Meeting: March 12, 2024 7 - 9 Zoom
Present: John and Deb (co-Facilitator), Tasha (Ingathering), Shelagh (Vibe Checker), Blair (Timer), Tasha (Notes) and Kari, Lori, Jamie, Pika, Lily
How We Roll
- Call for volunteers for roles
- Ingathering
- Summarize how we roll
- Summarize previous meeting
- Read draft agenda
- Assign times
- Agenda items
- Schedule next meeting
- Evaluation
Agenda
- Capacity update - Deb, et al
- DJ update - Mellen
- New DJs
- DJ pay
- Subwoofer stand
- DJ location - Shelagh
- DJ pages on website - Tasha
- How do we respond when boundary issues arise - Deb
- PCD participation and support - Tasha & Shelagh
- Meraki participation - Tasha
- General participation - Shelagh
- Long range planning - Shelagh
- Board member changes - Kari
- How We Roll update proposal - John
Capacity Update 15 min
John: Strategy of not announcing dance hasn't had any noticeable impact. We're still getting lots of new people.
Kari: Smaller closing circle this past Sunday, a little over 80.
Lori: Some people had a hard time finding parking. There's a second parking lot associated with high school.
John: Let's put up a sign at greeter's table and announce additional parking at closing circle.
Lori: The WIZ will take care of making people aware of additional parking.
Blair: Volunteers to count participants at closing circle so we have the "hard" data.
Lori: Propose that people sign in and check a check box as to whether they're new.
Tasha: That feels too burdensome given the lines to get into dance.
Several others in the community have expressed that they feel that omitting emails announcing dance is not a good solution to our capacity problem.
Shelagh: Agree that it doesn't feel good to not send out emails.
Deb: How important is getting an accurate count at dance each week? General vibe is moderate.
Jamie: If most people pay, we can determine it by how much money we collect.
Lily: Greeting is now a big deal! The clicker is in one of the bags. Some people don't actually pay, e.g., the greeters don't pay. Some people do Venmo. Some people just walk by without paying. Suggest that there's already a lot on the greeter's plate so let's not add more to that job.
Deb: Let's write how many people are at dance each week.
Kari: We usually count the heads at circle and add 20.
WIZ will take on counting, writing down, and reporting on the number of dancers that come each week.
John: Brought up the proposal suggested last time that we sell tickets.
Shelagh: What now stands between us and weekly dances?
John: We have volunteers for helping move equipment. Yay!!!
Lori: We have added 3 dates in May and June. So as of May 12, we are going to weekly dances for the next couple months.
Tasha: Propose that we send emails out again, especially given new weekly dances.
DJ Update 15 min
Deb: We had a DJ meeting, we have 5 new DJ candidates in training, with 2 available now available for scheduling.
Deb: Subwoofer cover has been purchased.
Deb: DJ location, what are people's thoughts?
Pika: Because room is acoustically treated, we'd get best sound quality if speakers are on the stage.
Deb: Appreciated DJs at the back of the room, and when stage is available it supports better sound quality on the stage. Also the subwoofer off the ground was better.
John: People have to move right in front of the speakers to get in, which can be hard on the ears, so prefers speakers on the stage.
Shelagh: Liked Deb's position at the back of the room. Hard to dance on the stage with speakers on the stage given the wires, which are easy to trip on.
Pika: Makes me nervous with speakers on the stage to have people dancing up there. Also there's a risk of people falling off the stage.
John: Just to note that we can't count on the stage being available at every dance.
GENERAL CONSENSUS seems to be to have DJs at the back of the room facing the stage.
Deb: DJ pay. Mellen and Deb propose upping the pay from $175 to 200 per dance. It costs more to do things now than it did a while ago with DJs having to buy their own music. As part of the proposal, we drop the money we pay DJs who drive a long distance.
VOTE: DJ pay increase passed
Shelagh: Please note that I'm not against DJ pay increase but just wanted to presence that a lot of people do a lot of things for PCD who don't get paid. Retreat committee, finance, WIZ, etc., etc., etc.
Deb: This brings up the question: at what point to we consider paying other people in the organization?
Also, for those who aren't aware, it takes 10-20 hours to put together a set. Plus DJs supply their own equipment and music, which costs $, which is the source of this request.
Pika: Agrees that there's a considerable amount of time that goes into putting a set together.
Retreat 5 min
Lily: Registration closed today and we are full at 60. Yay!
We will all be getting a new email asking for more information from Ferry Beach, which was a surprise to us. We'll all have to provide DOB, address, and phone number.
Special thanks to John for supporting the retreat planning committee.
Boundary/Safety Issues 15 min
Tasha: Had an incident at dance on Sunday and sent an email to WIZ requesting a response.
