Meeting brought to order by Jim Rogers, Acting President at 9:30 a.m. .
Point of Order, Death of a President: Dennis Marsh, Past President
This research into the 'death of a President' is in honor of Barbie Cooper. Her objectives were for the betterment of the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs. A doctor explained Barbie's fight was to stay active and beat the odds as related to diabetes: Don't let death, win. We have had her love passed on, the knowledge obtained and our understanding of it all.
The following provided added information to this 'Point of Order':
Word Definitions extracted from the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary and Law Dictionary, Henry Bosley Woolf; Editor
Word Definitions:
Absence: Being in a state of absence for period of time (may return to position at further time frame).
Death: A permanent cessation of all vital function; end of life.
Final: The last examination in a course; not to be altered or undone.
Immediately: Acting of being without the intervention of another object, cause or agency: Direct > the ~ cause of death <
Incapability: Not able to hold position at present time; (may return to position at further time frame).
Vacancy: A vacating of an office, post or piece of property; a vacant office or post; state of being vacant.
Point of Order:
Since there is no mention of death in the Constitution or Bylaws and no definitive wording as to the death of a president, Article 10 of the Bylaws of the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance states: "Robert's Rules of Order shall be followed where applicable and not inconsistent with this Constitution and By-laws".
RONR(10th ed.), p441, 47. 17-21
... if the office of the president should become vacant between elections, the 1st vice president ... shall fill the vacancy
... the first vice-president would preside or complete the term.
At this time the 1st Vice-President term or position is vacated.
RONR(10th ed.), p442, 47. 1-10
Some societies elect several vice-presidents in an order of precedence: first, second, third and so on. In case of the resignation or death of a president, the vice president (if there is only one) or the 1st vice-president (if there are more than one) automatically becomes president for the unexpired term, unless the bylaws expressly provide otherwise for filling a vacancy in the office of president. The second vice-president, if there is one, then becomes first vice-president, and so on, with the vacancy to be filled occurring in the lowest-ranking vice presidency.
Since the Bylaws of the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs do not spell out the 'term' of the presidency, the following applies:
RONR(10th ed.), p432, 18-22 The Bylaws may contain a provision that "no person shall be eligible to serve more than (one)* consecutive term(s) in the same office." In filling vacancies for unexpired terms, an officer who has served more than half a term in an office is considered to have served a full term.
In the Bylaws there is no mention of a 'term' of office but the Practices and Procedures provide the following insight:
The 1st VICE-PRESIDENT/PRESIDENT ELECT: (Term: 1 year 1st Vice, 1 Year President, 1 Year Past President). Once the vacancy is filled, it becomes final** and there is no provision for the return of the President to 1st Vice-President. He/She may run again for that position upon completion of President and Past President. No one person may hold two offices at the same time.
Summary: 1st Vice-President fills the vacated office of President, serves as President and Past President; 2nd Vice-President fills vacated office of 1st Vice-President, President, and Past President.
The President may appoint the 2nd Vice-President vacated position with the approval of the Executive Board. This appointment constitutes a term of office. He/She (President) may leave this position vacated or fill the position by a special election. Ballots must be presented to the clubs within 15 days.
We ask that these Robert's Rules of Order/Parliamentary Law be swiftly enacted.
Furthermore, we ask that the above Rules be temporarily assigned to the Bylaws of the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs as Article 11, Death of a President, (The Barbie Cooper Act). This Article 11 would await the official adoption by the Clubs of the Federation to make it permanent.
POINT OF ORDER (Dennis Marsh): I request that we take a vote, a yes or no, from the Delegates and Officers.
Chairman Jim Rogers: I disagree.
MOTION (Dennis Marsh): I make a motion to appeal the decision of the Chairman. Seconded by John Guches.
Discussion:
Barbi Ashwill:
First of all I am actually amazed at this body. When you say this is the Barbie Cooper Act, I think Barbie would be appalled if she were here. I would like all of you to think about this. Additionally, you're making some pretty heavy decisions here and you're asking people to make a decision and, if I'm having a difficult time understanding it, I would think there are a lot of people who are voting that would have a difficult time also. I would like to suggest that all of you think about this seriously and perhaps take it back to your Council or have separate meetings; but let's make sure all of you understand what it is you're doing.
Vivian Fairburn:
Basically what I'm hearing is if Jim Rogers becomes President, he will be serving more than 50% of his term, we have 8 months left, that that is the term. Based on the report that you passed out, Jim Rogers would become President for 9 months, Marilyn Schmit would move up to 1st Vice-President, and he would appoint a 2nd Vice-President. In September, the 2nd Vice-President is an elected office and Jim Rogers becomes Past President. Basically is this what you're saying, Dennis?
Dennis Marsh: Correct.
Neta Minten:
I understand what Vivian is saying and I understand what this says, but I'm confused after reading e-mails about what needs to happen with election of officers and moving someone up that is not elected.
Steve Murphy:
I have a question concerning the stipulation that this be put temporarily in the bylaws.
Kay Rogers:
We have bylaws and they're fairly explicit. Nobody expected Barbie to leave this way; nobody expected we would have to fill the position; nobody expected that everybody would agree or like the way it turns out. We do have a well respected, well known Parliamentarian that we have trusted all these years and we continue to trust. I know, Jim and I both trust Tim Roberts to interpret what he feels is the best for the Federation and neither Jim or I, nor anybody else has any right of under-mining our own Parliamentarian. Roberts Rules of Order only come into play if you do not have Rules and Bylaws that cover the situation.
Dennis Marsh:
It's not that we're trying to under-mine Jim Rogers, it's not a personal thing, but we are looking at something that has never happened. We need to make sure we do it right the first time. What we're doing is, you can't hold a chair for someone to step back and then go forward again. What you need to remember is this movement forward is more than half of the term.
Kay Rogers:
What you are proposing is that Jim Rogers immediately move to President, finish that term and if he wants to be 1st Vice-President next year, he could run for that position.
Dennis Marsh:
No. He has to be able to fulfill the Past President position and then he can run for 1st Vice-President.
Bob Bosch:
When it doesn't say Death of a President in the Bylaws, Roberts Rules of Order does come into play. Dennis Marsh read directly out of the Roberts Rules of Order, 10th Edition, Death of a President and Resignation of a President, and our Bylaws state that the Roberts Rules of Order takes part in this situation.
As an example, Gerald Ford became President after the Resignation of a President. Resignation and death are in the same category in Roberts Rules of Order. When he took over as President, he had to rerun to become President after he finished that term.
Barbi Ashwill:
One point that bothers me has nothing to do with this situation; it has to do with what our Federation has been based on all these years. Maybe a special election is the way to handle this. To the best of my knowledge, we have never had a President who was not elected to the 1st Vice-President position. So moving up because of a death, to me you still have to run for that office. The people in this state should have the right to say, yes we want you to be in that position because you're in that position for 3 years. Since it's been working so well all these years, I would hate to see us make some kind of change that is not well thought out.
Tim Roberts:
The Bylaws state that in the absence of the President, the 1st Vice-President serves as President, and that is why Jim Rogers is chairing this meeting. He is the Acting President. The Bylaws also state that it is up to the President to appoint someone to fill any vacancies and to gain approval from this body. In my interpretation, the office of the President is vacant and thus, it is up to the Acting President to appoint someone to fill that spot pending the approval of this body. There is no automatic succession in our Bylaws; there is a process where the President appoints someone to fill a vacant position. This is the interpretation that I came to when I read through our Bylaws. The Bylaws do state that Roberts Rules of Order are to be followed when they are not in conflict with our Bylaws; and in my view our Bylaws cover this situation through the Acting President, the Chairman of the meeting, appointing someone to fill the position. And that is how I came to the conclusion that I came to.
I also agree with Barbi Ashwill that the 1st Vice-President position is a 3 year term; and by having Jim Rogers move to Past President in the fall, he would be only serving 2 years. In the Roberts Rules, it refers to serving more than half a term, it specifically is in reference to bodies that have term limits in their Bylaws, Practices and Procedures and we do not have term limits in our Bylaws, Practices and Procedures. That is the statement that led me to the conclusion that I advised Jim Rogers of earlier this month.
Carolyn Bosch:
I think we're all having a problem with terminology here. You're saying she's absent, but she's not coming back though. We have to think how to set a precedent so that we're doing it correctly with this body. She is unfortunately gone. Our Bylaws say something about if she would come back; she's not coming back so that's why all of this is going on.
Vivian Fairburn:
Tim, what I'm hearing you say is that Marilyn Schmit would be appointed 1st Vice-President. Hypothetically, Jim Rogers would appoint the 1st Vice-President for 9 months. Now that person would have to run for office this year to be installed in September. Is that right? (Answer, Yes) And the 2nd Vice-President has to run for office. But now Jim Rogers is President, so technically as 1st Vice-President he would become President again. I'm just trying to make this clear for everyone. Basically it still comes down to that Jim Rogers would serve 21 months as President; and you're saying that the 50% rule applies and overrides our Bylaws.
(Answer, Correct)
Steve Murphy:
I'm a little bit unclear right now about your status as President. Are you now in fact the President?
Tim Roberts:
Jim Rogers is Chairing the meeting. Right now he is the 1st Vice-President.
Steve Murphy:
As of right now, you (Jim Rogers) are the 1st Vice-President. You have said as Parliamentarian that only the President can appoint and he is not the President.
Tim Roberts:
That's a good point. The Bylaws state that the 1st Vice-President shall in the absence or incapability of the President perform the duties of the President. I believe that appointing to fill a vacant office is one of the duties of the President, so then in fulfilling those duties he would have the responsibility to appoint.
Bill Rooper:
I was reading the Bylaws too, and like Jim Rogers said, it is the duty of the 1st Vice-President to assume the duties of the President, one of which is we shall appoint a person to fill the vacancy for the balance of the term. It doesn't say anything about how long that term is going to be or what happens after that. I just can't feel if you appoint yourself as President that you are President again next year. It doesn't seem right. It seems to me that you should appoint somebody else to fill the office of President.
Neta Minten:
What page of the Bylaws are you on?
Answer: Bylaws, Article I, Section II
Ralph Lambert:
I have been sitting here listening to all of this. It almost seems like one possibility is to complete the remainder of this square dance year without a President; the 1st Vice-President runs the meetings and does what he has to do and then everybody does their thing after the next election. (Applause)
Dennis Marsh:
The problem with this is that we have to have a Secretary and a President to run this corporation. We cannot have an empty President seat. The other thing that we're losing sight of again is the term we're trying to work out here is more than half the term. It's 9 months, it's three-quarters of the term with the 1st Vice-President moving up. We can't go back and have Barbie come back and fulfill her role. We have to be looking ahead and determine what is going to work the best for this organization and by not making a lot of ripples by the suggestion that I have made, which is to keep progressing people up. We're sorry that we had a death in our leadership but we need to go forward.
