Minutes, March 19, 2019

Minutes, March 19, 2019

--Victor Gascon

--Connie Robinette

--Virginia Winn
--John Wetzel
--Dianne Britton
--Fred Drusekis

--Marguerite Frongillo

--Natalie Weston

--Dianne Cahill

The minutes of the previous meetings, as well as all normal buisness, was tabled/suspended because we needed to deal with urgent venue issues.

The treasurer gave a quick report on available funds.

There was considerable discussion of the following:

1.  We should go to the JCC because it is big, but it is expensive.

2. We should go to the Quaker hall because it is affordable, but it is small.

A motion was made to finish out the dance season at the JCC.  The motion was voted down.

A motion was made to finish out the dance season at the Quaker hall.  The motion was approved.

A motion was made and approved that Connie contact Soda City about venue possibilities.

A motion was made and approved that the Board will look into obtaining liability insurance from or thru CDSS.

Once these basic decisions had been made, it was informally agreed that we also needed to look at other venues in the meantime, and that individual persons would volunteer to look at particular venues (or do other related tasks) so that things would actually get done.

To that end, the following persons agreed to perform the following actions:

Dianne C agreed to go and look at EBENEZER

Natalie agreed to check out REDEEMER LUTHERAN

Victor agreed to check on the ELITE BALLROOM

Marguerite agreed to check on EASTMINSTER

Connie will put out the word for a hall on SODA CITY

John will send out an email describing the "required minimum" info each person who visits a venue should provide to the board via email.  This is to avoid dribbling out info about a venue over many emails.

Virginia will contact CDSS about liability Insurance to cover COTMD

The next meeting will be on April 16, 2019.

The meeting was adjourned,

Minutes, January 15, 2019

Minutes, January 15, 2019

Victor Gascon
Virginia Winn
John Wetzel
Dianne Britton
Fred Drusekis

Jonathan Janzen

Marguerite Frongillo

Cayce Thompson

The minutes of the previous TWO meetings were individually reviewed and approved.   

(NOTE:  For the record, there was no meeting in November of 2018.)

The treasurers report (including a new iteration of tracking spreadsheet) was provided, discussed and approved.

There were no reimbursements requested.

"Reports from the last dance":  There was discussion of the problem of a dirty or sooty (carbon black??) deposit on the floor.  Victor will discuss or mention this to Jim.

Mailing out of emailed notices/news is behind, and will be sent out before the next dance.

The booking report mainly consisted of the fact that there is still no band for the March dance, and details or possible solutions thereof.

A local old time string band is an upcoming possibility.

OLD BUISNESS was tabled for this meeting, as there was nothing new to discuss, EXCEPT FOR the "additional board members" category.

In that category, Mr. Cayce Hunter Thompson offered to serve on our board, and was officially voted in as a board member.

Virginia and Victor are still working on Paypal and Patreon accounts, as a way of accepting donations, should such become available.

CHANGES to dance fees.  The board had an extensive discussion of our steady losses, and formally agreed to the following "fixes".

A.  Beginning with the March 2019 dance, the charge per person will go from $8 to $10 per person.

B.  Dancers will be warned of this at the February dance.

C.  Door staff will be allowed, totally at their discretion, to charge "family groups" a flat fee of $30 per group.  This means that door staff  has the right to charge $10 per person if they are unsure that they are seeing an actual "family", or do not have time to make the determination.  Door staff actions and decisions on this are final in each case.  A family group would typically be a pair of parents and

one to three children.  Family groups are limited to TWO generations (parents & children or adult children).

We discussed that we are having the next (Feb.) dance in the "front room" of Blue Moon ballroom, and that this is just an experiment.  Notices about this are to be sent out via email and other channels, and a sign will be posted on the back door where we have been entering.

We agreed to make a final decision about doing a techno dance in March, if a band for March has not been finalized by some date certain.  That decision (and the date certain in question) will be the day after the February dance.  If a techno is to happen, J Janzen will be the caller and Victor will act as "DJ".

The next meeting will be on March 19, 2019.

The meeting was adjourned,

Minutes September 18, 2018

Minutes  September 18, 2018

Victor Gascon
Virginia Winn
John Wetzel
Dianne Britton
Fred Drusekis

Jonathan Janzen

The previous meeting minutes were NOT reviewed or approved, because Mr. Wetzel forgot to post them.  Said review and approval was tabled for future attention at the next meeting.

The treasurer reported that we were paid up and current with CDSS.

We lost money on our most recent dance, but exact amount was unavailable at the time of this meeting.  We showed losses of $157 in October, and $129 dollars in November, these amounts being rough markers for the continuing shrinkage of our funds.

No one had any new reimbursements.

Reporting on the last dance mainly included complaints about problems with the venue, which we decided to discuss later in this meeting.

We reviewed mailing list issues (mailchimp problems).

Marguerite was not present to discuss details of the status of hiring bands and callers.  Basically, one band slot remains to be filled.

The "OLD BUISNESS" portion of the agenda was tabled to allow extensive discussion of the various problems with our current venue.

Soundscape is excellent.  No echoes, crystal clear sound is possible here.

Shape of hall is not good.  Not long enough, three lines not possible without danger.

Size of hall will never allow us to break even

Stairway into upper part of facility is in the way of band, forcing band into dance space.

Contra force had to use 20% of the space that would be danceable with a "smaller footprint" band.

High cieling and sheets on walls, and lighting, produce a non-contra feel or vibe.

Lots of time needed to move chairs from front room.  Victor had to spend a lot of his time and effort on this.

These issues were discussed at length, and we decided to investigate the possibility of using the "front room".

Victor said he would discuss this possibility (and our concerns) with the owner.

Any board members who have time are urged to check out the front space.

John is supposed to go down and measure the back and front spaces, so that we can make realistic capacity estimates.

John and Victor agreed that the front space, though smaller, is not much smaller, and has a much better "vibe" or feel.

That conclusion may not survive actually making measurements.

John was asked to keep a close eye on (and report on) any news regarding possible usable church space, or new dance spaces he has rumours of happening soon.

There was a general consensus that the Blue Moon is not viable for our group in the long term, although we are grateful for it saving us short term.

The next board meeting is scheduled for January 15, 2019

Meeting was adjourned.