PCD Meraki (Steering Committee) met July 9, 7-9PM, on Zoom
Attendees: Deb (host), Mellen, Shelagh (facilitator), Devin (ingatherer), Marion (time), Kari, John (notes), Rebecca B
Agenda
- Wiz: New card for safety, consent, and other guidelines for new and existing dancers - Kari / Lori
- Review Meraki decision-making - Mellen
- Capacity update - Mellen
- Resume Email announcements?
- Process for addressing high sound volume during dance - Mellen
- Dance policies
- Dog policy for service dogs - Tasha
- Update on age limit - Kari
- How We Roll updates
- Continue discussion of process to see if it can be streamlined - Nate
- Update Evaluation description to be more accurate - John
- Next Retreat Planning - Nate
- Long-term planning - Tasha / Shelagh
- New board selection process - Kari
Devin ingathered, Shelagh summarized How We Roll, Rebecca B reviewed last meeting notes
Meeting Content
How We Roll updates - John
We discussed proposed updates, adding a paragraph about meeting decision-making (see new 2nd paragraph in the document) and a clarification about evaluation in the first sentence of the Evaluation section.
Consensus: John will publish changes as discussed during the meeting. (Ed: this is done)
New information card from the Wiz (Lori/Kari)
- Lori presented (by screenshare) a new, small squarish accordion-folded card that would fit in people's pockets, and be reminders of safety, consent, scent, chem-free, and other guidelines.
- Goal in Lori's mind: provide new and old people with bullets we want them to read immediately. The front of the card is a bulleted summary of the main points we want dancers to remember, and the back would be a boiled-down version of the intro sheet we currently use.
- Discussion:
- Printing house would handle printing and cutting
- Best words to use for sober or chem-free
- Wiz to edit? What's the process?
- Kari: intend to have a Wiz meeting, discuss/modify, get it done, present to Meraki
- Final size (folded): 2.3125" wide x 3" tall
- Devin: gorgeous design, but for accessibility, font too small?
- Mellen: stuff in 5th box more important. Come healthy, non-chem, no photog sooner (middle spread sooner, except for first aid).
- John: Cost? Not known
- Shelagh: appreciate comments, agree with them, would like to see this in draft form at next in-person Meraki. It's our collective face to the community.
- Devin: Reiterate that this is gorgeous, but would switch 1 and 3, which also addresses consent elements
- John proposed to empower the Wiz to make a small initial run at reasonable cost that could be handed out to dancers and reviewed by Meraki
- Consensus: Wiz members will review and edit content, and do an initial run at reasonable cost and reasonably small quantity, then we'll review and iterate. John will provide payment details for the print run.
(Break)
Long-Term Planning
Tabled for a future meeting
Age limit policies (Kari)
- Kari was the sad recipient of someone's anger when she approached a dancer to enforce the age policy (dancers must be 18 or older).
- We have to be willing to stand up and say this is a policy. Need to be more vigilant about maintaining age limit parameters. We landed on 18 and over.
- Shelagh:
- Does fold-out address age?
- We used to highlight minimum age in email messages. Resume regular email announcements?
- Is it OK to have a baby with parent in the cafe?
- John: No matter who's in the hot seat, it's challenging
- Beck: When we need to enforce age limit, suggests approaching with 2 people
- Kari: Don't want kids anywhere
- Devin: Agree with 2 person approach. Checked website, but not prominent. Highlight better on website and on the card.
- Deb: always the option to say something at the end. Almost said something in closing circle, but the mom/baby was still in the room. Closing circle can help with runaway train.
- Resolved: Wiz will take it up in a future meeting to establish clear handling protocol.
Resume email messages? - Mellen
We discussed pros and cons of sending out regular email messages. Though population has been less lately, that may be a natural consequence of summer vacation season. Suggestion was made and we resolved to send out regular (monthly email) message with important reminders, upcoming DJs, etc.)
Process to resolve too-loud sound at dance
DJs met about this and agreed that DJ members will monitor sound volume of the current DJ and ask to lower if sound volume is consistently above 85 dB on the sound meter monitor. Every DJ except one is willing to tell another DJ that the sound is consistently too high.
Retreat planning (Devin/Marion)
$195 would be the basic rate, but the committee wants to offer sliding scale possibility starting at $195
The retreat committee requested up to $2000 in subsidies from PCD to support the retreat.
Resolved: Empower the retreat committee to move forward with planning, with up to a $2K subsidy if needed.
The question arose: do we have enough DJs? The committee will ask Nev (on the retreat committee) to reach out to DJs
Long-term planning
Tabled for now, until Tash can discuss
Officer/Board selection (Kari)
Kari concerned that time is running short to resolve this. The issue is that the way we selected officers and directors at the annual Membership Meeting is loosey-goosey. The process needs to be better defined.
However, discussing at our next meeting still gives plenty of time to better define and tighten up our selection process, so tabled for next meeting.
Next Meeting
Deb suggested that we skip August. Resolved: Next meeting Monday Sept 9 at Kari and Jimmie's
Evaluation
We had a brief evaluation, where attendees discussed their experience of the meeting
