Taken by: Tania
Present: Dave, Sally, Lynn, Tracie, Greg, Can, Maria, Steve, Mary Ellen, Mike, Alice, Kim, Stacey, Tania
1. Old Business
General Report -
(1) Review of April 13 Lindy workshop. Greg reported that expenses were $1,075, income was $1,075 so we broke exactly even and also sold 5 T-shirts. Forty people attended the lessons, and the Ballybay site could have handled 60 people for lessons with no problem. 60-70 people attended the dance. Ithaca dancers used 2 of the 10 free dance admission tickets that we sent. We also gave free admission to instructors Dan & Caitlin because they helped with a demo with Skye and Sarah. Extremely positive feedback on the band Seaway Swing, which played to the dancers and took short breaks. Food from Ballybay was good value, lessons were good. On the down side, its was very hot because the A/C wasn*t working and we needed water during the dance. Water was available during the lessons but not the dance due to a miscommunication. We will stress the need to patronize Ballybay*s bar, but we need access to water. Ballybay has pitchers of water available during USABDA dances. We received 3 evaluations, which were distributed on-line after the event because we forgot to announce and/or distribute them during workshop, and all were positive. Can asked that the workshop checklist committee consider that event organizers need to talk to area teachers so that workshop instructors choose material to fit the social dance floor, not exhibitions. The workshop content was better than our last Skye and Sarah workshops because we advertised it for experienced dancers and that*s who attended.
(2) Weekly dance status report. Maria said that attendance is down a bit but things otherwise are status quo. We usually have lower attendance in the busy summer months. Steve and Tracie will check to make sure the heat is off when they start teaching at 6. The owner said that we could open the side door for ventilation.
(3) Hanover Square series for 2002 * Tania sent out an email on April 10 asking for 8 volunteer instructors but has not received responses. Tania will follow up.
(4) Proposal to Ukrainian Home regarding floor refinishing. Steve met with the UK Home*s new manager, and he is open to our proposal of refinishing the floors in exchange for a specified number of hall rentals. Steve called one refinisher for an estimate, will prompt him again for response and get a second estimate. UK Home is trying to sell the building, so if we make any deal we need to include in the contract a clause that if the UK Home sells we get money back for unused rentals. We discussed different floor finishes and Steve will call different venues for more information. The finish can*t get sticky in humidity.
(5) Review of April 20 coop dance at OCC. Can reported that very few OCC students attended (about 10) but there was a good turnout (about 40) of dancers. Tania and Mary Ellen taught a jitterbug lesson and a tango lesson also was available. The OCC DJ knew nothing about DJing a dance, and we would help out in this area if we do this again. OCC music club raised some money.
(6) Demo on June 11 at IRC fundraiser. Tania reported that she signed a performance contract with the IRC for a 7 to 10 minute demo. Event at the OnCenter expected to attract 650 people. SSDS will be paid $100 honorarium. Maria*s demo group will perform. Steve reported that his and Kim*s demo group from last summer will not perform, so we*ll have two couple demos in addition to Maria*s team.
Financial Report - Steve reported that we have $1,605 in incremental revenues so far in 2002. Hop profit after rent is $356 in January, $340 in February, $400 in March, and $410 in April. Equipment rental revenue is $200 in January, $140 in February, $70 in March and $100 in April. Our total cash assets are $11,285, but this does not include several expenses for which members need reimbursement.
Committee Reports
(1) Workshop documents. Tania said there was no report.
(2) Dance venues. Maria reported that attendance at the hops in April has declined (66, 62, 56, 62) and there is no need to immediately consider changing the hop venue because our chief concern had been that we were outgrowing the space. We will keep using Ballybay, with which we are very happy, and be diligent about safety and safety announcements.
Tracie said she has completed the dance venue list, which we need to complete for an accurate record of venues for different sized events and backups in the event that we lose Ballybay. Tracie will distribute the list electronically to volunteers. Volunteers are Mary Ellen and Steve (East), Tracie (North), Can (university area). Tania may do Southeast.
(3) Workshop review classes. Tracie said that her committee will meet separately.
Marketing Report.
(1) Tracie is working on a flyer for the Mario workshops and needs to fill in information about classes, schedule and prices. Tracie will work with Maria on this. Tracie said that she believes that a price discount for preregistration is sufficient incentive and withdraws her prior proposal (see 3/3/02 minutes) for adding different preregistration incentives. Tracie has a list of regional addresses to send the Mario publicity.
