Taken by Tania.

Present: Alice, Mike, Greg, Lynn, Mark, Steve, Jon D., Can, Tania

1. Old Business

General Report – Collaborative event with Ithaca -- discussion tabled. Another successful series of dances at Hanover Square with at least 30 SSDS dancers at each of five events. There is some concern that funding for next year’s series will be tight. Tania will send thank-you letter to Downtown Committee, organizers of Hanover Square series, and remind them of our role (teaching lesson, publicity on email and web) and say we are happy to work with them as they develop next year’s program. SSDS will pay $50 deductible toward medical expenses of dancer who was mugged outside of a record hop last February. Tania will send the payment.

Financial Report – Steve. $4,048.71 net income year to date with $10,466 total revenue. Report on Nunez workshops in July – total revenue was $5,279, total expenses were $3,552 ($1,857 instructor, $400 Ukrainian Home, $500 band, $472 air fare, $132 hotel), for net income of $1,726. Workshop attendance was 62, 64, 72 & 74 people on Saturday; 71 & 71 on Sunday. Jon offered to research no-risk CD investments for some SSDS funds and report at next meeting. Greg expressed his concern that any investment be extremely conservative due to our non-profit status.

WCS and Lindy Hop Nights – Latest Lindy Hop night had 9 people, most dances seem to only have a dozen people. Syracuse needs a Lindy teacher in the area to generate interest, skills. Possibly bring in teachers from Cornell. Jon would like to investigate other venues without the 11 p.m. cut-off time that Hudson Hall has. It was noted that S.U. students don’t patronize our Lindy night because they want to hit the bars on a Saturday night. Jon said he would like to stick with Friday or Saturday nights. Greg will talk with S.U. students about teaching exchanges to teach cool moves. Jon proposed to write a letter to college athletic departments offering 6-week sessions of classes. Jon and Steve will look at Hudson Hall schedule for break to teach Lindy, time also available Wednesday at Damon’s. Decision to cancel remaining Lindy Hop nights (Oct, Nov, Dec) because of conflicts with other Lindy/swing events.

Can does not want to have WCS nights at Comeback Inn because owners were unreliable. May try to alternate weeks with Lindy Hop night and coordinate with Jon. Can will talk to venues Suds Factory and Caribou Club.

Grants – (1) Follow-up on CRC Administrative Grant. Greg will purchase phone answering system for SSDS; Steve ordered second phone line at his house at cost of $210; Tania will check on post office box. Follow-up will be new business cards, telephone book listing, change in publicity and business contacts. (2) Follow-up on request for funding from Senator DeFrancisco. Committee of Tania, Greg & Can will write proposal, meet with senator’s staff.

2. New Business

Halloween Dance – Date is Friday, October 27 at Ukrainian Home, with workshops by Andrea Deaton. Hop will be at Ukrainian Home Thursday 10/26 for dance, decorating party, and possible Deaton workshop. Cost-sharing with Ithaca; SSDS will pay a proportion of Deaton’s costs based on the number of workshops she teaches, most likely two workshops in Syracuse with privates on Friday. Otherwise keep Ithaca and Syracuse events separate financially, with no discounts at door. Can will book the band. Waiting to hear from Carol about availability and cost of Swing Station & Cookbook combination; Joe Whiting available at $500. Tania will send out email closer to time of event asking for volunteer "captains" for refreshments, clean-up, decorations. Mark will coordinate the door. Need to include publicity in mailer.

Diane Nardone Workshops -- Steve is negotiating fee and scheduling date for November 18-19. Steve will contact Ukrainian Home as venue, Kim will schedule Letizia for band dance. Nardone to teach hustle and salsa. Steve, Kim & Tania will coordinate weekend, which may include teaching disco line dances, costumes, etc. Need to do mailer on this event when confirmed.

Other Workshops – Maria Cirino is working on scheduling a workshop with Mario Robau in 2001 on a date that does not conflict with Toronto’s workshop. We decided that fall might be best and decided against having him during Blues Fest. We decided that Kim McLaughlin can continue dealing with Michael Keihm about a workshop. We’re in no rush to schedule due to busy fall. We remain open to putting together a Lindy Hop workshop and finding someone to teach regularly in Syracuse. Committee of Greg, Mike, Alice & Jon will investigate.

Demos – Steve reported on scheduled demo dates for current WCS choreography class: October 14 at Three Rivers Inn, October 20 or 21 for Rochester Foliage Frenzy, October 27 at Halloween Dance. Tania reported on demo scheduled 9/17 at Westcott Cultural Fair, which Mike and Alice volunteered to help coordinate. SSDS received $50 for demo. About a dozen people came to the 7/29 Street Rod demo that Tom Andrews coordinated.

Video library – Proposal to purchase dance instruction videos for lending to SSDS members. Can reported that Toronto has had a library for 6 years with 40 videos with only one copying problem, no losses and no noticeable wear and tear. Ithaca does not have a library. Can proposed to buy 20 WCS, 20 Lindy and 10 miscellaneous videos for $1,500 to $2,000, with a mix of workshops and competitions and emphasizing teachers we bring in for workshops. We also discussed possibly starting smaller, with 20 videos. We would need a volunteer to be video librarian and a central location to store them, like Hudson Hall. Decision was tabled until next month.

Dance event table registration policy – Proposal to have SSDS front money to reserve tables at regional dance events and then collect reimbursement from attendees. It appears that SSDS would have to front the weekend pass cost. There was a consensus that SSDS is not willing to risk losing money by paying up front and that this proposal may serve a fairly narrow part of the SSDS community. We thought it might be better to consider this on a case-by-case basis. Further discussion and decision tabled until Tracie can explain her idea in detail.

Fundraiser at Manlius Pebble Hill – We agreed to participate in school’s silent auction on Saturday, November 4 (theme of "All that Swing,") by purchasing ad in program book (1/4 page is $50) and donating auction item of lessons/T-shirts. Can will design and purchase ad, coordinate donation. There is the possibility of a demo or a lesson. Can will attend the meeting at MPH on 9/15 to find out more.

Grants – Tania met on August 8 with Mark Wright of CRC. New grant cycle with applications due on October 11. Tania will write grant and send to Can & Greg for review.

New Year’s Eve dance – We agreed to have the dance again at OnTrack train station, Armory Square downtown. Can will handle renting the space and negotiating price. Due to problems we had last year ("Charlie" was 30 minutes late opening for us, manager lost our money order), we’ll try to get lower price.

Other Business – Can will purchase SSDS banner to replace one stolen during Nunez workshops in July. Approximate cost $85.

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