PCD Organization Meeting - 12/17/2013

Present: Dave, Deb, Don, Eva, Jim Young, Mary Ellen, John


1. Mission Statement. We discussed the draft developed by Martin and John with additional suggestions by Xiknawi. We cut out a lot of repetitive and reactionary material, arriving at this document. The group recommends that we vote up or down at the next meeting to adopt what we hammered out.

2. Definition of names:

• (This wasn't really discussed during the meeting, but is given here for reference.) "Wizengamot" is a name that we're using for the 6-member board that begins its official functioning January 1. We don't know if or how long the name will survive the incorporation process, but so far we're still using it.
• "Meraki" is the name Don gave to the contact list of people involved and interested in these organizational meetings. It's a Greek word meaning to put your heart, mind and soul into an effort. The group liked this idea and name, and used the name for the rest of the meeting.

3. New Year's Eve dance:

• From Neil's email message: Here's my update in brief:
  1. Putting off incorporation - we can get insurance without it.
  2. Insurance is $250 for the night - it covers the entire event (i.e. even after midnight)
  3. we will have access to the State Street church from 8:30pm til 1am
  4. If someone wants to help me set up the pa on Monday or Tuesday during the day that would be great.
  5. I have given a $200 deposit for the church. I am also fronting a $250 check for insurance. 
  That's pretty much it!
• Suggested higher sliding scale: $15-$30
• The dance will be more like a dance party than our Sunday dances. We'll have multiple DJs each doing a set.
• Deb to discuss with DJs: free attendance for them, but no payment.
• Neil and Traca are the committee for this dance; Jim Young is also interested in contributing ideas and energy.
• We'll probably have money left over from this event. We agreed to distribute the excess to dear dancing friend Deirdre Sulka-Meister (who later agreed that we could mention her) to help with her medical/healing needs. We'll distribute anywhere from $250 to $1000. Proceeds in excess of $1000 would go back to the Wizengamot/board to decide what to do with.

4. Don reported briefly on finances. We have a balance of $1395, of which $550 is committed to reimbursing Neil and paying Chloe for website development.

5. Cancellations (in the wake of last Sunday's cancellation due to the big snow storm).

• Going forward, our goal is to have and announce a decision to cancel Sunday dance by 7AM the morning of the dance.
• In the future, it will fall on the Wizengamot to decide that we need to cancel. Until then, Don or another admin, consulting with the DJ and greeter coordinators will decide whether to cancel.
• A message to the MailChimp list and an announcement on the phone number will indicate cancellation.
• If we don't announce cancellation, dance is on.
• Dave suggested, and the group agreed, that we need to bias towards safety when considering whether to cancel dance.
• Also we need to check with Kristin, our facility contact, to see if a refund is available in case of cancellation.

6. Deb likes Raji's byline: "Come for the dance, come back for the community" Thumbs up all 'round.

7. The question of attendance by children came up again, and the group reaffirmed that Sunday dance is not the place for children under 13. We're sorry for anyone who feels isolated by this policy, but that's the way it is.

8. Incorporation:

• The Wizengamot should have incorporation materials ready to present to the first quarterly meeting, slated for early to middle of March. Will include bylaws that:
• are clear enough to define the organization
• describe the process for community involvement
• define what the Wizengamot and Meraki are going forward
• Until we're incorporated, we'll continue to have these smaller Meraki meetings
• An incorporation committee (with Neil, Mary Ellen, and John) will hammer out the details of incorporating and communicate through the Wizengamot.
• Decisions affecting PCD direction and organization will be not be made by the Wizengamot, but by the Meraki.
• We tabled further discussion of how long the Meraki would continue to meet.

9. Miscellaneous

• We're not going to vote by email. Votes will be taken at meetings.
• Please let us know if you wish to be taken off the Meraki list; that is if you no longer wish to receive emails about PCD organizational matters.

