OREGON FEDERATION OF SQUARE & ROUND DANCE CLUBS
MINUTES OF MEETING dated January 31, 2010
Hosted by Emerald Empire Council
Oregon Room, Holiday Inn Express
Albany, Oregon

President Lee Ashwill called the meeting to order at 9:30 am.

"PLEASE TURN OFF OR SET YOUR CELLPHONES ON SILENT MODE"

ROLL CALL

Officers: All present

Appointed Officers: All present except ORDTA, Dennis Smith; Round Dance Screening, Barbara Schaumburg; Caller Advisor, Les Seeley.

Delegates: All present except Lincoln-Tillamook, Wally Brunelle.

Active Goodwill Ambassadors: All present except Larry & Barbara Schaumburg.

INVOCATION: Immediate Past President, John Guches.

FLAG SALUTE: 1st Vice President, Floyd Bard.

MINUTES: Dale Worthington: The Minutes were posted on the Website. Were there any changes or corrections that needed to be made?

Floyd Bard: I move that the Minutes be accepted as published. Seconded by John Guches.

Lee Ashwill: It has been moved and seconded that the Minutes be approved as published. Motion carried.

"THIS MEETING IS BEING RECORDED"

OFFICER REPORTS

PRESIDENT: Lee (Barbi) Ashwill

I want to thank Sandy and Chuck Eddings and Larry and Carol Reetz for their leadership of this Mid-Winter Festival. I would also like to thank their committee members. They all worked very hard and the results proved that. It was a great Mid-Winter Festival and we look forward to next years Mid-Winter Festival.

I thank the Emerald Empire and their Delegate, Dennis Marsh, for hosting this State Federation Meeting. The hospitality is sincerely appreciated.

Congratulations to Al Wolf our newest Randall Award winner, that was a fantastic ceremony.

I have chosen another project that I would like to accomplish. I have asked the delegates to get me a listing of all of the charitable activities that clubs in their councils participate in. It is my goal to get our activity some much-needed positive publicity. When I get the information collated for all of the clubs, with the assistance of Tony Haskins, we will attempt to get the Oregonian to publish a positive article about Square Dancing. I cannot guarantee you that they will publish such an article, but we will try. Good news does not sell newspapers. That is a known fact.

If any of the delegates have contact information for local newspapers, please get that to either Tony or myself and we will try to get some of the smaller media newspapers to print an article also.

At this time I would like to welcome our esteem guests from the great State of Washington. First of all we have the State President, Doug Keys and his partner Ellen Ostrom. We also have Don and Cheryl Pruitt, General Chairman for the 61st National Square Dance Convention®. Roy and Janet Belcroft the Assistant General Chairman of the 61st National Square Dance Convention®. George and Sharon Broom the Business Chairman of the 61st National Square Dance Convention®. Thank you all for being here.

Bill Reid: We have a special presentation this morning. We are the Chairmen for Publicity for the 61st National Square Dance Convention© coming up in Spokane, 2012. We have an individual in this room that is a point person for a lot of square dance activities. She is the epitome in our mind of what square dancing really is all about. Always friendly, greeting everybody, dancing and enjoying, keeping the fun in square dancing. We want her to be our Point Person in Publicity, the ultimate promoter of National square dancing, State square dancing, and Club square dancing. Genevieve Churchill, please come forward.

1st VICE PRESIDENT: Floyd (Jill) Bard

First of all I would like to thank Sandy and everybody for a great dance. I appreciated that. Everything went like clockwork.

I want to say that I have been a little slow in keeping up with the Practices and Procedures changes. The committee members, Ray Jones, Tim Roberts, and Dave Stutzman have been working via email and phone calls. The following plan was adopted and will be followed until completion of this committee.

Dec 28, 2009 - Review previous committee's recommended changes, feedback from interested parties, and Vivian Fairburn's Synopsis. (Done)

Jan 11, 2010 - Identify sections of the Practices and Procedures (P&P) that are historical and propose to be removed from the P&Ps and provided to the State Historian. (Done)

Jan 11, 2010 - Review the P&Ps for editorial changes and take to State Meeting on January 31, 2010. (Done)

Jan 31, 2010 - Ask Officers (Elected and Appointed) and Committee Chairpersons that have sections in the P&Ps to review their sections for relevance and accuracy, then submit recommendations to the P&P Committee by April 1, 2010. You have been asked and notified, thank you.

Planned suspense dates for the P&P Committee:

1. Propose final P&P changes at the next two State Meetings (May and July).

2. Dispose of the P&P Committee at the September State Meeting. We are not going on another year.

There will be six motions that will be made under New Business, possibly a seventh.

Onward to another responsibility, that is the Summer Festival. The Federation will need two to three areas to consider hosting the 2012 Summer Festival. If interested, contact me at the break. I will be sending letters to the Area Presidents with more information.