George Griffith:
It seems to me that it's very simple. The 1st Vice-President takes the place of the President. That's what the Vice-President is for. And if there is an appointment to be made, I think the then President would appoint the Vice-President. When we lost President Kennedy, Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States. So now it's the office of the 1st Vice-President that is vacant, not the President. The 1st Vice-President has taken the place of the President already. That's the focus of the 1st Vice-President. That's the way I see it. We have a President now but we don't have a 1st Vice-President; that's who we need to appoint.
Bill Tipton:
I've been sitting here listening to the same thing. Whether Jim Rogers appoints a 1st Vice-President or whether Marilyn Schmit moves into 1st Vice-President, this person becomes the 1st Vice-President. The duty of the 1st Vice-President is to move into President. How can you disagree with that?
John Guches:
Since we've had this long discussion over this, can you please restate the Motion so everybody understands what was read as the Motion.
Tim Roberts:
The Point of Order is what the Chairman disagreed with. The Motion is to appeal the decision of the Chairman. If appealed, the interpretation of the Point of Order then becomes the Rule of the Body.
Ilana Widders:
I have been sitting here trying to figure out all the different interpretations of what's in print. If the unthinkable had happened and our President and 1st Vice-President had both passed away at the same time, would we hold an election or would we have the 2nd Vice-President take the President position? What is the point of having a 1st Vice-President and 2nd Vice-President if they're not to move up continually if there is a vacancy to fill. Every corporation I ever have heard of; the whole point of Vice-President is to move up if there is an unfortunate death. This to me seems like the natural order of progression of officers. They have separate jobs but they're there for the natural progression of moving up in the event the President cannot fulfill their duties for whatever reason that is.
Chuck Quigley:
I would like to make a suggestion that we make this a secret ballot.
John Guches:
I'm hearing a lot of questions around the table about what we are voting on and why the secret ballot was asked for. We are voting to over-rule Jim Rogers about his denial of the Point of Order. That's the only thing we're voting on right now.
Neta Minten:
If I vote on this, if I say yes to over-turn Jim Rogers' denial, am I voting yes on putting the Point of Order in the Bylaws at the same time. So we are not just voting on whether we disagree with Jim; we are also voting on putting this in our Bylaws also. Correct? (Answer, temporarily until it can be written in.) Temporarily until all the Clubs have a chance to discuss it and come back and vote on it again before it is put in permanently? (Answer, yes)
Steve Murphy:
I have one last question. People have stated that following the death of a President, whether corporation or political, in our minds normally the 1st Vice-President or Vice-President automatically takes the President's job. I would like to ask the Parliamentarian if that is not what is happening? Is that correct?
Bill Rooper:
What he is saying is that the Vice-President takes the President's job but he doesn't take his title.
Steve Murphy:
I don't quite understand that. I would think that the 1st Vice-President automatically becomes the President.
Kay Rogers:
One thing I would like to say is you don't know what Jim Rogers' intentions are. You don't know if he was going to appoint himself as President, you don't know if he was going to appoint a 1st Vice or a 2nd Vice because you interrupted him 3 seconds into his report. At this point, he is not the President. He is the 1st Vice-President, acting as President. You have no idea what was going to happen after that because you haven't approved him as even Acting President.
Chairman Jim Rogers: No more comments, calls for vote.
Barbi Ashwill, will you help with counting the ballots?
ROLL CALL: Recording Secretary, Virginia Myers (Ed)
I wanted to say President: Barbie Cooper because I know a lot of us are really missing her energetic, enthusiastic love for square dancing and this entire federation.
Officers: All present
Appointed Officers: All present, except Ronnie Wiser & Patty Reese
Delegates: All present
Active Goodwill Ambassadors: All present, except: Al & Fran Westphal
Chairman Jim Rogers:
Tim Roberts will announce the ballot now.
Tim Roberts:
The Motion passed so the Chairman is over-ruled and Jim Rogers is now the President, Marilyn Schmit is now the 1st Vice-President and the 2nd Vice-President position is open.
Jim Rogers: Thank you Tim.
INVOCATION: Dennis Marsh (Ilana Widders)
FLAG SALUTE: 1st Vice President, Marilyn Schmit (Ron)
MINUTES: MOTION was made by John Guches to approve the minutes as presented. Seconded by Dar Sconce. Motion approved.
OFFICERS REPORTS:
PRESIDENT: Jim Rogers (Kay)
I have asked Dar Sconce to fill the vacancy of 2nd Vice-President.
MOTION (Pat Young): I make a motion that Dar Sconce be appointed as 2nd Vice-President. Seconded by Dale Worthington.
Motion passed, Dar you can change seats now.
Dar Sconce:
Do we need an official Delegate from Umpqua Area Council? Frank Schuchard is here as Acting Delegate.
1st VICE PRESIDENT: Marilyn Schmit (Ron)
Since reading the e-mail about Barbie Cooper passing away, my thoughts have gone all over the place from sadness to wondering what the future holds for any number of speculations.
I have been approached by several persons, wondering what is going to happen when the meeting comes together on Sunday, January 28th. I have told them all that I don't know and will abide by whatever the elected body and delegates decide after hearing all the parliamentary procedures explained so that all can understand the correctness of whatever happens. I have heard several different ways things can happen and will wait for all to be explained in plain language so everyone can be on the same page and not be argumentative when it comes time to vote. We are square dancers who represent the dancers of Oregon and it is in our best interest to carry on in the way that is best for all concerned.
Please rethink your conscience if you plan on being adverse in your actions. We need to carry on the fun and worthiness that the Federation represents to all and we need to be supportive of those who wish to leave Barbie's legacy in one piece.
I attended the Washington Federation meeting last weekend with Genevieve Churchill as my traveling partner. We enjoyed the camaraderie of the Washington dancers and their hospitality. We were treated to a soup luncheon and two great dances on Friday and Saturday night, hosted by two different clubs. Lots of fun to re-acquaint with friends whom we have not seen in several months, or in the case of some, over a year. Since we are supporting the Washington Federation in their bid for the 2012 Convention, we are ever alert for plans and ideas to share with those who are in charge.
Other time has been spent being a landlord to an empty house and repairing it so it can be sold. It is up for sale and I will lose something that has been dear to my heart for almost 27 years. Kind of hard to give up something that was purchased with an uncashed welfare check for a down payment.
Until next time.
2007 MID-WINTER FESTIVAL: Dan & Ginger Allen
(Applause)
Our numbers are up; we're looking at about 1,900 for this year. (Applause)
We want to thank the Oregon Federation for the support they have given us this year to make this festival a great success. (Applause)
2007 SUMMER FESTIVAL: Gary and Joyce Clark
The Friday night after party hosted by Summer Festival was a huge success; there was a great turnout and we received lots of positive comments about the Wild Cards and the Greasers as well as our featured cuers. I'm sure the talent scouts will have left numerous messages on our home phone wanting to hire the lead actors in our skit.
We are finding it very rewarding having the help of Dale & Kathy Worthington, Sylvia Davis and the support of their entire Council.
We are currently preparing to send out letters to Oregon Callers and Cuers; starting work on the program book and signing vendors. We are pleased with our progress and are confident that Seaside's Revvin' in 2007 will be a fantastic festival.
Mid-Winter 2007 is about over, can everyone show me your Summer Festival 2007 ribbons? If you don't have yours yet, I have them here today. It's time to RIBBON UP! (Applause)
Dan Allen:
We request that we be dismissed so we can go back to our Festival and finish it.
President Rogers:
You're dismissed. Have fun.
2008 MID-WINTER FESTIVAL: Leonard & Marcia Snodgrass
We also had a great festival, it was really a lot of fun and I'm thrilled to see those numbers up in the 1900's. So we have something to beat for next year. I have already expressed who we are having as callers and cuers for next year so this is a reiteration. Stefan Sidholm from Sweden is our featured caller and Al and Carol Lillifield are our featured cuers. We're still working on the clogging instructor.
I do have packets available today for those Delegates that wish to sell ribbons for us. I will be coming around at the break to ask if you would be willing to do this again. If not, feel free to say so.
I'm looking forward to visiting all the Clubs and Councils throughout the state and seeing all those new ribbons. And yes Joyce, I will ribbon up. (Applause)
2008 SUMMER FESTIVAL: Barbara Tipton (Bill)
The 2008 Oregon Summer Festival committee is working to fill the Committee positions for the festival. We need more volunteers and are going to make presentations at the various MWA Club meetings asking for their participation.
We have a fun tour to the Evergreen Aviation Museum planned for Friday and a raffle for seven nights lodging to the beautiful Sun River Resort in Bend. We will give one raffle ticket to each paid registration until Mid-Winter 2008.
Our Trails End Dance to be held on Thursday evening at the Polk County Fairgrounds is in place with the "Crew" calling and John and Suzette Juhring doing the cueing.
The next Committee meeting will be held Sunday, February 18, 2007 at 2:00 PM at the Salem Square Dance Center. Everyone is invited to attend. (Applause)
2009 SUMMER FESTIVAL: Dale Worthington
No Report
OREGON FEDERATION NEWS: Vivian Fairburn
Last year I encouraged Councils to hold OFN subscription dances. TVC, Mid-Willamette, Emerald, and South Coast Councils each held a dance and received some new and renewed subscriptions. I have been receiving questions from Councils this year regarding the guidelines when planning the subscription dance to make it successful. These ideas were discussed yesterday in the POOF meeting. You each have a copy to take back to your Councils.
Each Council is encouraged to hold one OFN subscription dance per year. The following guidelines are ideas that may be helpful to ensure a profitable dance both for the OFN and for the Council.
These are the guidelines. I will publish them in the next OFN. Any suggestions or ideas you may have, please let me know. This is something I think we need to start with.
In the last few months I have received new subscriptions on outdated subscription forms. I discovered that many clubs post the form on the bulletin boards at their halls. What a great idea! The idea is working well too! Therefore, each of you have an updated 4-part subscription form to take back to your Councils. They are 4 to a page to cut apart as needed. This form can be duplicated to provide as many copies as you need. For those clubs who do have the outdated forms still posted, please use these to replace them. Remember we do have a change of address that should be posted.
On page 12 of the OFN - the Special Events Page - we added some new features. One is the listing of the New Dancer Jamborees. The information regarding these dances can be e-mailed to the OFN Editor when they are planned, months in advance, let me know when they are planned so I can put them on the calendar. It is not necessary to wait until the month before to notify us. We keep data in a file that is easily retrievable when needed.
Also there is a new section on that page. It is a listing of Birthday/Anniversary dances. Clubs can notify us well in advance of the event date so that we can add them as the calendar approaches that time period.
The Festival Weekend section is kept current. It helps when Clubs and Councils send in their information well in advance to add it to the page. When a Council or Club are setting up their calendar for the year, send the OFN Editor an e-mail with this information. We need to keep on top of this.
This is all free advertising for Clubs and Councils. I still encourage each Council and Club President to subscribe to the OFN so that these features are used to their advantage.
