Meraki Sunday July 11 After Dance

  

Meraki Monday June 11 on Zoom

Attendees: John B (notetaker), Mellen, Brian (Facilitator), Lori (vibe check), Lindy (ingatherer), Deb G (timekeeper), Kari, Blair, Marion, Shelagh, Juliette, Kiara, Katharine

Attendees: (ingatherer), (facilitator), (timekeeper), (vibe checker), (notetaker), 

Meeting Format

• Choose roles (Ingatherer, Facilitator, Timekeeper, Vibe Checker, Note Taker)
• Ingathering
• Briefly review How We Roll
• Summarize previous meeting notes
• Gather new agenda items
• Set order and time for items
• Attend to agenda items
• Schedule future meeting(s)
• Evaluation
• Outgathering

Agenda

• DJ thing - Deb
• Mechanics Hall Update - Kari
• DJ Update - Deb
• Dance Collective Opportunity - Deb et al
• Special Meraki Meeting Feasibility Study Questions - Deb
• PCD Sponsored Workshops - Jason
• Dance number updates - Brian

Meeting

Special DJ proposal: (Deb) Acquire DJ table cloth. Proposal approved.

DJ Update (Deb):

We want a more collective, structured way to introduce new DJs. Experience of people being interested; takes a lot of time to train new DJs, and then they may fizzle out. Idea: DJs pay to be trained; they will get that back if they become a DJ. Mellen: We have about 4 or 5 people who are interested.

Dance Collective Opportunity (Shelagh)

Grew out of momentum of finding a new dance space. Tasja and others met with a group of dance orgs that Barrett of PCS (Portland Community Squash) held. 190 Lancaster (near Bayside bowl) was a place visited on Friday; several PCDers met there to check out the space. Other dance orgs were represented. 2nd and 3rd floors: contiguous 12,000 feet, other smaller spaces. Don't have numbers about the cost of that space.

Marion: Next steps: wish list to be developed by the Portland Ballet representative, then compare with other orgs to see if there are common requirements. Also, evaluate by architect.

Deb: This is informally a globular group that isn't PCD or Meraki officially, but a group of PCDers with strong interest allied with PCD. Not official PCD business, but it's about looking for spaces.

Juliette: Is the proposal to rent, or lease with build-out? Shelagh: Most likely is that some other organization that builds out the space. (Temple Beth El isn't a permanent long-term solution because of the floor and scheduling shifts during the school year.)

Katharine: Don't know if it was already on their radar, but has been talking to Creative Portland (arts council). They're supposed to be representing all arts in Portland, and should know about this, but it's only two people. Deb: Good to get that information over to Tasja, who's a good gatherer of this kind of information. Katharine: They've got their fingers on the pulse of the dance community.

Deb: Coming away from the meeting and comparing notes with Mellen, they thought the space was impossible. The space requires extensive changes; at the same time our collective thought was that if we keep coming to these meetings and participating, eventually something would come together. Marion: PCD is not in a vacuum. We're part of a larger dance/arts community. Important energy to be reaching out now.

Jason: Who's going to get that info to Tasja? Katharine will communicate with her.

Feasibility Study (Deb):

So many questions and energy developed in meetings about potential new spaces and how we / do we expand. Lots of energy connected to the discussions; it would be crazy if we didn't harness the energy around those discussions. Deb created a page document (PCD Space Feasibility Study Questions) regarding the larger process of evaluating options. It's a guidebook. Wants people to know about it because if anyone gets involved with questions about new space, this document is important to review.

Kiara: There's also an offering in that document to research questions that are raised therein. If people are moved to contribute, add to that document if you have info/input. Document is sitting there waiting, ready to go.

Katharine: Link available? John: yes, the link is in the Meraki announcement and notes.

Dance Workshops (Jason):

PCD as an organization has never done anything but dance. Would PCD consider holding workshops specifically that reflect the values we want to maintain, for the purposes of keeping core values alive in the culture we want to maintain. Idea to incentivize newer dancers. Would PCD consider such possibilities to branch out beyond just dance. John: PCD in the past has taken the decision not to partner with other groups, but that decision could be reviewed.

Kiara: There is precedence; we did breakout groups at Avant regarding safety, consent. (Others remembered these.) A phrase like "workshopping" would be important to bring in outside members.

Juliette: What's the impetus for wanting to do that? Jason: Impetus is: we're growing, whether we want to or not, but how do we maintain the culture? Juliette: That's a different discussion than "should we do workshops?" There are different ways to communicate values, like on website (Jason: cards are an example). Goal: investigate multiple ways to maintain the culture.

Kari: A term that came to me was educating about the culture. Did we never sponsor Nege or Moti? Answer: No.

Blair: We had committee meetings around membership in the spring. Some of the possibilities are necessities going forward, like asking members to take a greater role, even require certain things for membership. (Greeting, breakdown, etc.) There's an overlap between membership participation and culture.

Deb: There's also a visioning committee that's been meeting quietly. Also been looking into the larger topics, of which this is one. Will meet again in September.

Shelagh: Wants to give context. John proposed circle up after warmup. Group didn't like that idea, and Lori developed the pamphlet in part as response.

Katharine: If visioning committee is open to other people, I'd like to participate. Had the experience with a new person she checked in with, but that person didn't come to closing circle.

Kiara: Do we want to do a temperature check for the visioning committee around what topics we want to put energy into. There's a certain amount of energy around this idea of culture and how to inform dancers about it. As members of visioning committee: is this a priority? How do you feel about a group read on this topic?

Mellen: Appreciate Juliette bringing this up; we've been discussing this for some time. Appreciate if Juliette is willing to contribute to the visioning committee.

John: Letting newcomers know about closing circle hasn't been done consistently or well. Kari: Greeters have a lot to do.

Brian: Summarizing the discussion, the Vision committee is open for input. Meraki is where we bring community feedback into the work of the committee.

Deb: Visioning committee has a huge swath of possible things to consider. Question of how to choose (which we can't do today). If we choose to emphasize culture, we'll not be able to take up other things.

Brian: What are we taking a temperature check on? As far as visioning committee working on workshop or other methodology for working on culture.

Shelagh: Original charter of visioning committee was to figure out how we're going to collect community input. Not necessarily to make proposals, or decide where to go, but collect input.

