Annual Membership Meeting Sunday November 20; November 15 Meraki Meeting Notes

Participating: Kari (Facilitating), Lori, Shelagh, John, Rudy, Deb, Mellen, Lindy

Spring Retreat update (Rudy)

• The contract with Ferry Beach is signed and ready to go.
• Dates: May 5-7 2023
• Next steps:
• Send deposit check (John)
• Hand the contract over to the retreat committee to begin planning
• Firm up committee membership
• Develop a list of tasks and a timeline (committee)
• Publish a "Save the Dates" announcement (Mellen)
• Deb to write up a handout ("if I get my act together") to post at dance

New Dance Venue (Lori)

• Barring a miracle, we won't have a new facility (other than Waldorf) for January.
• Lori and others are pursuing many leads, which we discussed.
• Next steps:
  
• Continue reaching out to facilities on the spreadsheet
• Reach out to Portland Public Schools and Portland Rec. Dept. to see what facilities might be available.

Annual Meeting (Mellen)

• We'll set up tables in the room next to the dance hall for the post-dance potluck
• We discussed agenda items
• Next steps:
  
• Add potluck and meeting summary to next dance announcement (Mellen)
• Publish meeting announcement details with agenda to the membership Friday-ish (John)

Facebook Group Administration and Group Membership Approvals (Deb):

• It's not clear who all has responsibility for vetting new membership requests to the group, and what the criteria are for accepting or rejecting.
• We do have some automatic approvals, if the person is in the Portland area and has one or more friends in the group
• Beyond that, it's not clear.
• Nor do we have published guidelines for group posts and conduct.
• No one present at the meeting was keen to take on responsibility for the Facebook group administration.
• We discussed a response by one group member to a dance announcement post, that we decided to leave be.
• We need a Social Media secretary/coordinator to take on the responsibility for our Facebook and possible future other social media presences. (Right now, Facebook is it.)

Meet in Person (John)?

• We discussed the possibility of meeting in person at future Meraki meetings, and there were mixed feelings. The convenience of Zoom makes it easier to attend meetings, but the possibility of meeting in person, especially after such a long time meeting on Zoom, is appealing.
• Deb volunteered to host the January meeting at her home; we'll see how that goes.

Closing Business

• Next meeting dates after the Annual Membership Meeting: December 13, January 17
• We spent about 15 minutes in meeting evaluation

October 11 Meraki Notes; Next Meraki November 15; Annual Membership Meeting November 20

Participating: Kari, Jimmie, John (Notes), Rudy, Deb (Facilitating), Jason, Mellen

Spring Retreat update (Rudy)

• Rudy created a deck of slides that he shared with the group.
• Dates: May 5-7
• We'll be sharing with another group, but will attempt to get exclusive use of breakout rooms.
• Housing:
• Dorms insulated but not heated, heat rises from below
• Heated cabins available, price chart on web site
• Food: limited menu, nutritious, vegan option available
• Next steps:

1. Wrestle contract to reflect what's in the slides (Rudy)
2. A lot of logistics
• They did agree to do registration
• We need an active committee - Rudy wants not to be involved in organizing

Masking (Jason)

• Idea in Jason's mind: at some point we need to drop the masks
• It's not about protecting each other; we're making our own choices
• We had a round-robin of each member present sharing their feelings, which were mixed.
• Proposal:
• Make masking optional
• Revert to masking if surging, following Maine and U.S. CDC guidance
• If not feeling well, don't come to dance
• Discuss at the annual meeting
  
• Proposal was adopted by consensus

New Dance Venue (Lori)

• Lori shared the spreadsheet she's keeping on prospective venues with input from members.
• Cory at Maine Coast Waldorf School showed us a closet we *might* be able to use. She's using the slow drip process to encourage consideration of its use by PCD.
• We discussed the various places
• Put in the meeting notes: Be in touch with Lori and/or Mellen about possible spaces
• We can always dance at Maine Coast Waldorf School

Annual Meeting (Mellen)

• Kari volunteers for President; John and Lori to continue as Secretary and Treasurer.
• Rudy offered the possibility of serving as Vice President, but we didn't have any scope for such a role.
• Mellen will continue as Correspondence Secretary to monitor gmail account
• John to send bylaws link to Mellen and Deb
• We have the hall for the extra hour (until 2:30)
• John to publish a Save the date message. Potluck (bring your own meal kit), indoors, done before 2:30
• John to send Mellen last year's AM agenda
• Mellen and Kari comprise the Meeting Committee

Agenda for next time (November 15):

• Meet in person?
• Retreat status/progress
• Where can we dance status/progress
• Annual Meeting planning
• PCD Facebook group: how do we decide not to admit a person who requests to join? (Deb)