Untitled Document

2007 Convention Meetings and Directors Reports

Board Of Directors Meeting
Expressway Inn, Fargo, ND
April 28, 2007 - 9:00AM

Allan Currie, President called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM.

Roll Call was taken by the secretary. All members were present except Director’s at Large Jim & Delores Holman and North West Director’s Kenneth & Lois Weltz.

The minutes were read from the Fall Board Meeting. There was one correction with the meeting being adjourned at 4:20PM. Rose Hall moved to accept the minutes as corrected. Tammie Hughes second the motion. Motion passed.

The Treasurer’s Report was given by Clayton & Gloria Brennan. Club dues received for the year was $250.00. The current balance is $3622.97. Complete report is attached. It was also noted that the treasurers’ report is for the ND State Square & Rd Dance clubs, not convention as noted on the report. A motion was made by Tom Mann to accept the treasurers’ report as corrected. Second by Rose Hall. Motion carried.

The Historian Report was given by Tammie Hughes. Tammie has the historian books now and was also taking pictures last night to include in the books. Full report attached. It was also discussed that if anyone has videos from previous conventions that it would be nice to get a copy of those to the historian also. Clayton Brennan will be taping the demo from this year to give to Tammie.

The Insurance Report was given by Ruth Michaelson. Of the 11 clubs in ND, only 5 clubs took insurance for their dancers with a total of 92 dancers insured through ND. Full report attached. There was also discussion on whether it was mandatory for the clubs to have the insurance. It will cover dances for demos, conventions, special dances, etc and they just need to be filled out on the insurance forms to be submitted.

The Prairie Squares Report was given by Ray Hall. He is still not getting some of the club schedules and can be sent them by either email or postal service. Full report attached.

The Directors Reports were given by each of the district directors present. Kenneth & Lois Weltz sent in the report for the NW District. See attached.

The 2007 Convention Report was given by Bernadette McNeil. The convention has gotten off to a wonderful start. We had a total of 176 pre registrations including 2 youth and 21 cloggers. There were 36 walk-ins on Friday night. See Full report attached.

The 2008 Convention was given by Rita Lizakowski. The Fargo Moorhead area square dance clubs put a bid in to host the 2008 ND convention. The bid was accepted by the board presidents. The 2008 convention will be held in Casselton, ND at the Central Cass School on April 25th & 26th of 2008. The theme is “Dancing is Great in 2008”. The colors will be red, white and black. We have blocks of rooms set aside at the Governors’ Inn in Casselton and the Sunset Motel in West Fargo. Restaurant availability will be the Capital Family Restaurant, Subway and Pizza Ranch. With the Saturday night banquet being at the Capital Family Restaurant (limited seating). The school’s gym has a tile floor, there’s a huge commons area and the cloggers will be in the same building. There will be a sewing seminar, Maple River Winery tour and a self-guided tour of the city of Casselton. The state officers are as follows:
President - Merrill & Norene Braaten
Vice President – Bob & Carol Kennedy
Secretary – Marge Swanson
Treasurer – Clayton & Gloria Brennan

The convention officers are as follows:
Convention Chair – Jim & Rita Lizakowski
Vice Chair – Roger & Bernadette McNeil
Secretary – Al & Carol Currie
Treasurer – Dale & Carole Haarsager

Old Business:
None

New Business:
USDA Credit Card Program: Carol Currie reported that the United Square Dancers of America (USDA) credit card program was dropped. They were looking into a new provider but they have also given up on the idea of finding a replacement due to low returns on membership lists nationwide. The USDA still has other programs that they use for fund raising such as the insurance, dancers online shipping mall, discount prescription drug card and a long term care program. The state organization used to receive monies from the credit card program so will no longer be receiving that benefit.

2009 Convention Bid: There were no bids entered at this time. Bernadette McNeil mentioned that she had received a call from the Grand Forks Convention and Visitors Bureau and they are interested in having a square dance convention. They would be willing to work with the host clubs and also have incentive funds.