10. Next Meraki meeting

• Tuesday, 7 January 2014, 7:15-9:15PM at Parks' apartment in the back of the Portland Yoga Studio, 616 Congress St.
• Vote on adoption of the Mission Statement
• Incorporation status
• Wizengamot meeting/gathering status
• Address larger needs not addressed by incorporation and Wizengamot-forming

Meeting Notes from Dec 5, 2013

Present:  John, Deb, Blair, Chloe, Neil, Traca, Eva, Dave, Julie

1. Tax and Incorporation Discussion: 

We read from Mary Ellen's research notes as follows:

The Maine Assn of Nonprofits has been very helpful (my employer org is a member) so I've been able to get some free advice. There is such a thing as a Self-Declared non-profit, but we will be bringing in too much revenue to qualify -- income must be $5000 or less per year.  If we have 30 people at 50 dances per year, our income will be more like $15000 per year (expenses don't matter).  
Since we won't be seeking 501c3 tax exempt status with the IRS (at least in the short term), our tax filing is as follows: 
If the group incorporates and does not qualify as a self-declared or otherwise tax-exempt entity with the IRS:•   Corporations that are not tax exempt (including taxable nonprofit corporations) generally file IRS Form 1120 and Maine Form 1120ME.
I would imagine this would not be a complicated return for our org because there is no payroll etc.  I know a couple of people who could do the return very inexpensively in the future if we find we can't do it "in-house".  I can't imagine we'd owe much for taxes, but we could do a dry run with estimated income on a sample Form 1120 to check it out. 
We shouldn't be in a rush to incorporate for 2013 as we would have to file a 2013 income tax return, as well as a 2013 Maine annual report, even if we incorporate on the last day of the year!:
State of Maine Annual ReportIf organized as a Maine nonprofit corporation, the organization must file an Annual Report with the Maine Secretary of State (www.maine.gov/sos/cec/corp/helpful.html) and maintain a Registered Agent.
I also checked with our organization's (big)accounting firm who said that it doesn't matter if the org has no money remaining at the end of any given year, to be perfectly legal, a tax return should be filed.  For example, a company could make millions and then spend millions and be broke by year end, but that doesn't mean they don't have to file a tax return, or owe taxes.

Neil shared about efforts to host an event at State St Church for NYE.  With the help of a lawyer, Neil proposes that we consider jumping through the legal hoops to be able to get insurance in the next couple of weeks for NYE.  Neil agreed to look into seeing what our legal options are for NYE.
Deb offered to call the Grange in N Yarmouth, Woodfords Club, and Eva offered to contact Mad Horse Theater.

We decided that we are going to ask Neil to fast track the incorporation / insurance process and share that with the board-to-be, and the board-to-be and Neil together shall decide how to proceed.

2.  We read Don's review of finances as follows:

Finances

Here is a quick run down of the finances:
12/1 DanceWe took in $372 on Sunday, with $212 left after paying for the space and the DJ.
TotalsWe have taken in a total of $2,612 in revenues.  After $1,370 in expenses we have a total of $1,242 remaining in the sock drawer.
Expenses on the horizon:
$100 for Web site build and deployment (Chloe)
Legal fees surrounding incorporation
Rental of the State Street Church for New Years Eve dance
Insurance for PCD (both for the NYE dance and long term)

3.  We discussed and ogled the beautiful mission / values / intentions statement that was crafted by Martin and John.   We almost adopted it but decided to hold off for now until others could express views and feedback.  After considering feedback, we plan to adopt a near version of this statement at our next meeting.  See below for text.

4.  Deb shared the writing of Sage, Deb and Kellie that provides a first-draft of the history of Portland Community Dance.   She took our feedback and agreed to take it back to Kellie and Sage, and return to the next meeting with an updated version.

5.  Deb volunteered to coordinate a new-comers' orientation blurb.   Julie, Eva and Blair volunteered to work with deb on that.

6.  John proposes a google group for managing communication.  The group said yes.  John is going to move ahead with it.

7.  Our next meeting will be Tuesday, Dec 17 at MaryEllen's house at 186 Concord St in Portland.

8. The group talked about promoting again. It seems like we don't want to market at this point.

9. Are kids allowed? We're not sure what we are rated but we we agreed on no children under 13.

10.  Membership was tabled.

11.  New People Come Free?   The group was undecided.  But the group likes the expression for first-timers: "Pay What You Want".

PCD DJ Meeting - 11/24/2013

Portland Community Dance – DJ”s meeting --Nov 24, 2013

Current DJ’s (11 total, 10 currently active)

Aimee

Chloe

Deb

Deirdre (on leave)

Keita

Kellie

Lisa

Mary Ellen

Parks

Raji

Sage

Decisions/Agreements:

 Two peaks in Sunday set is still the basic format – but DJ has flexibility about where to

place and what kind of peak. Important set components:

o Slow warm up

o 2 peaks

o Slow/deep wind down

o Music should be 1 hr 50 mins approximately, allowing last 10 minutes for wind

down and circle time; goal to be done by 12:15. Then last 15 minutes to clean up

and be out by 12:30 at latest.