We are still profitable even though we have had fewer ads in the last few months than we did last year at this time. Subscriptions are down slightly but I received quite a few (30) this weekend so I think we're back up again. Last year the Ashwill's donated two subscriptions for a drawing among those new and renewed. It wasn't used at that time so it was set up for this weekend. Now there are 25 tickets for the drawing.
Ilana Widders:
I have a question for you Vivian. Your guidelines suggest only a Council. Are Clubs allowed to follow these same guidelines?
Vivian Fairburn:
In the Bylaws we allow for 13 Council subscription dances every year. It is designed to have the Council put it on. A Club could come forward and choose to put it on for that Council but we have 13 dances, no more, per year.
Barbi Ashwill:
That is exactly correct. What needs to happen is if a Club in that particular Council wants to host a dance, they need to get the Council's approval so that they only have one per year.
Tim Roberts:
Vivian, do you want these to go in the Practices and Procedures.
MOTION (John Guches): I move that we put the OFN Subscription Dances Suggested Guidelines in the Practices and Procedures. Seconded by Bill Rooper.
Motion passed.
2ND VICE PRESIDENT: Darlene Sconce
I just wanted to thank the Officers and the Delegates for their appointment of me to 2nd Vice-President. I hope that I will be able to fill this position to the best of my ability and with Marilyn's help, I look forward to serving the remainder of this year. Thank you.
POOF MEETING REPORT:
Vivian Fairburn:
The POOF Meeting Report should always be after my report in the January and July meetings. It should be on the Agenda.
Kay Rogers:
The POOF Meeting consisted of a couple of different subjects. Of course, the main body of that meeting was spent discussing OFN policies and situations. We resolved some of the questions that were raised last year concerning trying to get different ad rates for federated and non-federated. We decided that was not feasible to do that; there are other ways to reward loyal advertisers. Basically we decided that Vivian is doing a great job and she should continue on with this job. Don't you think. (Applause)
The subscriptions are down a little and some of the ads are down a little; and it's part of our overall intention of increasing and maintaining better relationships among different policy board members and delegates of the Federation, so that we can better help the Delegates and the Delegates can better help the Federation in promoting goodwill amongst ourselves and helping you to see the need for the ads and the subscriptions.
We are going to start sending our extra subscriptions out monthly to a few people around the state; it may not always be the same person. We need a contact in those areas who can take Federation news magazines to various classes so that we know those magazines are getting in the hands of our new dancers.
RECORDING SECRETARY: Virginia Myers (Ed)
Thank you to the Mid-Winter Festival Chairman and Committees for a wonderful fun weekend.
Since there has been some discussion regarding the length of the minutes, I felt a need to make a few comments. I am not actually doing it word-for-word, I'm just putting in a few comments by each person who expresses their concern regarding a motion or item for discussion.
Many officers and delegates have complimented my minutes and said they appreciate the details given, especially when there has been an enormous amount of discussion or question and answer session regarding a topic. For example, the November 5th minutes were still 29 pages and that did not include any discussion regarding motions.
Thank you for listening to my concerns and just one more thing. Your Recording Secretary needs hearings aids so always please use the microphone and speak as clearly as possible. I depend upon hearing clear voices on the tape when I am finalizing the minutes. Thank you.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY: Glory Guches (John)
I also would like to thank Emerald Empire and the MWF 2007 Team for a great, wonderful festival! And, thank you to the Emerald Empire for hosting our state meeting!
The cards I have sent out:
Condolence Cards:
I would like to read an e-mail thank you letter from Cherri Dunning and Chad Londo, Barbie's Daughter and Son.
Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you very much for your kindness and sympathy. We really appreciate everything that has been done for us. Our mother was a wonderful woman, friend, wife and most of all the best mother we could of ever had.
Thanks again for all of your support and help in these difficult times.
If you know of any of these other people, can you please pass this thank you on to them.
Ken and Marie Fessler
Don and Cheryl Prewitt
Jim and Jan Steele
Asaway and Dottie Generauk
Bob and Nancy Brunelle
Dennis and Roberta
Doug and Ladaona Hantgell
Noan and Marce Yoder
Harold and Barbara Klem
Diane May
Ty York
Al Wolf and Gail Domine
Earl and Goldie Restorff
Phil and Martie Coblentz
Myrt and Evan Powell
Gary and Joyce Clark
Lavonne and Al Bussey
Spencer and Barbara Lewis
Mary Thial
Georgine and Ron Wooleoch
John and Suzette Juhring
Ed and Bea
Sundown Round Dance Club
Sincerely
Cherri Dunning and Chad Londo
PS Sorry about the e-mail and not U.S. Mail but I had a very hard time finding time to write to everyone and not able to find everyone's address. Anyone who knows our mom would know that she wouldn't mind at all. Any thing to make life a little easier is what she would say to do.
In closing I would like to say, how precious life is and yet it is so fleeting. Be sure to let everyone know you love them and never miss a chance to give them a hug and let your friends know you care.
Marilyn Schmit:
I sent an e-mail to Cherri and Chad telling them, on behalf of the Oregon Federation, I apologize for no one getting up at the memorial service to express our condolences. I got an e-mail back from Cherri,
Thank you very much. Your e-mail came at a very good time. My brother and I are faced with very hard times to come. I just got a phone call that their real father, Barbie's first husband, had just had a very bad heart attack and they're not sure whether he's going to make it either. I wish you all the very best. If there are any pictures or any write-ups, would you please forward them to me. She was so proud of her position as President and loved everything about the Federation.
Thank you again, Cherri Dunning
Let's keep these kids in our thoughts. They not only lost their mother but there is the possibility of losing their father now too. I will follow up on this.
TREASURER: Bill Rooper (Annadale)
Everybody should have a copy of the financial report. If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask me any time.
MEMBERSHIP: Coleeta Quigley (Chuck)
Membership is very interesting. I love statistics so will share some with you.
We have 13 councils in the State of Oregon
There are 83 clubs and we have over 3,700 dancers.
We only have one club that still needs a badge for the badge board, and they know who they are. All councils are current with their corporation fees. I will individually contact the clubs and councils that have corporation reports due before the May State Meeting.
Delegates, please take the packets I have given to you and distribute them to each club for completion. We would like to have them returned at the next State Meeting in May. It is for the 2007-2008 DIRECTORY so it is important to get accurate information.
Please e-mail me, yellowrockers@juno.com, or call me if you have any questions... remember I have a toll-free phone number 1-877-741-0560.
INSURANCE: Kay Rogers (Jim)
I want to thank all of you for the great job you're doing in getting your paperwork in. Did each delegate receive his packet of forms for their clubs? I mailed them this year instead of waiting until Mid-Winter to give them to you. Remember to hand these out to each club and please make a note of the responsible party you passed them on to. Also request that the clubs keep these original forms and make copies for individual events. It is time consuming to mail them out a new form every time your club needs one. Keep up the good work. Thank You
PAST PRESIDENT: Dennis Marsh (Ilana Widders)
April 1, 2007, 1:30 to 4:00 pm will be the Benefit Dance and it will be at the Buckeroo Barn in Roseburg.
Yesterday we did have the Nomination Committee; I would like to go through the nominations and ask for any nominations from the floor if I may.
President Rogers: Yes, go ahead.
Dennis Marsh: Thank you.
2nd Vice-President:
We had two nominations: Dar Sconce and John Guches
Open to the floor for any other nominations.
MOTION (Bill Rooper) I move that the nominations for 2nd Vice-President be closed. Seconded by Steve Murphy. Motion passed.
Due to the situation this morning with Marilyn Schmit moving up, that left 1st Vice-President open and John Guches did come to me and said if that happened, he would like to run for 1st Vice-President.
John Guches: Mr. President, I will remove myself from nomination to 2nd Vice-President.
Lee Ashwill: Since Dar Sconce is filling the rest of this term as 2nd Vice-President, if she would remove her name, I would like to nominate her for 1st Vice-President.
Dar Sconce: At this time I would like to be nominated for 2nd Vice-President.
1st Vice-President:
MOTION (Al Wolf): I move to nominate John Guches for 1st Vice-President.
Seconded by Dale Worthington. Motion passed.
Membership:
We had one nomination: Coleeta Quigley
Nominations are now open to the floor.
MOTION (Chuck Quigley): I move that the nominations for Membership be closed. Seconded by John Guches. Motion passed.
Corresponding Secretary:
We had one nomination: Glory Guches
Nominations are now open to the floor.
MOTION (John Guches): I move that the nominations for Corresponding Secretary by closed. Seconded by Al Wolf. Motion passed.
Recording Secretary:
We had one nomination: Virginia Myers
Nominations are now open to the floor.
MOTION (Chuck Quigley): I move that the nominations for Recording Secretary be closed. Seconded by Al Wolf. Motion passed.
Treasurer:
We had one nomination: Bill Rooper
Nominations are now open to the floor.
MOTION (John Guches): I move that the nominations for Treasurer be closed. Seconded by Dale Worthington. Motion passed.
PARLIAMENTARIAN: Tim Roberts (Kathy)
No Report
PUBLICITY & STATE REPORTER: Bob Bosch (Carolyn)
I have some introductions I would like to make:
I would also like to give congratulations from the bottom of my heart to the Randall Award winners, Jim and Kay Rogers. (Applause)
FINANCIAL ADVISOR: Mike Odell (Shirley)
We had a great time at this Mid-Winter Festival. We want to thank everybody for making it so enjoyable.
I have reviewed the Oct. '06 - Jan.'07 OFN ads and compared them to Vivian's audit sheets. All ads were reported paid, with the exception of one ad. Vivian is working on that collection.
I have also reviewed the financial records of the Federation from Sept. 1, 2005 to Aug. 31, 2006. I reviewed the bank statements, bank reconciliations, cancelled checks and the invoices paid, and the tax return. Everything is in order! Bill Rooper has done an outstanding job once again. (Applause)
EDUCATION ADVISOR: Ronnie Wiser
E-Mail: I will not be at the meeting due to I have to work this weekend. The education meeting about callers is all ready and will be over by the time this is read. I thank Leonard Snodgrass so much for taking up where I left off.
HISTORIAN: Patty Reese
No Report
BMI/ASCAP: Ralph Lambert
Everything is current with ASCAP.
For BMI, I have received their invoice for 2007 in the amount of $130.00. This is higher than the $125.00 we paid last year due to a fee increase. I have submitted the bill to the Treasurer for payment. And I have the check back so I will be put it in the mail.
YOUTH ACTIVITIES COORDINATOR: Kathy Roberts (Tim)
Bill Rooper and I are working on setting up two different designations for our youth donations in the State Federation books. Funds received before the 2006 State Youth Scholarship Dance will be noted as State Youth Fund. The funds in this area will be used to pay for our youth dances and festival youth ribbons. Any funds remaining from the 2006 Educational Scholarship Dance that were not used for last year's scholarships will be put into a continuing fund for Educational Scholarships. When we have fund raising opportunities, I will always specify whether the funds will go to the Educational Scholarships Fund or the Youth Fund. Thank you Bill for your help and patience.