Juliette: Is PCD's vision based on community input, or does Meraki decide for the group?

Brian: Meraki is the current mechanism to gather input.

Brian: regarding temperature check: Does the visioning committee consider culture as a priority over other topics? Deb suggested cold to hot with level of hand. Others: measure with thumbs up or down graded in-between.

Brian: temperature check on the work the visioning committee is doing towards some kind of workshop or method regarding culture. Is it a priority? 9 thumbs up, 3 sideways, 2 "warm" (partway up). No downs.

Dance attendance (Brian):

We've been collecting numbers on how many come in the door, gathered by a clicker, count at closing circle, and cash/Venmo payments.

                Closing    Door

Date    Clicker  Circle  Proceeds

May 4     102      70      $832

May 11     98      58      $747

June 1     86      64      $675 

June 8     71      65      $666

June 22    70      57      $845

July 13    85      56      $700

   

Steady decline from May. Is it seasonal or a trend?

Jason: Super valuable. Are we doing this ongoing? Brian: It's a lot of work, but yes, we're planning to continue.

Lindy: When did we switch to mornings? June 8, a sharp decrease.

Lori: We can't compare seasonality with schedule change

Katharine: Could we have 2 greeters? Or maybe there's a Wiz person to address.

Deb: We've had many iterations of this, and it seems like we need to revisit.

Blair: This is a possible area for increased participation through membership requirement: Have you done your greeting?

Jason: Burnout is on our radar. Definitely one of the nuggets we have to look at.

Brian: Doesn't mind doing it some, but can't do it every time. Sophie covered it today.

Blair: Beck is also contributing, and I've stepped in.

Mellen: Having been part of this for 13 years, there's always a summer lull, and always a boost in fall/winter. Lest people think we're going down the tubes or something, summer is always like this (lighter attendance).

Katharine: More slow floor stuff available with fewer folks.

Kari: Regarding Wiz burnout, we're having a meeting soon, and there's going to be a change coming up for the fall.

Marion: Where does reinvigorating fit in? We want people to be more involved, how do we address that?

Jason: Overlap with culture, and Blair: a membership committee. We're on a pause currently. We gauged 80 as a good number.

Lori: If our check-in period was very compressed, greeting, counting, like "This is the 15 minutes we have to check in, then we start" then if you leave early, you leave early, but we're here for the whole thing because it's a whole thing.

Kari: we did talk about requiring volunteering for membership.

Brian: this is a valuable conversation that we could put on the next Meraki meeting. Hard to nail down single things for visioning: the committee has a lot to discuss/consider.

Kiara: Is the membership committee to the point where they could introduce specific proposals? Blair: There can be a membership meeting; my experience was that there was no interest.

Deb: 2 issues: There is interest in membership, and then: who's willing to make sure that happens?

Kari: Discussed that there would be no volunteer monitoring; it would be on the honor system.

Jason: Put together a wish list for membership. 

Shelagh: Where are we, and what is our time? (Over time) We were discussing membership numbers, and has expanded to further discussion.

Brian: There wasn't no interest, but it's a hard conversation. Blair, your work is appreciated, as is all volunteer work. Bring it forward into: how can we become volunteer-centric? because we're all volunteering.

Mechanic's Hall (MH) (Kari):

MH has fallen apart for several reasons. No final answer from them, but several logistics concerned (greeter's table, AC, parking, street people). Taking so long for them to get back to us. It's not dead, but we've heard nothing from them. I think they want us, but we don't fit their mold. They wanted us for 2 dances/month, but we wanted 3, and there were other hitches.

Katharine: MH is an org I'm part of, had a meeting with program director Katie. They're going through a lot of restructuring; got huge grant money, planning on AC, etc. Like a lot of other orgs, they're re-visioning themselves. They are a tremendous organization.

Evaluation (group, comments unreported here.)

Jason: Assuming Fall retreat not happening. Mellen: Is that right? They gave me dates. Brian: Sorry, not on the agenda. Let's discuss next time.

Next meeting (after discussion): Tuesday September 9 7-9 PM in person at Kari and Jimmie's

Lindy: Outgathering

Meeting adjourned

Meraki Monday Jun 2 ZOOM

 

Meraki Monday June 2 on Zoom

Click here for a video recording of the meeting.

Click here for a summary of the meeting minutes created by Granola AI.

Attendees: Rebecca (ingatherer), Deb (facilitator), Mellen (timekeeper), Shelagh (vibe checker), Tasja (notetaker), Brian, Blair, Kiara, Marion

Meeting Format

• Choose roles (Ingatherer, Facilitator, Timekeeper, Vibe Checker, Note Taker)
• Ingathering
• Briefly review How We Roll
• Summarize previous meeting notes
• Gather new agenda items
• Set order and time for items
• Attend to agenda items
• Schedule future meeting(s)
• Evaluation
• Outgathering

Agenda

• Dances 3x a Month - Kari
• Dance Location Possibility - Kari
• DJ Update - Mellen
• Dance Collective Opportunity - Tasja
• Special Meraki Meeting Feasibility Study Questions - Deb
• PCD Sponsored Workshops - Jason TABLED

Dances 3x Month - Kari

June, July, Aug 10 - 12 at the Temple, although there's a chance it might change due to new Rabbi

Suggest that we tell people to check the website.

Agreed: Given the changes, Mellen will send weekly reminders for the summer and mention to check the calendar.

Dance Location Possibility - Kari

Possibility of dancing at Mechanics Hall. Lots has changed there recently. Kari has reached out to schedule a meeting to see the space and discuss possibility of rental. 

Lots of renovation has happened to return the space to the original 3000 sf, HVAC is planned, parking is not bad on Sun, garage across the street.

Marion: Was there last night and learned that the floor is not sprung. 

All: It's a lovely space, third floor with elevator, designed as a dance floor. Might not get the right size and sprung. Many of us have danced there before and love it.

Space committee will tour Mechanics Hall and talk about rental options and report back.

DJ Update - Mellen

DJs are working on a more formal training program to train more people at one time, rather than one at a time with scheduled training sessions, as well as a mentoring process like we have now. We have 3 - 4 people who have expressed interest. It would start in the fall. Will bring the proposal to Meraki soon.

