PCD Organization Meeting - 1/28/2014

Minutes for 1/28/14 meeting

But First: Mark your calendars!! Our next meeting will take placeTuesday Feb 11, @ Julie’s house, 29 Wilson Street in Portland.  Julie Vohs- 879-2279 

John ran tonight’s meeting

Deb took notes and kept time

Parks hosted at her place.  Thank you, Parks. Our consummate hostess impressed many by her ability to produce a chorus of Meow’s just by walking across the living room and kitchen.

Present:  Parks, Julie, Deb, Xik, Jim, Mellen, Diane, Kellie, Don, Blair, Cherie, John, Eva, Traca, and I sure hope I didn't miss anyone!

Agenda items in bold. Discussions/actions/decisions follow.

Next meeting:   Tuesday Feb 11, @ Julie’s house, 29 Wilson Street in Portland.  Julie Vohs- 879-2279

Newbie package:  Deb, Julie, Eva, Blair subcommittee is finishing up.  Mellen, Xik will review the final doc for feedback before we print. This is for newcomers to read when they arrive at PCD.

Directory of names: Don will send out request and compile list of Meraki numbers/emails so it’s easier to contact one another. 

Rideshare board: Julie: It’s difficult for some people to get to Avant.  Mellen: FB doc? Not accessible to all....blog? could work. Don will look into creating that. 

Review incident w/ injury:  After our experience with a dancer having an injury, we made a first aid kit list and discussed procedures.   Diane volunteered to purchase items.  Blair and Xik are making recommendations for kit.  What about triage?  Blair and Xik will develop a simple protocol/triage plan.  Eva will ask at closing circle for a “doctor in the house?” list.  This is a list of health care/healer types who are willing to step forward to triage or help out in case of a health issue or medical emergency.  This is distinct from providing treatment, which no one is being asked to do. Parks suggested that we have a private space or screen to help with privacy.

Dave Grant’s info (via Deb) about dance space-- The public schools cannot accept a group without liability insurance.  This is a reminder of the need for incorporation asap. Question of where to dance in the 2 weekends of Feb/March when Avant isn’t available.  This is a Wiz issue to be resolved so no Meraki action or discussion is needed.

Marketing-Xik comment-would be nice to have business card sized PCD info.  Xik and Jim will look into this once we have our website up.

DJ mtg-- topic preview-- opinions to bring to DJ mtg. which takes place this Sunday after dance.  Meraki entrusts DJ’s to discuss what is needed and bring back to Meraki.  Xiknawi pointed out the female heavy DJship and DJ’s heard him and will bring into mtg.  Also DJ’s unintentially haven’t followed up with dancers who expressed a desire to DJ who would be new(ish) to DJ’ing.  DJ’s will bring to their mtg.

Incorporation Discussion and Decisions:

Reminder about why this is important: We have to have bylaws in order to incorporate and we have to incorporate in order to have limitations of liability and liability insurance as well as tax clarity/clear structure and responsibility.

John and Mellen reviewed Options A, B & C (as seen in previous email summarizing these options).   Priority is to have structure as open as possible so that once bylaws are established they needn’t be changed frequently.

Meraki voted agreement to eliminate option A.  Don abstained, saying that his concern is that the organization is going to get unwieldy/complicated in a way that outweighs the purpose of the board (to dance on Sundays).  Later Don voted to eliminate A!!!! Whoohooo!! 

Mellen proposed Option B.  

Membership would have the power.

President, Sec’y, Treasurer are I.D.’ed as the board.

President, Sec’y, Treasurer are automatically a part of the Wiz.

6 mo later, new prez and secy, who are now the board and part of the wiz.  

Prez/Sec’y/Treas can be elected or appointed.

Operationally we can change the wiz (#’s, term length) as needed because the details of the operation of the wiz wouldn’t be in the bylaws.

Articles of incorp can say something very simple to define membership, like, ‘you pay dues and the organization goes by one person--one vote’  (but in legal-ese). Membership and how members participate doesn’t have to be complicated or cumbersome and can reflect needs of PCD. 

John proposed Option C.

Large board, no formal membership. Without membership, the board has the power, the organization is board driven.

Reflects how we have already been functioning.

Board would be of changing (larger- 8-25) size to meet the size of those willing to serve or what’s needed.

Community spirit of the dance would be resting with the board.  

Officers would be appointed/selected/elected.  They could be on wiz or not.

Simplicity of not having to follow member rules because no members.  A quorum would be necessary to make decisions but wouldn’t involve members as a larger voting body because there is no membership in this model.

Initial board would set up how the board is determined, etc.

Clarification questions and discussion.

Key points: which of the options ensure the following 3 essentials?

inclusivity/involvement of community members (so that everybody has the opportunity to be involved)

work not overloading people

power/decisions not being concentrated in a few hands

Voting for Membership/Option B OR No Membership/Option C:

We agreed we’d accept 3/4 of today’s group voting for membership as a YES decision.  3/4 voted YES in favor of membership; 3 ppl voted MAYBE although they are not anti-membership; 0 people voted NO.

