MADISON SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCERS

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Minutes of the Executive Board Meeting

August 15, 2002

Nancy McClements’s Home

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1. Attending. Nancy McClements, Norma Briggs, Nancy Holland, Carol Buelow, Clelia Niesen, Scott Weiss

2. There were no agenda revisions.

3. Minutes. The minutes of July 18,2002 were approved by consensus.

4. Treasurer’s Report. The Treasurer reports a balance in the checking account of $2317.63, and $3607.01 in the mutual fund. As of June, the mutual fund value has gone down.

5. Secretary’s Report. The Secretary reports that the RSCDS membership cards were received and all but a few distributed. The remaining ones will be mailed. There have been a number of inquiries and requests for various types of information, including how to put on a ball and help me find information on a famous Scottish dancer. Most have been answered, with assistance from the Chairperson.

6. Membership. Chris will be meeting with Clelia before next Sunday’s class to turn over the membership list. Clelia will send an e-mail to the newer members inviting/encouraging them to come to the Bring a Friend night.

7. (Other) Report from Pinewoods and TAC. Norma relayed to us what she learned in talking with the new RSCDS chair Alan Mair and his wife Christine about the changing outlook of RSCDS. There is an indication of more progressive thinking. There may be some advantages in becoming a Branch, possibly with the Milwaukee group. As an Affiliated Group, we are hard to find through the RSCDS, whereas we would be more visible as a Branch. Joining with the Milwaukee group to become a Branch would require working out arrangements for separate finances and governing bodies. Norma will contact the Milwaukee group to see what they think.

8. New Business.

a. Membership. See 6 above

b. Parties. Nancy H. gave us numerous clever suggestions and ideas for themes for the quarterly dance parties. Other ideas for encouraging greater attendance included emphasizing hospitality and promoting other events taking place in town the same weekend, and having one dance party focus on easier dances to encourage beginners. It was decided we should include our list of Ball attendees on the mailing list for party flyers. It was thought that increasing attendance was a better way to reduce our losses than raising the cost above the current $9.

c. Publicity

i. Chris is working on revising our MSCD brochure.

ii. Wisconsin Highland Games. The request from the Games organizers for a demo was dropped in favor of putting on a dance. Since the time is too short to put together a set program, Norma offered to lead a more informal evening of dancing, including audience participation or more advanced dances and demos, depending on who attends. This is provided the time could be Saturday evening, with a specific time slot. Mike B could provide music. Carol will also attempt to find out if we can get a sound system and free entrance for dancers. Someone from the board will try to attend the next Highland Games committee meeting, which will be Thurs Aug 22.

iii. Demos. The English Country Dancers are open to us doing a demo during one of their Monday dance nights. August is an off month for contra dances, so no inquiries have been made yet. Norma suggested our demos might benefit from going back to scheduled practices. There was general agreement, and also a suggestion that we have a known set of demo dances.

iv. Other publicity ideas. Nancy H. distributed a handout detailing our listings in various media including Isthmus, Inter-city Scot, Portal Wisconsin web site, etc. We missed the deadline for the State Journal Answer Book that just came out, but will be in it next year. She also has ideas for attractive name badges for members and new people, and offered material to make tartan neck scarves or sashes for women dancing as men, similar to those the Milwaukee group uses.

9. Old Business.

a. Room reservations: We are set for Union reservations for Sunday nights for the remainder of the year. Chris has requested a larger room for Sept 29 Bring a Friend night. He needs specific date possibilities for the advanced dancing room request. Nancy H. will check dance schedules of other groups to find open dates, and get back to Chris.

Chris will be writing the letter to the Dance Dept.

b. Sept 8 party; everything is set.

c. Feb 2003 party reservation: waiting until Janice is back.

d. Farmers Market demo. We will meet at 9:00 at the S. Hamilton corner to prepare for dancing by 9:30.

e. Mike Mudrey will get his corrected dance booklet to Nancy McC.

f. Ball 2002

Scott and Nancy M are working on spreadsheets of expenses. Carol will follow up on overdue payments.

Norma indicated that the CD of the music needs further editing.

The manual revision will be reviewed when Chris is here.

g. Nancy M. hasn’t had time to ask Don T. about archiving.

h. Board Duties revisions. Carol will talk with Edna to find out what the latest versions are of each section of the manual, obtain them, and work with Nancy H. to repaginate.

i. Web site. Minutes of Board meetings will be posted as DRAFT until approved. Nancy McC is taking suggestions on the Ball memories web site. There is a lot of material, especially photos, to sort through. She is also getting the membership form ready to put on the web.

10. Timetables. We are on schedule for August.

11. Videos were postponed until the next meeting.

12. Next meeting. Because the meetings have been running quite late, it was decided to start meetings at 6:30 beginning with the next one, which will be on Thursday September 19, at Clelia’s. It will be a potluck.

Respectfully submitted,

Carol Buelow