COTMD ContraCola Board Meeting - approved 4/21/2015
Meeting convened 7:30-ish
Present: John, Connie, Virginia, Sandra, Fred, Dianne
Absent: Kenny, Tim, Victor, Marguerite
Minutes: Minutes of December 9, 2014 Board meeting were reviewed and approved.
Treasury: The treasurer reported that we have had a $891 loss for the 2014-2015 season so far. January's available balance is $1,737.92. The treasurers report was approved.
Reimbursements: There were no reimbursements.
Email lists: Virginia reported that a few additions to the dancer email list still need to be sent to Dianne. The board email list was not reviewed this time.
Scheduling: The need for a local band to play for the May dance was discussed. Bonne Terre is unavailable to play for it, and whether Cabin Fever can play for it is questionable due to the undecided timing of Fred's upcoming surgery and recovery. It was decided that if Cabin Fever cannot play in its usual configuration with Fred playing piano, that John would play guitar instead.
Logo and branding: A vote was taken, approving the use of the high-contrast (black and white) "Rhett and Julie" (two dancers doing a contra swing) as our official logo. When words are used, "Contracola" will be in large-ish letters with, optionally, the phrase "Columbia Traditional Music and Dance" in smaller letters.
Fred volunteered to research the word "contracola" as trademark, to be reported at next meeting.
Financial woes: At the rate we are losing money, there are only 9.75 dances left until we are broke. This led to the following discussions.
a) Raising the use of local bands next season. Currently we use local bands for four of the ten dancers. Next season we can raise that to six or eight.
b) Raising student rate. We would not do this until next season.
c) Emerald Ballroom Special Dance, scheduled for the fourth weekend in April. The out-of-town band has already been hired.
Venue:
a) Still trying to contact McKissick Museum representative regarding the AME church which is near Baptist Hospital and is now owned by McKissick Museum as a general arts space.
b) Emerald Ballroom. In light of our financial situation, we discussed cancelling this dance, even though the band has already been hired. After much discussion, a vote was taken, the result of which is not to cancel the dance.
c) Discussed possibility of partnering with Lake Murray Contra to put on contra dances. This led to the topic of liability. Sandra will bring a copy of the liability document she signs for swing dancing to the next meeting.
d) Sandra noted there is a building, formerly a church, for sale on Two-Notch Road. John knew of the building and nixed it as a venue for us.
Demos: Thirteen people have signed up so far. Lucy G. suggests we would need to have twenty dancers signed up to guarantee eight dancers for a given demo event. Demo signup needs to be announced at each dance.
Facebook: Andrew is Lake Murray Contra's Facebook person. Connie has communicated with him in an effort to get more Facebook "press" for our group. She has also communicated with Susan at Lake Murray.
Meeting adjourned at 9:46pm. Next meeting scheduled for April 14.
Submitted 3/20/2015 by Dianne
Friday, March 20, 2015
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Minutes, December 9, 2014
COTMD ContraCola Board Meeting - minutes approved 2/10/2015
December 9, 2014
Meeting was convened at 7:37pm.
Present: John, Tim, Sandra,
Victor, Marguerite, Virginia
Absent: Fred, Dianne,
Connie, Kenny
Minutes: The minutes of the
November 11, 2014 Board meeting were reviewed. A motion to accept the minutes
as written was made and seconded. The
motion was approved.
Treasury: The treasurer
reported that we have had a $650 loss for the 2014-2015 season so far. We
presently have an available budget of $2026.92. A motion was made to accept the
treasurers report. The motion was seconded and approved.
Reimbursements: There
were no reimbursements.
Email lists: Dianne
reported via email that the Board email list and the dancer reminder email list
were up to date.
Seasonal Losses: There
was a discussion of what to do about the losses we are incurring this season.
>>Fliers: Board members are encouraged to do whatever they can to
get fliers posted around the community. They are also to encourage other
dancers to help post fliers at gyms, exercise classes, dances classes and events,
bookstores, coffee shops, etc. These fliers will be made available at the front
desk and/or the refreshment table. An announcement should be made at each dance
saying the fliers are available.
>>Business cards: Board
members are encouraged to carry and pass out card as appropriate. These cards
will be made available to the other dancers at the front desk and/or the
refreshment table. An announcement should be made at each dance saying the
cards are available.
>>USC: Sandra is going to
continue pursuing permission to post
fliers on the USC campus. Presently we do not have an official USC sponsor.
>> Social Media: We all
agreed that Connie is doing a good job getting our events posted to all the
avenues.
>>Present Venue: A
discussion was held concerning the pros and cons of our present venue.
Pro: It is centrally located and the size of the
room is excellent.
Pro: The cost is in line with the cost of our last
venue.
Con: The floor is linoleum over cement. Some of
our former dancers have said they no longer come because of the flooring.
Con: AC/Heating problems. Sometimes it just doesn't
work. In the summer you cannot drop the AC below 75. In the winter you cannot
turn the AC on at all. There is a specified date in the Spring and in the Fall
when the unit is converted between AC and heat.
Con: The windows will not open. This prevents
using them for ventilation especially in the summer.
Con: The folks that have to setup the room must
come extra early so they can tear down
whatever is presently there. Tables and chairs have to be moved and the
floor/room has to be cleaned up. The stage has to be cleaned up to accommodate
the musicians/caller. After the dance everything has to be put back the way we
found it.
>>Emerald Ballroom: Because we need to keep looking for a
possible new venue we again revisited checking out the Emerald Ballroom. We agreed
to ask at the next dance if folks would
be interested in having an extra dance in early Spring as an exploratory dance.