The date and location of our second annual Youth Educational Scholarship Benefit Dance has been changed from April to May 20th from 1:00-4:00 p.m. This year, the Benefit Dance will be a New Dancers Jamboree immediately after the May State Meeting in Central Oregon. Our caller will be Leonard Snodgrass. Our cuer will be Dave Cooper. I changed the date of the dance to the same weekend as the state meeting so that all state officers will have an opportunity to attend the dance. We will also announce the scholarship recipients during the dance. I will send flyers to everyone through e-mail in February. Please forward the information to all of the clubs and post it in your hall. Thank You! Funds raised during this dance will be placed into the Educational Scholarship Fund.
There is still time for your graduating high school square dancing seniors to apply for their square dance scholarships. During the last meeting, I gave everyone the information on the scholarships available. The deadline for both the USDA scholarship and the Washington state square dance scholarship for teens, who are members of the Washington Clubs and their Club is also a member of the Oregon Federation, is February 1st.
The deadline for our OFSRDC's scholarship is May 1st. Students that apply must be a member of an Oregon Federated club for at least 1 year. They must be planning on attending a college, university, technical or professional school. Students should have a record of volunteer service in square dancing, round dancing or clogging and express an interest in continuing their involvement in square dancing, round dancing or clogging. Applications and complete guidelines and eligibility can be found on the OFSRDC web site at: http://www.squaredance.gen.or.us/ScholarshipApp.html. This scholarship is also available to any Washington graduating high school senior that belongs to a club that is also a member of OFSRDC. Once again, please remember that the scholarship applications and supporting documents must be sent to me prior to the May 1st deadline.
During our last 3 meetings, I asked everyone to go back to your councils and clubs and ask them to help support our scholarship efforts now by "passing the hat" at dances. Thank you to the TVC for your donations at the last meeting. Are there any other councils or groups that will be presenting a donation today?
Donations by TVC and Blue Mountain were presented. Thank you very much Councils. Also at the last state meeting, we passed around a beautiful blue basket for the Educational Scholarship and we raised $78. Thank you for your generosity.
March 18, 2007, from 1:30-4:00 pm. the Mini Stars in Vancouver will be hosting their first annual "Ka$h for Kid$" fund raising scholarship dance. It will be held at the Clark County Square Dance Center in Vancouver, WA. This dance is being planned and organized by the Mini Stars Kids. The State Federation Youth Fund will be paying for their March advertisement with the OFN. Vivian and I are working out the details for this ad. In addition, I would like to ask each of you to help support these admirable youth dancers:
When Oregon receives our portion of the donations from the Mini Stars Ka$h for Kid$ dance, the funds will be placed into the Educational Scholarship Fund.
Watch for information on an upcoming youth dance at the Salem Square Dance Center in September. This will be a youth dance. There will be youth callers and cuers from the floor and it should be a lot of fun! This will be a fund raising dance for our Youth Fund, which pays for ribbons and dance expenses.
If you have any youth that would like to attend Summer Festival or other state supported square dance activities and cannot afford the fees or ribbons, please contact me. We do have scholarships available to help youth dancers.
Unfortunately, due to my limited resources, the Youth Fund is not able to pay for hotel rooms at our events. If you have youth that cannot afford the room or transportation, please consider setting out a donation basket at the youth's club asking for help with the room. I have found that Oregon dancers are very generous and supportive.
Thank you TVC for your $206.16 donation for the Youth Educational Fund.
Thank you Blue Mountain Council for your $107 donation for the Youth Educational Fund.
Thank you State Delegates, Officers and Guests for your $63 donation to the Youth Educational Fund
ORDTA: Dennis Smith (Elaine)
ORDTA held our "annual meeting" yesterday, January 27th, and ORDTA has applied to hold a Mini-Lab in 2008. This is basically a miniature convention, which is very beneficial to round dance cuers.
Nominations for next year's officers were presented. For a refreshing change, there were more than one nominee for several of the positions. Elections will be held via mail during the next couple of months with the results to be announced at their next meeting.
We finished up with a short Q&A session with Sharon and Casey Parker and some other discussions.
Our "So You Want to be a Cuer" session was held yesterday afternoon. It was very well attended; we have seven new and prospective cuers who attended.
ORDTA's spring meeting will be held on Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 10:00 AM at the Emerald Square and Round Dance Center in Springfield.
ROUND DANCE SCREENING: Barbara Schaumburg (Larry)
Oregon Round of The Month
February 2007
"WHEN CAN I TOUCH YOU" f/s (Swinging On A Star)
written by: Jerry Buckmaster & Zodie Reigel
Record label: Star 113
Rhythm: Waltz
Phase: II + 2 (hover & chair)
Chosen by: Mid-Willamette Council
OROM for March was reported at last meeting.
A classic chosen by ORDTA, "Fireman Two-Step"
April 2007
"RUBY 06' " f/s (Walk When Love Walks)
written by: Alex & Jennifer Kennedy
Record label: Collectable #90232
Rhythm: Two Step
Phase: II + 1 (strolling vine)
Chosen by: Portland Area Council
CALLER ADVISOR: Leonard Snodgrass (Marcia)
I want to apologize for Leonard's absence today; he's working on closing up the festival. If you have any ideas for caller articles, please send him an e-mail. He is always looking for new ideas to expound on, and he is still really enjoying writing his articles.
SHOWCASE OF IDEAS: Marilyn Schmit (Ron)
We have received notification from Carroll and Virginia Frick in North Carolina that our request for one table next to the Washington Federation display is working and they are anxious to see us. We are going to ask POVA for some Oregon books and will get some OFN's from Vivian, and then see what else we can put on the table to show how supporting we can be in their bid for the 61st National Square Dance Convention in Spokane in 2012.
Any other ideas you may have are welcome, and we are looking for someone who is driving to North Carolina to transport the publications for the display. Let us know if you have a way for the stuff to get there.
USDA REPORT: Kay Rogers (Jim)
USDA is working on putting back together the credit card program. They are working with various financial institutions for a new credit card program that will benefit all Affiliate Members, and the USDA. On July 31, 2006 our existing credit card program was canceled due to low cardholder membership. In the past our credit card program provided many thousands of dollars of needed support to Affiliate Clubs, Handicapable and Youth Programs. It is crucial we find a replacement plan to continue these programs. We are asking our Affiliate Club Members for assistance in obtaining a viable new Credit Card provider.
At the annual USDA Board of Directors meeting, a motion was approved to request lists of dancers from our affiliates and other groups. Please be assured these lists will only be used to obtain a replacement Credit Card Marketing Program. The privacy of our members is our utmost concern. These lists will not be marketed for other purposes as per our contract with the financial institution marketing the card program on behalf of the USDA.
The attached form depicts the desired format for the necessary member list data. Data can be sent on CD Rom, or disks or E-mail. Also included is a survey form. Please complete and sign and return with your lists to:
Bonnie Abramson
3039 Bridgeford Drive
Sacramento, CA 95833
916-649-2714
bjabramon@aol.com
Jim and I have free publications that are available for you. You can get them from us or you can download them online. If you have any questions regarding USDA activities, feel free to call us.
STATE FAIR COORDINATOR: Neta Minten (Ron)
Fran Bunch is helping the MWA Council set up the Oregon State Fair again. She has been in contact with Penny Williams who is in charge of organizing the events and entertainment dates and times. Fran reports that Penny has been very helpful and is very happy to have us dancing again.
We will be dancing in the Friendship Square which is by the food court. We should have a lot of people around us to watch the dancing. We will NOT be able to dance the first weekend of the fair; but they are looking at weekdays and possibly the Labor Day Weekend.
We encourage all the Clubs to help with this as it is a State Fair. You can call Fran at 503-393-3405 to sign up to dance. If you come in square dance clothes, you will get into the fair free.
STATE TRAILERS: Jim Kinkaid (Avis)
The trailers were used very little again this year. One trailer was used twice. The other trailer, which was kept in the Portland area for the summer, was used two times that we know of and was probably used other times that we are not aware of. Both trailers are stored at our place now. For the years 2003, 2004 and 2005, the trailers had about six usages each year. Prior to 2003, the trailers had 15-20 usages each year. Quite a drop.
The floors on both trailers were refinished last year so should still be in good condition. Many of the tires were replaced two years ago. Licenses were renewed last year. Trailer expenses for 2007 should be negligible.
Last year we prepared an information sheet with pictures about the trailers. Each area delegate was given a copy to recopy and give to each club. We hope this was done. Apparently not much or no additional interest was generated. I have a copy with me if any delegate would like one. We do not know how to generate more interest, where or how the trailers could be used.
This is the 16th year Avis and I have been Trailer Coordinators. We are not a member of any club and have not danced for several years. Whether we will get back to actively square dancing, we do not know at this time. We tell you this to let you know our dancing status.
Square dancing and its related activities are one of the greatest activities there is and we support them enthusiastically. We have enjoyed this activity for many years and many reasons. We are willing to remain Trailer Coordinators as long as the State Federation wishes us to do so or until someone else would like to take over this position.
Bill Rooper:
I think the Federation should give Jim a round of applause. He has done a great job. (Applause)
President Jim Rogers:
I guess the job is still yours.
Lee Ashwill:
Mr. President, before you go to Old Business, during the introductions of our Washington friends, one couple did not get introduced. They are Paul and Kitty Ogg; they are the Washington State Federation Parliamentarian. (Applause)
It is a pleasure to have all of these folks here. I would like all of you to go back to your Councils and Clubs and look at the deposit you received at the end of the 54th National Square Dance Convention. A lot of that money was attributed to help we received from Washington. The Bellcoff's are the proposed Assistant General Chairmans and they're just across the river. These couples are going to need all of our help so please step up and volunteer. (Applause)
John Guches:
Mr. President, I believe this motion needs to be moved back to New Business for the simple fact it was never presented to this body at the last meeting. I removed it from the presentation last meeting and it needs to go to New Business. Again, I would like to have it done that way.
President Rogers: Any more Old Business.
15 Minute Break
Seconded by Dennis Marsh
Discussion:
At both the summer and Nov. meeting, the only significant thing that is dealt with are turning in of required paperwork from the councils, (Summer: State directory and When and Where, November: club insurance forms and payments). This paperwork could be mailed in and if all of the paperwork could be placed on the Federation web site in a writeable PDF format, the paperwork could be transmitted via the Federation web site and the only thing that would require postage would be the payment. The only thing the Delegate would have to receive from the Committee would be an e-mail, notifying him what needed to be done.
That person could go to the web site, type directly on the form on the computer and send it via Adobe Acrobat to the Federation. Either the Membership Chairman or Insurance Chairman could review the information and contact the delegate via e-mail if there was any needed corrections.
