Minutes of SSDS Meeting
June 2, 2002

Taken by: Tania

Present: Mary Ellen, Lynn, Sally, Kim, Tracie, Stacey, Steve, Tania, Maria, Greg, Dave.

  1. Old Business
    1. General Report
      1. our application was not drawn in the lottery for a grant from the Updowntowners; the CRC turned down our latest application.
      2. Hanover Square series for 2002. - Tania said that she still needs six volunteer instructors. She will send another email requesting volunteers and also remind them not to teach moves with turns because people are dancing on pavement, that they will need a cordless mike.
      3. Weekly dance status report. Maria said that everything is going smoothly. There were shootings recently on Geddes Street, so when we give people directions we need to keep discouraging people from using Geddes to get to the hop. We will keep more of an eye on things in the summer because more people are hanging out. Attendance is consistent at 60 weekly. Maria proposed giving DJ volunteers free admission just as we do the door duty people, and we decided to leave it up to the DJs to pay or not. We had a long discussion about whether we need a suggestion box. Maria has heard some complaints about the music mix. We will keep following our music mix formula; we are not losing people over this. Greg said that our mix is pretty good and that we just need to be careful we*re not too far on the fringes. DJs can remind people of the different dances they can do to a single song; we also can announce that we constantly reevaluate our music mix and people should tell us their suggestions and request songs. Maria will do a quick suggestion box. Steve said that he sometimes has a problem finding people to teach the survival lesson. Rather than emailing and lining up volunteers, we encouraged the DJs to ask different volunteers specifically and to stick to the scheduled lesson time of 8:30.
      4. Proposal to Ukrainian Home regarding floor refinishing. Steve said that he has spoken with the UK Home manager, Walt, who is receptive, but Steve assumes that they are still trying to sell the building. Steve has no estimates on refinishing costs yet although he has tried with two people so far. Lynn will send a refinisher referral to Steve. We can*t make a deal until we know the refinishing cost. We need to investigate the best finishes for dancers. Can gave Steve a web address with information; Tracie will call the Kallet to ask about their floor*s finish, and Steve will call Bill Cameron for similar information.
      5. Demo on June 11 at IRC fundraiser. Tania reported that everything is set; Steve & Kim are doing a WCS, then Maria*s team (also WCS), then an open jitterbug jam in which Steve, Kim and others will dance with the dinner*s honorees and each other. IRC is paying a $100 honorarium for performance.
      6. Picnic on June 27. Tania reported that all is set, Camp Brockway is reserved, flyers done. Tania and Alice will do the shopping. Greg and Mary Ellen will help with grilling, Kim is doing contests.
    2. Financial Report - Steve said that our May income was $650 from the hops, with expenses of $182 for a $467.31 net. Our total net income for 2002 was $2,013.41 YTD, but there are several Mario workshop expenses outstanding. Total revenue balance is $10,245.95.
    3. Committee Reports
      1. Workshop documents. Tania said there was no report.
      2. Dance venue list - Maria said there was no report. Tracie distributed the dance venue list via email.
      3. Workshop review classes. Tracie distributed a proposal from the committee*s meeting. The proposal is open-ended and flexible. The goal for the review classes is that they take less time than the original class because material is reviewed, not taught. We will offer the classes to people who take the workshop, meet the need for review, and extend the workshop weekend as a courtesy to the dance community. We will charge only a nominal fee to people who took the workshop; each instructor will set the price. The review class format/schedule is up to the event coordinator and class instructor, with board approval. SSDS is not paying the instructor but is paying for the venue. The instructor receives the money from students* fees. Because review classes normally will occur on a Thursday night, they must coordinate with Steve*s teaching schedule and choreo class. Steve said that for 2002 this is a good working document. We agreed to review the distributed document and email comments to Tracie.
    4. Marketing: Tracie reported that she and volunteers will put the mailer together on Tuesday June 4, 610 pieces including Mario flyer with preregistration form, newsletter/calendar, picnic flyer. Tracie checked into bulk mailing rates. There is a one-time fee of $125 (going up to $150 after June), an annual fee of $125 (going up to $150) and a per piece charge of 10 cents (versus 37 cents for first class). If we do two mailers a year of 600 pieces, we will save $150 but there is more labor because we have to sort by zip code. One 600-piece mailer is approximate break even for the annual fee. (25 cent per piece saving x 600 equals $150). We will end up eating the one-time fee. The post office prefers stickers over staples to close the pieces; Greg said there may be an applicator for that. We will need extra time for delivery, so Tracie would need more lead time for production. Tania will ask the track club about its experience with bulk mailing in terms of delivery delays. Some post office boxes block bulk mail. We voted to buy a bulk mail license before the end of June.

