Minutes of SSDS Meeting August 3, 2003

Present: Alice, Mary Ellen, Greg, Charles, Sally, Mike, Tania

Minutes by: Tania

1. Old Business
   • General Report
     1. Weekly dance status report. Status quo. Greg noted that we should try to play more traditional ECS such as oldies, Elvis, slower East Coast songs.
     2. Purchase of storage cabinet (Greg). Permission to install a larger cabinet at Ballybay was already obtained. Greg will buy it soon.
     3. Marketing. Tania did an inventory of shirts and said that as of mid-July we had 82 tanks and 12 shirts. She lowered the price of tanks to $5 to get rid of stock. Since mid-July we have sold 19 shirts and gave away 5 as contest prizes. The group consensus was to go back to the vintage design T-shirt, including a "ladies" style T-shirt with something like cap sleeves and a jewel neck. We will look into using colors or black as well as white shirts. We will not re-order tanks. Tania will ask a couple of people to help her with the order in the fall and will ask Can to take steps getting permission to use the design again.
     4. Thursday teaching schedule. Tania reported that Ballybay slots are full through August. On 7/31 SSDS picked up the rent because Mary Ellen had only 3 students.
     5. Review:
        • Mario workshops. Defer until Maria can report.
        • Summer picnic. Tania reported that we lost $262.78 on the event, which is typical. About 75-80 people attended, slightly down from last year. People liked the skit instead of contests, which take up more dance time. Sally said that 10 of her and Lynn's students attended and were frustrated by the lack of beginner ECS music. Tania asked Sally to let the DJ on duty know if that situation recurs so that the DJ can be responsive and play requested songs. Tania reported that there were a lot of left-over hot dogs, which she will try to return. Tania keeps a list of food purchased/eaten from previous years, but it always changes. Greg will look into a formula he's seen for buying meat for large parties.
        • Canal Museum dance. Can reported via Tania that the fundraiser dance for the museum was not well attended and requested that we reduce our fee for renting the sound system. We agreed to donate the sound system use and ask for a receipt of the value of the donation ($150).
   • Consent agenda -- No items.
   • Financial Report – Greg reported that we are doing well with the hops over the summer and are covering the rent even when instructors do not pay the $20 rent for 6 to 8 p.m.. The Mario workshop numbers are incomplete on the report, which shows a net gain of $3,757 for July. The number will go down because Mario expenses are not listed and Mario's profit sharing has not yet been paid. Greg transferred money into checking to keep a higher minimum balance. Greg will talk to Carol about the SSDS phone line bills.
   • Committee Reports – No reports.
   • Progress on upcoming events.
     1. Nardone Hustle workshops November 21-23. We need to rent a hall. Tania will ask Can to check on hall search status. Mary Ellen has 9 cases of water left over from Mario weekend that we will keep until we know if we'll need them for Nardone.
     2. Halloween Dance October 25. All set. Tania will ask Can to check on band contract, which she has not received.
     3. Hanover Square. Tania sent invoices for 7/4 & 7/18. Volunteer instructors all set for the rest of the series. Alice noted that it might be better to teach at the second band break when there are more people. Tania pointed out that the New Times advertises the lesson at 6:45 p.m. We need to make sure teachers discuss SSDS and the Thursday dance. Tania supplies Thursday dance flyers. Greg suggested opening a dialogue with the Hanover series bands in an attempt to make them more dancer-friendly. It is difficult because SSDS does not hire the bands even though we have input in their selection.
     4. Holiday Dance December 18. We agreed to rent the Knights of Columbus hall on Taft Road again because the advantages of the space outweigh any negatives. The group consensus was that the hall was large enough.
     5. New Years Eve Dance. Tania will ask Can to check with Andy and Ilona about USABDA's participation.
2. New Business -- none.

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