Opposition to Motion: Kay Rogers
It seems incredulous to me that we gave ourselves a raise this year and now we want to cancel two meetings to save money. The figures stated in the argument are for all the meetings, not just the November meeting.
The paragraph labeled #3 in the argument for the motion is also my argument against the motion:
The only business being done at these two meetings (Summer Festival and November) happen to be the only real business the Federation does...State Directory, Insurance... .What else is there, everything else we do is self-regulation? Our only business, insurance and directory, we do at the two meetings they want to cancel.
If we cancelled the Summer Festival meeting, many officers and delegates would not attend and support Summer Festival at all. This meeting costs the Federation nothing.
If we cancelled the November meeting, we would miss the opportunity to put a "face" on the Federation for dancers and club officers in outlying areas The opening pages of our Bylaws state that our purpose for having meetings is to go around the state, put a face on the officers, invite the public, allow them to come in and see what we're doing, see what a meeting is like and become more familiar and make ourselves approachable for problems and functions. If we cancelled the November meeting, we would be canceling that.
Further, we did a little test this year; we mailed out all of your insurance certificates when I received them so you would have them by the beginning of the year. We also asked you to notify us and let us know if you received them via e-mail.
How many of those 13 Delegates got their insurance certificates that we mailed? How many of you bothered to let the Insurance Chairman know via Email that you did or did not receive them? (Answer, minimal) I would think that mail and e-mail works very well for that type of business. I'm sorry I think I proved it doesn't work. If you really want to save money, we could put several chairs together. In the old days, we never had 2 or 3 years of Summer and Winter Festivals reporting at a time. Insurance and Membership were one chair, Publicity and Education could be one chair. We have 2 or 3 one club councils that could be put together. There are many ways to save money without diminishing our purpose of being here and without eliminating our presence in the public.
Barbara Tipton:
I am Chairman of the 2008 Summer Festival and I think it's very important for the Federation to support Summer Festival. We need the Federation and this body is important to Summer Festival.
Bill Rooper:
Frankly I think the Federation should be doing more for the Clubs and the Councils. I think we should come up with some ideas of how we can help the Councils and the Clubs increase membership. By doing away with a couple of meetings, it means there is a less chance of somebody coming up with a bright idea that will be helpful.
Bob Bosch:
This doesn't diminish the possibility that the President can have a special meeting.
Vivian Fairburn:
We can change what we're doing. We can make these festival meetings viable; we can have workshops. We have all these people in attendance that we can bring in to see what we're doing. Like Bill said, we need to do something and I have a plan. Do not take away the Summer Festival meeting right now because we can do something to help the clubs and councils do something more for us, with the ability to bring them in from the dance floor.
John Guches
My idea is not to do away with the Summer Festival. I'm talking about the meeting itself. I do not believe that some of the officers and delegates will not attend. There are times when we have meetings that we don't have a lot of delegates show up. There have been times when some of the officers have sent in their report due to sickness. All I'm trying to suggest is that we need to think about a better way of doing business. With a little bit of that savings, we could do something as a body for the state to help advertise for classes and increase membership through some money that we could give the councils to work with.
Vivian Fairburn:
Instead of saying we're over budget this year, why don't we re-evaluate the budget for next year.
Barbi Ashwill:
I think this is a motion that I cannot support. I agree that Summer Festival struggles enough already to get people there. I also agree and I think we need to get out and form partnerships with our dancers, with our clubs and with our councils. I think we do this by moving the state meetings around the state. One of the things, a long time ago, my husband said when he talked me into running for office was, it's only 5 meetings a year and look at all the people we get to meet. That's the truth and I think a lot of these delegates recognize that too in the time you spend building relationships. At these meetings, Vivian has marvelous ideas that I think can be very workable that we can do in the future. Vivian has reiterated, and I agree, that the budget does need to be revisited. We have to take into account that gas prices have increased, etc. I hope you will consider all of this when you vote.
Lavonne Bussey:
Thank you Barbi. If we remove the Summer Festival meeting and take out one more meeting, it's not going to make that much difference on our budget. It doesn't make up for the opportunity for us to exchange our ideas, to talk over our problems and to distribute our flyers to everyone. We would not be having the opportunity when we do this of visiting with clubs, some where we haven't been for a long time and possibly sometimes we've never even been there. Also the club dances in these outlying areas, they sometimes don't even know what the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs is; they think it's the OFN. They need the opportunity to actually know and meet, which we do when we have a potluck and a dance and everybody comes and they get to meet the state officers. Everybody is introduced and they're told about who they are. This gives them a great chance. I think we would be very wrong in taking away the opportunity just for a monetary reason when we really don't have to. When I spoke with Barbie at the last meeting in Roseburg, she said that we do have funds and we can continue as we are. I think this is an idea that she would like too. We need to become acquainted with all the dancers, all over the state. The Federation gives us this opportunity, let's not take it away.
Neta Minten:
As a new person, I think it's good for the delegates and everyone to know about the housekeeping ideas so we can learn and see what is going on. Since we don't always have the same person in the offices all the time, the rest of us are going to know less about what is going on.
Virginia Myers:
I agree totally with what Lavonne, Neta and Barbie said. I know nobody wants this office because it's a lot of work. I enjoy it, mainly because I've had 40 years of being a transcription secretary so it's not that hard for me. Sure, it's a lot of work but to me it's worth it because I get to go to all these different areas of the state, and I'm getting to know so many square dance friends. They're just like family. When I fell and broke my shoulder, WOW the number of get well cards and e-mails I received was just wonderful. Ed and I both really enjoy traveling the state and being able to visit with so many friends. At this festival, dancers have gotten to know me and every time I turn out, I'm hugging somebody from various parts of the state or Washington. It's a great group of people. I think we should keep all the meetings.
President Jim Rogers: Shall we vote.
Motion was reread by Tim Roberts:
, "I move that the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Club Bylaws Article Six be changed to read: "A state meeting shall be held each Winter Festival and in May and September" from the present statement, "A State Meeting shall be held during each Summer and Winter Festival plus three (3) other meetings."
President Jim Rogers: Motion failed.
Since we had the change of officers, we had the nomination meeting yesterday. I would like to know if we could open it up again for write-ins. Maybe we could e-mail the councils, delegates, etc. The OFN doesn't get published until March 5th, so if anybody wanted to write-in and get more candidates we would still have two weeks to do this. My objective is we do something now to encourage more people to run for office.
John Guches:
Vivian, to answer your question, Glory and I do the ballots for the election. We put each person on the list as what office they are running for. We also have a line for a write-in. If people have somebody in their area they want to write-in or if somebody wants to work in an area, they could write-in a name.
Vivian Fairburn:
I would like to know if we could keep this open for a week or so. Now that we have had a change in the progression of officers, maybe some other people would like to run.
President Jim Rogers: Do we have a motion? None made.
I would like to bring up a subject, the only reason I'm saying this is because Jim did not have an installation or an opportunity to discuss his agenda for the upcoming year and to give you an overview of what he wanted to do, or create his budget or his board or anything else. One of the things that Jim and I talked about that he wanted to do was try to improve relationships with the delegates and try to bring back respect and dignity and meaning to these meetings.
A good example would be if all of you in May when you give your report would say, not that you had a dance and it was good but that you would like help or you would like to discuss certain areas of your club, like you need help in recruiting new dancers or in retaining dancers. If you had somebody quit, or somebody complaining because officers don't turn over enough or because they do turn over enough, or you would like ideas for mystery trips or graduation plans.
We have a wonderful opportunity to provide that information in an educational way at these meetings. It's been said that we don't do enough business at these meetings. So there's your business, answering questions such as I would like some help and ideas as to what I could do to make a function better. What can I do to solve a problem that we have; we could have workshops and help each other. We have USDA information available to us free on many subjects. We also have a lot of experience amongst us that we could use to help each other. That would make our meetings more informative. I think it would make us friendlier and more productive and more useful. (Applause)
EMERALD EMPIRE COUNCIL: Ilana Widders (Dennis Marsh)
Thank you to the Mid Winter Festival committee for all their hard work and for putting on such a great festival and for bringing the numbers up. I was very proud of them.
Our C.C.C.A. (Cascade Callers and Cuers Association) on January 21, 2007, had an experimental second New Dancer Jamboree. We had about 5 squares attending this one. It wasn't quite as big as our annual one the first Sunday in December, but we believe it is worth repeating if we decide to have 2 jamborees again instead of having each club in the area put on their own new dancer dance. This second jamboree did not preclude clubs from having their own new dancer dances. It just gave the new dancers another choice of hearing the callers in our area a second time before Mid Winter instead of just the caller that has been conducting their classes. Between the 2 jamborees, we gave out 7 OFN subscriptions to New Dancers as door prizes.
The Emerald Empire Area will be having their annual benefit dance on Saturday, March 31, 2007. This year the benefit dance is to help the Willamette Valley Family Treatment Center. This dance is the night just before the State Benefit dance for H.O.R.S.E.S. which is on Sunday, April 1, 2007 from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm in Roseburg. You can plan on spending Saturday night dancing with us in the Emerald Empire Area and then drive on down to the H.O.R.S.E.S. benefit dance on Sunday in Roseburg. This would help out 2 wonderful causes in one weekend.
Our Whirl-A-Ways had a 'Casino Night' and auction on Saturday, December 3rd where they raised $1,463.00. A check for this amount along with 2 big barrels of toys was presented to the Marines at their "Toys for Tots" dance on December 10th. This was their second time doing this and they really get a great response. It was Whirl-A-Ways turn to host the annual "New Year's Eve" dance and dinner at the Emerald Square Dance Center with 106 dancers attending, including 98 pre-sold tickets - a very successful dance and such a fun evening!
The Whirl-A-Ways' special "Valentine Dance", including Door Prizes will be on Saturday, February 10 at the Emerald Square Dance Center; 7:30 pm for Plus, 8:00 pm for Mainstream with rounds; Ivan Kkoehn calling and rounds with Sharon Greenman. The Whirl-A-Ways will go DARK on Saturday, February 24th due to many members going on a 'group' Caribbean Cruise! Those not cruising will go on a visitation to the Boots and Sandals Club for their "Chinese New-Year's Dance.
The Wolf Packs will be celebrating their 9th Birthday Dance in March. The Wolf Pack had a great subscription dance on January 19th, 2007 and sold 7 OFN subscriptions. It was a fun dance and they were in the big hall for this one. The Wolf Pack has the following dances coming up:
February 16, 2007 - Valentine's Sweetheart Dance
March 16, 2007 - 9th Birthday Dance in Hall A of the ESDC
April 20, 2007 - Easter Dance
May 18, 2007 - Auction/Benefit Dance
INTERSTATE HIGHLANDERS COUNCIL: Steve Murphy (Valerie)
The Interstate Highlanders Council has hosted one dance and had one meeting at Lakeview since our November meeting. At the meeting the proposal was made to pay the 2007 caller's ASCAP/BMI fees for the clubs in the council. Since the Highlanders Council has, so far, only 2 clubs and the Council is not hurting for cash, the motion carried. I would like to suggest that other councils in the Federation look at doing something similar as a way to encourage new clubs to join and generally give the Federation another reason for non-member clubs in Oregon to join their local council and the Federation.
