Minutes of SSDS Meeting June 6, 2004

Present: Deborah, Chris Egan, Mary Ellen, Can, Maria, Rod, Tania, Greg

Minutes by: Tania

  1. Old Business
    1. General Report
      1. Weekly dance status report.
        1. Alice emailed an attendance and dollar report for April and May.
        2. Chris Egan proposed organizing a "Mario night" once per month in which she would DJ the entire time focusing on "basic" WCS songs with occasional hustles, salsas and 1 or 2 Lindys per hour. We discussed the current music mix; Mary Ellen expressed concern that beginner dancers might be put off; Tania wanted to make sure that we played enough ECS and Lindy for those regular dance attendees. We approved the proposal for the second Thursday of the month, starting 6/10, and will monitor people's responses. Chris will be mindful of the dance crowd and play at least three Lindy songs per hour.
      2. Publicity. Deborah will coordinate our next mailing, targeted for July. The three flyers will be Nardone/Cordoba/Szkekely workshops, Calmix dances, and Halloween dance.
      3. Review of Mario Robau workshops. Maria reported that 192 people participated in at least some part of the weekend, compared to 153 in 2003. 85 people were from Syracuse. There was higher Syracuse participation than last year, perhaps because we lifted the attendance cap. Total income was $9452, total expenses were $5158, for net profit of $4294 (half to Robau per agreement). Maria developed a marketing plan noting the number of flyers we need and a flyer distribution list. Mary Ellen presented an outline of "lessons learned".
        We discussed Mario's policy of not allowing anyone to watch his lessons who has not paid for the lesson and how we can fairly and evenly enforce that policy without offending dancers/volunteers who may come early for the dance (and while the lesson is ongoing). We should have made Mario's policy known and will better publicize it next year with announcements at hops or a line on the flyer. We hope to add to our contract with the Polish Home that we can use the downstairs bar for overflow/waiting area. We will work with the Polish Home board directly in the future to avoid misunderstandings with the property manager. Next year we will not pay the bartender to work during the evening lesson hour. Next year we will sell water ourselves as we have in the past because we missed the $200 profit and the Polish Home provided no more service. 2005 dates for Mario are TBA.
    2. Consent agenda: Corporate documents to amend bylaws and elect new board members. Since the last meeting, Tania finalized these documents for our business records.
    3. Financial Report - Greg gave the April financial report. We gained $281.15 for the month. We sold $220 worth of T-shirts (22 shirts).
    4. Progress on upcoming events.
      1. Hanover Square 2004. Tania expressed dismay that only one volunteer has replied to her email request to sign up for dates. We may not do this event next year due to lack of volunteers even though it yields $1125 in donations to SSDS.
      2. Summer picnic. June 24 at Arrowhead Lodge Oneida Shores. Tania said the lodge is rented and paid for. Mary Ellen, John and Tania will do set-up; other people typically show and help out. Mary Ellen will do the shopping; Tania will provide her the list and will bring items she has on hand for the picnic every year. Tania will ask Kim if she wants to do the games again. Greg and Rod worked on a floor plan for placement of tables; Tania will fax the form to the park.
      3. Nardone-Cordoba-Szkekely workshops September 17-19. Steve not present, so no details yet on this event. Tania is doing the contract with Cordoba and Szkekely. We need to get publicity for this event going. Pre-registration should end 9/3 and the flyers should be out by 8/3. Mary Ellen will contact Steve about getting a presentation ready for the next meeting.
        Demo June 11, 2004 for Community General Hospital Foundation. Tania is coordinating this event, which will consist of 7 different dance demos before a crowd of about 500 people. Tania is making 500 flyers with hop info and instructor contact info and is compiling program info. SSDS will receive a $100 donation.
        Calmix dances. No June or July dances (hall booked in July). Future dates are 8/28, 9/25 and 11/27.
  2. New Business
    1. Replacement of CD player & mixer and new component cases; sale of old components. Can proposed, and we agreed, to replace the current, bulky case containing three components with two new, smaller components (CD players and mixer) and a new case for the amp. This will allow more people to transport and set up the system. Overall cost will be $700 to $750. We agreed to try to sell our old components (would cost $750 new) to area dance DJs and organizers for the price we are likely to receive if the pieces are sold on consignment, which is $350 minus a 20 percent fee. If none of our contacts wants to buy it, we will put it on consignment at the Eastwood shop from which we buy our sound equipment.
    2. Mary Ellen noted that the present teaching space for beginners at Ballybay is very poor and makes a bad impression on newcomers. We will discuss remedies at next meeting.
    3. We will try to schedule the Knights of Columbus on Taft Road for 12/16 for our holiday dance. Deborah will contact Cindy Harkness about booking the hall.

Next Monthly Meeting: Sunday July 18 at 7 p.m. at Deborah Smith's house. Note there will be no August meeting.

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