2010 Mid-Winter Festival: Sandy (Chuck) Eddings

I want to thank everybody for coming to Mid-Winter. You made it a great success.

The 2010, 50th Anniversary Mid-Winter Festival is a very jubilant success. We estimate we will have in attendance 1400 paid registrations, which including the committee we have over 1500 dancers at Mid-Winter.

Chuck and myself would like to thank the dancers of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Canada for attending the 50th Anniversary of Oregon's Mid-Winter Festival.

The dancers seem to be having a great time, and for this we would like to thank our committee, and our featured caller Gary Shoemake, cuer Kristine and Bruce Nelson, and our clogging cuer Scotty Bilz.

At this time we are not quite done completing our books. That will be done for our wrap up meeting at the end of February. But at this time we would like to present a check to the Federation in repayment for the loan they gave us to help give the dancers this Festival. Our committee has worked very hard and spent a lot of time putting this Festival together. We could not have done this Festival without the Committee. We would like to ask that when you see one of the Committee members, please say thank you. We always like to hear that people appreciate what we have done.

Don't forget to pre-register early for 2011 "Lil Bit O' Heaven". Larry and Carol Reetz are the Chairmen for 2011 so lets support them just as much as you did "Golden Jubilee". We will see you in a square someplace in the State promoting Mid-Winter Festival.

Thank all of you again. For those of you who have not done this survey, we are trying to help the Visitors Association and Lane County find out what kind of money we spend so they can improve the fairgrounds for us to use. So please fill it out and get it back to me or take it back to the Ticket Booth in the Hall.

2010 Summer Festival: Kay (Jim) Rogers

We have a lot of great things planned for Summer Festival. Some of them are unusual from what has been done in the past. We have a free dance on Thursday evening that is open for registered and non-registered dancers and non-dancers. We plan on putting ads in the newspaper around Pendleton and hope to draw some outside interested people who would show up and it would be like a one-night stand for them. If we don't get any, we will have a good time without them. There will be many callers from the floor that night, so everybody will have a chance to have some fun. On Thursday night after the free dance (7-9) we will have an ice cream social. During that time we welcome clubs, individuals, organizations to provide entertainment for promoting their particular event. They can do a skit or a play or they can stand up there and make an ass of themselves. Whatever they want to do as long as we get entertained. On Friday we are going to be dancing from 10am to 10pm. So there will be full dancing on Friday and full dancing on Saturday, 10am to 10pm. On Sunday morning we have the Heavenly Hoedown with The Crew. We also have a Bluegrass Band that will be playing on and off during the weekend, and I even got Tony to pay for most of that.

At this point what would help us the most is registrations. We have forms and ribbons with us here today. At this time we have more talent than we have dancers. So now that Mid-Winter has passed so successfully, it is now time to register for the Summer Festival.

Rooms have been reserved at Oxford Suites, 2400 SW Court Place, Pendleton, 97801. Kings and Double Queens are $90 plus tax. Phone number is 541-276-6000; tell them you are part of the Square Dancing Block. Other hotels and an RV Parks are listed on the back of the form.

See you in Pendleton.

2011 Mid-Winter Festival: Larry (Carol) Reetz

I would like to say congratulations to this year's Chairmen, Sandy and Chuck Eddings and the entire committee for an outstanding job on the 50th Anniversary Celebration. The attendance by dancers from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and I believe some from California is a good indicator that we still have lots of dancers out there that enjoy our festival.

We are ready as a Committee and ready as Chairmen to promote next year's Mid-Winter Festival. We only have one position left to fill, Decorations Chairman, and I feel confident this will happen soon. You will see Carol and I, as well as our Co-Chairs, Roger and Linda Putzler, and many of our committee members out to promote Mid-Winter 2011 - Lil Bit O'Heaven, over the next year.

At the end of this meeting we have promotion packets with ribbons for those who wish to help with 2011 Mid-Winter Festival. We also have additional envelopes with 50 flyers per envelope for those of you who wish to take more back to your area clubs.

As is our custom, we want to encourage each of you to support our Summer Festival in Pendleton. They have an excellent venue and it promises to be a full weekend of fun. See you there.

2011 Summer Festival: Tony Haskins

The committee has been busy holding meetings and getting out information to the clubs for our meeting on January 18th. This meeting will issue various clubs and committee chair people the needed information to go ahead with their committee. Things are looking great! The main committee has approved festival ribbons. AAA Awards have been sent the flyer with the approved ribbon. They will finalize it and send it back for approval and then we will order them.

The 2010 Summer Festival After Hours Party on Saturday the 17th of July has been formally issued to Les Seeley. Thank you Les and there will be a few surprises with him in charge, if you know what I mean! Again, thank you Les.

The After Hours Party for the Mid-Winter Festival 2011 is scheduled. More information on this event will come later.