The Alturas Alemanders, a club that will soon be making application to the Federation and the Highlanders Council, has 2 members that attended a Calle'rs school, one for the first time. Boyd Taylor will be practicing his new calling skills with the Alemendars and with the Tall Town Travelers from Lakeview.
The Klamath Country Squares held a special dance for Fern Robinson on her 80th birthday. She has been an active member of K.C. Squares for many years. A collection was taken up during the dance to finance her gambling on a trip she's taking to Reno. I think she's there right now. The K.C. Squares elected new officers for 2007 and had an installation dance earlier this month.
The Tall Town Travelers in Lakeview also elected new officers for 2007. In November they held their annual Apple Dance and earlier this month they hosted an Interstate Highlanders Council dance. They are still critically short of people and in 2007 will make every effort to gain new members so the club won't fold. A big problem they face is a small population base from which to draw new members. Lakeview has a population of about 4,000 people and the nearest town is 80 miles away. Klamath Falls people drive 95 miles each way to dance with them.
As the delegate for the Interstate Highlanders Council I am looking for any and all ideas on how to recruit new members, both for the Tall Town Travelers and my home club, the K.C. Squares. Thank You
LINCOLN-TILLAMOOK COUNCIL: LaVonne Bussey (Al)
I would also like to thank the Mid-Winter Committee for a wonderful dance.
Lincoln Tillamook Area Council
We are scheduling the OFSRDC State Meeting on the second weekend, November 10 & 11, 2007. The dance and meetings will be at the Newport Middle School in Newport. We are pleased to have Craig Abercrombie as our caller and Donna Hiserote as our cuer for the Saturday night dance. More information and flyers will be distributed later. Please mark this date on your calendars and bring lots of friends.
Toledo 49'rs Square Dance Club
At the dances in November we gathered non-perishable items of food, these were donated to the local food share program. On November 3rd the club made a visitation to the Timber Twirlers to retrieve our banner. In December we collected stuffed animals and donated them to the children's section of the Newport Community Hospital. This is an annual event we try to do each year. During Christmas we had a ham dinner preceding the dance and then an exchange of gifts. On New Years Eve a party was held with games and cards to bring in the year 2007.
On the first weekend in January, we held a pajama party and served hot chocolate to the three squares that danced to the calling and cueing of Andy Rawlinson and Goldie Restorff. On February 3rd we will have a Valentine Sweetheart Dance with many different kinds of chocolate to eat.
Our Loyalty Days Dance, on the first weekend in May, will be held at the Newport Middle School in Newport. There will be RV parking available after 4:00 pm for free at the school grounds. We have a slate of callers and cuers for the Friday night Jamboree and Les Seeley and Tami Helms will call and cue for our Saturday afternoon and evening entertainment. There will be a silent auction to keep everyone busy and blackberry dessert after the dance.
Sea Twirlers Activity Report Winter 2006/2007
The holiday season, and the stormy weather on the coast has made it difficult for the Sea Twirlers to travel to the valley to dance. We have attended Toledo 49'rs dances, and had a great time.
We had such a fun and successful 10th Birthday Dance that we have already scheduled our 11th Birthday Dance for September 9, 2007. We look forward to again having George and Patty Hermann call and cue for us.
We are looking forward to attending the Mid-Winter Festival in Albany. We have scheduled our annual Mid-Winter lunch get-together for Saturday afternoon.
MID-WILLAMETTE AREA COUNCIL: Neta Minten (Ron)
Again thank you for a wonderful time at the Mid-Winter Festival.
I already talked about the State Fair but again wanted to mention that the plans
for this is that MWA will be doing it for 2007, but next year one of the other council's need to step forward and do it. Maybe the delegates should be thinking about this and take it back to your areas.
The Independence Wagon Wheelers have been chosen by the MWA to host the Oregon Federation of Square & Round Dancers state meeting for September 2007. They have reserved the Polk County Fairgrounds for the weekend of Sept. 8th & 9th. There will be RV parking available with power and water hook-up. No reservations are needed, you pay as you arrive. Any further questions on this you can call Neta at 503-393-3504.
Please check your OFN for all the special dances coming up, from Valentines, St. Patrick's, New Dancers dances to one's with Strawberries and Chocolate. The Valley River Dancers and Salem Swingin' Stars will be starting new dancer lessons in February. Please contact the individual clubs for more information.
PORTLAND AREA COUNCIL: Al Wolf (Gail Domine)
The Portland Area Council has sent to the family of Barbie Cooper their condolences on her untimely passing.
Most clubs will be winding up their classes within the next few weeks and will graduate their dancers; hoping many will join their club. A few clubs have started classes in January. Check your OFN for information.
Those clubs that hosted New Year's Eve dances reported good attendance. Happy Hoppers Plus Club had 12 squares. Swap and Swing who hosted their dance, along with other Washington and Oregon gorge clubs, reported 6 squares in attendance. Country Cut-Ups had 8 squares and River City Dancers had a nice crowd of 10 squares.
Country Capers will be auditioning for a new caller as Georgia Bailey has resigned. They currently have guest callers as well as their retired caller, Loren Marberry. Debbie Combs is their cuer.
The River City Dancers will have a "Black Light Dance" on February 10th. Les Seeley will call and Tami Helms will cue. It was such a success last year with 20 squares, they decided to make it an annual affair.
The Country Capers will have their annual "Elvis Dance" on March 3rd. Mark Wheeler does a great impersonation of Elvis that you won't want to miss. Callers will be "The Wild Cards" consisting of K.C. Curtis, Mike and Terry Halley and Dean Stitt. Cuer will be Debbie Combs.
On March 30th, the PAC will have their 5th Friday dance with Bill Lundin calling and Debbie Combs cueing.
The next night, March 31st, the Tri-Council dance will have Jim Raupp from Toledo, Washington calling and Dennis Smith cueing. The Evergreen Council is hosting this dance at the Clark County Square Dance Center in Vancouver.
The PAC has chosen the Round of the Month for April. Tami Helms presented three to select from. Ruby was the first choice, Can't Smile was second and Keep Away from Sue was third.
The Cross Trailers, a Traveling Club has officially disbanded.
ROGUE SIS-Q COUNCIL: John Guches (Glory)
Rogue Sis-Q Council:
The council is currently going through the changing of our council by-laws and constitution.
The next council dance will be March 31st with Scott Zinzer calling.
The 40th Pear Blossom Festival will be Friday and Saturday, April 13th and 14th with Leonard Snodgrass calling and Dave Cooper cueing. The square dance format will be alternating Mainstream/Plus tips.
Charlie Browns:
Their fall class is close to graduation and they are starting a new mainstream class the 1st of February. They have asked the students that finished the first class to angel the second class so they would get more floor time. This worked real well for the students last year.
On the 3rd of February, the club will have their 3rd annual tailgate party with a potluck starting at 6:00 pm, Round dancing at 7:30 pm and Squares at 8:00 pm. This will be a student level dance so bring your students and enjoy all the activities complete with a Half-Time Show.
Circle-N-Squares, Yreka:
Their class is still going strong and their plan is to graduate 8 to 10 students sometime in the early spring.
Lantz Dantzer's:
The club has been doing a lot of visitations throughout Southern Oregon and Northern California.
On the 16th of March they are holding a benefit dance for Dogs for the Deaf with all proceeds going to them. We have a program in Medford for training working dogs for the deaf. The stores and restaurants in the local area donated raffle items for this benefit. The callers are donating their time and the dance hall will be donated. Hopefully we can raise a lot of money for the program.
Star Promenaders:
They started new mainstream classes on the 14th of January.
Their visitation committee is going strong with visitations scheduled every weekend
On February 23rd & 24th, the club will hold their 50th birthday dance. Friday night will be student level with Jamboree calling and on Saturday night we will have Randy Dibble, a Life Member of the Star Promenaders, calling and the Crapos will be cueing.
Marilyn Schmit:
I've seen one of your Star Promenaders flyers in a hall and somebody wrote on it which said, where is this dance? There is no city listed on your flyer.
John Guches:
I will mention this to them; we will get that corrected and send it out again in the mail statewide. The dance is in Medford, Oregon.
SOUTH COAST COUNCIL: Chuck Quigley (Coleeta):
Beachcombers:
Beachcombers are in the swing of things after the holiday season. We had our beginner's dance in December with all doing a great job. We have started the second session of lessons and hope to graduate 9 new dancers. Not bad for a small club. They will be dark the 1st Saturday in February to travel to Grants Pass to retrieve their banner.
Saints N Aints:
Our New Years Eve Dance was a success with everyone enjoying a meal provided before the dancing. Beginner's class continues on Sunday afternoons, followed by plus lessons. We are continuing to dance three times a month with one night devoted to plus. Round Dance class continues and we are now teaching the two-step. We still have line dancing prior to our third Saturday dance. Elections will take place in March with new officers seated in April. Our next big dance will be our 50's / 60's -poodle skirts and all.
Jefferson State Squares:
No report.
Sets In Order:
We started a new beginner square dance class in January. The class is not big, but they are enthused and having a great time. Our round dance class is progressing nicely, hardly wanting to wait for the next week so they can learn some more new steps. We will have a silent dessert auction at our Valentine's dance February 10. This is an annual event and always produces some fun, good-natured rivalries. Our 61st birthday dance is October 13th, just a reminder to come and see us.
SUNSET EMPIRE COUNCIL: Dale Worthington (Kathy)
The Hayshakers have been a little quiet during the Holiday Season. They had their normal food drive in November to support the local food bank. In December they held their Christmas dinner dance and collected toys for the toy drive. Also, the Hayshakers Square Dance Club has completely taken over the Seaside Sashay Square Dance Festival. It is no longer a corporation with the Seaside Chamber of Commerce.
TUALATIN VALLEY COUNCIL: Pat Young (Ted)
Six of the Council's clubs are busy with lessons starting in January. The TVC put on a New Year's Eve dance and everyone had a great time and a really good turnout. The 4n8r's held a Casino night & Holly Jolly Christmas Dance. They are presenting a 2 night Tony Oxindine dance in April; more information on this will be in the OFN. The Coast Swingers held a bazaar and bake sale; the Eager Beavers held a Harvest dance and potluck; the Fireballs had an early Christmas and New Year's Eve dance; the Hillsboro Hoedown had a lasagna dinner at their holiday dance; the Mix 'n Mingles held a Teddy Bear dance and donated the stuffed animals to the Cornelius Fire Department. The Sunset Promenaders held a new dancer jamboree on Christmas Eve Eve (December 30th); they supported the New Year's Eve dance and, I believe, went home with the banner for the club with highest attendance. The Toe Draggers had a toy drive in December, their regular dance was cancelled due to no electricity because of the storm. They substituted a potluck and dance the next week, which was really a fun time for their club. The Tri-Squares have started lessons; the Valley Squares provided cookies, sandwiches, and presents for the Ronald McDonald House for Christmas and started their new dancer classes; and R Square D's held a Toy Dance with donations to the Salvation Army.
