Minutes March 12, 2025

COTMD Board Meeting

We met at Virginia's house at 7 pm and enjoyed each others company while gorging ourselves on all manner of sweets, cookies, and pie.  There might have been something healthy there too.

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm.

Present: Dianne B, Dianne P-Q, Maris, Victor, Virginia, Marguerite, John, Fred

Absent: Gail, Kenny

The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and approved.

Dianne B presented the Treasurer's Report.  Donations to cover the additional costs of renting the Arsenal Hill venue had been received.  There were no additional expenses aside from hall rental so the net financial status remained virtually unchanged.  Money accumulated in Venmo was transferred into the bank account. The report was approved.

Marguerite presented the Booker's Report.  The upcoming dances are:

3/29, Arsenal Hill, Caller: Victor, Band: Marshal Goers & Lucy Allen

4/26, TBD (see next), Caller: Victor, Band: Sherlock's Meow

5/24, TBD (see next), Caller: TBD (out of town), Band: ContraCola Open Band

The Booker's report was accepted.

The meeting continued to address issues identified by John in the meeting announcement.

There was discussion about the choice of venues.  The vibe of the CMFA space is not as agreeable as Arsenal Hill; it does however have greater capacity.  The CMFA space requires a lot more physical work to set up and take down because of the layout of the space and location of storage rooms.  The CMFA space is used primarily as a ballet studio, and it there was concern that the contra dance left the floor dirty.

Presently the Arsenal Hill space is being rented from 5-11pm (for a total of 6 hours), which accounts for the required "minder fee" of $150.  The CMFA space has no minder-fee requirement, and neither organization expects a percentage of donations.

The board approved the following motion as a statement of intent: "That the principal venue for dances should be Arsenal Hill with CMFA as a backup."  The motion was approved.

There was additional discussion about how to go about increasing the capacity of Arsenal Hill from 49 persons to something higher.  Victor thought he could see if he can find some documents circa 2014 that would explain why the capacity was reduced.  Maris was going to take a look at the door and outside steps situation to see how bad it is. 

John in discussions with Pearl O. has determined that there is no possibility of reducing the hourly rate for the minder.

There was discussion about the needs for the next dance and expectations were clarified.

The Booker is authorized to begin searching for bands and callers for next season.

There will be no out of town bands for June, July, and August if dances are scheduled.

Dianne B has narrowed the search for a texting service (Brevo) to replace the one that GiveButter has here-to-fore provided as a benefit of their base-level offering.

The next meeting will be April 9, 2025, at Virginia's house.

The meeting adjourned at 8:41 pm.

/s/ Fred Druseikis

Minutes, February 12, 2025

 Victor

 Minutes of the COTMD Board Meeting

February 12, 2025

Meeting called to order at 7:37 PM by John Wetzel.

Present: Virginia, Marguerite, Dianne B., Dianne Palmer-Q, Fred (via video call), Victor. There were enough members to have a quorum.

1. Approval of minutes of January meeting. Minutes were reviewed and approved.

2. Treasurer’s report was reviewed and approved.

3. Booker’s report

   1. We are dancing at Arsenal Hill and our talent is Chris Liakos and John Wetzel, with Caller Dianner Palmer-Q

   2. March’s talent is Lucy Allen and Marshall Goers, with Caller Victor.

4. CMFA as a dancing venue: the Board discussed the various aspects and issues with CMFA. John reported a very cordial and productive conversation with the new liaison at CMFA. Among the issue that were noted:

   1. Floor: the floor is not the best for Contra dancing and CMFA has concerns with damage to it due to street shoes being used.

   2. Calendar: CMFA explicitly indicated that they will have to cancel our reservation if they have an event in the main room.

   3. CMFA has an issue with having food in the pink room

   4. Chairs and tables: CMFA will not allow us to store them in the pink room because they want everything stored in a central location for all of their needs.

5. Arsenal Hill logistics and planning: everything I set to go for this first dance. John will add Arsenal Hill to our insurance policy.

6. Amplifiers at Lake Murray Contra Hall: John asked for approval to compensate Tyler for going to LMCH, unplugging our newest amplifier, connecting and testing the older amplifier, and then retrieving our equipment (including one of Fred’s and Dianne’s monitor speakers). A motion was made by Victor to approve the expenditure of $50 for Tyler’s time and it was seconded by Virginia; the Board unanimously approved the motion.

7. Microphone stands: the group needs three microphone stands. During the short discussion, Dianne B., Fred and John offered to donate three stands to the group.

8. Inventory of existing equipment: John is in the process of preparing an updated list of our equipment and where it resides. Some of it is with Tyler and some with Victor and some with John or at Lake Murray Contra Hall.

9. Other items

   1. Victor advanced the idea that, if we cannot afford to have more dances each month (due to funding and limited volunteers) then we may want to reduce the frequency of our dances to quarterly events that have a longer duration (to include workshops and a potluck). This was left open for further consideration.

   2. Dianne P-Q discussed the use of Meetup and Facebook ads to promote our new location. The estimated cost for the ads will be $30 per month. The Board approved the idea of investing funds for both Meetup and Facebook.

   3. Dianne B. brought up the fact that our free texting service through GiveButter is coming to an end. That service is now part of GiveButter+ which is a bit expensive at $29/month. Dianne B. will research alternatives for free texting.

Minutes, January 8, 2025

The board was held at 7:30pm at Virginia's house at the previously agreed-upon date.

Present: Dianne B., Dianne P-Q., Gail, Victor, Marguerite, Virginia, John, Fred

Absent: Maris, Kenny

Virginia and sister needed to travel the next day, so in the interest of allowing them to get to bed earlier, we abbreviated the agenda.

The minutes to the last meeting, October 9, were not reviewed or approved.

The treasurer gave an abbreviated statement of financial condition.  There were several disbursements however there was not substantive income or expenses to report as the dances since august were either cancelled or suspended for lack of interest.

The primary agenda item was to decided on the venue instead for Lake Murray.  The two candidates were CMFA and Arsenal Hill.  Arsenal Hill was selected, with the first dance being in January 2025.  

As of today, February 3, the January 2025 dance was not held because of issues in securing commitment from city Parks. The location of the February 22 dance is presently in question because of undisclosed "minder" hourly expense for the hall.  Previously the misunderstood charge for the Arsenal Hill hall was 80/20 split of gate receipts, which are "donations".

The next meeting is February 12.

The meeting adjourned a little after 8pm.

s/Fred Druseikis

===== INFO below added by Wetzel,on 2/13/2025 provided by Marguerites notes =========

 The dates below were selected at this meeting as our "maximum dates we want"  (J Wetzel comment)

Columbia Traditional Music and Dance [COTMD,] also known as ContraCola, wishes to reserve the Arsenal Hill Hall for our monthly community contra dance on these Saturdays in 2025:

1/25

2/22

3/29

4/26

5/24

6/28

7/26  

8/23  

9/27

10/25

11/22

12/13

 

We envision the following time will be needed to set up sound equipment, dance, and then take down equipment and clean up:

Door open at 5:30 pm

Setup and finish sound check by 6:30 pm

Contra dance lesson 6:30-7:00 pm

Dance contradances 7:00-10:00 pm

Take down and clean up, be done by 11:00 pm