER'S REPORT

Marguerite give an update on the booking of bands and callers for the rest of the season.  Our web presence has been updated with that information.  Marguerite asked if she should start booking for next year and beyond.  It was agreed that she should start booking for the 2020-2021 season. (No motion was thought to be necessary for this.)

Marguerite asked for permission to negotiate a rate larger than the current max of $280 for an out of town band for January.  Fred volunteered to cover the difference between the current max and the price being asked by the band in this case.  The board approved.

Our schedule currently shows a Techno dance for December. Jonathan mentioned that Contra Force would be willing to do a live dance on that date for a very discounted price and the good will of the holiday season, if they can hold off on making a decision about it until the end of November and decline if they need too take a better gig.  (This is basically a right of first refusal.)  It was suggested that we just cover Contra Force's generously discounted price and the cost of the hall and offer to run the dance as free will donation, and advertise the hell out of it.  A motion was made, seconded and approved to allow Jonathan to explore this further and to proceed with that if can happen.  Otherwise it will just be our originally planned Techno dance.  Jonathan will be the caller in either case.

OTHER BUSINESS

A discussion about venues ensued, especially about the parameters or characteristics thereof.  Rather than declare criteria, it seems more like we just need to record the criteria for each venue as we visit them.  The choice of one venue over another is a trade-off on several variable, size of the space just being one of them.  There are many other factors.  Generally, it was felt the the Quaker Church, as charming as it is in many ways, has a number of issues that make it difficult to dance there.  The search continues.  In this context there was discussion about the American Legion Hall in Lexington, its suitability, price, etc.  The exchange was informational and no motions were put forward.  Quaker Church remains a fall-back venue.

Marguerite raised the issue of how to publicize the negotiating parameters we have for bands and callers.  It is important to have our basic position and expectations easily available, preferably by page(s) on our web presence.  Marguerite and Victor will review the current information and Victor will update the web as needed.

NEXT MEETING

Due to person schedules the next board meeting is being delayed by a month.  It is scheduled for Tuesday, February 18, 2020.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:16pm.

/s/ Frederick C. Druseikis, Secretary.

 

Minutes, September 17, 2019

Minutes of Board Meeting of September 17, 2019
Submitted by Victor Gascón

PRESENT: Natalie (phone), Jonathan (phone), Marguerite, Virginia, John, Victor; a quorum was declared.


ONGOING BUSINESS

1. Approve minutes of previous meeting: minutes of the last minute were approved with a clarification that our monthly loss is not $300; finances were reviewed and the monthly loss was recalculated at $142 per month.

2. Treasurer’s report: Virginia presented her report and it was approved as read.

3. Reports from most recent dance/dances: we talked at length about a new dancer that is restricted to a wheelchair. Although she did quite well, some of our regular dancers did not know how to be good partners to her. Victor offered to reach out to the Contra community on Facebook and also to one of our regular dancers from Charlotte (who danced very well with this new dancer) and seek so me guidance on how to be better partners to her. There was some concern that not knowing how to dance with someone in a wheelchair could be dangerous to the person in the chair.

4. Booking report (and discuss booking strategies): Marguerite reported that booking is in progress and the group offered some suggestions to fill the remaining vacancies for 2020.

5. Reimbursable costs and charges: none reported.


OLD BUSINESS

1. Review of financial analysis from last meeting: as previously reported (see above), the losses per month were re-calculated to $142 instead of $300.

2. December Dance Venue: There is a question concerning the availability of the Quaker Church for December. John Wetzel will contact Jonathan G. to find out of the hall will be available for that month. We previously heard that it would be, but that Jonathan G. might not be our host, but that another church member would take his place.

3. Venue Search Update: The group spent some time reviewing progress on our search for a new venue. Marguerite reported on her work with several possible locations. Natalie previously produced a spreadsheet for us to track our results, which she sent to Fred (he is our lead contact on this). Victor will get the spreadsheet from Natalie and make it available to the Board through Google Documents.

4. Status of Facebook Donations Button: Victor reported that he will have this done by the end of this week.

5. Exit strategy for COTMD: the group had a vivid discussion concerning the need for an exit strategy in case we cannot continue to operate due to low attendance. Victor suggested during the last meeting that it would be prudent for us to decide when we would suspend operations (either temporarily or permanently) based on a certain amount of bank funds. At this point, based on our current expenses and monthly losses, we can sustain operations for about 3.5 years. Some of the options presented were:
a. Stop operations when we reach a certain balance on our checking account. We will need to decide that at a future date.
b. If/when we reach that balance, do we suspend operations and hope we can re-start at a later date? Do we completely close our doors? If we decide to terminate dances, do we leave the money in the checking account and hope others could use it to re-start the dances later? Do we use it for an all-out dance? Do we donate it to CDSS or another non-profit organization that is closely aligned with our mission? These are all questions the Board will need to entertain in future meetings.

None of the above precludes us continuing to seek donations and working to improve our dance attendance. The exit strategy is simply a prudent way to plan for the worst-case scenario. John mentioned that, without this in place, we could find ourselves in the same position the organization was a few years ago when Board members had to put in money to keep dances going.


NEW BUSINESS

Lake Murray Contra: Jonathan J. and Victor are meeting on September 18 with Susan Forte to discuss using her barn for our dances. They will report on negotiations after their meeting. Three main points will be part of these talks: monthly fee, liability insurance, and management of the hall activities during the dances.

As a side-note to this, Victor offered to create a Waiver form that we can ask dancers to sign to protect the organization.


NEXT MEETING: the next meeting with be at Virginia's home on November 19, 2019. This is the week before Thanksgiving, and the week after our November dance.


ADJOURNMENT: meeting adjourned shortly before 9 PM.