Deb: Next DJ meeting will also consider asking for compensation for DJs as part of the proposal. We want group training so that people don't sign up and then bail. Proposal is that DJs-to-be would pay for this training to demonstrate their commitment and would get their investment back once they become a DJ, in some form.

Kiara: Is there a process for vetting DJs during the process? And also their ability to hold the space energetically?

Deb: Yes, but it's fallen on only some of the DJs. We need to share the load of vetting across more DJs so small group of DJs don't get burned out.

Kiara: I think we need to open up discussion about paying DJs more. We have to make it worth the DJs time because it takes so much time to put together a set.

Deb: We haven't had that discussion. There are also a lot of people who put in a lot of time to the organization as volunteers, so part of what DJs do could be considered volunteer, but thank you for brining that up.

Shelagh: How is it going with DJs in general?

Deb: Feeling really nice, and we now meet twice a month. What's harder is the training. We trained Dena, Keiki, and Sandra this year. But there have been others who haven't followed through. 

Kiara: Is there a chance to get Sage back? 

Deb: We've asked Sage to come back to the community first, but given their schedule, that might be hard.

Tasja: Let's update the website so the DJs are accurate. 

DJs will put forth a proposal for more formal DJ training.

Dance Collective Opportunity - Tasja

Tasja: At our Special Meraki meeting at Portland Community Squash, I spoke with Barrett of PCS about looking for a dance space. The very next day he was going to meet with Joe Porta, of Porta Real Estate about a property that Joe wants to offer at below market rental rates to a community organization in Bayside to help revitalize that area. He reached out to Barrett for ideas, and Barrett suggested a collective dance space! 

In 2 weeks, he pulled together about half the dance community in greater Portland to discuss the possibilities, including: Portland Ballet, who has been looking for a new space for a year, Casco Bay Movers, both Contra Dance groups, Latin, Mechanics Hall, African and Hip Hop, Circus, plus others who couldn't be there like Portland Swing and Afrobeats, Little House Dance. It was an amazing gathering that is just beginning to start networking to potentially collaborate on a space or multiple spaces, including creating a map of all dance groups in Maine to share information. 

Rebecca: Great to be with other dancers who are collaborative. What can we bring to this collaboration? What can we do to cross pollinate? Barrett is solid and amazing and has accomplished it with PCS. Let's hold loosely the next steps with this collaboration. 

Marion: Fabulous! There are lots of individual dance groups. What we don't have is the network of dancers. Would love to be part of it.

Rebecca: Planned Parenthood is supposed to be on the first floor of 190 Lancaster St. It could be so transformative for that area for the community. 

Kiara: An autoparts store is looking at 1037 Forest Ave, so it's good to think about community coming together to claim some space for dance. 

Tasja: Alex from Contra dance is an especially interesting person to have met at this meeting. His organization has a 501c3 whose missions is to Make Dance Happen around the state, and it's his full-time passion. Not just Contra but all dance. He came to see 1037 after the meeting at PCS on Friday and thought it had potential. He's a great person to collaborate with.

Anyone who is interested is invited to see 190 Lancaster St probably next Friday. 

Deb, Shelagh, Rebecca, Marion, Mellen would like to come from this group. Why not just invite everyone we invited to 1037? 

Tasja will invite people to see 190 Lancaster St when the invite comes and keep PCD informed as collective possibilities develop. Anyone from PCD is welcome to participate in this dance collective initiative. 

Special Meraki Meeting Feasibility Study Questions - Deb

At our last special Meraki, lots of questions on how to even proceed, let alone create a feasibility study. Was a feasibility study even acceptable? What if we don't form a committee but crowdsource questions and answers? 

Deb reads the intro of the document she and Claud AI prepared and walks us through it at a high level. (See link in Agenda)

Do we start using this document, and if so, how?

Reading through this document has value. It could be unifying to get people involved in understanding the process of what it would take to sublease, lease, or buy a space, alone or in collaboration with other groups. 

Marion: When I think of this as something PCD does, I say whoa! It feels most useful to think about how we might work with other organizations to create a collaborative dance space. 

Tasja: Does it still make sense to crowdsource answers that we originally intended at our last meeting?

Kiara: Let's put it out in the community and see who has interest and willingness to get involved. 

Deb: There are some areas that can be answered easily. Visioning committee has a meeting,  and we could address areas related to that. It's a good guiding document so when there is something put forth to consider, we can refer to these questions. 

Mellen: It's a good roadmap for when something comes up. Answer the questions we know now. I don't sense anyone's energy to form a committee to answer these questions. What would our minimum entry point be for leasing or buying a space? We have to have certain things in place before we proceed.

Tasja: We have 1037 as a case study, but I agree, I don't sense the energy in PCD in its current form. 

Rebecca: We don't have to do this all ourselves; we could be part of the larger collective. This is where the energy is. It feels like an alternative track to join a collective. I don't know how this document works for us.

Marion: It's an educational document, because no matter what we do, we'll need to be responsible for all these elements. It's like tensegrity in CI, where we all could collectively have this in our system.

Shelagh: The document represents the enthusiasm and curiosity that's been brought up by this process, yet I don't see the same enthusiasm in PCD, e.g., this meeting. After last meeting, I talked at length to Nate. It's impractical for PCD in its current form to take on any of these projects. DNE is the model, where another entity takes on the high-level questions, since we don't have the wisdom, expertise, or bandwidth within PCD. And yet, we needed to go through this process to see how big it actually is. 

Erin: It's worth reading, and the document speaks to the bigness of the project. None of this time or energy is wasted. It's opened these other doors, so thank you for the work that's been done to date. 

Deb: Appreciate that it's an educational document, and probably that's the best use. It's an indicator of all the possible things. What things need to be honed in on now? Let's add this conversation to the document. What are the next steps? 

Marion: It's an informational document for those who want to get up to speed. We don't have to act on it. 

Tasja: What if we share this document with the Dance Collective Opportunity group? 

Shelagh: Are Tasja and Kiara willing to continue to fill that role of liaison with the collective? 

Tasja: We've stirred the pot by presenting 1037 as an option. Maybe that's enough. And yet, it would be nice to have more support from the greater PCD community around all of this.