The next report will have the committees and their chair people. We will be doing a walk through shortly at the Reynolds High School. Steve Rogers, our Facilities Chairperson, is setting that up for us ASAP (as soon as possible).

Bill Rooper is our moneyman and he says things are looking good. Annadale is toting a new diamond ring and just came back from Las Vegas. I hope we still have money ... Joke! Bill and Annadale are doing a wonderful job as well as the rest of the committee members. They are all keeping me in line.

Oregon Federation News: Vivian Fairburn

I still don't have any OFN subscription dances on the calendar for this year and we are halfway through the year. I hope that Councils have some plans for these dances and will let me know soon.

Please remind your clubs that I always have extra copies of the OFN to give to new dancers. Just contact me and I will see that you receive them when you need them.

I am receiving better quality pictures all the time and do appreciate it. Just remember to send me the picture as print size, not email. Also, please have the photographer send the picture directly to me instead of through another dancer.

Birthday/Anniversary dances are listed on page 16 for free. Please let me know the dates before the 5th of the preceding month. Two months notice would be even better.

There is a new section for lessons, which will continue monthly to accommodate lessons that were not listed in August and September. Please send me the information directly.

I can always use more pictures and articles. I have heard comments that certain clubs articles and pictures appear more often than others. I was asked if I gave them preference. No, I just received pictures and articles from them. There is always room for more and consider it "free advertising" for your club.

The Council editors and I met yesterday to discuss some changes in the editor procedures. They will each receive a copy of the new guidelines to distribute to each club editor next month.

POOF Meeting Report: Vivian Fairburn - Floyd Bard will give the report.

Items discussed among the nine attendees were:

1. Membership motion that was tabled to modify the membership and club information form distribution to the clubs and areas and their return to the Membership Chairman at the Summer Festival Meeting. All were in favor.

2. River City Riders ' request for money for a trailer was discussed. Concerns were cost, benefit to the square dancers and clubs in the Federation, and the liability to the Federation.

3. OFN is currently in the red and is projected to have a loss for the fiscal year. Cost cutting between June 2009 and September 2010 has helped, but is not enough. Subscriptions have not increased significantly in the last 6 months (+ 16) to increase OFN income. A motion will be made under New Business to increase the OFN Subscription Rate, which has not happened for 10-12 years.

2nd VICE PRESIDENT: Marilyn (Ron) Schmit

Happy New Year and Happy Dancing! I have been busy since our last meeting and not all of it has been dancing related. We spent the holidays at various family events and managed to see almost all of the grandchildren (11) in those days. I have gone through Fall Term finals at school and came away with a 4.0 grade average and have started Winter Term 2 days a week. I have restarted intermediate round dance lessons after a holiday break. But the big news is that I am employed again after not working for over 2 ½ years. My former employer called me and asked if I would like to come back to work. Different duties and location, but same business, what a shock!

So now it is a question of rearranging my time to make room for homework, some housework, and some sewing for relaxation. I have been to Tucson, Arizona, for the winter meeting of United Square Dancers of America for which I was the hosting Regional Vice President. Nice weather in the 60's and 70's and some great dancing at the SACCA Festival. Three dance halls with mainstream, plus, and advanced/challenge going on. Three callers, Randy Daugherty, Tom Miller, and Bill Harrison, who rotated between the halls, gave everyone an assortment of calling styles and lots of fun.

Now it will be time for me to get acquainted with the State Directory and the new information that will be arriving as the clubs elect their officers and send in the information to the various parties that receive the information. I have taken a Publisher class and will take part 2 and 3 in Spring Term so I can do pretty much all of the Directory without much assistance. That will make it easier on Vivian when it comes time to send it to the printer.

I look forward to seeing a bunch of Oregon dancers at the Benefit Dance in Bend in April. The Adaptive Riding Institute really looks forward to seeing us and sharing Jazzmo with us as we dance. Remember them as you make club donations in the next few months.

RECORDING SECRETARY: Dale (Kathy) Worthington

Barbara Schaumburg has asked that I add her new email address in the minutes. It is barbarale.schaumburg@gmail.com. If any board member has not received an email from me requesting their State Meeting Report, please let me know. I send the request out to everyone on the Board with the exception of Genevieve Churchill. I do appreciate every one who sent their report in or at least gave me a reply that they had received my email. Is there anyone who did not get the email? (No response.)

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY: Cheryl (Curt) Lundine

Thank you notes to:
South Coast Council and Beachcombers; for hosting the State Meeting in November.