There was discussion on future conventions. Allan Currie suggested that conventions be rotated clockwise by district (see attached map) as to who would host the convention and the clubs in the district could work together. It would be up to the district to decide to use a central location or have their own. It was also mentioned that smaller locations may be more reasonable for costs as the larger cities are getting prohibitive. A suggestion was made that the loan from the state could be changed to partial loan and partial grant to help the clubs with the financial costs. It was also suggested that corporate sponsors could be lined up for conventions as a possible money income. The discussion was tabled to be discussed further at the general membership meeting.

There was also a discussion on the monies in the state account and that it is building up and could it be used to help with convention funds. The reason for the state treasury funds would be for sending people to caller’s school, backup for disaster relief for conventions, ASCAP License, officers badges, etc. It was suggested a minimum balance should be established for the state treasury and then use extra funds to help with conventions costs. The discussion was tabled for the general membership meeting.

Ruth Michaelson made a motion to order more roses for use for promotion for the upcoming year. The amount to order should be the same as previous. Mary Mann second the motion. Motion carried.

Announcements:
The program will be starting at 7PM this evening and the new state officers and the callers will have reserved seating in the chairs.

Ernie Walker made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Second by Mary Mann. Meeting adjourned at 10:15 AM.

Respectfully Submitted

Marge Swanson
Secretary

Annual General Membership Meeting
Expressway Inn, Fargo, ND
April 28, 2007 - 10:30AM

Allan Currie, President called the meeting to order at 10:30 AM.

Roll Call was taken by the secretary. All members were present except Director’s at Large Jim & Delores Holman and North West Director’s Kenneth & Lois Weltz. Also there were no members/delegates present for the Town & Country Dancers Club.

The minutes were read from the Annual Meeting held in 2006. Jim Sanders moved to accept the minutes as read. Ruth Michaelson second the motion. Motion passed.

The Treasurer’s Report was given by Clayton & Gloria Brennan. Club dues received for the year was $250.00. The current balance is $3622.97. Complete report is attached. A motion was made by Curt Vanek to accept the treasurers’ report as submitted. Second by Jim Sanders. Motion carried.

The Historian Report was given by the president as Tammie Hughes was at the callers meeting. Tammie has the historian books as of last night and will be getting some out on the historian table today. She was also taking pictures last night to include in the books. If anyone has videos and /or pictures from previous conventions that it would be nice to get a copy of those to the historian also. Full report attached.

The Prairie Squares Report was given by Ray Hall. He is still not getting some of the club schedules and can be sent them by either email or postal service. Full report attached.

The 2008 Convention Report was given by Rita Lizakowski. The Fargo Moorhead area square dance clubs put a bid in to host the 2008 ND convention. The bid was accepted by the board presidents. The 2008 convention will be held in Casselton, ND at the Central Cass School on April 25th & 26th of 2008. The theme is “Dancing is Great in 2008”. The colors will be red, white and black. We have blocks of rooms set aside at the Governors’ Inn in Casselton and the Sunset Motel in West Fargo. Restaurant availability will be the Capital Family Restaurant, Subway and Pizza Ranch. With the Saturday night banquet being at the Capital Family Restaurant (limited seating). The school’s gym has a tile floor, there’s a huge commons area and the cloggers will be in the same building. There will be a sewing seminar, Maple River Winery tour and a self-guided tour of the city of Casselton. There is also a tour available of the Woell House which was build in 1910. It is 3 ½ stories and tours are available for $5.00 each, limited to groups of 8.

The state officers are as follows:
President - Merrill & Norene Braaten
Vice President – Bob & Carol Kennedy
Secretary – Marge Swanson
Treasurer – Clayton & Gloria Brennan

The convention officers are as follows:
Convention Chair – Jim & Rita Lizakowski
Vice Chair – Roger & Bernadette McNeil
Secretary – Al & Carol Currie
Treasurer – Dale & Carole Haarsager

Old Business: None
New Business:
USDA Credit Card Program: Carol Currie reported that the United Square Dancers of America (USDA) credit card program was dropped. They were looking into a new provider and all states were asked to turn in membership listings for their state clubs in order to show an interest in obtaining a new card. But they have given up on the idea of finding a replacement due to low returns on membership lists nationwide. The USDA still has other programs that they use for fund raising such as the insurance, dancers online shipping mall, discount prescription drug card and a long term care program. The state organization used to receive monies from the credit card program so will no longer be receiving that benefit.

