BCS Newsletter June 2001

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Border City Squares

President's Corner June 2001

Annual Meeting

The annual meeting was held on Monday, April 30, 2001. The agenda was to include the approval of the board's suggestion for the club caller, approval for amended By-Laws, officer reports, and the election of next year's officers.

Jerry Maurice was the board's nomination for club caller but regrettably Jerry declined because his personal schedule didn't allow for the time that would be required. The board didn't have time to find a new caller by the time of the meeting so that item was tabled until later. More details on the search are later in the newsletter.

The recommended By-Law changes were voted in. The changes contained a number of minor changes as well as a redefinition of new dancers memberships, term of office of the class chair, and financial audits. Copies of the new By-Laws will be available at the dances and classes.

New officers were elected for the upcoming year and they are:

President: Chris & Norma Howard
Vice President: Debbie Coit
Treasurer: Dave & Mary Raymond
Secretary: Cheryl Palucchi
Class chair: Bill & Anne Parke
Club chair: Penny & Skip Guild
Banner chair: Wayne & Priscilla Griffin
Publicity chair: Steve O'Neil

Club Caller

The board has been quite busy locating a new club caller and it has not been easy. However we think we have an excellent forthcoming suggestion an as soon as all parties are in agreement it will be announced. The general club membership must approve the board's suggestion so we are tentatively planning a general meeting the day of the class graduation, July 30^th, for that purpose. Hopefully it will be a short meeting and the rest of the time can

be spent celebrating the new class graduation.

Club Dues

Dues are due. Membership runs from July 1^st to June 30^th. There is no form in the printed newsletter because we ran out of space [ See form ] but feel free to use the form in last month's newsletter or get one of the forms that will be available at the treasurer's table at all our activities. Dues are $8.00 per household for the newsletter plus $6.00 per each member. (Solos dues $14, Couples dues $20, Couple and 1 teen dues $26) For families with a 2^nd teen or more, each teen's dues are $3.00.

Club Finances

We are concerned about the financial well being of the club. The details have been published here before and are covered monthly in the treasurers report. Suffice it to say that the costs of putting dances on do not go down each year but our dance attendance figures have. Suggestions for how to increase dance attendance and/or cut expenses are always welcome but most important is getting our own members to come and support our dances. Members can also have a significant impact on attendance by letting their friends (and enemies) in other clubs know who is calling and encouraging their attendance.

Newsletter Availability

Every so often the suggestion is made about electronically distributing the newsletter. For those of you who have e-mail and would like to receive the newsletter by e-mail then let it be known to myself and I will see that you get it. For those of you who have access to the Internet there is always a copy of the newsletter as well as a schedule of upcoming events on our web site. Our site is at http://members.nbci.com/bcsquares/ .

Bob Baker
President

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Eastern District Square and Round Dance Association (EDSARDA) Report

EDSARDA holds 3 meetings per year on Sundays in January, May and October. The May 6^th meeting was held in Holyoke MA. Only 5 representatives joined the 27 or so officers and committee members of EDSARDA. The Rhode Island Federation (similar to our NSSARDA) accounted for 4 representatives. BCS was the only club represented. Interesting to note that the January 7^th meeting held in Wakefield MA had about 20 representatives but the previous meeting on October 6^th was held at the Mill-A-Round Dance Center in Manchester NH and had only 1 other representative besides Wayne. The May meeting includes the election of officers so perhaps that had something to do with the low attendance. The 2001-2002 officers and committee members are the same as last year. Be sure to look for and thank the dancers who wear the EDSARDA badge.

The next EDSARDA meeting may not occur on October 7^th since it is Columbus Day weekend. Plans are to have the meeting in Southern Vermont and to offer a Management Seminar in lieu of the delegates meeting. If you hadn't heard, the 44^th NE Square and Round Dance Convention will be on April 26 & 27, 2002 in Sturbridge MA.

The business item regarding an EDSARDA web site was deferred until the October 2001 meeting. At the October 7, 2000 meeting, Wayne wanted to volunteer to create an EDSARDA web site. We learned that EDSARDA had deferred the creation of a web site to CO-OP. Wayne decided to voluntarily create a free web site that contained all of the information shown in the 2001 Directory which includes: CO-OP, EDSARDA, NECCA, NECORTA, the 6 Associations in EDSARDA, and other organizations, clubs and information. The "Square Dance - New England" web site was completed on October 13^th and includes monthly dance schedules. Each of the organization's chairpersons and key persons were informed of the new web site but none have replied nor commented on it. An e-mail was sent to many of the NE clubs asking them for their 2001-2002 dance schedules so they could be shown on the SD-NE web site as were the 2000-2001 dances. To the local clubs, the e-mail included our dance schedule. We hope the dance schedules will help the banner chairs plan their raid/retrieval schedules.