Decision is to go for Membership (option B)

Incorporation committee will proceed by taking option B to a lawyer. Thank you incorporation committee!!!  Additional appreciation to Mellen and John for their painstaking work at tonight’s meeting to walk us through the structure options.

(Did you get this in your calendar yet??? Next meeting:   Tuesday Feb 11, @ Julie’s house, 29 Wilson Street in Portland.  Julie Vohs- 879-2279)

PCD Organization Meeting - 1/14/2014

Hostess: Eva (Thanks Eva!)

Attending: Eva, Chloe, Jim, Traca, Don, Mellen, John, Deb, Parks

• Traca has offered several times to meet at her place in Gorham. Who's willing to go to Gorham for a meeting? Thumbs up all 'round. But let's do it in springtime when there's less chance of weather difficulty. Thanks Traca!

• Distribute the remainder of New Year's Eve proceeds to Deirdre? Yes. There's $362.00 in addition to the original $1,000.00, for a total of $1,362.00

• Finance report: We have $2469 (including the $362.00 slated for Deirdre)

• Lea Moon's request for a meeting (sent to Don, who forwarded it to the Meraki members): After discussion, we decided to hold a separate meeting after dance, tentatively scheduled for Sunday January 26. Those who wish to stay and hear Lea's amends are encouraged to attend. Several in attendance at this meeting said they wanted to attend. Don will respond to Lea's email message.

• We read the Mission Statement, and thumbs up all 'round for its adoption. We'll include it in the welcome packet given to new dancers.

• Chloe: the website is close to being ready.
•  The basic pages are there and will need to be fleshed out with additional content as it becomes available.
• She said she doesn't have many good photos; we'll do a photo shoot with willing dancers after dance in a few weeks. I
• We decided to put coordinator pictures on the "Who we are" page.
• Not certain of the exact domain name, but thinks it's PortlandCommunityDance.com.
• Chloe will be getting feedback from select reviewers before pushing it live.
• The question of a logo came up. We don't have one. Chloe would be willing to design one. She'll see where she's at with her contract (6 volunteer hours + 6 PCD-paid hours) for website development, and perhaps could fit logo development in after the initial website is complete.

• Incorporation:
• We need to fill out the following details for the Articles of Incorporation:
• PCD address
• Name/address of Registered Agent
• Names and addresses of incorporators
• Names of the initial Directors or Trustees
• Whether we're membership based or not
• Minimum and maximum board size (4 minimum, 6 nominal, max to be determined)
• How many officers (President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer) and their names
• Regarding membership, though it's more work to incorporate with members, this better matches the community orientation of PCD. Otherwise, the board is essentially the membership and reports to itself only. In our case, the board will report to the membership.
• Decisions:
• Our current Wizengamot is the initial board
• Board members serve 6 month terms, staggered every quarter, so that 1/2 of the 6 board members are replaced every 3 months (this was decided in earlier meetings).
• Former board members can serve on the board again after 6 months off the board.
• The board appoints/elects the executive committee (officers) from within or without its own ranks at its first meeting of each quarter, with terms and manner of appointment to be determined (and written into the bylaws). The Treasurer position especially should be able to have a term of more than 6 months (likely: 1 year). Possibly the secretary position should also have a longer term.
• We'll have a 2-tier organization: Board reporting to members, rather than 3 tiers of board reporting to the Meraki (core group) reporting to the membership.
• We'll have regular membership meetings suggested (or minimum?) quarterly, for the purpose of choosing new board members and voting on questions put before the community.
• Membership meetings require a minimum of 12 to vote on PCD business.
• The incorporation committee (John, Mellen, Neil) is authorized to engage a lawyer to assist with incorporation and setting up bylaws.
• John can purchase the book "How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation" for $34.99 and will be reimbursed out of PCD funds.
• We need to find out if the terms of the executive committee need to be enumerated in the bylaws.
• Our goal is to have incorporation materials (including bylaws) ready for the first quarterly membership meeting in March/April, but this isn't a hard deadline. There's a lot of work to be done, so if it isn't ready by then, it isn't ready by then.

• Next meeting: Tuesday January 28, 7:15 at Parks' place. Maybe we can break Parks' superstition that "It's not meant to be." Don: "If we can't get Parks' Place, at least we can get Boardwalk!" :-)

Wizengamot Meeting Notes Jan 4, 2014

Coordination Responsibilities

DJ Coordination — Chloe / Sage

Greeter Coordination — Julie 

Welcomer for Newbies Coordination — Julie 

Set up / Break down Coordination — Jim

Facilities Coordination - weather cancellation, date conflicts, equipment — Dave

Alternative Events Coordination — ad hoc basis by Wizengamot

Communication / Publicity Coordination - Don

Money Management Coordination - Don / John

Regular Agenda Items

Appreciations

Feedback Coordination

Wizengamot Norms

Men and Women for each term

At least 1 DJ per 6 members

Wizengamot Record and Document archiving as Google docs at Portland.me.dancers

Next Meeting

Each Wiz member brings a coordinator description for the roles they have.

Discuss transitioning for coordinator roles.

Don will share event flow

Newbie Sheet

Other Content we Discussed

transition coordination

newbie welcome