2009 Convention Bid: Vern Laning tentatively volunteered Bismarck as the host club for the 2009 convention. They do not have a location as of yet but will be willing to take it on.

Hosting State Conventions: There was discussion on future conventions. Allan Currie suggested that conventions be rotated clockwise by district (see attached map) as to who would host the convention and the clubs in the district could work together. It would be up to the district to decide the location and it would not necessarily have to be in the host city. It was also mentioned that smaller locations may be more reasonable for costs as the larger cities are getting prohibitive.

Bernadette McNeil made a motion that the North Dakota Square & Round Dance Clubs, Inc. host the conventions on a rotation basis clockwise through the four districts. Jim Sanders second the motion. Motion passed.

Profit Split for state conventions: There was also a discussion on the monies in the state account and that it is building up and could it be used to help with convention funds. The current split for the state convention is 75% to the clubs and 25% to the state. The reason for the state treasury funds would be for sending people to caller’s school, backup for disaster relief for conventions, ASCAP License, officers badges, etc. It was suggested a minimum balance should be established for the state treasury and then use extra funds to help with conventions costs. Jo Trenda made a motion that the North Dakota Square and Round Dance Clubs, Inc. continue with the $700.00 loan to conventions with $300.00 being considered repayable as a loan and $400.00 being considered a grant that does not have to be repaid. This would continue as long as state funds are available. Vern Laning second the motion. Motion passed.

Jim Lizakowski made a motion that the executive board review the funds in the state treasury and report back at the fall board meeting as to what might be a minimum balance to maintain with regards to having state funds available for the convention loan/grant funds. Rosie Vanek second. Motion passed.

Callers Convention/Callers Report: Larry Pfennig, representing the callers association, announced that the ND Callers & Cuers Convention will be held Saturday, October 27 and they are bringing in Wayne Morvent, a national caller from Texas. The dance will be held at the Bismarck Senior Center and the Days Inn will be the convention headquarters. They will also be holding caller’s seminars on Friday night and during the day Saturday. Support the caller’s convention to help keep the calling alive.

Patty Vollan, clog cuer, extended a thank you to the past convention sites that have included cloggers. This year the cloggers brought in $300 in revenue with a total of 22 cloggers, 10 of which were just there for the Friday evening schedule. She indicated that cloggers would like to be included at future conventions.

Delegate to National Convention:
No members attending the meeting were planning on going to Charlotte for the national.

Election of District Directors:
The districts met individually and the two newly elected district directors are as follows:
NW District – Orlin & Helen Thompson
NE District – Tom & Marlene Miller

Announcements:
The program will be starting at 7PM this evening and the new state officers and the callers will have reserved seating in the chairs.

Vic Schwan announced that all plus dances in Bismarck will now also be at the Senior Center.

Ruth Michaelson made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Second by Tom Mann. Meeting adjourned at 11:50 AM.

Respectfully Submitted

Marge Swanson
Secretary

Southwest Director Report—Carlyle and Sally Hillstrom

The Bismarck Belles N’ Beaux square dance club dances two times a month on the 1st and 3rd Saturday at 7:30 to 10:00 PM at the Burleigh County Senior Center , 310 N 20th Street. Regular dances are held from September through May. We have two more dances, May 5th and May 19th.

The Bismarck Plus Club dances on the 2nd Monday of each month from Sept – April which will also be at the Senior Center.