We did not have time for the planned program titled "Who's watching your bottom line?" What consumed the meeting was the discussion started by the RI Federation representatives regarding IRS 501c(3) tax exempt status. IRS Publication 78 lists all the 501c(3) tax exempt organizations. EDSARDA is listed but that does not mean donations made to them can be claimed on your tax return. The IRS could not tell us if donations to EDSARDA are tax deductible. BCS is not listed in Pub 78. We believe the forms have never been filed for 501c(3) tax exempt status. One reason is the $150 filing fee. Another reason is the difficulty in completing the required IRS forms so they will meet the requirements explained in IRS Pub 557. The EDSARDA treasurer is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He said it took a few rejections by the IRS and about 3 years to complete all the forms to the degree required to obtain 501c(3) status. The RI Federation wants to pay a consultant $800 to complete the paperwork. The RI Federation representatives say the consultant has a 99.9 percent success rate. This did not mean the IRS forms were always acceptable when first submitted. Are any of you BCS members CPAs? Is anyone willing to tackle the IRS forms and have the fortitude to see this task through?

Wayne and Priscilla Griffin
BCS EDSARDA Representatives

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North Shore Square and Round Dance Association (NSSARDA) Report

NSSARDA held its third delegate meeting for 2000-2001 on Sunday March 18^th from 2 to 4 PM at the United Church of Christ Congregational in Burlington MA.

The following are brief excerpts from the reports of the Association Officers.

The Secretary’s Report from the November Delegate meeting were reviewed and approved with pen and ink changes.

The Treasurers Report was accepted pending Audit.

In the association/insurance program this year there are:

12 Northshore Massachusetts clubs

12 New Hampshire clubs

4 Maine clubs

28 Total clubs – This is down 6 clubs from previous year.

TopsField Fair Demos – Dates for 2001 are Sept 30^th and October 7^th

2001 Friendship Festival – Date will be October 28^th. Location will be in Danvers.

Class level Dance- January 2001 Class level Dance was canceled due to snowstorm.

Association members present approved holding a class level dance for new January student dancers on June 24^th at the United Church of Christ Congregational in Burlington MA from 2 to 5 PM. Patty Green calling, No Rounds.

Program – Association Insurance Program

Treasurer reviewed the 2000/2001 insurance program. $2 million coverage, premium $4,840.00 divided across 28 clubs = $175/ club. This was an increase of $30 per club from previous year and was due to a premium increase of 10% from prior year and the association membership being down six clubs.

2001/2002 Insurance Program – preliminary discussions with Insurance Agent indicates that Insurance carrier is going to be asking for an increase in premium of 10 to 25% over last year. Also based on discussions with various clubs in the association we are expecting a reduction of four clubs. The table below shows what the cost to each club will be with 24 clubs and 0 to 25% increase.

0%	$4,840.00	24	$201.67
10%	5,324.00	24	$221.83
15%	5,566.00	24	$231.92
20%	$5,808.00	24	$242.00
25%	$6,050.00	24	$252.08

We also discussed the USDA Insurance program. Clubs can only join as part of an Association, not individually. All clubs in the association have to join, all members of each club have to join, and each club must provide a detailed list of members to the association to be forwarded to USDA. Also the USDA program runs from Jan 1st to Dec 31^st. Club representatives present decided that the association should not pursue this any further and that the treasurer should work with Insurance Agent to keep cost down. Also work with clubs to recruit more clubs to join the association.

Next Delegate meeting is scheduled for June 3^rd. It is being combined with the Annual Banner Chair meeting and will start at 1 PM at the United Church of Christ Congregational in Burlington MA.

Banner Chair meeting 1 to 2 PM

NSSARDA Annual Meeting 2 to 4 PM. Program – Election of New Executive Board.

By the way these meeting are open to any and all square dancers, however only official club representatives are allowed to vote on matters presented at the delegate meeting. Like this club is here to support and provide you a place to dance and enjoy the activity, the association is here to provide a forum for dancers and clubs to discuss common problems and to provide participating clubs with insurance at a reasonable cost.