Deb: Someone also brought up her concern with 3 people who had a similar experience recently. We've had this conversation over the years at PCD. What we decided back then was to bring up any issues to the WIZ, but that the WIZ didn't need to respond directly to the issue if more support was needed.
Kari: The broader scope about this issue is educating our community about 1) how to keep personal boundaries to stay safe, and 2) how to avoid creating situations that might become unsafe.
Deb: So there are two aspects: prevention and response.
Lori: Safety is one issue, but another issue is personal discomfort.
Blair: Had to address this last year, supporting someone who felt unsafe. In retrospect, he's not sure the input he offered was the correct response. He would like more guidance around how to respond in these situations, between discomfort and safety and being triggered.
Shelagh:
1. We have a document that's quite specific that we used to give to new dancers. Are we still making that available?
2. At other dances, I've seen people wearing a bracelet indicating they could be interrupted during the dance to intervene, as needed.
3. Let get this information in people's hands before dance, not after.
4. Can we come up with more specific language that would encourage people to come forward with issues when they arise?
Kari: Lori and I are putting together a small handout on this topic which we'll bring to Meraki next time.
John: In other dance communities, there's a warmup and then a circle where boundaries and safety are discussed every time. That way people hear it before they leave. Note that attention to reading material is limited, that is, we've given out those introductory sheets and we don't know if they're being read.
Deb: Suggests making a google form???
Blair: I would have appreciated something to refer to together when discussing an issue with someone.
Kari: At the end of dance, we could go to a spot on the stage to make it more obvious whom you can talk with about issues that come up.
Tasha: In addition to talking about how to stay safe and personal boundaries, we need a document that discusses the expectations on the part of dancers so people know what it means to respect others' boundaries.
John: Do we need a safety group? WIZ says they can handle it for now.
Shelagh: Is the WIZ working on the document and procedural suggestions?
Lori: WIZ will come up with a proposal for a document around safety and consent, as well as procedural changes around safety and expectations of all PCD dancers.
Jamie: Suggest that we make this document required reading for all members, maybe in video form? Please be responsible for yourself and ask for support AND there are expectations for everyone who comes to dance so everyone feels comfortable. Like going to Float Harder, for example.
Deb: We used to have people who were assigned to new people during dance.
(Phew, that's a lot of ideas!)
PCD/Meraki Participation 5 min
Shelagh: Regarding sound equipment, sounds like that's been addressed. (Yay!) We did a survey and wonder if more people have stepped up based on that. Have heard from several people that it's hard to come to Meraki on Tuesdays and/or they don't feel welcome or called to come for whatever reason.
Question: How important is it that we get more participation at PCD? Moderate
How do you feel additional participation has been going? Moderate/High
How important is it to get more participation at Meraki? High
Deb: When new people come to Meraki, we invest time in getting them up to speed with how we roll. So it feels important to me personally to get more people involved when it's for the long term, not just to meet a short term need.
Lori: There are ways that people can participate by taking more responsible for picking up for themselves, that is, making them feel like they're part of a community.
Shelagh: I would still encourage new people to come even if they don't come back, because otherwise, how will they know what's it's all about?
Deb: Suggestion: at closing circle, let's set a goal to get 5 new people to commit on the spot to come to Meraki, which also models participation for others.
Shelagh: What specific steps can we take to get more people to come?
Tasha: Propose that we experiment with a different day of the week for Meraki. Propose that we allow people to offer their input by writing via a representative rather than requiring that people show up to Meraki, which might not work for everyone, for whatever reason.
Shelagh: Suggest that we announce our agenda at the end of closing circle. Also Tues night is hard for many people.
Propose having a conversation with some people to talk about the issue of participation further to come up with some more actionable items for next time. These people said yes to that conversation and/or giving input in writing: Shelagh, Tasha, Jamie, Kari, John, Deb.
Long Range Planning 10 min
Shelagh: Given the short amount of time left in the meeting, want to drop into the pool the idea of having a broader, more visionary long-range planning discussion, which feels opportune given we've just reached our ten year anniversary. And of course it's related to lots of issues we've been discussing, namely our growing community, capacity, inclusion, participation, etc.
Tasha: We've taken a bunch of steps to address the "low hanging fruit" regarding capacity, but let's not forget the bigger picture/visionary ideas that were floated at the emergency meeting to address capacity.
Deb: Let's think about scheduling a long term planning retreat!
So...the idea has been officially dropped into the pool!
Tabled for next meeting:
- How We Roll Update - John
- Board Member Changes - Kari
Next meetings
Tues April 16 in person at Tasha's 52 Bellaire Rd, South Portland
Monday May 13 on Zoom