During the past year we had mainstream lessons with six new dancers joining our club. Larry and Deb Pfennig were our instructors. They also gave plus lessons. Vic and Joan Schwahn have been giving round dance lessons. Out 1st dance in November, 2007 has been moved to the 2nd Saturday. Our officers are:
President, Vern and Rose Laning
Vice President, Mark & Beta Krebsbach
Secretary, Reynard and Joletta Schmidt
Treasurer, Ray and Rose Hall

Northwest Director report— Kenneth and Lois Weltz

Souris Valley Dancer –Minot have a total of twenty-five members. They dance on the second and fourth Fridays of the month at the Minot Municipal Auditorium. They have been averaging one to two squares per dance. On May 11th, Steve Sullivan will be calling their dance with a workshop at 5:30PM and a mainstream dance at 7:30PM. They will be having their annual picnic dance in June, their camp out in July, and annual dinner dance in August. They are also co-hosting the 49th International Square and Round Dance Convention in June 2008.

The current officers of the club are:
President……….Don and Linda Siebert
Vice-president………. Verla Hodgson
Secretary……..Fred and Erna Eidmann
Treasurer………Don and Frances Tank

Town and County Dancer - Martin have a total of five couples as members. They dance on the second Sunday of the month at the Martin Community Hall. They have been averaging two to three squares per dance. Their last dance of this spring will be held on Sunday, May 6th, due to Mother’s Day being the second Sunday. They will start their fall dance schedule with a dance on the second Sunday of October. They are also co-hosting the 49th International Square and Round Dance Convention in June 2008. The club would like to thank all of the visitors that come and help make their dances a success.

Officers for this year are:
President………………Robert and Darlene Appelt
Secretary/ Treasurer….. …Kenneth and Lois Weltz

Southeast Directors—Ernie and Delia Walker

Jamestown Square Steppers— This report is about the same as given at the October meeting of 2006. They dance on the 1st Friday of each month at 7:30 PM and the 3rd Sunday of each month at 2:00 PM. This goes from September through May with the exception of no dances the month of January. The club is still holding with 16 members and 1-3 squares per dance. The dances are held at the Senior Citizens Center #1 in Jamestown. They again participated with the Christmas Bell Ringers for the Salvation Army.

Dakota Ramblers—This club report also remains about the same as of October 2006. The Ramblers has 5 campouts per year beginning in May through September with one camp-in held at the Chieftain Inn in Carrington in January. The club dances every 3rd weekend of the month. This club did host the State Square & Round Dance convention in April of 2006. The club has 42 members with 21 campers.

This year our campouts are as follows:
May 18-19th – Wesly Acres, Dazey, ND
June 15-16th – Viking View Resort, Ft. Ransom, ND
July 20-21st – Hoffer Lake, McClusky, ND
August 17-18th – Swenson Valley View R.V. Park, Minot, ND
September 13-14th – Carrington City Park with dance at Chieftan Inn

The Circle 8 Plus Club of Fargo/Moorhead dances on the first, third and 5th Saturdays of the months from September through May. We started the year at the Mapleton School in Mapleton, ND. At the end of the year we were forced to find a new location and, with the help of our club caller, Jim Kooyer, we secured a new location at the Glyndon Community Center in Glyndon, MN. Jim lives in Glyndon, which was a big help in getting the location, and he got us a good deal. We average 1 or 2 squares at our dances. We are active in visiting other clubs in the area.

Saturday Fun Nite –Fargo – We have 29 adult members and 8 teenagers as members of out club. We average three to five squares at our dances, with visitors from around the area. We had five squares at our dance on March 24 with Jim Jirak calling for our pie and ice cream night. Five couples “angeled” at the two beginner classes from September to February. Five singles graduated (graduation was at Prairie Promenaders on February 2 and they all joined that club). Some of our dancers participated at the Herberger’s Community Days on two different occasions, November 11, 2006 and March 3, 2007. This New Years Eve dance and supper was held jointly with Saturday Fun Nite, Circle 8 and Prairie Promenaders with Roger McNeil calling. On March 16, a square of dancers danced a demo with the students at the Glyndon School for their hour long gym session and some of the students participated, Jim Kooyer was the caller.