Rebecca: Appreciate the effort you've put out to get us where we are now. 

Kiara: It feels like we're at the trough of a wave. Let's not do any unnecessary work and wait for the wave to rise again. Happy to ride the wave.

Deb: I hear the desire for more interest in supporting this effort. I'd like to be a liason role for PCD. If we could have a group people who continue to support the collective dance opportunity, that would be great.

Marion: I'd be one of those people. 

Mellen: Kari and Jimmie have been interested. And I will see spaces when I'm available. 

Deb will update the PCD Space Feasibility Study document with this conversation and send it out to the people who came to last two Meraki meetings. This is a document for information only, not things to answer specifically. 

Discussion of Next Meraki Meeting

Jun 22 is only in 3 weeks, and we've had 2 heavy duty meetings within 2 weeks, so discussed shifting it to July 13. 

But what if we need Meraki input on Mechanics Hall or around Dance Collective or from Wiz? 

If we have the chance to test out Mechanics Hall, let's do it on June 29 when we don't currently have dance scheduled. And let's invite DJs, Wiz, regular Merakians like we did when we went to Mackworth Island. 

Rebecca will propose this to Kari, who left meeting early. 

Proposal is to have two options for next Meraki below.  

Next Meeting

OPTION 1: Sunday June 22nd In Person after dance

    if needed, by Kari re: Mechanics Hall, by Tasja for Dance Collective, or WIZ

OPTION 2: Sunday July 13 In Person after dance

Special Meraki Meeting May 19 2025

Meraki met from 5:30 to 8:30 PM for a special meeting at Portland Community Squash with the question: Should PCD form a feasibility committee to consider leasing 1037 Forest Ave? See Committee to Explore Subleasing Space at 1037 Forest Ave for reference

Attending: Tasja, Kiara (Ingathering), Deb (Facilitator), Brian, Nate (Vibechecker), Mellen, Jason A, Jim Y, Lori, Kari, Jimmie P, Rebecca B, Carl, Blair, John (Notes), Nev, Shelagh

Tasja honors Barrett of PCS

Ingathering by Kiara

Meeting Purpose: How to form feasibility/exploratory committee for 1037 Forest Ave (new space) possibility.

Kiara: Step 1: Do we want to go beyond where we are now? (Beyond where we're continuously renting, or taking next step of leasing/purchasing)

Nate: Would we take on more? 

Jim: What is the ideal?

Lori: Brainstorm  

Deb 2 Categories: Requirements,

Deb consulted boyfriend Claude (AI assistant): 

Clarifying purpose of feasibility committee.

• Committee finances,
• organizational structure,
• timeline,
• space requirements,
• parking, etc.,
• risk/benefits.

Proposes discussion of committee structure, etc

Shelagh: We're looking at this upside down with respect to the visioning committee. Prerequisite is where do we want to be going?

Deb: is it aligned with our mission to form this committee when we haven't yet done the visioning part?

Jason: I know what you're saying and agree, but also: there is adequate reason to inquire into this. Do we have the will, capacity, etc?

Nate: Agree with Shelagh regarding PCD. If a separate entity which I strongly agree it should be, then PCD doesn't need a discussion. Separate entity needs to do all the legwork. Should be working in parallel.

Couple of hear, hears

Kiara: We fundamentally need PCD impetus/buy-in/initiative to say yes this is needed. 

Brian: Let's talk about how we're going to talk about it 

Jim: one thing that's consistent is the place to dance 

Kari: I thought we had covered that there's going to be a separate LLC or nonprofit

Tasja: 3 options: Sublease a space like 1037, sign a lease for a space ourselves, or purchase 

Discussions about how to organize, etc. (Details)

Deb: Do we need to examine all of the possibilities 

Nate: All that PCD has to care about is: if some org comes along and says here's a space, all PCD has to do is say yes or no.

Mellen: We need numbers

Brian: we need to discuss how we're going to discuss this

Nate: Vibe check

Deb: feasability tasked with exploring options:

• Renting (what we're doing now)
• Subleasing
• Leasing
• Purchase
  

Jason: We are on the topic of clarifying the purpose of a feasibility committee. Could such a committee have certain thresholds: how much we can afford, floor requirements. We need overall mission, criteria needs to be defined.

Deb: Right, that's why we're here

Nev: I'm hearing: is there energy for a feasibility committee?

Nate: Having a hard time with the question of whether PCD is interested in taking it on? If yes, feasibility committee makes sense. If no, feasibility becomes the purview if the separate entity.

Deb: Question before us is: There is an available space, can we go for it?

Kiara: Would really like to go back to: Are we open to more? The space feels like a possibility, but: is there energy behind exploring feasibility?

Shelagh: A proposal on the table was (at the last meeting): do we want to be a sublessor? Ensuing discussion, there were are lot of questions. What does it look like to do these other things: partner with another group, etc. Point of coming together here: Let's put together a feasibility committee so that we as an organization can discern.

Tasja: I have spreadsheets with scenarios that would love to share. Carl has looked at it. Dying to share it, but can't because we don't have a feasibility committee. Have contractor quotes. Numbers need to be factored into loan repayments, etc.

Rebecca: Purpose of this group is to form a committee to explore further, using what Tasja has in hand

Deb: No, we need to have point of comparison

Beck: In which case, we do need to go back to vision. This is a great idea, a single possible option. We need to explore this one possibility. Don't know what we're doing here if we're not creating a feasibility committee.

Mellen: Thought visioning committee was tasked with that. 

Answer: No, vision committee was formed to plan a member-wide visioning meeting probably now sometime in the fall.

(Break)

Brian: Part of feasibility was: could we sublease (rent) a more expensive space? And: still having a conversation about how we're going to do this.

Jason: What do we have in the bank (JB: roughly $20k). Do we need to start padding for future?

Nate: Coming back to separate organization, which needs to do the feasibility study.

John: We have an existing mission, and would have to expand that to take on space expansion; 2. The specific costs that Tasja is putting together is secondary to an organization that is willing to put in the effort and resources (capital, etc) to make it happen.

Nev: So many ideas, makes this hard. Might be helpful to break it up into chunks. How do we break it down? I've been a part of this with another group; it was similar, and they did it.

