NTMEDA Board Meeting

January 25, 2004

Minutes taken by Sandra KinCannon, NTMEDA Secretary

All board members were in attendance. Seventeen general members were in attendance.

Opening:
2:00-2:30 Meet, greet, and eat. Packets distributed and guest book signed.
Candace Bordelon made general introductions and announced the meeting was held for two reasons: we must by law, and to get feedback from general members.

Membership report:
Candace presented the membership report and explained renewal process.

Questions:
1. Explain the purpose of the Exchange Memberships. Exchange memberships give us information about other dance organization and spread information about our organization.
2. How does our membership compare to this time last year? We have 150 members today; last year it was about 100.
3. Has a survey been performed to see why members do not rejoin? No.

Treasury report:
Jeanine Moody presented the treasury report. We have $1695.41 in the bank. We have started our 501c3 filing with the IRS.

Questions and Suggestions:
1. Are the tote bags selling well? No, but they are not “dated” items and we are not in a hurry to sell them.
2. Suggestion to increase membership fee to $26 and give a bag. We gave free bags to new members in at the Badia’a seminar. It did not seem to encourage new members to join.
3. Do the board members carry their bags? Yes.
4. Suggestion to make and sell iron-on of the NTMEDA logo.
5. What percentage of our incomes are dues? Jeanine showed this item on the report.

Website report:
Cindy Wingo discussed the Website. Short-term goals include adding a PayPal button for memberships, posting the by-laws, adding a disclaimer for the teacher listings (only one change a year) and posting the Holiday event pictures.

Question: Can the membership data be listed on the Website? Deferred to later in the meeting.

Papyrus Report:
Betty Patterson discussed new features (Annual event listings, “Face It”, Themes, Horoscope, and “Super Hip” Cartoon) Upcoming themes are:
February-Health and Fitness
March-History
April-Promotion
May- Outdoor performances
Cindy discussed the Papyrus advertising. NTMEDA cannot use Microsoft Word for ads; the ads must be in the formats listed in the Papyrus. There is now a $25 creation fee. If the ad must be scanned, then expect a significant decrease in quality.
Deadline for payment and artwork for ads is the 10th. Deadline for flyer inclusions is the 20th.
When sending in calendar events, please use our format so we don’t have to pull the items out.
Papyrus submissions are requested. All submissions are subject to editing for grammar, length and article appearance (e.g. sub headers might be added).

Questions and Suggestions:
1. Please make July a “bi-annual events issue” for those who do not plan events far in advance. We always post events on the calendar in the Papyrus and the Website, making this unnecessary.
2. Please add video reviews and local teacher spotlights. These are items that have been in Papyrus in the past, but not frequently as no one has submitted them. Zahara will write video reviews. Tanja will write instructor spotlights. These will be on alternating months.
3. Red will review Kismet haflas. It was mentioned that NTMEDA would not be sponsoring any haflas, as there are many open haflas in the North Texas area.
4. Personal stories were requested. The secretary notes that this was previously done but dropped because of lack of submissions.

Events Report:
Michelle Gluck discussed the recent 2003 Holiday event and events coming up in 2004.
  1Q04: Cheap Thrills with Sa’diyya (Definite)
  2Q04: Cheap Thrills with Rivkah on Hair (Possible)
  3Q04: Cheap Thrills with Cinnamon on Arabic Culture (Possible)
  4Q04: Holiday event (Definite)
  Also feather fans by Meleea.
NTMEDA does not plan to compete with big seminars. We want to provide both movement and non-movement events.

Questions and Suggestions:
1. Advertise why members would want to attend Cinnamon’s Arabic Culture Seminar (Why is this important to our dance?).
2. Have an event for food tasting and explain different types of Middle Eastern food and culture.
3. Check out the Latino Cultural Center for a nice, inexpensive location after 501c3 filing is complete.
4. Cheap Thrills with Tanja on Jewelry making
5. Zahara video presentation on Middle Eastern culture and dance.

Information on Role of Board Members:
Sandra KinCannon gave a “testimonial” on why she became a Board member. Candace discussed history of NTMEDA with an emphasis on the importance of having a neutral organization. Candace then discussed the responsibilities of board members and how to become a board member. Currently, there are six board members. Sandra is moving, and we would like to have nine total. We need four new board members, three general board members and one secretary/historian. To express interest, email Candace at president@ntmeda.org with a short bio. NTMEDA will respond and send invitation to next meeting.
It was mentioned that there are three guarded board member spots. The presidency (leadership), the treasury (finances), and membership coordination (member privacy). Board members must be on the board for at least a year prior to holding any of these positions.

Questions and Suggestions:
1. Does NTMEDA advertise their need for volunteers? Obviously, not well enough.
2. Can the membership data be made public? No. NTMEDA decided that their members’ privacy must be guarded.
3. The suggestion of making aliases for members for email was brought up. The board members do not have time or computer facitlities for this.
4. The suggestion of nametags at events was made.
5. Can any group give discounts for NTMEDA members? Yes.
6. Could NTMEDA have awards ceremonies for Instructor of the Year, Performer of the Year and Contributing Member of the Year? This could possibly get more teachers involved in NTEMDA.
Kate Armstrong, the executive director of the Dallas Dance Council came to the meeting and expressed her pleasure in our organization and mentioned an upcoming dance opportunity at “Dance for the Planet”.

The scholarship winner was Rebecca Hardman.