The Tualatin Valley Council, as mentioned earlier, has turned in $206.15 for the Federation's Youth Scholarship Fund.
The Council also took a survey about State Fair dancing and the Council said they want to support this. Not all the clubs are willing to dance there but the Council is willing to support it and we will get some dancers to participate.
UMPQUA AREA COUNCIL: Frank Schuchard
We are looking forward to Spring and the sunny weather to return. Many of our dances and lessons were cancelled during the cold spell, due to icy road conditions. And at the Buckeroo Barn, our heater failed. However, we do have a brand new gas heater.
Springing ahead, area clubs and the council will be having birthday dances, a safari dance, and a subscription dance:
Boots & Calicos will have their Birthday Dance on Saturday, March 10, 2007, with Denny Lantz as Caller and Claude Butler as Cuer.
UAC Subscription Dance will be on Saturday, March 31, 2007, with Denny Lantz, Calling and Pat Hintz, Cueing. Our dance will be the night before the State Benefit Dance, Sunday, April 1, 2007, 1:30 to 4:00 pm that will also be held at the Buckeroo Barn. Come on down and spend the weekend with us.
Buckeroos' 55th Birthday Dance will be on Saturday, April 7, 2007 with Dale Roberson, Caller and Pat Hintz, Cuer.
Pioneers 'N' Petticoats have rescheduled their "Most Braggable Club" to Friday, March 9, 2007 where the Star Promenaders will be honored. Their "Second-hand Square" has moved to a new building and is ready for business. They provide square dance clothes for "free" to those new dancers who have danced less than 2 years. Please call for an appointment at 541-839-8570 or 541-643-5733. On Saturday, March 23, 2007, they will be having a "Buy, Sell, Trade or Give Away" dance. PNP will provide display racks for the sellers for their garments. Their annual Safari Benefit Dance will be held on Sunday, May 20, 2007 in Winston. They will have free drive-thru passes for driving through the park and a Safari membership for the theme outfit contest. If you've never been to the Winston Wildlife Safari, this is the time to go.
Timber 8's will be having their Birthday Dance on Friday, May 18, 2007 with Randy Dibble, Caller and Dave Cooper, Cuer. This is our plus club in Roseburg.
The only thing I would like to add is I'm not sure how long I will be here. Dar said this was temporary but it sounds like it's a lot of fun here.
BLUE MOUNTAIN COUNCIL: David Stutzman (Sharon)
The LaGrande club is just starting their square dance lessons with a good turnout of 12 new students. The club is also excited about the attendance for ballroom dance lessons that got started last week. The first night students were introduced to Waltz; the second lesson was Foxtrot; and future lessons will introduce Rumba and Cha Cha. The cuer and his wife, Don & Bonnie Berry, proposed teaching ballroom to attract people to the club. It just might work!
We have recently learned that a Square Dance Convention will be held in our area. In 2008, USA West will be holding their convention in Pendleton, Oregon the second week in August. The Milton-Freewater club is rather upset with the timing of this convention in that it is being held the same weekend as their annual Muddy Frog Dance Weekend.
The Elgin club hosted a fifth Saturday dance, December 30. The Council conducted a meeting prior to the dance. The Council and individuals present made a donation of $107 to the Youth Scholarship Fund. At this time I am pleased to present these funds to the Youth Coordinator.
Kay Rogers:
David, I would like to get together with you and discuss the Muddy Frogs Weekend and the USA West Convention. USA West is on the third weekend not the second weekend. If there is a conflict with you, we would like to work something out. If you keep track of your club members who register and attend the convention next year, give us the list and if they're at our convention instead of your festival, we'll pay you their attendance fees so nobody gets hurt. If you would like to go dark and present a reasonable budget of what your overall profit is and contribute help with USA West, instead of giving you registration fees, we'll give you a portion of profits to make up to you for that.
CENTRAL OREGON COUNCIL: Carol Bro (Ben Oakes)
It was a wonderful festival this weekend. I want to thank the committees very much. I'm pleased to announce that there were 56 dancers in attendance this weekend from Central Oregon. (Applause)
The Central Oregon dancers would like to take a moment to remember a great lady who contributed so much to our community. She gave us her time, her talent and her treasure to the Square and Round Dance world in Central Oregon. You couldn't go to any dance or festival without at least hearing her name. She loved to dance and made sure everyone else had a great time, particularly when she was responsible for an event.
The Sundown Round Dance Club born out of Dave and Barbie Cooper's desire to teach and promote Round Dancing will celebrate its' 5th anniversary this February. We have just completed phase II Waltz and Cha Cha lessons so dancers could participate in the many activities of the Mid Winter Festival. We will begin Two Step lessons the first Sunday in February.
The Red Rock Squares are back home dancing at the Redmond Grange on a new floor that was just replaced after the building flooded shortly after our return there last fall. They completed their fall mainstream lessons and encouraged the new dancers to join us at Mid Winter. They will hold their annual Sweetheart Dance on Feb. 16th. They invite everyone to come join them to see who will be added to the Sweet Hearts Hall of Fame.
The Bachelor Beauts and the Swinging Mountaineers are both holding lessons that began in January. They have many fun and exciting dances scheduled for the new year. You can see their schedule in the Oregon Federation News each month.
The Shufflers completed their lessons and they too, have some fun and exciting dances scheduled. And you can see this schedule where? In the Oregon Federation News of course.
The Central Oregon Council will hold their next dance on March 31st. They have a contest going to pick a theme for that dance. The prize! A free dance pass.
On the political side, our Square and Round Dancers are dedicated to promoting a healthy life style in Central Oregon. How you may ask? Well to brighten the days and keep you warm during the cold winter months, the Central Oregon clubs honor Barbie's favorite quote "if you get the choice to sit out or dance… I hope you dance" by offering you the opportunity to attend a dance or lessons six days a week during the winter months.
EASTERN OREGON COUNCIL: Lorene Griffith (George)
I would like to thank the Mid-Winter Festival committees for a fun weekend
The Ione Grand Squares had their annual Christmas Dance at the Rock Creek School, south of Arlington, where the club always holds their Christmas Dance and some of their other special dances.
We had a good turnout of the club's members, along with visitors from Central Oregon clubs and Swap & Swing of The Dalles. Our Caller and Cuer were Dick and Marge Pentecost of The Dalles.
On Sunday morning the visitors from Central Oregon clubs were guests at the home of George and Lorene Griffith for breakfast, along with some of the Ione club members.
We had a very enjoyable morning of visiting, along with the breakfast put on by the Griffiths and Lori Stevens, First Lady, of the Ione Grade Squares.
Al & Fran Westphal
Our hearts are heavy as we share with each of you in the loss of our sparkling Barbie.
All is going well in Yuma, Arizona. The sun keeps shining, but the cool weather and breezes have hampered our sunbathing.
A steady influx of dancers from the Northwest, and elsewhere, has been filling the Yuma area's dance floors these past few weeks. With Yuma Festival fast approaching, we're sure to see that pattern continue. We know another flock will be heading our way as Mid-Winter Festival winds down.
(Historical note: In about 1974 we had a Federation loss when Nat Dicianna of Eugene passed away during his term as 1st Vice President. We old timers still remember the shock and grief. The loss of one of the Federation family always remains with us.)
Greetings and love from us,
Al and Fran
Harold & Barbara Kleve
It's good to be back again; I've missed a few meetings. As a caller, I keep busy and have a pretty good schedule so I'm sorry to have missed so many meetings and I'm glad to be here today.
I did send in a written report but I'm not going to read it. I'm going to speak from my heart a little bit. What I say and hear really individually is not that important. Each of us individually here should think about our own importance; individually we're not much but as a group we have an impact. Barbie was a great loss and I'm sure she was very, very important to a lot of people here, her friends and her family but individually as President of this organization, she didn't carry that much impact. I would like to caution all of us here. At the beginning of this Point of Order, it seemed like some emotions were rising to the surface and I don't think it had so much to do with the process of filling a chair as it did about who was being moved up to what chair. Now we have a number of people in this room that has served as Past President. We have four or five couples here whose husband and wife both served It doesn't make much difference who sits in that chair; this organization is going to continue. The best we can do is continue it in a nice, even flowing manner and not let our own self-importance or our own aspirations to sit in various chairs here interfere with the operation of this association. We're going to go on and we're all going to be friends so let's remember that individually, we're not that important. As a group, that's where we're important. (Applause)
Club dances and classes kept us as busy as we would like to be, but we have much more on our plate. Party dances have slowed quite a bit but they usually do this time of year. We have had a number of inquiries about classes and have referred them to other clubs whose classes started in January since ours are about done. I hope everyone is doing this. It is best to get these people into a class while they are in the mood than to risk losing them.
As usual we are active in Council affairs, Harold as Caller Advisor and Barbara as a Club Delegate. We have served more years than we can remember. We also serve as Vice President of the Eager Beavers. As such we are in charge of the Eager Beavers Mainstream class. There goes another day each week but it's worth it. With our Council sponsoring the 2007 Summer Festival, we have found enough work to fill spare time.
Lee & Barbi Ashwill
I want you to know Harold that you're a very tough act to follow.
We want to thank Dan & Ginger and all of the Mid-Winter Festival Committees We know how many hours go into these types of projects. We know they're not without little glitches here and there, that typically of this great body, we make sure the dancers don't know about those glitches. We thank you for a wonderful weekend.
December 2006 was fairly quiet for us as we participated in holiday festivities and in our home club dances.
However, January 2007 has started off in a very active manner with every weekend being booked. On the long weekend of January 4 through January 7, 2007, Lee flew to Los Angeles and spent four days with our son who was unable to get home for Christmas. Barbi was in tax classes all weekend, thus, our reason for missing the service for Barbie Cooper. We were there in spirit.
On January 11, 2007, we flew to Pittsburgh, PA. As members of the National Executive Committee, we have been asked to serve as Advisors to Pittsburgh, so we spent four days touring the city, the Convention Center and the downtown hotels and helping them with their bid presentation to host the 2011 National Square Dance Convention . If any of you are going to the National Square Dance Convention in Charlotte, NC this June, we invite you to attend the bid session on Friday morning and, for the first time in many years, you will see something very unusual. We will actually have two cities bidding; Pittsburgh and Detroit. I also would like to ask your help, for those of you who are going and if you know of others who are going to Charlotte, NC who are not here, please help us spread the word. If at all possible, we would love to have you show up that morning and, if you can, wear red and white and sit with the Washington delegation to show your support as Don and Cheryl Pruitt again announce their intent to place a bid for 2012.