Jim: DNE made a greater entity that owns the camp and runs the business, but it's still all the same people.

Kiara: This is a tennis match. Doesn't have to be all known.

Deb asks for Shelagh's proposal. Discuss feasibility of a feasibility committee which explores options.

Nate is a no. See above.

Shelagh proposal: Assuming we are willing to create a feasibility, break into smaller groups and discuss what the feasibility committee would be tasked with?

Deb: Go into small groups? Stay in large group?

Carl: Genesis of how/why I got involved. Real estate background. Looked at space. Not going to do the temperature thing. I do have a nonprofit that's inactive with a board. Feasibility-wise: I know that it's really helpful to have something to focus on. Gives momentum; having the focus will help get energy and momentum that will help get successful real-estate project going. I'm not going to participate in committee work, but I'm happy to help from my expertise. Having looked at the space, I think it's worth pursuing for PCD. 

Temperature readings:

Great space to rent for a little more: Hell yeah!

Forest avenue space feasibility: Mixed up & down

Making a time and energy investment for something like Forest Avenue 2 years

Making a time and energy investment for something like Forest Avenue 5 years

Kari: always on the outlook for a new appropriate place

Nate: We've been beating our heads against new possibilities. We're not going to find a rental that meets our needs.

Shelagh: Let's identify the questions we need to explore

Kiara: Do we set aside 1037 for now?

Looking for a new rental?

Break

Shelagh: We're having trouble coalescing what it is we're doing. What is the information we need as an organization so we can make an informed discussion? What are the questions?

Tasja wants to do it as a group, Shelagh wants to do it in small groups.

Facilitator's call: We're going to take 15 minutes, meet in groups of 5 to generate the questions: These are the things we want to know regarding a future space?

Small group inputs/questions:

John:

Adequate parking?

Big enough square footage?

What are the realistic operating costs if buying or leasing?

Is it sustainable? (Our dances won't sustain a separate entity)

Nate wants strong boundaries. Inappropriate thing for PCD to consider.

Do we have adequate energy to pursue either this or a separate organization?

We would need either to create a separate organization, or evolve.

If an external organization, what is the relationship with PCD?

Current structure has yielded major instability. We're beggars.

Can we survive as the existing organization?

Would PCD consider changing its mission in order to take on space, etc.?

If PCD is struggling to rent, what can we do?

If a new organization, how to form it and the relationships to PCD?

Jason:

Is PCD willing to reexamine its mission statement?

What does PCD need for its organizational structures and how do they work? 501C3, LLC, etc

Capital investments, what percentage would we be willing to put forth?

What are minimum criterias of ideals sq foot, acoustics, etc

What are the other real world examples that PCD can draw from that already exist, DNE, Boulder, Good Medicine, Austin Ecstatic Dance, etc.

Raw numbers, financial questions

IS PCD willing to do more than 4 times, income? 

Deb: 

Appreciation of Tasha, Kiara, Mellen and their work, and see the list of questions already put forth at the end of the original proposal and at the top by Mellen 

How would a committee work that wouldn't burn people out

Brian: 

What is the maximum we would charge per dance?

Would we can we afford?

Would we consider changing structure of charge/pre-registration? Yearly fees

What is optimum space per dancer?

What is maximum number of people per dance?

Search committee consideration: Parking, price, storage, acoustics, range to consider?

How do we fundraise?

DJ availability/feasibility?

After consideration/leftovers ideas: 

What kind of fundraising can we develop?

Who can we partner with in the greater Portland dance committee?

How do we setup structures for donation/financing?

How can we forge checks successfully? LOL

What are our limiting factors?

Do we have the energy?

Where do we want to be and how do our options support this?

We need an exploration of what kind of loans might be available to finance?

Accessing grants and loans, etc

Who has the information that we need? (the other Karls, Barrett)

How to organize networking? business heads, real estate, philanthropy

Please see May 6 Meraki discussion questions for details on what is being considered.

Deb: organize questions: Maybe with AI

Then we start to answer questions via small group from Meraki

see google doc idea for list of questions, Everyone answering small list of questions

    Crowd sourcing answers

Blair: Raise cost of dance now? New Meraki proposal.

Kari: In for a worker bee committee

Rebecca: 

Needs to be a coalescing of a committee?

Watch party for next Meraki?

Tasja: 

Make a google doc to crowd source and answer the questions

How long each question is to answer? (Claude?)

Shelagh:

Things happening in parallel

Vision committee to help answer bigger questions

Synergy (Deb): Is there interest in pursuing more information on 1037? Getting information/confirmation of interest for Kiara and Tasja?

Jason: 

Thanking everyone for the effort

Starting the spark with effort

Kiara: This is a rare opportunity. parking, amount of space, up-to-date space, highly unusual situation

Jim shares amazing architectural drawings of the dance space at 1037 Forest Ave.

Closing round, adjourn

Meraki Tuesday May 6 In Person

Meraki Tuesday May 6 In Person at Good Medicine Collective

Attendees: Kari (ingatherer), Erin (facilitator), Marion (timekeeper), Deb (vibe checker), Nathaniel (notetaker) Mellen, Lily, Rebecca, Blair, Jimmie, Shelagh, Kiara, Tasja, Brian, Traca, Leigha, Emily, Devin, Marion, Jamie, Katherine, Andrew, Jim, Jon, Jason, Steve

Meeting format

• Choose roles (Ingatherer, Facilitator, Timekeeper, Vibe Checker, Note Taker)
• Ingathering
• Briefly review How We Roll
• Summarize previous meeting notes
• Gather new agenda items
• Set order and time for items
• Attend to agenda items
• Schedule future meeting(s)
• Evaluation
• Outgathering

Agenda

• Dances 3x a Month - Kari - 1 min
• Agenda item for next meeting - Jason - 3 min
• Retreat Committee - Marion - 10 min
• Capacity - Rebecca - 3 min
• Proposal: Create a Committee to Explore Subleasing 1037 Forest Ave - Tasja & Kiara - 45 min

Dances 3x a Month - Kari

Kari: Will meet with Sadie from the Temple to discuss proposed dates tomorrow, May 7th.  Not yet confirmed for 3 dances per month starting in June. Kari will also ask about a fan in the space.

