Minutes of SSDS Meeting June 1, 2003

Present: Can, Mary Ellen, Maria, Dave, Sally, Lynn, Tania, Anne, Dan

Minutes by: Tania

1. Old Business
   • General Report
     1. Weekly dance status report. Weekly dance status report. Dave reported that he is having difficulty in recruiting door duty volunteers. He has been working a slot every week and sending out 2-3 emails each week. Dave proposed, and we agreed, that he get 12 "permanent" volunteers to make up four teams and each person would work one shift per month. Dave said he feels the honor system for payment would not work because people forget to pay or try to slip in.
     2. Review of May 31 dance. Can reported that the dance floor was fine. We had 50 people, two of whom were volunteers, to yield $240 at the door. We paid out $5 for refreshments and $125 rent to net $110. There were no takers on "open DJ," but some people brought CDs. There were new faces - ballroom dancers. Payment system seemed OK with a sign and keeping an eye on the door.
     3. Purchase of storage cabinet (Greg). Carried over.
     4. Marketing. Tania has talked with Tracie briefly about this. Tracie likes doing the flyers/mailings and will continue to do this. Tania and Dave have taken over the T-shirt sales, and Tania will re-inventory the shirts.
   • Consent agenda – (No discussion.)
     1. June 5 Thursday dance at Moonlight Ballroom
     2. Mario Robau weekend for 2004 scheduled April 23-25
     3. September 2004 for Szekely and Cordoba
   • Financial Report – Greg sent a report via email indicating that May was a break-even month.
   • Committee Reports – No reports.
   • Progress on upcoming events.
     1. Mario Robau workshop July 11-13. Maria reported that 28 people are registered so far including 5 captains. Tracie is doing on-site registration and will need more volunteers than last year. Flyers are done, and Tracie is mailing them out. Mary Ellen is coordinating dances and demos. We decided that people doing demos will not receive free admission to the dance because some demo teams have 20 people on them and our attendance cap of 150 is at play. We don't know yet when Mario is arriving in Syracuse. 14 privates are filled up; we are distributing privates 2-to-1 local to out-of-town dancers, all with full weekend pass purchased.
     2. Nardone Hustle workshops. (After the meeting) Kim sent in the date of November 21 through 23.
     3. Halloween Dance. Can said that we hired John Cole Blues Band, a true cross-over band from Rochester. Can will ask local dance promoters not to hire the band within one month of our dance to avoid conflicts. Venue is KofC on State Fair Blvd. Band cost of $500, plus possible hotel costs to be split with Dinosaur BBQ because the Dino hired them for the same weekend. Schedule is DJ-set / band-set / DJ-set / band-set, with band starting at 10 p.m. Kim will handle contests and demos.
     4. Hanover Square. Tania. Need volunteer teachers for 7/4, 7/18, 8/1, 8/8, 8/29. Tania and Mary Ellen will do July 4, Maria will do July 18 and Aug. 29. Tania invoiced the first event, but no payment received.
2. New Business
   • Teaching slots available Thursdays 7/3 and 8/7. Lynn or Mary Ellen may take the slots; they will get back to Tania.
   • Planning for picnic July 10. Alice, Anne and Tania will shop. Tania will arrange for flyers. We will cut down on the time for contests from last year. Mary Ellen volunteered to help with grilling.
   • Schedule monthly Saturday dances for fall 2003. We decided to schedule dances at Ballybay on 9/27, 11/29 (Tania and Mary Ellen will organize), and 12/27 (makes sense because no Thursday dance 12/25). No dance in October due to Halloween dance.
   • Schedule summer planning meeting. Date set is Sunday September 7 at 6 p.m. Place is TBA.
   • Other business.
     1. New Years Eve Dance. Can will email Illona of USABDA about doing another joint dance this year. We will have further discussions about the midnight revelry and whether it added or detracted from the dance or may have taken too long.
     2. Maria followed up on an earlier discussion about teaching a 15-minute survival lesson once a month during the Thursday dance in a dance like 2-step or salsa that we play. Maria will plan a date and make announcements.
     3. Mailer. Tania will work with Tracie and Kim to coordinate a summer mailing to include the picnic flyer, calendar/save the date with information on Hanover Square, Mario review classes, Saturday dances.
     4. We discussed the possibility of getting a volunteer to update our pictures on the web page. We need a volunteer to take and scan pictures, downloading is too time-consuming for Can. Tania will aks for volunteers at Thursday dances.

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