Minutes of SSDS Meeting February 8, 2004

Present: Mike, Can, Debbie, Sally, Lynn, Alice, Greg, Steve, Tania, Maria

Minutes by: Tania

  1. Old Business
    1. General Report
      1. Weekly dance status report. Alice reported we had one night of low attendance in January due to extremely cold weather. She said that the presence of students makes a big difference in terms of the size of the crowd. Thursday-night instructors need to remind their students to pay $1 if they are staying. She is having no trouble getting door volunteers. We need to re-start the birthday dance.
      2. Publicity. Debbie reported that Bruce Heffron will include our events in his calendar emails. She sent information about the Thursday dance to the Post Standard Stars magazine for inclusion in its calendar of events. She is working on the postal permit application.
    2. Financial Report - Greg distributed reports for January 2004 and a year 2003 summary. January showed a loss due to lower hop attendance and payment of fixed costs like liability insurance. For the year 2003, SSDS showed a net gain of nearly $9,000. Greg will send USABDA their half of the NYE dance net proceeds of $781.56.
    3. Progress on upcoming events.
      1. Winterfest 2004 Dances Saturday 2/14 and Friday 2/20 at Persian Terrace. Tania met with Jamie Nicholas at the Hotel Syracuse to go over set-up of the rooms to maximize dancing space and keep the bar away from the dance floor. Tania will teach the lesson on 2/14; Steve will teach on 2/20. Updowntowners will pay SSDS $250 total.
      2. ) March Lindy band dance 3/27. The 3/27 date will go back to being a Calmix dance at Ballybay. Michael will still work on putting together a Lindy band dance and contact Hannah & Phil for their availability and rates.
      3. Hanover Square 2004. Tania has had positive contact with Bill Cooper of the Updowntowners and Peter Penizotto of the Hanover Square merchants' association. Both were receptive to scheduling the Swinging in the Square events on consecutive Fridays. Cooper is waiting for the city to OK his proposed dates. Tania will stress security concerns in her next conversations with Bill and/or Peter.
      4. Calmix dances 2/28, 3/27. We won't schedule a dance in April due to the Mario workshop weekend. We will reserve Ballybay for the last Saturdays in September, November and December.
      5. Summer picnic reservation. Tania reported that Camp Brockway is no longer available for rental on weekdays, so she will rent Arrowhead Lodge at Oneida Shores. Lynn said he had previously checked out the facility and it will serve our needs for the picnic. The rental cost is $175. Our first choice for dates is 6/24, second choice 7/29. Tania will find out if the lodge has grills available.
  2. New Business
    1. EVENTS SCHEDULE FOR 2004.
      1. WCS and Hustle Workshop. Steve (with Kim's support) proposed a combination workshop weekend September 17 through 19 with instructors Diane Nardone and Robert Cordoba & Deborah Szekely. He has a preliminary outline of income and expenses using the Mario weekend revenues as a guideline and expects that SSDS would break even or make a small profit on the weekend. We would have Nardone teach five workshops and Robert & Deborah teach five workshops, with none overlapping in time. As a comparison, Mario in 2003 taught 8 workshops over 9.5 hours, two on Friday, four on Saturday and two on Sunday. We approved the proposal.
        *Maria will reserve the Polish Home for 9/17 through 9/19.
        *Steve will get a save the date flyer to Debbie for the March mailing.
      2. Mario Workshop. Maria circulated a proposed class schedule and price list, both of which were approved. The prices and class times are the same as 2002 and 2003. Maria reported that April 1 is the start date to sign up for privates. The weekend captains are Mary Ellen for the dances, including set-up and clean-up; Alice for billet; Dave Moran as gofer; Maria for registration and contests.
      3. Polish Home reservations. Maria will reserve the hall for hustle/WCS weekend 9/17-19; Halloween Dance 10/30, NYE Dance 12/31.
      4. FYI Frankie Manning workshop weekend will be 10/15-17 or 10/8-10.
    2. Equipment rental policy. Tania circulated a proposed policy, which was approved. The presumed rental rate for SSDS equipment is $100 per day or dance. The Board must approve rentals and rates.
    3. Ordering new T-shirts. Tania gave Debbie information on past orders (price and quantity) and summer 2003 inventory. The committee (Debbie, Alice and Sally) will determine what quantity, shirt styles and sizes to order. The shirts will use the "vintage" design, and we have the artist's approval to use it at $1 per shirt. The committee will provide cost estimates to the board for approval.
    4. Demo request 6/11/04 Community General Hospital Foundation. Tania received a request for SSDS participation in this community fundraiser at the Welch-Allyn lodge in Skaneateles. Between 300 and 450 people will attend. We don't know yet how much time the foundation wants to give us for dance demos or whether they want us to provide dance lessons. The foundation wants demos in Latin, possibly Tango, WCS and possibly Lindy Hop. Tania will keep working on this.
Next Business Meeting: March 7 at 7 p.m. at Tania and Mark's house.

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