Minutes of SSDS Meeting
November 4, 2001

Taken by: Tania

Present: Can, Andy, Ilona, Sally, Steve Ryan, Steve Olin, Tanna, Lynn, Tania, Charles, Mary Ellen, Alice, Greg, Maria, Cynthia

1. Old Business

General Report --

1. First Friday night country/swing dance Nov. 2 at Ballybay had 60 people, only positive feedback. Next scheduled for Nov. 16 but may change date due to conflict with an ISDN dance. No line dances at first event.
2. Report on Johnston's Ballybay as new hop location was again only positive feedback. Bar owner is cooperative. One incident in which some kids were in parking lot checking car doors but otherwise no security problems. Thursday students paying $1 admission without complaints. No need to sell bottled water. There is no good space to teach the free lesson, so we will do it on the side near the DJ booth until we think of something better. Steve will check on availability of space on second floor to teach the lesson. Can suggested as a Plan B taking 15 minutes at 9 p.m. to teach a dance move as a way to satisfy our lesson requirement, but Greg noted that it would take more than 15 minutes away from the hop.
3. Tania reported that she submitted the CRC grant on October 11, 2001. The grant seeks funding for a free lesson series at Southwest Community Center to build more diverse group of dancers. Greg noted that state budget problems may curtail grant funding.
4. Volunteer policy for weekly dances. Maria summarized her ideas for having hop captains and coordinators. Can noted that we need to broaden our volunteer base. Greg noted that we can get more door duty volunteers if we announce at the hop that there is free admission for working a half-hour shift. A base of people exists who need the break on admission for door duty. After considering setting up a three-person committee to divide hop-associated work, we decided instead to appoint one hop coordinator with the authority to coordinate the volunteers as she/he sees fit. The duties of the coordinator are (1) to recruit and oversee door duty volunteers (half hour slots from 8 to 10 p.m.) who get free admission in exchange for working a shift; (2) to make sure set-up and clean-up take place; (3) to be responsible for the admission money and turn it over to bookkeeper Steve on a timely basis; and (4) to keep track of concerns regarding the hop location. It is up to the hop coordinator to recruit additional organizers, known as captains, to help her find volunteers for these tasks if she so desires, and she can recruit as may or as few captains as she needs. We declined to adopt a formal point system to compensate volunteer captains and coordinators. Maria enthusiastically agreed to serve as hop coordinator for six months, with her term ending at the end of April 2002.
5. Sound system rental policy. We agreed to adopt a policy allowing SSDS to rent its sound system to support dance events in the dance community. We will model a rental contract after the one we used with Chris Egan for the Friday night country/swing dances. SSDS will screen the proposed renters, and any rental will require board approval. Can will be the primary contact for rental requests. Rent will start at $50 but may be more for a larger event or for-profit event. Most rentals will require a cash deposit to cover possible damage. Can will draft the rental policy for posting on the web and circulate it to other board members for approval.

Financial Report -- Steve reported that the Halloween Dance lost $230. We took in $826, which means that approximately 120 people attended. Expenses were $275 rent, $25 tip to bartender/groundskeeper Mike, $600 band, $150 refreshments and decorations. We lost $536 on the Nardone workshops in September. Revenues were $1305, and expenses were $500 rent, $750 instructor fee, $180 hotel, $180 mileage. The expenses were similar to last year's Nardone workshops but revenues were down. For the hops at Ballybay, rent is $50 per week, and we divide it to $10 per hour. SSDS pays $30 and instructors pay $20 for using the space for two hours of lessons, but SSDS pays the whole $50 if there is no lesson. We made $100 each week on hops in October, but overall lost money in September and October due to the losses at the Nardone workshops and Halloween dance. Total assets currently are $9,259.83.

Review of Diane Nardone workshops September 14-16. As noted in financial report, we lost money because of much lower attendance than last year. In 2000 we had twice as much revenue for this workshop as in 2001. We concluded that a large part of the problem was that we rushed the workshop and didn't save enough time for publicity. We only had two or three weeks to publicize the dates. There also was some drop off due to the September 11 attacks. The salsa workshops were not well attended, and we did not get Nedim's students because they didn't know about it. People complained that the dance floor was sticky in spots. Maria said that she and Diane Braden had trouble getting volunteers. Part of that may be because our hop attendance had been down and that is a pool for volunteers.