 DJ should be at music station for first ó hour. to hold the space; it is OK for DJ to dance

as they desire after that. Should be at station for last 15 mins.

 Beginning rituals – up to individual DJs if they want to do something, not required.

 Role of DJ in closing circle: welcoming new people is important

 DJs should meet quarterly – next meeting projected for February

 At the dance a week before the DJ quarterly meeting, it will be announced to the

community that a couple DJs will stay after dance to get input from anyone who desires

it. Input will then be brought to DJ quarterly meeting.

 PCD private Facebook page is major mode of communication w/ exception below

 There should always be a DJ on the “governing group” of PCD, if possible.

 John B donated a microphone plug for use by DJs who want to use the split output mode

on DJ software.

 Most are happy w/ DJ software; there are many features, DJs encouraged to share w/ each

other & at some point we should all check in to be sure everyone knows basic features.

No one wanted a “workshop” on the software.

AVANT:

 We agreed we could use more info about the sound board – Gary Gurney possible

resource. Deb will ask.

 Controls for chandelier & lights are located by sound station; DJs can adjust as desired

for their set.

Coordinator position:

 Fills the DJ slots w/ awareness to frequency of DJ sign ups, DJ preference for frequency

and trying to vary new DJS and veteran DJs in the lineup.

 Suggest a 3 month rotation with willing DJs to take a turn in this role

 Coordinator also calls the Quarterly meeting

 Coordinator makes sure that Keita gets email messages about postings on the FB group

page.

 Deb made a list of those present & their preferred frequency of DJ sign ups, will share w/

coordinator

 Thank you Chloe for doing this in this interim time.

New Year’s Dance tentative DJ lineup:

 9 -10: Deb pm (flow, staccato)

 10 -11 pm: Chloe

 11 – 12 midnight: Sage

 12 -12:30: Kellie- bringing them home

Recommendations from DJ’s to Organizing group:

 Awareness of new dancers and being welcoming is a role for all of the dancers at some

level. Generate ideas for non-threatening ways to greet new people.

o Always welcome newbies at closing circle – if DJ forgets, someone else should

pipe up

 DJs will help prepare a statement about the inclusivity of the dance – everything is OK:

partnering, solo, personal prayer, meditation, contact. Maybe to put on a back-to- back

Q& A card.

 There should always be a DJ on the “governing group” of PCD.

 Experiment w/ tri-fold divider behind the greeter table for DJ’s who want that – there

were varied opinions on this – we agreed we could experiment.

To do:

 Sage, Kellie, Deb – statement re inclusivity of the dance for web & maybe Q&A card

 Sage, Kellie, Deb (?) – “history” of how PCD started for web

 Deb – share DJ frequency w/ coordinator

 Mary Ellen will bring the tri-fold divider for Dec 8 dance.

 Deb to ask Gary Gurney if he can give us a quick demo on the Gem Sound sound board

at Avant as some time in near future.

 At Dec 1 dance, Deb to explain the change in Dance Sunday to include time for wind

down and closing circle within the 2 hr time frame. (May have to repeat at Dec 8 dance)

PCD Organization Meeting - 11/21/2013

Dear Friends,

1. Our next PCD organizers meeting will be held on Thursday, Dec 5th from 7 - 9 pm, at Mary Ellen Deschenes' house -- 186 Concord in Portland.  Correction - Meeting to be held at Eva Goetz’s house: 46 C St. S.Portland
2. At our last meeting, on Nov 21:

• We selected our first group of 6 people to oversee the week-to-week needs of PCD.  We based our selection on a survey that Don Norman put out, requesting volunteers for these roles.  Among the 10 or so who responded that they were willing to serve, we essentially pulled names from hats to form the first group.
• Serving for 3 months:  Dave Grant, Jim Young, and Julie Vohs
• Serving for 6 months: Sage Hayes, Don Norman, and John Boynton
• More about this group:
• This group doesn't make policy decisions on behalf of PCD.  
• This group doesn't have an official name.  At our last meeting, people present expressed an interest in having the name of the group be descriptive and clear, in order to help prevent confusion.  As we incorporate, this group would likely be named as "the board" in legal documents.
• Our initial intention is that people serve on this group for 6 month periods that are staggered.  We started with 3 month terms to support this staggered approach; hereafter, we imagine terms will be 6 months.
• We reviewed our current finances and are happy to report that, at the time of the meeting, we had $851 in Don's sock.
• We seem to be of like-mind around incorporating for tax and insurance purposes.  Neil and Mary Ellen provided helpful info about this. There are filing fees and legal fees to consider.  The group wants to be thoughtful about how we incorporate so no decisions were made.  Mary Ellen was kind to offer to gather more info about this.
• We inconclusively discussed a policy of first-time dancers dancing for free.
• Neil is heading up the charge of getting a New Year's dance space.  The State St Church is looking promising.  The cost would be about $500, which we think we could recover from the door.
• John Boynton and Martin are collaborating around statements of our mission and values.

I think that's about it.  Looking forward to future dances and meetings.   

Wishing us all well,

Dave

PCD Organization Meeting - 11/13/2013

Nov 13 2013 Meeting of Portland Community Dancers

We met at Kellie Ryan's new cabin in the sky on High Street. Don Norman facilitated. Got started at 7:20 with a goal to end at 9:00

Included:

Kellie, Don, Deb, John B, Jill, Liberty, Mellen, Jim Y, Chloe, and Sage

AGENDA

1. Visioning

2. Membership

3. Incorporation

4. Mission Statement

5.Website

6. Governance

7. Finances

8. Next Meeting

1. Visioning

Deemed appropriate to delay a visioning discussion to a later time, with a larger group, in favor of focusing on forming the organization first. All agreed.

2. Membership

Deemed appropriate to delay a discussion of membership to a later time, with a larger group. All agreed.

Two down, that was easy.

3. Incorporation (legal entity)

Reference to Neil's discussion with his lawyer bearing valuable advice as to the form of legal entity which would suit us best. Non Profit or LLC?

Kellie offered to check out her friend/lawyer to get a 2nd opinion. Don proposed we move forward in getting all the details from Neil and others as to the best format and deciding which form to take with a larger group.

Question as to when is the best time to start the legal clock... January 1st?

Next steps:

List of details from Neil

Cross check by Kellie

Mellen will check online info

... all to be reported at next meeting (Thursday 11/21/13)

Don felt that important final decisions be made by the whole group (i.e. this current mail list, those who have been coming to these formation meetings). Day to day management decisions to be made by the "Gang of Six" ... see item 6.

All agreed

4. Mission Statement

Don, impressed by Martin's input to the letter to Lea at an earlier stage of our formation, proposed that we ask Martin to write a first draft of our Mission Statement.

John Boynton offered to collaborate or take on the task in Martin's stead if necessary.

All agreed.

5. Website

Chloe stepped up with enthusiasm to put time and energy into creating a delicious website to be our on-line presence and portal. She offered to devote 6 hours of creative time unpaid and would ask for $35/hour compensation for the next six hours. After that we, she, would review the agreement.

Check out: www.chloefaithgraphics.com

I just did, but somebody had spilled paint all over the cover page (jus' kiddin')

Sidebar: There was discussion of including in the website some description as to our genesis.... how this particular group came about to offer Sunday Dance, managed and supported by community effort.  This may also explain our separation from Ecstatic Dance ME.

Kellie, Deb, and Sage offered to collaborate on this.

All agreed

6. Governance

Discussion ensued with the gist being that a small board of 4-6 people would manage the day to day (or week to week) operations of Portland Community Dancers. They would meet on a regular basis and stay in touch to be sure that what needed to happen to manage Sunday Dance would indeed happen. The "gang of six" may also serve on or be in charge of committees, or simply be sure that the tasks are being properly executed by others.

It is suggested that a board (gang) member serve for six months. It is also suggested that terms be staggered so that the entire gang doesn't roll over at the same time.That may mean that the first term for some be only  three months. It is suggested that we aim for terms to start on January 1st, 2014.

(that means their first job can be cleaning up after the New Year's Party.... kidding... kinda)

? Who would be willing to serve?

Deb: List all the duties of the entire organization on separate sheets of paper and have folks sign up to what they feel they are interested in doing.

Deb: Put out a call to the community for the opportunity to serve.

Thought: Perhaps four out of the six should come from this initial group.

Thought: Post sign up sheets at Sunday Dance.

Thought: Direct e-mail appeal to everyone on our e-mail list.

