Minutes of SSDS Meeting January 4, 2004

Present: Steve, Sally, Lynn, Mary Ellen, Jayant, Tania, Mark, Can, Debbie, Greg, Maria

Minutes by: Tania

Old Business
- General Report
  1. Weekly dance status report. Weekly dance status report. Nothing to report.
  2. Review of Nardone weekend. to report (see financial summary below).
  3. Review of Holiday Dance. About 80 to 85 people attended. We purchased the same amount of meat and less bread than we did in 2002 (3 turkey breasts, 1 ham, 3 packages of rolls) but had 20-30 rolls left over and 3 bags of meat, both turkey and ham (twice as much turkey as ham) left over. People seemed to have arrived later, possibly due to bad weather, and did not eat as much. We will keep reading the names of volunteers, a tradition begun in 2002. We would like to keep the dance card game, which we did originally in 2001, but we need to do it at the beginning of the dance. We did not do the game in 2003 and we did it too late in the evening in 2002. Keep venue of Knights of Columbus on East Taft Road; space and kitchen are excellent.
  4. Review of New Year's Eve Dance. We sold 44 advance tickets and 32 at the door for total attendance of 76 people. There seemed to be an even mix of swing and ballroom dancers. In 2004 we will work on reaching more ballroom dancers; many events at which we hoped to promote the NYE dance were cancelled this year at the last minute. Due to a last-minute problem with the caterer, Mary Ellen and Maria took over the food planning and shopping. Mary Ellen, Tania and Maria's friend Bill did the "cooking" and set-up; others helped them with clean-up. Mary Ellen was commended for doing an outstanding job with the food. Geno did an awesome job with decorating the hall. The Polish Home space was very classy and we will keep this space. Tania asked Maria to reserve the Polish Home for NYE 2004. We will have to do better planning in terms of a reliable, professional caterer for NYE 2004 because doing the food ourselves is too much work.
  5. Publicity. Debbie is compiling an application for a not-for-profit permit from the US Postal Service. We asked her to submit a bulk mailing permit application as well. The March 1 mailer will include flyers about the Mario weekend, March band dance and "save the date" for July picnic and other events if known. Deb will email Stars magazine of the Post Standard to get our weekly dance listed in the calendar.
  6. Book Camp Brockway for Summer 2004 picnic. Tania will reserve the facility for either July 8 or July 15
- Financial Report -
  1. Greg needs to pay Ballybay rent for the November and December Saturday dances ($200 total). Nardone total expenses were $2125.65 and total income was $4483, for net income of $2357.35. Holiday dance total expenses were $659.20 and total income was $160, for net loss of $499.20. Note that $132.60 of the expenses were publicity (mailing) and $130.04 was for volunteer recognition gifts. NYE total expenses were approximately $1083.62 and total income was $1680, for net income of approximately $596.38.
  2. Can proposed that SSDS pay $70 to $75 weekly rent to Ballybay, up from $50, because the rate has not changed for several years and we hope to engender goodwill from the owners, we can afford the increase. Can will schedule a meeting with Ballybay's owner and the board to bring up the rent issue and make sure that everything in our rental relationship is going smoothly. Even if SSDS pays more rent to Ballybay, it will not charge instructors more than the current $10 per hour. At a minimum, we will pay the $50 rent for December 18, when we had our holiday dinner/dance.
  3. Greg will present a 2003 financial summary at the February meeting.
- Committee Reports – No reports.
- Progress on upcoming events.
  1. Winterfest 2004 Dances Saturday 2/14 and Friday 2/20 at Persian Terrace. NOTE NEW DATE FOR 2/14 DANCE. Lynn said he would promote the dances to his students. Tania will be in touch with Hotel Syracuse contact to make sure dance floor set-up is adequate. We need volunteer instructors: Tania and/or Mary Ellen on 2/14 and possibly Steve on 2/20. We will be paid $125 per event for lesson and publicity.
  2. March Lindy band dance. Michael. No report.
  3. Hanover Square 2004. Tania has been in contact with Bill Cooper about planning for this summer but has had little success. We will make concrete proposal to Cooper that SSDS teach the lesson on the five Fridays in July only (at $125 each), with the benefits of a linked series of lessons, some continuity for new and experienced dancers. We will still promote the August (and June) dates to our members but not teach a lesson. We will still try to hand out SSDS Thursday dance flyers at all events.
  4. Calmix dances 1/31, 2/28, 3/27. No report.
New Business
1. EVENTS SCHEDULE FOR 2004.
  1. Kim, Maria & Steve. Steve is in touch with Deborah S. and Robert Cordoba about a fall 2004 workshop weekend. Maria said the Polish Home is available all weekends in September and October 2004.
  2. Maria will reserve the Polish Home for 10/30/04 for our Halloween Dance.
  3. Steve will contact the Ukrainian Home to see if they will re-open in 2004.
2. Outreach to address perceived regional decrease in dance attendance. Maria. No report.
3. Publicity person to coordinate mailings. Debbie Smith is working on getting SSDS a non-profit mailing permit. She will coordinate with Greg regarding documents required for application. The next mailer date is March 1, 2004.
4. Equipment rental policy. Tania to propose policy next meeting.
5. Ordering new T-shirts. Debbie checked out shirts from local business Seaboard Graphics. We would want the shirts in time for Mario weekend; and order takes two weeks.
6. Welcoming newcomers
7. Encouraging meeting attendance/participation
8. Volunteer appreciation/recognition
9. Other business.

Next Business Meeting: Sunday February 1 at 7 p.m. at Greg and Mary's house.

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