Prairie Promenaders-Fargo—This club has 26 members with 7 new ones. They dance the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month May through September. They average 2-3 squares per dance and also dance at Herbergers at Moorhead Center Mall 3 times a year.

NE Directors – Tom & Mary Mann

Prairie Partners –Devils Lake has nine couples. We had 13 dances in the 06-07 year. We don't have a club caller so we had nine different callers during the year. We did one square dance promotion at the college this year.

Our club Officers are:
President – John and Linda Frelich
Vice President – Tim and Rosie Senger
Secretary/Treasurer – Don and Jeanette Calderwood

Border Belles and Beaus-Langdon July 16th we square danced at the Cavalier Count Museum at Dresden, ND. Elgin Coyle called at Maple Manor Nursing Home in Landon before our regular dance November 12, 2006. 2006 and 2007 we averaged 1 ½ to 3 squares at our dances. January, March and April were canceled dances due to cold weather and storms and our caller had health problems. There will be a dance on May 7th.

Our club Officers are:
President – Tom & Marlene Miller
Secretary/Treasurer – Tom & Mary Manns

Prairie Squares Report
The Prairie Squares home page is viewed an average of 70 times a month. The Square Dance history page still gets the most visitors from out of state. I am still not getting some of the club schedules so if anyone gets a schedule past it on to me, either by email or postal service.

Prairie Squares
Ray & Rose Hall
614 N 12th St
Bismarck, ND 58501
(701)222-4655
prsqs@bis.midco.net

Treasurers Report

Balance as of 6 Jun 2006 4239.46
Club Dues Received 250.00
Interest Income 9.56 4499.02
Loan to 2008 Convention 700.00 3799.02
Expenses 176.95 3622.07

Balance in checking acct 3622.07

Clayton & Gloria Brennan
Treasurer

Historian Report
I received the boxes of archives last night. Look at the table tonight for a few items. Once I have gotten through all of it, I’ll be able to put together a better picture of history. Any items that you would like to add would be appreciated.

Tammie Hughes
Historian

Insurance Report
My first full year of being Insurance Chairman has been fairly easy. There are 11 clubs in the state of North Dakota. Only 5 clubs took insurance for their dancers. Three clubs get their insurance through Minnesota and three clubs either did not respond to letters and phone calls or refused the insurance. We had a total of 92 square dancers insured through North Dakota. I encourage every club to sign up for the insurance as it is very reasonable, only $4.10 per member.

Insurance Chairman
Ruth Michaelson

2007 Convention Report
The 2007 North Dakota State Square and Round Dance Convention has gotten off to a wonderful start. We had a total of 176 pre-registrations. Two pre-registrations were youth and 21 were cloggers. The rest of pre-registrations were square and round dancers. To our knowledge, there were no pre-registrations that were round dancers only.

We had 36 walk-ins last night and are expecting more today.

The Convention planning has gone very smoothly with most of the 2003 Committee chair willing to assume the same responsibilities for this Convention.

We programmed all of the dance leaders who were registered by December 31st and who had previous programmed Convention experience. For the programming, we gave each caller a longer spot to give the dancers a better opportunity to get used to each caller before having to dance to a new “voice and modulation”.

As we were working on the Saturday evening program, we checked with the State Presidents on a regular basis to find out if they had awarded a 2008 Convention bid. We needed to contact the hosting club(s) to schedule the 2008 demonstration. At “drop dead” time, no other club had submitted a bid so the F-M Square Dancers submitted a bid. More of that situation will be discussed in the report from the 2008 Convention Chair Jim & Rita Lizakowski.

We decided to try something new this year – a silent auction with the proceeds allocated to promote square dancing. As of report writing time, we do not have a total amount that was raised.

We, the Chair, would like to take this opportunity to thank the Fargo-Moorhead Square Dancers for their willingness to pitch in and get things done – not only organizing and promoting the 2007 North Dakota Convention but square dancing as a whole.