(2) Tracie distributed proposed information for the spring mailing, including a newsletter/events calendar, picnic flyer, and quad flyers of upcoming events. The mailing list (600 names) is not now cross-referenced to remove people who also are on the email list. We decided not to remove email people so that everyone would have a piece of paper as a reminder. Steve will buy stamps for mailing. Tracie will check on bulk mailing rates and requirements for future mailings. Assembly of mailer set for May 14.
(3) Tracie distributed a proposed mini-flyer for the Hanover Square dances. Maria suggested only including lessons and the SSDS Thursday dance due to space limitations. Tracie said she will include as much information as possible while keeping it readable. She will probably put the lesson info on one side and the dance info on the other side. She needs lesson info for June, July and August.
(4) Tracie asked for a petty cash fund of $100 to cover her copying expenses for flyers. She will supplement the fund with cash from T-shirt sales. She will keep an accounting of all that she receives and spends and inform bookkeeper Steve. We approved the petty cash fund.
Progress on upcoming events.
(1) Mario workshops July 12-14, 2002. Maria reported that the Ukrainian Home is all set as the venue and she and Can have been working on a class schedule and prices. Volunteer captains are Eric as Mario*s chauffeur and our gofer, Maria for registration, pre-registration, and recruiting door duty volunteers for reg. and dances, Tracie for housing and refreshments, Mary Ellen for dances, which includes set-up and clean-up, sound system, DJs, contests. Maria wants to sell bottled water at the event like we did at Hudson Hall, and we agreed.
(2) Kyle & Sara workshops Sept. 20-22, 2002. Steve said nothing is new. Maria has the Polish Home on hold as a venue and will stall them.
(3) Jo Thompson teaching workshop Thursday, Sept. 26 (Maria). Nothing new.
(4) Diane Nardone. Need to set date. Kim will work on this.
2. New Business
Summer planning meeting. Date set as Sunday August 18 at 6 p.m. place TBA. Alice will run the September 8 business meeting and take minutes because Tania will be in NYC. Tania will supply agenda to Alice.
Membership proposal. Kim distributed a proposal for discussion at next meeting.
Non-disclosure of business strategies. Can expressed his concern that people are talking about meeting business indiscriminately with third parties and used as an example someone telling Ballybay*s bartender that we were thinking of moving the hops. As a group we make decisions and then appoint one person to conduct discussions with third parties. Everyone needs to be aware of this problem and practice common sense when discussing SSDS business and strategies. We declined to adopt a specific policy. Lynn expressed his concern that our meeting minutes are publicly available on the web and may be a source of sensitive information to outside parties. We proposed that when Tania sends the minutes to meeting attendees they review the minutes with an eye toward anything needing editing before Can posts the minutes on the web. We specifically declined to adopt a practice limiting the availability of minutes. Tania expressed her strong desire that all SSDS meetings, minutes, and business remain open and accessible. Greg noted that ISDN tried to limit minutes distribution and problems, including the development of cliques, cropped up. Addendum: After the meeting, Can checked the web site statistics and learned that since February 2002, only one person read the minutes (for January 02 meeting) on-line. He concluded that any compromise to confidentiality stemming from web access to our minutes was slight.
Proposal to encourage participation of SU students. Can proposed that he meet with Walt Medicis, who works with SU*s ballroom dance student organization, and SU administration to encourage student participation in SSDS events with a pro-rated rebate. Under the plan, if the SSDS event made a profit then SSDS would pay a rebate to BDO based on the number of SU students that attended the event. Can noted our past difficulties in working with BDO, but Greg said that he had heard indirectly more positive feedback but that we need more information. We had a general discussion about who else could get this kind of incentive, such as students from LeMoyne and OCC or dancers from other regions like Rochester. Greg said that the people at SU promoting swing dance are not in the BDO and that BDO doesn*t need money because the university funds it. Greg said that we need to make a conscious effort to attract any students and said that direct discounts or help with transportation may be more effective than a BDO rebate. We agreed that we need to attract new members from a younger age group. We decided not to take any action on Can*s idea but to discuss this issue further at the summer planning meeting.
Other business. Can proposed hiring Seaway Swing for our Halloween dance because Israel Hagen (singer for Stroke) has agreed to work with the band to expand its music list. The combination would allow us to accommodate both WCS and Lindy. Seaway Swing was great with the dancers on April 13; we know and like Isreal. Isreal would bring Stroke*s sound system for the date. We agreed to hiring the Seaway Swing/Isreal Hagen combo. Can will work out the details including price and making sure that Isreal has a wide WCS range.
Next Meeting: Sunday June 2 at 7 p.m. at Tania*s house.