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Call To Order:
The call to order was given at 2:15 p.m. Members present included all five board members and Abe Camp, Jeanne Daniel and Patty Davis. Because there was confusion about the actual meeting time; two members, Dale Haggstrom and Vita Cukers and Richard Kemnitz showed up after the meeting had finished. One item, (Instructor Katya) was added under Old Business. The agenda and last month’s minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s Report:
Nancy gave the following report: After payment to Instructor Jerry and our current legal expenses, ($5,500); we have approximately $1,500. Nancy provided the board with a written financial report to have on file for interested members.
Terry Daniel reported on behalf of the Membership Committee; stating that we currently have 95 paid members. Of these, 13 do not have e-mail addresses and five have no addresses listed. Terry sent the 8 members a copy of the club’s recent “open letter” via USPS.
Publicity—Publicity was not represented. Linda Gilhuly stated that the Publicity Chair had requested a monthly budget, in order to broaden and vary the club’s advertising audience. Two additional items were discussed. There have been concerns from several members over conflicting information published in the e-news. The time for our meeting was an example. However, the neat and concise format of the newly condensed e-news, received favorable comments by several members.
The new e-news format was discussed. Several individuals would like to see a blurb at least weekly. Some emphasized that our club needs to be the primary focus, not other clubs or community events. Linda will speak with Publicity regarding these concerns.
The board discussed and voted on re-naming the Publicity Committee to Communications Committee. A few members have expressed concern that they’re unsure of what is happening at the board level in our club; the board has taken these concerns very seriously. Ideally, concerned members and especially chairs, should attend the monthly board meetings. However, because member participation has been rather low in recent months, the board decided that the monthly minutes would soon be available to all chairs, to all members, (posted on the website) and on the dance hall bulletin board. The board agreed that this hopefully, would foster better communication with all interested members. The board hopes that members with comments or concerns in the future will either attend the board meetings and/or email board members.
Program: Abe Camp reported that his committee has been working on defining the club’s “angeling” policy. (An angel already knows the dance steps and volunteers to “partner” someone who doesn’t know the steps. The angel does not pay for the class.) The topic of how many times a member must have taken a class in order to be considered an angel; was determined to be two times. The instructor or the club is not paid for angels and the club has decided to more closely monitor individuals who volunteer to help others in this area.
Abe also discussed the inconsistent class “retake” policy. In the past, individual members were sometimes able to retake a class, without charge. The board voted that instead of no charge; members will now be able to retake classes at the reduced cost of $5.00 per class; versus the current $7.00.
Social Activities: Debbie Franchek was commended for her excellent job of coordinating the recent Starlight Ball. Costs were carefully monitored and the event made some profit this year. Debbie provided a detailed written report to board members, after the event.
Facilities: Jeanne Daniel stated that she was still looking for good dancers who would be interested in assisting with Saturday practice. The plans are to cancel the practices during the summer months because of low attendance.
Old Business:
Legal Update: Wade Godfrey reported that a copy of our proposed by-laws have been given to our attorney. It’s been 8 weeks since our settlement conference with Judge Kauvar and we’ve heard nothing from the Zito’s attorney. They agreed to dissolve the “incorporated” club. Our attorney has suggested we wait 4 more weeks before we initiate any legal action.
Hall Rent: The club still doesn’t know if or when the hall rent will be raised. (After instructor fees, this is our next highest cost.) According to Terry Daniel, the Northern Council of Dancers corporation representative, the former president of the council, Bill Mudd, is scheduled to have a meeting this month regarding this matter.
Treasurer’s Replacement: Nancy Schultz resigned as club treasurer several weeks ago. The board appointed her replacement. Patty Davis has graciously volunteered to fill in until November’s annual election.
Katya: Katya, dance instructor from Anchorage, is re-scheduled for a workshop April 12th-14th. Patty Davis and Kurt Byer are coordinating her travel arrangements. The monthly board meeting for April will be postphoned one week because of Katya’s visit. It will be on April 20th at 2 p.m.
New Business:
Communication: The board will attempt to increase communication to membership; the secretary will post monthly meeting’s minutes on the website, send copies to all board members and committee chairs and post them on the dance hall bulletin board. Richard Kemnitz, our website genius, stated that we have 180 members on our listserve; the Good Times Swing Club has 304 on their listserve, with only 60 individuals in common. He stated that we now offer a link on our website, to the swing club site.
Raising Jerry Blemke’s pay:
Terry Daniel provided the board with a cost comparison sheet to show how much our club is paying our dance instructor. During our club’s reformation, Jerry had volunteered to take a reduction in pay. The board feels it’s past time to raise Jerry’s pay and voted to do so. The board stressed how very fortunate we are to have someone of Jerry’s caliber, as our instructor.
Club Debit/Credit Card: The board has considered securing a more convenient payment system for out-of-town instructor’s travel expenses, etc., but decided that we would wait for the time being. The board will re-visit after our official incorporation is completed.
Announcements: Next board meeting is April 20th at 2 p.m. at the dance hall.
Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 4:15 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Robin Near,
Secretary