Review of Halloween Dance October 27. As noted in financial report, we lost money. Despite some complaints from latecomers, we decided that they have to pay the full admission even if they come late to the dance - our expenses are fixed. Next year we will give free full admission to all door duty volunteers. There were some complaints about the dance floor stickiness. Next year we need to move the prior Thursday hop to the dance venue in order to make decorating a special event. We had an extremely low turnout of volunteers to decorate the hall this year. The band was too fast the second set, but we can't control a band. There were some complaints about the band. Some people will not come because it's a band dance, but others come specifically because it's a band dance. We tentatively decided to keep hiring bands for the Halloween dance because it's the only band dance we have every year. We will have to make better efforts to explain to the band the importance of music tempo and perhaps have longer breaks for DJ'd music, but SSDS fills the breaks during the Halloween dance with activities. Maybe we need to have a longer party with more danceable breaks. Attendance from out-of towners was down, perhaps due to Cornell Halloween dance the Friday night before our dance. Maria agreed to draft a two-question survey to distribute at hops about next year's dance. She will ask (1) do you prefer a band or a DJ at the Halloween dance? and (2) would your preference determine whether you came to the dance at all?

Welcoming newcomers. Once a month at the hops we will do a "mixer" dance in which people switch partners at cues throughout the dance. We also will continue the birthday dances once a month.

Excess shirt inventory. Tabled.

2. New Business

Holiday party. Cynthia reported that both the 13th and 20th of December are open at the Knights of Columbus on Taft Road, which will cost $175 to rent with one cash bar. We will not pay the extra $25 for free soda. The KofC is non-smoking, will have tables set up and already be decorated, and it is larger than Damon's, which this party has outgrown. We set the date of December 20, times 6 p.m. set-up, 7 p.m. dinner, dancing until 10:30. Admission is $5 or dish to pass. Tania, Alice & Cynthia will buy SSDS food and paper goods. Steve will make up a flyer.

New Year's Eve party. Ilona reported that Johnston's Ballybay is available and will do three carving stations and appetizers at $12.50 per person. Cash bar. We noted that we will need vegetarian dishes. About 40 USABDA dancers are interested in a NYE dance, SSDS NYE dances have had 40 to 60 people. USABDA has had 75 to 80 dancers at their events at Ballybay. We will ask about using space upstairs for dancing. After some discussion, we agreed to co-sponsor a NYE dance with USABDA. Time 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. and limited to 80 people. Committee members Andy, Ilona, Greg, Tanna & Steve will address issues such as menu, music mix, ticket sales. Can will announce dance on the web. Ilona will send a dance budget to the board. Andy noted that tickets will have to be $17.50 or $20 to cover costs. Goal is to start pre-sale tickets by Dec. 1st.

Dance venue list. Discuss ways to flesh out the master list of dance venues that Tracie created.

Upcoming events. (1) Mario workshops July 12-14, 2002. Maria is organizing this weekend. She noted that we will need a bigger venue than the Ukrainian Home as she expects 300 people to attend the workshops. Maria and Can will work on finding a suitable venue. Maria has save-the-date flyers. (2) Kyle & Sara workshops in 2002. Steve contacted them for available dates, and we tentatively chose September 20 to 22. (3) Lindy hop dance with live band Seaway Swing. Steve & Tanna will work with band for spring dates for a dance. Band fee is $450. Greg will contact Skye & Sarah for possible lesson in conjunction with dance. (4) We agreed to bring in Jo Thompson for a Thursday workshop September 26, 2002, when she will be in town. She will teach two workshops, from 6 to 7 and 7 to 8 and then stay for the dance. SSDS will pay 1/5 of her plane fare (based on SSDS share of her total teaching hours that weekend), her lodging for Thursday night, and her instructor fee for the two classes. We will ask her to teach private lessons in Syracuse on Friday the 27th.

Better quality workshops. Tania working on checklist/general plan.

Other business. Can proposed that we have surveys available at each workshop to solicit feedback. He agreed to draft a survey that we will give to volunteer captains to distribute to participants.

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