Agreed: Kari will report on the Temple's response at the next meeting.

Agenda Item for Next Meeting: PCD Sponsored Workshops

Jason: At the next Meraki, would like to discuss PCD sponsored workshops specifically aimed towards deepening and maintaining the values that we adhere to. As we grow things change, and this may be a proactive way to curate that culture. Discussion topics would include who the teachers would be and what the topics would be. Let's look at the ideas in the pamphlet and how we can hold workshops for those things, i.e. consent, safety, etc.

Agreed: PCD sponsored workshops and what they could look like will be discussed at the next Meraki.

Capacity - Rebecca

Rebecca: The capacity committee is subdivided into three committees: 1) Membership; 2) Pre-registration; 3) Attendance & Data Committee (ACDC).

Brian from ACDC: 102 headcount this past PCD. 70 at closing circle. We are also looking for a vibe check on what those numbers feel like in terms of crowding, etc. The committee is still thinking about how to collect subjective experience in association with those numbers.

Rebecca: We are also tracking income (cash & venmo) to get a general sense of budget, funds, and payment.

Rebecca & Brian: The plan is to track these data points consistently for six dances.

Brian: The counting stops at 1:45 when the greeting stops. Some more people may have shown up after that.

Agreed: The Capacity Committees will gather a headcount of those coming to PCD dances for 6 consecutive dances, i.e., the last dance and the next 5 in a row. They will count attendance at the door for 45 minutes to an hour while there is a greeter present. They will count attendance at the closing circle. They will devise a way to track subjective experience (i.e., felt crowded or not) from attendees and correlate that with the attendance numbers. They will track the income brought in at each dance.

Retreat Committee - Devin

Devin: Past retreat was great. A lot of good feedback from the survey that a lot of people were happy. Some offered ideas for improvement.

On the survey it was indicated that people had a slight preference for Ocean Wood versus Ferry Beach but it was a pretty evenly split.

Financially we did not use the full $2500 allotted, it was about $1600.

For the Fall retreat two date options (one from Ocean Wood and Ferry Beach). The deadline is this Friday, May 9th.

There was interest from the community for the Fall retreat. There is a lot of interest from the community to be on the fall retreat committee.

The current committee has a full playbook in writing to pass on to the next committee to help them set up the next retreat. At least one member will be available to the next committee for support.

The Retreat Committee would like approval from Meraki to have a Fall retreat.

The current committee will select the venue due to the nearing deadline. Community preference, cost, accessibility, and ease of working with the venues will be considered.

Fall retreat will be a break even retreat in terms of cost. The new committee will work out the details of the sliding scale. The costs for the next retreat will be higher because it is not going to be subsidized in the same way.

The two date options are Sept 25-27th for Ocean Wood, and Oct 26th-28th for Ferry Beach. Both are weekend dates.

It is likely Ferry Beach will be cheaper, and Ocean Wood has a slight preference from the community. Ferry Beach is heated. Dance floors are both the same size.

Show of hands from Meraki of preference of venue:

Ferry Beach: 10

Ocean Wood: 5

Abstention: 8

Approval to have a fall retreat. Unanimous.

Agreed: PCD will have a Fall Retreat. The current Retreat Committee will decide on the location, either Ferry Beach or Ocean Wood. This decision will be based on community preference, accessibility, cost, and historical experience working with each venue. The current committee will pass on a playbook on facilitating a retreat to the next committee. A current committee member will be available as a resource for the next committee. The next formation of the Retreat Committee will facilitate the Fall Retreat.

Proposal: Create a Committee to Explore Subleasing 1037 Forest Ave - Tasja & Kiara

Tasja: This will be a presentation about the Forest Ave space and will conclude with a vote on forming a committee to come up with a proposal to Meraki about subleasing the space on Forest.

Pros:

We will have a space that meets a lot of criteria in terms of location, parking, and large enough space for capacity needs.

About a 3rd of the space can be sublet to another entity that could cover a lot of the cost of the lease.

Without another entity it would not be a fiscally possible option.

It offers opportunities as to what PCD could offer beyond the Sunday dances.

Provides a home for PCD for the lease term.

It may be time, after 11 years, to step into the next phase of PCD which might look like having our own space.

Cons:

We have to build out the space to make it usable for our needs. It will cost a decent amount. It is also an opportunity to make the space what we want.

We also need someone to manage the space.

PCD will be a part of the space but not the only entity.

It will take a lot of work, support, enthusiasm, and involvement.

We also need a lot of financial support, labor support, creative support, etc.

The economy is also variable which makes this a risk.

PCD will have to commit to significantly more money than what we are paying now.

We would be locked in for a lease term.

Kiara: The space has a good feeling to it, an energetic opening.

For information, an established successful business on the lease is helpful for the broker.

Tasja: It's 10,000 sq ft. The price is more negotiable by taking the whole lease as opposed to half. Could probably get it for 10-12 dollars per square foot per year. That cost would start lower at the beginning of the term.

Kiara: The idea is that another non-profit is created to sublease the space and that PCD can commit to be a part of it. PCD could also sublease a part of it if they wish.

Andrew: Utility cost?

Tasja: PCD would not be paying the utilities. The lease entity would be considered.

Andrew: Ventilation?

Tasja: There is an HVAC system, windows, etc.

Jason: Committee tasked with looking at this place exclusively or also other places?

Tasja: Committee is specific to this location. Info gathered can be passed on if another location becomes a consideration.

Jason: We need to spell out the relationship between PCD and the other non-profit entity.

Tasja: Vision is that there are 4-5 anchor sublease tenets, of which PCD would be one, to meet the lease cost.

Kiara: The vision is that the non-profit leasing the space is based on providing movement and dance to the community.

Rebecca: Is PCD being asked to take on the lease for a portion of the space or for specific time slots?

Tasja: Specific time slots, and PCD would get first pick.

Devin: What is the timeframe for making a decision on whether or not to lease the space?

Kiara: The plan is to not move forward without PCD's commitment. We are in an info gathering phase right now.

Devin: Is there a desired timeframe to hear from PCD of whether or not they want to be involved?

Tasja: Desire is for a proposal to be put forth by the next Meraki.