      Tracie also said she has created mini-flyers for the summer listing weekly dances and instructors. She is making 500 half page flyers.

    5. Progress on upcoming events.
      1. Mario workshops July 12-14, 2002. Mario workshops July 12-14, 2002. Maria reported that his flight is set and under budget, hotel is under budget. We are selling bottled water. She has volunteer captains in place. There is time for six privates, and Maria has 12 names on the list. We discussed selling a video notebook and decided it would be too confusing to offer more than one tape, possibly have one discreet sign-up or make tape available only to weekend pass holders. Maria will look into costs to produce the tapes. We discussed whether to advertise open dancing on Sunday until 5 p.m. and decided to leave it informal since we will be there cleaning up anyways. There might be a private lesson going on at that time depending on Mario*s flight schedule on Friday (i.e., if his flight is late and bumps a private scheduled for Friday afternoon). Toe to Toe dance shoe vendor said it would be willing to send show samples for sales but they need a credit card to secure the stock; we decided not to do this but will ask them to send more catalogues. Mary Ellen said that dance DJs will not be paid but treated as volunteers. Mary Ellen proposed a strictly swing dance contest with prizes; Kim is head judge; two divisions (amateur and professional) with $10 per couple entry fee; first prize is cash from your division, second prize is Mario tapes. No contest if fewer than five couples per division sign up. We approved Mary Ellen*s contest idea and authorized her to spend $100 to buy tapes as prizes. Mary Ellen and others expressed concern about the heat during the event. Steve said the UK Home*s AC is OK if instructors use the microphone to be heard; we also will bring the box fans. Mary Ellen will look into the cost of buying cardboard fans printed with the SSDS logo as a give-away.
      2. Kyle & Sara workshops Sept. 20-22, 2002 (Steve). Nothing to report location is UK Home.
      3. Jo Thompson workshop Thursday, Sept. 26 is cancelled. Maria reported that Thompson cancelled several dates besides the Kallet workshop weekend.
      4. Diane Nardone. Kim said that Nardone has dates available Nov 1-3 or Nov. 15-17. Both are open on the WCS calendar. We agreed on the Nov. 15-17 weekend. Steve will talk to Kim about past fee agreements with Nardone.
  2. New Business
    1. Membership proposal. Kim explained her proposal, which she distributed last month. Its main purpose is to give dancers a feeling of belonging to the club, make it better, share in the work. The purpose is not to make money but to increase a sense of community. Benefits to members could be preregistration discounts on workshops, we could ask other dance groups to give a discount to SSDS members. We would not work hard at getting members, just put out the forms. Possible renewal period at summer picnic (June to June) or holiday dance (Dec. to Dec.) Membership chair would negotiate the discounts, budget, forms, manage database and keep track of renewals. Tania said that we would have to be clear that this membership is not membership of the SSDS corporation with voting rights based on the way our articles of incorporation are set up. The membership must be in support of the educational aspect of our corporation to protect our non-profit status. Greg wanted to make sure we keep membership aspects away from the hops so that people won*t think they can*t go to the hop because they*re not members. Tracie noted that we would need to figure the cost of membership discounts at our non-hop dances, workshops, co-op events and the cost of the membership itself. Lynn said that we need a process to poll people who attend hops to find out what they think. He said the membership proposal is a significant shift for our group and could create a separation between member and non-member. He sees a problem if members can*t vote. He also said the proposal would increase administration costs without solving our volunteer problem per se and doesn*t think it*s necessary to create memberships. We agreed that we need to do more research and talk to other dance groups with memberships. The proposal seems more like an SSDS discount card than incentive for belonging and volunteering. Kim will develop a survey to give out at the picnic to see what people think. We will talk about this more at the planning meeting.
    2. Lindy workshop with Bill Borgida. We decided to table scheduling Lindy workshops until fall when the students are back in town. Lynn said that he also is talking to Borgida about workshops and about ways to build the Lindy community in an organized way. There is no market in Syracuse right now for high level Lindy, but there is a market for the basics.
    3. Other business. Lynn expressed his appreciation that SSDS supports the efforts of for-profit instructors by pricing events at a competitive, fair market rate. He wants to talk more about how SSDS can support efforts in the community and will continue this conversation into our planning meeting.

Next meeting: Sunday July 7 at 7 p.m. at Tracie*s house. Remember planning meeting Sunday August 18.

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