CCD STEERING COMMITTEE Meeting - Minutes
July 16, 2003

The meeting was held at Bruce Tarnopolski’s home at 7:30 p.m. on July 16, 2003.

CCD Steering Committee members present: Rob Harper, Jan Kent, Lalah Manly, Harriette Liske, Ann Robinson, Bruce Tarnopolski and Emily Vorder Bruegge
Guests: Carol Galanty, Barbara Kirchner, Kevin Liske, John O’Neal, Doug Singleton, George Snyder, Seth Tepfer and Christin Whittington.

NOVEMBER DANCE WEEKEND:
Christin Whittington confirmed that Jim Bird and Bonnie Mitchell will teach a salsa workshop; Robert Jamison will be playing waltzes; Steve Zakon-Anderson will give a workshop for callers; and Tina Liza Jones will conduct the traditional singing. Pam Eidson is arranging contracts with the bands.
A limit of 375 dancers was set, to prevent overcrowding on the dance floor. If the limit of 375 people are pre-registered (and this includes complimentary admissions for band members, etc.), then walk-ins cannot be allowed. There is a need to anticipate how to handle this. It was suggested a waiting list be started, if the limit is reached. Christin has prepared a confirmation letter to send to those who have registered.
Ideas for T-shirts and buttons should be submitted in time for the August steering committee meeting.
Doug Singleton suggested that CCD save money on dance weekend snacks by buying food at Sam’s Club.

NEW CALLER EVALUATION PROGRAM
Rob Harper presented ideas on ways to give helpful feedback to those who would like to become callers at Friday night dances in Atlanta. The consensus among the cub callers present was that the experienced callers have been very helpful with constructive critiques. It was also mentioned that the Tuesday night dance has been a very helpful opportunity. However, the process by which a new caller (either new to calling, or experienced but new to Atlanta) can become a caller at Atlanta dances was described as unstructured, not formalized, even "amorphous." CCD is fortunate to have a wealth of excellent callers who live here in Atlanta. Each of these callers only gets to call a few times per year. That is one reason why it has been difficult to incorporate new callers – regardless of skill or experience. However, it was expressed that CCD needs to examine its "participatory philosophy" is as it applies to the booking of our Friday night callers.
It was mentioned that feedback from dancers was important in the process of evaluating callers. Opinion was divided, however, on whether or not it would be a good idea to survey dancers. Ann Robinson pointed out that if a survey is well crafted it can be constructive. Others expressed concern about negative discussions on the list-serve. One suggestion was to have one person consolidate comments and not broadcast negative comments on the list serve.
It was decided that after the November dance weekend, specific criteria for evaluating callers would be finalized and a plan implemented to evaluate new callers.

STEERING COMMITTEE NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Volunteers are being sought to solicit nominees for new steering committee members by August. John O’Neal volunteered to be the point of contact for anyone who would like to be on the nominating committee.

LIST SERVE AND WEB SITE
Although not discussed at great length, it was agreed that in general, the more information the better, in terms of publicizing dance events. There are regional calendars of dance events already in existence, however, which we don’t need to duplicate. One interesting suggestion was that the list serve functions could be divided out into separate sections, for instance: a list serve for official announcements only; one that could be a CCD discussion about anything dancers want to discuss; and one could be for classified ads.

2003 FLOOR PLAY
The Steering Committee approved a proposal by ContraQuad to have a dance on New Year’s Eve at Morningside, using CCD’s sound equipment and following basically the same arrangement as last year.

AUGUST ROSWELL FESTIVAL
At Doug Singleton’s request, CCD will rent sound equipment to performers at the Roswell Festival for a $350.00 rental fee.

DANCE BEHAVIOR COMPLAINTS
It was decided that CCD should draw up a sexual harassment policy. All in attendance were requested to get copies of policies from their workplace and it will be placed on a future meeting agenda. It was also suggested that there be people designated for newcomers to go to with questions or feedback. For example, an announcement could be made "If you have any questions, talk to anyone wearing a red button."

ADJOURN
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. The next meeting will be held on August 13th at 7:30 p.m. at Christin Whittington’s home.

Respectfully submitted,
Emily Vorder Bruegge, CCD Recording Secretary

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