Devin: Cost for Bethel, Waldorf, and other historic PCD spaces?

Jimmie: Bethel is $75 an hour for two hours. Waldorf is $100 an hour. Avant was $113.

Jimmie: $150 an hour for 3 hours (the potential cost for the Forest Ave space) seems like a lot, for both PCD and for other entities. Oddfellows is $75 to rent. Jason's is $50 an hour. Casco Bay is $50 for the first hour and $25 after that. $45 an hour for Good Medicine.

Kiara: It's a much larger square footage and it would have a sprung floor.  

Shiela: Sound? Acoustics?

Kiara: We would be looking into that.

Mellen: Are you creating a non-profit? What does the NP entity need in order to lease the space?

Tasja: A member of the community, Carl, has a non-profit that could potentially be used for this endeavor. Or we could create our own.

Tasja: There are spreadsheets breaking down some of the potential cost information for this lease that Tasja has created.

Tasja: The hope is some of the members of this community would also be willing to participate with the non-profit in some capacity.

Kiara: The committee's proposal is to sign an intent to participate in this project if it gets to the point that it is viable, NOT to sign a financial commitment immediately. "Yes we could see ourselves signing for this amount of money in this space if it comes to fruition." Nothing is binding by signing an intent.

Mellen: PCD should require a lot more information before it commits, before we even sign a letter of intent. What is the ask of PCD and the level of commitment?

Jason: In terms of other anchor tenants and office space renters, can they sublease or not? The more parties involved the more likely conflict between the entities might happen. It's hard to look at how it would work without knowing the other entities. Was the lower initial cost of the lease offered by the broker?

Tasja: Yes, our broker indicated that we could probably get that pricing.

Jason: How do we build out the space between a contractor, the city approval, and also volunteer labor?

Kiara: Depends on the project.

Jon: No one is committed to money until the NP has enough lessees to cover the rent?

Kiara: Yes. There are a lot of pieces, and we are inviting PCD into the formation phase if PCD wants to be a part of it.

Deb: A committee should endeavor in a feasibility study. It should also compare this option to buying something, etc.

Traca: Anyone else looking at the space? Time crunch?

Tasja: Not right now. The space has been available for a year plus.

Tasja: There is not an appropriate floor, but we are looking into it.

Devon: Would PCD be asked to front any of the money for the build?

Tasja: Potentially yes.

Devin: Does PCD end up eventually getting a discount on the rent once you start becoming flush and the rate doesn’t need to be as high?

Devin: Will the committee be gathering information from other comparative places that have lease spaces like Boulder, i.e., how they’ve handled it and how it’s gone, their lease price and rental prices for the Boulder dance, etc.?

Brian: Tracking our income and attendance per dance and over time will be important information for this research.

Rebecca: Who is on the committee?

Tasja: It's not formed yet.

Tasja: The amended proposal is to form a committee to make a feasibility study on behalf of PCD for subleasing or buying a space for PCD, considering 1037 Forest Ave as an option.

Jason: The committee should have people on it with some experience in these matters.

Agreed: A committee was not yet formed. This discussion will continue in-person either on May 19th if the Visioning Committee is willing to give up their time slot, or at the next Meraki on June 2nd.

Next Month's Agenda Items

PCD Sponsored Workshops

1037 Forest Ave Proposal Committee Formation

Next Meeting

Potential Special Meeting for the Forest Ave Proposal Committee on May 19th in place of Visioning Meeting. Confirmation TBD. 

Meraki on Monday June 2nd on Zoom (potentially in-person if we need to discuss the proposal further)

Meraki on Sunday June 22nd In Person after dance

 

Meraki Sunday April 6 After Dance

Meraki Sunday April 6, 2025 After Dance 

Attendees: Parks (ingatherer), Deb (facilitator), Lily (timekeeper), Kari (vibe checker), Tasha (notetaker), Deb, Parks, Nathaniel, Kari, Jimmie, Jules, Traca, Nate, Andrew, Sunshine, Lily, Steve, Jenn, Bart, Rebecca, Adrianna, Ben

Meeting format

• Choose roles (Ingatherer, Facilitator, Timekeeper, Vibe Checker, Note Taker)
• Ingathering
• Briefly review How We Roll
• Summarize previous meeting notes
• Gather new agenda items
• Set order and time for items
• Attend to agenda items
• Schedule future meeting(s)
• Evaluation
• Outgathering

Agenda

• Recommendation for Dancing at Temple Beth El - Nate 5 min
• Capacity Committee Recommendations - Rebecca 15 min
• DJ Monitoring Speakers - Tasha for John 5 min
• DJ Update - Deb 20 min  
• Retreat Committee Update - Tasha 5 min
• Shadowing Secretary Position - Tasha 5 min

Recommendation - Nate

Nate: We should recommend people wear shoes, it's a cement floor so there's zero give. It's bad for your body.

Bart: We shouldn't recommend it because the tradeoff of dancing with bare feet might outweigh.

Jason: I wouldn't make it a recommendation but rather a suggestion. Has anyone asked Temple Beth el about putting in a sprung floor?

Kari: Yes and it could be discussed.

Rebecca: They should be indoor only shoes. 

Deb: Let's make an announcement at closing circle and put it in our next email to let people know it's a cement floor and suggest wearing indoor shoes. I'll ask Mellen to add it to the email. 

Steve: If people are experiencing bad effects, it might be from that. 

Brian: Ill make an announcement at next dance and a couple after that.

Agreed: Make announcement at closing circle for the next couple dances and include in next dance announcement email letting people know it's a cement floor and we suggest wearing indoor shoes to protect your body from injury.

Capacity Committee - Rebecca

Rebecca: Our document last month was a bit of a Pandora's box. I hope it will yield some creative ideas of how to address capacity while acknowledging the tension between allowing for growth in our community while holding a container that reflects our values. There was a lot of feedback, so our plan moving forward is:

Wiz is going to monitor attendance over the next few months. 

Membership and Registration committees will continue to meet and present their ideas over the next couple months. If you want to join, talk to Jimmie or Rebecca.

We leave it up to the DJs to decide on how many dances they can accommodate.

Advertising, no more outside advertising, website and word-of-mouth, and PCD emails.