Minutes, July 16, 2019

COTMD Board Minutes for Tuesday, July 18.

The meeting was held at Virginia's house.

People gathered and socialized starting at 7 pm.

Attending in person:

     Victor, Dianne, Virginia, Fred, John, Marguerite, Jonathan

Attending via phone:

     Natalie, Casey

John called the meeting to order at 7:32 pm.

The proposed agenda was reviewed and approved.

the minutes for the last meeting were approved.  it was noted that connie has since resigned from the board.

TREASURE'S REPORT

Virginia presented the treasure's report.

The the financial documents from the group's checking account were reviewed and approved.

The treasurer prepared a spreadsheet summarizing the operational results over the last year.  This recorded the data from the specific "dance sheets" that record the payments and attendance statistics for each event.  There was general discussion about the current run rate (loss) and it was noted that this is (on average) in the vicinity of $300/dance.  Attendance has been significantly off from past years. Other dance groups are facing similar problems.

Jonathan requested that the board accept his calling for two forthcoming future dances as payment in-kind for the outstanding balance on the speakers.  The board approved this.  The treasurer will make appropriate transactions in the general ledger to reflect this.

In view of the current run rate, it was proposed that an agenda item be added for the next meeting: Discussion of Exit Strategy for COTMD as an organization.

It was proposed that a Google Docs folder be made available for Board materials so that those attending by phone would have access to them during the call.  This was widely perceived as a good idea.  Concerns were raised over the possibility of unauthorized access; it is believed that these can be satisfactorily resolved.

BOOKER'S REPORT

Marguerite presented the booker's report.

We are booking for the 2019-2020 season assuming that we will continue to use the Quaker Church as the venue.

Compensation-wise, our pay scale for outside bands and callers is similar to that for other groups.

In view of the current run rate, the booking policy for outside talent is to book only duo's.

The booking policy is presently to give first preference for dates to local bands and callers.  The board generally agrees with this.

Victor has been working on his calling over that last interval by attending workshops and seeking a mentor.  He requested that the board consider allowing him to call a couple of dances supervised by the main caller in an evening so that he can better calibrate his progress. Jonathan volunteered to support this request; and it was also reported that Kenny had made a similar offer as well.

Natalie put together a spreadsheet to catalog the venues which have been investigated.  The secretary will adopt this as a starting point for future record keeping.

OLD BUSINESS

With the ascendancy of John to the position of COTMD president, the issue of IRS Forms required by CDSS was revisited.  In the interval the IRS has moved from paper forms to an on-line system for mandatory reporting.  The required data is similar it just needs to be put in a different place now.

It was noted that there has been a rather striking gender imbalance at the Quaker Church.  Too many larks and not enough ravens; or is it the other way around?  There was discussion about the topic of dancing one's opposite role and it was suggested that one of the local callers might offer a brief introduction during the break for those interested.  It was generally felt that attendance has taken a hit because of the change in venue and the number of dances that got canceled last season -- one by the weather, and another two because of hall availability.

There is concern that the scheduled date for the December 2019 dance (12/21/2019) is too close to Christmas and attendance will suffer even more.  There is a general question about the availability of the Quaker Church venue during the Advent season as well, so availability is still TBD.  Therefore the board voted to cancel the December 2019 dance and instead approved a Techno Dance for that date, to be hosted by Jonathan as caller and DJ, subject to availability of the hall.  A voluntary contribution will be requested.  COTMD will cover hall rental should there be a shortfall.

QUEST FOR VENUES

Dianne reported on the status of our application for use of the Ebeneezer Lutheran Church's gymnasium.  Some years ago -- possibly 15-20 -- COTMD did use this venue at a very favorable rate.  The following issues have been identified in the formal response to our application: (1) Concern over soles of shoes on the newly refinished floor; can we dance on special floor mats? (2) Can't guarantee 3rd Saturdays; (3) Church must approve all advertising; (4) Hall rental $400/evening; (5) Liability insurance $1M required; (6) Waiving $300/evening cleanup; (7) Significant additional costs if door keys are lost.  The board voted to decline the offer.

Marguerite reported on the Rosenwall Community Center in Lexington.  At this point there is no price.  The venue's calendar is synced to the public schools.  The police department opens and closes the building. It has a stage and wood floor.  The building is old; AC power outlets are fewer than we might expect.  Has air conditioning. Is 18 miles from Columbia; half-way to Devil's Backbone.  Currently available dates: Oct, Nov, Feb, Mar, Apr., May.  Still being investigated.

Virginia reported on the Laurie Senior Center.  Expensive $480. In Five Points.  Issues.

Mt. Hebron Methodist Church on Leaphart Road in West Columbia may be a possibility.   Marguerite offered to follow up with their senior pastor. Fred will provide contact info.

DANCE ETIQUETTE ISSUE

Over the last few weeks it has come to the attention of the Board that one of the regular dancers seems to be having issues with dance etiquette, viz. excessively powerful swings and twirls and seeming refusal to honor the requests of his dance partner.  This has been ongoing for some time.  Several ladies had noted this when asked; and some reported injuries as a consequence of dancing with the gentleman in question.  The Board is concerned first with the safety issues inherit in this situation, and also with the liability issues of not taking action.  The Board has formulated several drafts to the individual.  The specific content was discussed in the meeting, including issues of tone, and possible consequences for not changing the behavior, including being banned from dances.

The Board approved the following: that John and Natalie finalize the official letter from the Board and sent it to the individual in question; the letter will be sent under John's name in his official role as president.

NEXT MEETING

The date Tuesday, September 17, 2019, was selected.  Dianne and Fred noted that they will quite probably be out of the country then.

ADJOURNMENT

A motion was made and seconded.  The meeting concluded at 9:30 pm