Please think about serving as a Club representative. The association only meets 4 times a year, on the third Sunday of September, November, March and May. As an elected officer of the Association I can not represent our club. We need you.

Respectfully,

Bill Thompson
NSSARDA Treasurer

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Vice Presidents' Report

We need you to tell us what activity you would like (and pay to attend) this September. The first 1 1/2 hours will be for the new dancers just starting lessons but what do you want the 8:30 - 10 PM time frame to offer? To meet our expenses, we need 22 new dancers paying to take lessons AND we need 22 people paying for this other activity. We can not continue to loose $50 each week as we did last year.

Please indicate your choice for the 8:30 to 10 PM activity on the survey/suggestion forms we will make available on Monday nights. Some members have indicated that they would like Round Dancing but should it be: Beginner Two-Step, Beginner Waltz, Foxtrot, Cha cha, Rhumba, Jive, Phase 3 Waltz, other? Having just completed Plus lessons in July, it does not seem likely that we would get many members for another set of Plus lessons. Some other square dance options: All-Position (or call it Dance By Definition) Mainstream, All-Position Plus, other?

Summer is the time to talk to your friends and put up flyers in the food stores you frequent. Put flyers up wherever you believe people will see that square dancing starts September 10, 2001 with a Free Fun Night. It takes time and repeated exposure to our flyers to get people to try square dancing. Almost all of the new dancers who come to a Fun night are brought by square dancers. But you have to convince them first and that takes time. You can't wait until August. If "ice cream" had been named "square dancing", you couldn't give the stuff away. Everybody 'thinks' they know what "square dancing" is, especially those who have never tried it.

Wayne and Priscilla Griffin
Vice Presidents

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Club Chair Report

This has been an interesting year for Border City as we have had quite a few callers who don’t usually call at dances in this area. On May 12^th we were treated to the excellent calling of Randy Longobucco from Connecticut. With Randy doing the calling and Bev Boudreau doing the cueing, we hosted another fun dance. Good attendance from our own club (28 signed in) helped make up for a fairly small turn out by visiting clubs. Three clubs were retrieving their banners: Londonderry Apple Squares, Bradford Country Squares, and Cloudbusters. None of these clubs was able to send even the minimum 12 dancers; but in spite of modest attendance, I understand there were so many birthdays, we had to light the cake twice!

We also heard about some very nice comments from both Randy and Bev about our club. They were most impressed with the courtesy and friendliness of our club members. That is the kind of feedback we love to get. Keep up the good work!

Norma and I want to particularly thank Cheryl Palucchi and Margery Shank for filling in as Club Chairpersons while we celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary. It is wonderful to belong to a club in which the members are so willing and able to help each other. Along the same lines, thanks Skip and Penny Guild for hosting the dance and to the many members who helped Margery and Cheryl with the dance setup: Bill and Viv Thompson, Mary and Dave Raymond, Mike Peterson, Katherine and Amy Bollenach, Bill and Susan Leuci, Wayne and Priscilla Griffin, Skip and Penny Guild, and Jim McClarin. Also, thanks to those who brought food and helped clean up after the dance.

Our next dance, on June 9^th, will be a Mainstream dance with Dave Hass calling and Marilyn Rivenburg cueing. Dave is noted for his "progressive squares," and I really hope we can have at least nine squares in attendance so we can have him call these truly amazing figures. If you have never danced progressive squares, you definitely won’t want to miss this one. And if that’s not enough, there will be ice cream! This is our annual ice cream social, and Anne Reczko will be hosting. Please give us a hand with setup at 12:30 that Saturday afternoon.

Chris and Norma Howard
Club Chairpersons

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Class Chair Report

The January class is working very hard and the enthusiasm is high as demonstrated by the fact that two of our new dancers, Celia Kendig and Jim McClarin, have been seen at club dances observing the evening’s activities. We welcome any new dancer to come and observe and experience the fun and party atmosphere of our club dancers.

We have 8 dancers who will graduate in July. This class unfortunately has not had the opportunity to attend class dances and this is an important part of the learning process. As the old saying goes "practice makes perfect". Our advice to these new dancers when they graduate will be to return in September and Angel with our new class. This will help reinforce their dancing skills and build their confidence by reviewing the calls before they attend other club dances.

We also want to welcome Lori Forrence back. She was away for several weeks and we are glad to see her return.

We hope the entire January class will attend the NSSARDA (North Shore Square and Round Dance Association) Class Level dance on June 24 in Burlington, MA. There will be a carpool leaving the kiosk on Sunday at 1 PM. We hope to also see all the Border City Club members attend this dance and support our new dancers.