Victor will ask about this at break
time. John is to contact the Emerald Ballroom about a possible extra dance in April
either on the 2nd or the 4th Saturday.
>>Fundraisers: We
discussed several ways we could try and offset our losses. The one that got the
most momentum was selling
Tee-Shirts/Tank Tops. Victor said he would look into this.
Real Estate: We revisited
John's desire to purchase some real estate property and convert it to a dance
hall. John said he could not find
anything on the internet that would suit our purposes.
Disruptive Dancers: We
revisited this issue. It was decided
that even though we have not had a problem in the past, it would be advisable
to have a written policy on the topic.
The policy would provide Board members an acceptable standardized reaction. It was agreed that we
would need two forms of this policy. The first one would be a short, user
friendly document that expresses the essence of the policy in very positive
terms. This will be posted on the website where the public can easily access
it; posted at the front desk where dancers can read it; and, posted in the
newsletter. The second document would be
fleshed out and be posted on the website for Board members to access. It would
not be available to the general public. Victor said he would write it up for
review.
Volunteer Dancers: In response
to an email from Lucy Gordon (Charleston) that Victor had forwarded to the
Board concerning new dancer recruitment and volunteer dancers for demo dances,
Virginia designed a poster and sign-in sheet for volunteers. Virginia pointed
out that we have had to turn down requests because we don't have a pool of
dancers to draw from. We discussed the importance of showing people what contra
dancing is all about which could lead to recruitment of new dancers. It was
decided that we needed a source of responsive dancers so that we can accept
requests for "demo" performances.
Next Meeting: January 13,
2014
This meeting was adjourned at 8:45pm
Monday, December 8, 2014
Minutes, November 11, 2014
COTMD Minutes 11/11/2014 - approved at 12/09/2014 meeting
Meeting convened at 7:50 pm.
In attendance: John, Virginia, Connie, Dianne, Sandra, Victor, Marguerite.
Minutes reviewed and approved.
Treasurer reported a balance of $2238.92. Approved.
Regarding new dancer email addresses -- John encouraged Virgina to get the new email addresses to Dianne asap generally, since we need the new dancers.
Sandra Keller was voted in as new board member. And on Victor's report that Kenny Greer wanted to be on the board, we also voted him in. We discussed using some kind of call conferencing so that Kenny could take part in the board meetings remotely.
Our current venue has AC/heating problems. The setting is changed from "AC" to "Heat" (or vice-versa) just twice a year and is out of our control.
We voted to pursue the Emerald Ballroom as a possible dance venue. It is located just off Dutch Square and is available on 4th Saturdays. Advantages would be better AC/heat, better parking, and less setup/teardown. The floor - wood over concrete - is also somewhat better than in our current venue. Victor offered to call for a free extra dance, and Marguerite offered to look for possible dance dates for an extra dance which would to be held at the Emerald Ballroom.
There was a suggestion to advertise our dance at yoga studios.
We discussed having a themed dance. We agreed it was generally a good idea, but felt we shouldn't go overboard as it could turn people off.
There was a discussion of obtaining our own building ("building project"), which would be self-sustaining through rentals. John will look into to find out whether there is someone who specializes in finding/building buildings for non-profits, and if so, talk to him/her.
Victor passed out a handout on "Problem Dancers and Written Policies", which included three different existing policies from other dance groups, ranging in length from brief to medium to verbose. It was generally agreed that we need to decide what things are important for our situation. There was a spirited discussion about appropriate behavior and appropriate responses. We want our written policy to have specificity without wordiness. All board members are to read this handout, and are invited to email any related thoughts and/or verbiage to the board at cotmdboard@googlegroups.com.
Meeting adjourned. Next meeting scheduled for 12/9/2014.
-- Dianne
Meeting convened at 7:50 pm.
In attendance: John, Virginia, Connie, Dianne, Sandra, Victor, Marguerite.
Minutes reviewed and approved.
Treasurer reported a balance of $2238.92. Approved.
Regarding new dancer email addresses -- John encouraged Virgina to get the new email addresses to Dianne asap generally, since we need the new dancers.
Sandra Keller was voted in as new board member. And on Victor's report that Kenny Greer wanted to be on the board, we also voted him in. We discussed using some kind of call conferencing so that Kenny could take part in the board meetings remotely.
Our current venue has AC/heating problems. The setting is changed from "AC" to "Heat" (or vice-versa) just twice a year and is out of our control.
We voted to pursue the Emerald Ballroom as a possible dance venue. It is located just off Dutch Square and is available on 4th Saturdays. Advantages would be better AC/heat, better parking, and less setup/teardown. The floor - wood over concrete - is also somewhat better than in our current venue. Victor offered to call for a free extra dance, and Marguerite offered to look for possible dance dates for an extra dance which would to be held at the Emerald Ballroom.
There was a suggestion to advertise our dance at yoga studios.
We discussed having a themed dance. We agreed it was generally a good idea, but felt we shouldn't go overboard as it could turn people off.
There was a discussion of obtaining our own building ("building project"), which would be self-sustaining through rentals. John will look into to find out whether there is someone who specializes in finding/building buildings for non-profits, and if so, talk to him/her.
Victor passed out a handout on "Problem Dancers and Written Policies", which included three different existing policies from other dance groups, ranging in length from brief to medium to verbose. It was generally agreed that we need to decide what things are important for our situation. There was a spirited discussion about appropriate behavior and appropriate responses. We want our written policy to have specificity without wordiness. All board members are to read this handout, and are invited to email any related thoughts and/or verbiage to the board at cotmdboard@googlegroups.com.
Meeting adjourned. Next meeting scheduled for 12/9/2014.
-- Dianne
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