We put it in the Wiz's domain to determine when or whether to stop admitting people to dance after a certain time. We currently stop monitoring the greeter table at 1:45. Since the door is locked, people can't get in unless someone happens to be in the lobby. 

Bart: I have concerns about limiting attendance. We shouldn't be discouraging dance. I have concerns about removing PCD from Jeff's email. If safety is an issue, we should discuss it specifically. 

Nathaniel: What are the main concerns around capacity?

Rebecca: Some people feel it's too crowded for freeform expression. Also how do we create a container when people arrive late and leave early before closing circle. 

Deb: We've been cultivating a PCD culture for ten years. After covid, we grew back much bigger than we were before, so there's been change in culture. 

Parks: To be clear, we're not making a decision about capacity today.

Rebecca: Correct. We're exploring options so we're prepared, keeping in mind culture and capacity.

Brian: The methodology for monitoring capacity sounds awesome. I'm also interested in talking to people after dance about their subjective experience of capacity to correlate with the numbers. 

Rebecca: We usually add 10% to the numbers at closing circle, but today we probably lost 20% before circle. Maybe we form another subcommittee to take the temperature of the experience. How do we collect data about what people's experience is?

Brian: The question about culture has to to with consent and all the stuff that was published in the small flyer.

Jen: I've been coming for 7 years and definitely feel that there's many more people and sometimes it feels overwhelming. What do we know about other dance and how they handle it?

Steve: One Dance is starting to face similar issues of capacity.

Kari: From way back, we experienced a dance that felt sacred. A whole new group of people are coming that feels more like going out to a club to dance. There's a broader scope of people now.

Jason: We did a survey in the past. I would say do that asap. Curious to know what the contingency plan is and what is the threshold so we're prepared. Once this is identified, please share with Meraki.

Parks: There are differing opinions about the change of culture, so it's definitely a discussion. 

Agreed: Wiz will monitor attendance and report back to Meraki. Brian will form a committee that gets some data on people's subjective experience of dance to correlate with the numbers. Capacity Committee will keep discussing recommendations and report back to Meraki with a plan over next couple months. 

DJ Monitoring Speakers - Tasha for John

John purchased a set of purpose-specific monitor cables. I am working with DJs to use the existing portable speaker. I hope to transfer knowledge to setup crew members. I wanted to write up a short procedure, but so far was stymied by how to troubleshoot and account for corner cases.

Jason: The monitoring speaker works great. Recommend making a short video that can be shared. 

DJ Meeting - Deb

Deb: DJs had a great meeting where we discussed a variety of things:

Cohesion. What are our values as DJs? Following a 5Rhythm wave structure. Holding a container. Being onsite vs recorded sets. Honoring artists who made the music. Managing closing circle well. DJ training process. 

Recorded sets. Across the board we had low enthusiasm for playing recorded sets. PCD culture is holding a container with live music. 

Because people want to dance more often, we determined that we can commit to holding one more dance a month starting in June. 

Kari: Thank you for coming together and deciding to make this happen.

Rebecca: It's better to have you live. 

Nate: At first I though recorded sets would be fine, but hearing your reflection as DJs makes me agree that having live sets is way better.

Lily: I want to acknowledge that you're doing that for us is a gift for your community.

Nathaniel: What are the obstacles to more dances?

Deb: It's been quite difficult to bring on new DJs. Partially it's because of our standards. It's common to spend a lot of time training DJs and then they disappear. Last year we had 3 our of 5 who we trained. Our next round of discussion is about how to train the DJs without draining the existing DJs.

Jason: While there are best practices, it's still hard to train DJs while also allowing for creative expression.

Brian: Dena my spouse is a DJ and yes, it's a lot of work. As for training, it takes a lot of time to listen to a set and giving feedback.

Adrianna: Have you discussed small group training?

Deb: Yes, and also it's hard to express how much work it is and what the standards are. We want to encourage people to become DJs but we also don't want to invest in training them if they're not committed. 

Bart: DJs are consistently good. Appreciate that there's consistency. Compensation should be as much as possible. How much money can we give DJs to keep it going? Maybe we could announce after dance who is interested in DJing.

Tasha: What about the idea that was presented last time about compensating DJs for their time in training new DJs?

Deb: One idea is that trainees should pay to participate in their training so they're actually invested.

Adrianna: I love that idea!

Kari: It's a partnership between DJs and dancers, and we're so lucky that we can create a balance.

Also want to note that June 22 we start dancing in the morning 10 - 12.

Brian: I like the idea of investing in training to incentivize commitment. And you get your money back over time. (???)

Jen: I would love to be a DJ! 

Traca: It becomes a virtuous cycle. Love incentivizing the DJs.

Jules: Thank you for your efforts.

Steven: DJs are the axel in the wheel of this community.

Jason: We have to be creative in how we incentivize.

Deb: We will write something up that shares our values and share with members.

Agreed: Our awesome PCD DJs will offer 3 dances a month starting in June. They will continue to discuss how to bring on more DJs in a way that's sustainable and incentivizes DJs to participate and new DJs to remain committed. 

Retreat Committee - Tasha

Tasha: Retreat is full. Some people on the waitlist have been added because some dropped out. 

Some people didn't get emails announcing the retreat. We looked into some of the issues and determined that some people weren't in fact members. Others it's unclear what happened.

Jen: Didn't get email about retreat.

Jimmie: The membership committee recommends that we should start from scratch for membership. And potentially tie membership to some level of volunteerism so that being a member has some value and responsibility associated with it. 

Nathanial: PCD doesn't actually track the five times dancing to become a member?

Deb: No, it's honor system.

Jason: We should have a timestamp on when a member joins so we can track. 

Tasha: I will talk to John about why people aren't getting emails.

Shadowing Secretary - Tasha

Tasha: I'd like someone to consider shadowing the job of secretary in upcoming months when I might be away a lot.

Nathaniel: I'm willing to do it!

Tasha: Much appreciation!!! 

Next Month's Agenda Items

Jason: Potentially having four speakers.

Deb: Lighting decision during dance

Brian: Data collection around dancers' experience

Membership Committee: How to identify active members

Next Meetings

Tues May 6 in person Kari and Jimmie's

Mon Jun 2 zoom