See you in a square,

Viv and Bill Thompson
Class Chairpersons

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Banner Chair Report

CANCELED! We had to pull the plug on our May 4^th raid of the Square Riggers. It looked like we would have been lucky to muster one square, so the raid was called off. The Square Riggers will not be coming to our June dance since we do not have their banner.

"Ole," screamed the crowd as they danced the night away in Londonderry. And who was that sombrero-wearing man causing such a ruckus? It was none other than the fun-loving, good-natured Señór Maurice. This Cinco de Mayo celebration (May 5^th) was saturated with BCS dancers. Add up all those dancers (25), plus Jerry Maurice, and you know that undoubtedly equals one heck of a good fiesta! The 3+ squares of dancers from Border City included: Steve & Lorri Wurtzler, Bill & Susan Leuci, Roberta Blais, Hal Kelley, Bill & Viv Thompson, Dave & Mary Raymond, Sonya Fredriksson, Della Crawford, Mike & Joyce Peterson, Tammy Dorris, Amy & Katherine Bollenbach, Harli Thoene, Bruce Williams, Debbie Coit, Preston Walsh, Chris Howard, and Margery Shank. Past members Ed Lohosky & Jean Sullivan also came and signed in with us.

Our club dance on Saturday, May 12^th had a few interesting twists and turns. One club that we hadn’t expected, Bradford Country Squares, showed up (with 8 dancers). Another club that we expected to show up, Wolf Rockers, didn’t because they were having a hard time getting enough people to raid us. The other two retrieving clubs on the evening were Cloudbusters (4 dancers) and Londonderry Apple Squares (8 dancers). We had two Cloudbusters banners, the first was from March 31, 2000! All totaled, the three retrieving clubs brought a total of 20 dancers. On the other hand we sent 71 dancers to raid those three clubs. The bright side is that Border City dancers did show up strong with 29 people to support our own club dance. Thanks BCS dancers! You guys are great!

While dancing all-position Plus to international caller Ed Foote, we were constantly challenged with excellent choreography. The Minutemen’s dance on May 19^th was interesting to say the least. This caller had "US" howling away, twirling ourselves, and doing things that some of us have never seen before at a square dance. Border City showed up with 13 dancers, which was almost half the people in attendance. The BCS crew included Chris Howard, Margery Shank, Della Crawford, Mike Peterson, Roberta Blais, Bill & Viv Thompson, Tammy Dorris & Jonas Green, Steve & Lorri Wurtzler, and Skip & Penny Guild.

At our last club dance of the season on June 9^th, three clubs are headed our way to retrieve their banners. They are the Skirts 'N Flirts, Minutemen Squares, and Turkey Town Trotters.

We have 2 raids left and the Wolf Rockers dance is their Ice Cream Social.

June Raids/Retrievals:

Date	Club	Location	Level	We Are	Caller	Cuer
06/02/01	Concord Coach	Concord, NH	MS/PL	Raiding	Shawn Cuddy	Bernie Porter
06/23/01	Wolf Rockers	Mason, NH	MS/PL	Raiding	Everett Mackin	Hope Belanger

Last Month's Raids and Retrievals:

Date	Club	Level	We Were	BCS Members	Their Members
05/04/01	Square Riggers	EZMS	Raiding	We canceled	Not coming 06/09/01
05/05/01	Londonderry Apple Squares	MS/PL	Raiding	25	8
05/19/01	Minutemen Squares	Plus	Raiding	13	Scheduled 06/09/01

Clubs Raiding / Retrieving at Our May Dance:

Date	Club	They Were	BCS Members	Their Members
05/12/01	Cloudbusters	Retrieving	25	4
05/12/01	Bradford Country Squares	Retrieving	21	8
05/12/01	Londonderry Apple Squares	Retrieving	25	8
05/12/01	Wolf Rockers	Raiding	Scheduled 6/23/01	Canceled

Club Banners We Have: Clubs With Our Banners:

Date	Club	BCS Members	Retrieval Date	Date	Club	Their Members	Retrieval Date
09/22/00	Cloudbusters	15	Not Scheduled		None
02/24/01	Turkey Town Trotters	17	06/09/01
04/07/01	Skirts 'N Flirts	17	06/09/01
05/19/01	Minutemen Squares	13	06/09/01

Lorri and Steve Wurtzler
Banner Chairs

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Club dues are due by the end of June

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