Mellen: Let folks know that PCD is forming, growing and needs volunteerism to thrive.

Liberty: Who could phrase this request at our after dance circle?

Kellie: I will !

All: Thank you Kellie!

Don: We could make this appeal to the dancers over 3 consecutive Sundays.

Deb: ....Starting Sunday 11/24 after an e-mail has gone out to everyone.... after our next meeting on 11/21.

How to pick the governors?

Decide this at the next meeting. All agreed.

Deb: Ask who is willing to serve, now or in future

    E-mail everyone who has been coming to these meetings.

Don: will write that appeal.

Deb: Set a goal to elect the first gang of six at our next meeting. (attendance at the meeting not required to serve)

Range: Willing to serve... to... passionate about serving

Deb: Are there any ideas as to how to facilitate this "election" process?

Mellen: nominates Dave Grant to facilitate the next meeting. Deb will ask him.

7. Finances

Mellen: Have a position of treasurer who would open and hold the bank account(s). Have a bookeeper position which could be other than the treasurer and may rotate to handle the week to week money, deposits, pay rent, check writing, etc.

How to shape the scope and role of treasurer and bookkeeper?

8. Next Meeting Thursday, Nov 21

at Deb and Dave Grants' house:

60 Brentwood Street

Portland

Meeting ended with 9 1/2 minutes to spare!  A commitee was quickly formed to discuss how to use the extra time but that effort was truncated by Kellie putting on the music, pumping up the volume, and ....  we all danced !

PCD Organization Meeting - 11/4/2013

Dear Dancers,

We had a lively meeting on Monday night -- exploring and making some decisions about a governance structure for Portland Community Dancers that can support and sustain our community-led Sunday dance offerings.

We identified lots of tasks/roles that we need to have organized for each Sunday, as well as for any kinds of other events (retreats? workshops? other dance offerings?) that the community may decide it wants. Here is a list of the tasks/roles we brainstormed:

Tasks and Roles

• DJ coordination
• Greeters
• Welcomers for newbies
• Set-up, breakdown
• Venue coordination
• Equipment management
• Communication and publicity
• Feedback coordination
• Money management, etc.

We also noted that we have some visioning and research work to do. Here’s what we came up with in that category:

Visioning and Research

• Our mission
• How we get our legal ducks in a row (insurance, bank account, taxes, etc.)
• What we can learn from other community-led dance groups
• How we may we want to consider the pros and cons of membership
• Do we want to consider growing beyond Sunday offerings
• What our feedback process could look like
• How we keep peace within our community

We made some decisions on governance going forward. All decisions were made by consensus among those attending -- which is how we’ve made all the decisions so far and seems like it could be a good way to do things in the future but we haven’t decided that yet. Here’s what we did decide about governance:

Decisions on Governance

We will have a core group of people (4, 5, 6, more?) who will make sure that the tasks and roles are covered for our Sunday dances.

The core group members will serve 6 month terms, with term-limits, to make sure that we maintain a vibrant and involved community-led organization.

The core group members’ terms will be staggered (with half-or-so of the old members leaving and a new half-or-so of core members entering (probably every three months)) to ensure continuity and prevent burnout.

The core group members do not have permanent roles or tasks assigned to them as individuals. Rather -- as a group they will determine how the individuals in the current group will oversee the management of tasks and roles.

We imagined that the core group will coordinate a group of community volunteers to handle many of the tasks and roles.

As core group members leave their roles (at the end of their terms), new openings will be announced in advance to the community and we will hold regular (quarterly?) larger community meetings to select (accept?) new core group members.

The core group does not at this time make visioning and research decisions on behalf of the Portland Community Dancers, but instead coordinates the visioning and researching process. The larger community makes decisions of this nature at our larger (quarterly?) meetings.

We also made some decisions about next steps.

Decisions about Next Steps

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, Nov 13 from 7 - 9 pm at Kellie’s house (198 High St, Portland. 3rd Floor Door on Left).

As part of our agenda, we aspire to finalize decisions about how and when we will select our first core group so that we can announce it to the greater community and include everyone who is interested in the

process.

We also are likely to include time to discuss and make progress on some of our Visioning and Research issues. Extra interest was expressed around the mission statement, finance management, and membership.

Thanks to all who have attended and helped with this so far. If you have any questions you can call our number (207-200-8149), email us at portland.me.dancers@gmail.com or find us on Facebook at Portland Community Dance.

See you on Sundays!