On January 19, 2007 we drove to Kent, WA to attend the Washington State Federation meeting. We have been assigned as NEC Advisors to Washington to help them prepare a bid to host the 2012 National Square Dance Convention . We are delighted with this. A portion of their State meeting was dedicated towards the bid proposal. A young lady by the name of Shannon Shannon from the Spokane Convention and Visitors Bureau flew in and presented an overview of the Spokane Convention facilities and answered many questions for the attendees. It was really great; this tells us that this group already has a good working relationship. We are really asking Oregon dancers to get behind Washington in this bid effort and to step up and volunteer to help them as the WA dancers helped us in 2005. Also as you know, there were many, many Washington dancers who were here at this Festival and there always has been every year. We encourage you to register and support our own Oregon Summer Festival; we also encourage you to register for the Washington Summer Festival. Lee and I are delighted to say the timing this year has worked out so we will be able to attend their summer festival before we fly to Charlotte.
This weekend finds us here in beautiful Albany, OR attending this Mid-Winter Festival and having a wonderful time. So, as events are moving right along, we will continue to keep ourselves moving as we try to stay one step ahead of the game!
Happy Dancing!!!!
Don & Lonna Bramhall
Washington Irving said, "'Tis the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial fire of charity in the heart." Although it's January now, and the season of beginnings, we would like to revisit a most hospitable time spent with new and old friends. We received a special invitation from Lorene and George Griffith from Ione Grand Squares to visit Eastern Oregon Council's Christmas Dance on Saturday, December 9th at the Rock Creek School near Arlington. We made plans for an overnight stay and convinced six fellow adventurers to come along to make a square. As we've said before, everyone benefits from going to new places and meeting new people. And we would like to thank those folks for going with us.
The weekend started out with a wonderful French toast breakfast prepared from scratch by fellow travelers Roland and Karen White, and the group carpooled across the mountains, stopping for a brief geology lesson at John Day Fossil Beds and a quick shopping spree at the Fossil Mercantile in - you guessed it - Fossil. What does Don find so intriguing about fossils? We arrived in rainy Arlington just in time to move into the motel, have a quick dinner (more about that later), jump into dance clothes and drive to the school. We would have had more time to get ready except Don forgot his GPS and took us on a shortcut that was anything but short!
We weren't sure we could find the school, but as we turned a corner on the pitch-black road, we saw a hilltop blazing with welcoming lights. The old white building looked like something from one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books - two large wood-floored rooms separated by a square arch: half was kitchen and half was dance floor. Some shelves even contained remnants from the old school's library and the walls were covered with real chalk boards (with chalk!). Our special caller and cuer were Dick and Marge Penecost, coaxed out of retirement for the evening. The rooms were decorated with love and inspiration, from the Christmas tree to the red bandana's atop the white lace curtains. It was a wonderful, old-fashioned evening that came with new treats - a club tradition of a Varsouvienne, "Put Your Pretty Foot," and a Grand March to welcome Santa's elf, who handed out gifts as we filed past.
All during the dance, there were cookies actually being baked in the other room, and the wonderful smells were almost more than we could bear. One of the cooks came to me in a square to let me know 'my' gingersnaps were finally out of the oven. Now THAT is old-fashioned hospitality! The clever gift exchange was for a pound of something, and boxes were opened to reveal everything from pounds of chocolate, pounds of peanuts, pounds of pennies, pounds of sausage and yes, even a pound of dry wall screws! We promised never to tell where those came from!
The dance started rather early, as dances go, at 6:30 PM and ended at 9:00 PM. But THEN, the food came out of the oven and refrigerator and the crock pots bubbled with beans and stews and casseroles-somebody forgot to tell us not to eat dinner; here was a complete meal laid out for us. So, what else could we do-just like Goldilocks, we ate it all up!
This trip reminded me of my grandfather's stories: of filling a wagon with straw and driving from farm to farm in the Wallowa's, picking up friends along the way - the goal was a dance - an all night dance such as we probably couldn't manage today. They would dance away the night in an old school house or barn or someone's big parlor, fortified by a midnight supper and breakfast at 6:00 AM. Then Granddad's horses would take everyone home the next day-sleeping on each other's shoulders or softly talking about what a wonderful time they had. That is what this night was like.
The hospitality continued the next morning, as the Griffiths invited the lot of us to their home for a huge breakfast to send us on our way. In the words of Charles Dickens, "Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home." These travelers would like to thank George and Lorene Griffith and the Eastern Oregon Council for "kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall." It was great. (Applause)
Genevieve Churchill
The Birthday Party that was hosted by my daughter, Cory Martin, was one of the "High-lites" of my many years of dancing. Cory lives in California and dances with the Thunderbirds in Apple Valley, California. With the help of "many friends," this party had many Callers and Cuers from near and far with nearly 400 friends.
What A Day!!!
I attended the Washington State Meeting with Marilyn Schmit (our 2nd Vice-President). The meeting was conducted by President George Broom (who also was at my party) and I met many friends old and new. It was a great weekend. The event took place in Kent, Washington.
Thank you Dennis and Ilana, Past President, for appointing me. I will enjoy it.
GOOD OF THE ORDER:
George Broom:
I'm George Broom and my wife Sharon and we brought our Parliamentarian with us, Mr. Ogg. We're delighted to be here and our condolences go out to all you folks for Barbie's passing. It was a real shock; I got to know her at Genevieve's birthday party.
One thing I wanted to tell you is that we invite you to our 2007 State Festival in Redmond, Washington on June 15th and 16th. You know our family in Washington is our family in Oregon too; I think there are a lot of things that we could share and do together. I have listened to what is going on here; we have a lot of the same situations going on up there. I invite you to e-mail us or to call me or Sharon and maybe we could get together on some of these things and grow our activities we love so much. I want to thank you very much.
Kathy Roberts:
I want to recognize and thank Jim and Kay Rogers, the new Randall Award winners for this year. They're outstanding. (Applause) Whenever there's a dance, whenever there's an activity, they are there. They support everything, not only at the state level but the councils, the clubs, conventions... they are there and, I think, they definitely deserve the award and it's wonderful that they got it.
The other item is thank you verIy much for your generosity; we took in $63 at this meeting for our youth scholarship fund. Thank you very much. (Applause)
Marcia Snodgrass:
I want to let you know that we have changed the website for the Mid-Winter Festival. It is OregonMid-WinterFestival.org and that is where you will find all of the updates and all of the flyers. I want to let you know that your registration packets do have an error in them. I apologize but the dates are incorrect. Before you give them out, replace the dates with January 25, 26, 27, 2008.
I also want to mention that for Ka$h for Kid$, Mid-Winter will donate two adult and two youth tickets. (Applause)
Ralph Lambert:
I have been conducting a little experiment here today; I want to report the results. In the past this Federation has inherited some sound equipment that was donated by Clyde Charters, a former caller in the Portland area who also had a commercial sound company. It was primarily speakers, speaker stands and an amplifier. There has been some complaints about the quality of sound that came out of the system. Within the last couple of months, the Mid-Willamette Area changed the format of their meetings and it caused the need for them to purchase an amplifier to conduct their business meetings. I requested permission from the president to bring this amplifier to the state meeting today and try it out and see if it would meet
the needs of the Federation if you choose to make a change. It is a Radio Shack amplifier, two channel, pretty simple little box, a little smaller than the other one. It seems to have worked well today. It retails for $99.99 or something like that. If the Federation is interested in making a change in an amplifier, I would be glad to assist in that process. Thank you. (Applause)
Ilana Widders & Dennis Marsh:
I want to start out by saying that I totally agree with everything that Harold Kleve said and I appreciate his saying it.
Let's all be careful what we say in public and in public meetings. You never know who would hear what you are saying and how it will affect the person and how they feel about our wonderful activity of dancing because of what you said. Also I would like to remind everyone that our meeting minutes are online for anyone and I mean anyone to read. We want to attract people to our activity of dancing. And when I say dancing, I mean all the dancing that this Federation supports, that includes not just square dancing but round dancing and clogging!
It is unfortunate that I had to hear about a few square dancers that hurt the feelings of some non-square dance dancers. This truly hurt my heart and I would like for all the Board and Delegates to take it back to their Councils that this is a friendly activity and we all need to support each other in what we do. Thank you. (Applause)
Don Pruitt:
I'm Don Pruitt and this is my wife Cheryl. We are the proposed General Chairman of the 51st National Square Dance Convention. Since the Oregon Federation just finished theirs and we helped on it, we are expecting a lot of expert advice from the different committees. We really appreciate Lee and Barbi Ashwill and all they have given us so far. Again anybody that will be going to Charlotte, we would greatly appreciate the support on the Intent to Bid on Friday morning. Be sure to wear your red and white. Thanks for allowing us to be at your meeting and come up and join us at any time. (Applause)
Kay Rogers:
With so many exciting things going on today, I neglected to tell you first thing how much Jim and I are affected and appreciate and enjoy the Randall Award. It really means a lot to us and we want to make sure you knew that. (Applause)
Janet Bellcoff
I'm speaking for our Mini Stars; a group of 30 teenagers. They are a group that is working so hard for Ka$h for Kid$. You've seen the quilt that they're selling raffle tickets for but they're also doing a silent auction fund raiser at the March 18th Sunday afternoon dance. Marcia mentioned the donations for Mid-Winter 2008; they have donations for Diamond Lake registration as well as hotel rooms; they have donations for registration for the Royal Romp. The most recent was handed to me a few minutes ago from Kathy Roberts and I would like to say thank you to Don and Lonna Bramhall for this particular donation. The artist is Bev Doolittle; this is an original signature print as part of the Greenwich Workshop. It was released in 1990 and is called the "Hide and Seek Suite," and the note inside says the current retail value is between $1,959.00 and $2,717.00. This is a donation that I know the Ka$h for Kid$ will really appreciate. They have a challenge ahead of them on how to raise funds with this wonderful gift. Thank you very, very much. (Applause)
Joyce Clark:
I am Chairman of the 2007 Summer Festival along with my husband. We have some exciting and interesting news that tells us our registration form and all of our information is incorrect. Our dates are correct. We found out that the Greasers, Daryl Clendenin, Randy Dibble and Les Seeley are now the Greasers +1 because Jim Hattrick will be joining them for the weekend. (Applause) It's going to be great music with the new Wild Cards at the Trails End dance and the Greasers +1 for the weekend. So please purchase your ribbons and come to Seaside to spend the weekend with us. (Applause)
John Guches:
I'm President of the Rogue Sis-Q Council. When we were visited by Mid-Winter Festival two years ago, we presented this to Dennis Marsh and Ilana Widders as Chairman. Since then I have tried to transfer it from festival to festival to show the council's support of the festivals. At this time I would like to present the Rogue Sis-Q Council rock, signed by all the clubs in the council, to Joyce for her to take around on visitations.
ADJOURN: Motion made by John Guches to adjourn the meeting at 1:15 pm. Seconded by Marilyn Schmit. Motion passes. Meeting adjourned.
Virginia Myers (Ed)
Recording Secretary