Sympathy cards sent to:
Bill Haviland for loss of his father
Kitty Kaler for loss of her husband
Evelyn Carson for loss of her husband
Lila Jones for loss of her husband
Jack Williams' family for loss
Steve Spleen for loss of his father

Get Well cards sent to:
Domi Ann Knight
Annadale Rooper
Barbara Tipton
Walt Thies
Dorothy Roth
Jim Steele
Paul Nees

Birthday cards to: None

TREASURER: Larry (Carol) Reetz

Overall we are in pretty good shape. We are experiencing a shortage in checking account funds. As you see on the report we are at a negative on the checking account at this time. I have been notified that we will receive a check from 2010 Mid Winter Festival, a repayment of the loan. This will allow us to see our way through February into March. We have a CD to roll over in March that we have to cash in to have operating funds.

In the event that this organization approves the request for the purchase of a trailer for the River City Riders, we may have to look at an early close out of one of our additional smaller CDs.

MEMBERSHIP: Sylvia Davis

I have been working with Ann Skoe and the Callers Association Club. I have also been talking to a gentleman in the Rogue Sis-Q Council area. He has a group that wants to start up a club.

I emailed all the delegates with membership information that we discussed at the Delegates Meeting during Mid-Winter Festival. The forms for Membership are usually filled out wrong and hopefully with questions answered in the discussion, it will become easier.

Insurance/USDA: Kay (Jim) Rogers

Thank you all for such a great job in getting all your information to me this year. I hope that I have been able to hand out certificates at this meeting. Please make sure your clubs receive their certificates and understand the importance of them.

I need to give out a word of caution regarding the entrance of new clubs to your councils. Of course, we all want new dancers and new clubs and we do whatever we can to help them. But when we allow new clubs to be admitted to the Federation without meeting the insurance requirement, we are putting ourselves in great jeopardy. I know all your councils require that clubs are insured before being admitted, and of course, they need to be admitted to your council before asking for membership in the Federation. If we allow a club to join without insurance, they are more than likely holding dances, where we are liable, without the protection of liability insurance.

Remember that now that we have enrolled for 2010, you will find most insurance forms on-line at www.squaredance.gen.or.us.

PAST PRESIDENT: John (Glory) Guches

The 2010-2011 Oregon Federation Nominations are:

President: Floyd (Jill) Bard, Emerald Empire Council
1st Vice President: Ray (Zola) Jones, Emerald Empire Council
Marilyn (Ron) Schmit, Mid-Willamette Council
2nd Vice President: Barbara Tipton, Mid-Willamette Council
Tony Haskins, Portland Area Council
Recording Secretary: Dale (Kathy) Worthington, Sunset Empire Council
Corresponding Secretary: Cheryl (Curt) Lundine, Mid-Willamette Council
Membership Secretary: Sylvia Davis, Sunset Empire Council
Treasurer: Larry (Carol) Reetz, Emerald Empire Council (2nd year - 2 year Term)

PARLIAMENTARIAN: Tim (Kathy) Roberts

Floyd has made a great start on getting the P&P review project off and rolling. Several things changed in November that will need printed updates, but I though it better to wait to see what changes were made today.

PUBLICITY/STATE REPORTER: Tony Haskins

Good Morning Everyone and Happy New Year to each of you. Thank you for another great Mid-Winter Festival. Sandy and Chuck Eddings, Larry and Carol Reetz, you and your staff did a fine job and we all appreciate it very much for your hard work. Hats off to you!

We worked hard to get people to registered for Mid-Winter and it seems it has paid off. Now let's not forget 2010 Summer Festival in Pendleton on July 16th, 17th, and 18th. Don't forget Thursday Night is free dance. Kay Rogers will have more on this event for you. Please register early!

I want to follow up on Sandy and Chuck Eddings' email regarding Jim Steele. This is a great time to help our own people. Callers and Cuers are a big part of our Square Dance Family so let's all dig in and square up. The PAC will have a donation pot at our April 5th Friday Dance.

The Tri-Council Christmas Dinner went really well. There were approximately 40-50 people there. Now I'm on a diet!

Tom Gay, Present of the BnBs has taken up the task of putting together a Memorial Weekend Dance. This is sponsored by the PAC and several other members, along with members of the Evergreen Council who are helping out. It will be held at the Milwaukie Community Center May 28th - 31st. This is where the River City Dancers hold their dances, 42nd & Jackson in Milwaukie. Flyers have been passed out to each of you. Callers will be Johnny Preston and Randy Dibble and the cuers will be Tami Helms and Jeanine Norden.

The Portland Star Light Parade will be May 30th. This is also a PAC sponsored event. The PAC trailer and the State trailer will be hooked together and I will be pulling them again this year. The River City Dancers will be the first trailer.

The TVC will be doing the Hillsboro Parade again this year on the 4th of July and I will be pulling the PAC trailer in that event also.

The 37th Annual Diamond Lake Square Dance Festival will be July 21st - 24th. Callers will be Nasser Shukayr and Wayne Weaver. The cuer will be Sharon Parker.

From one end of the State to the other there are lots of dancing and things to do…and don't forget this is the last year for the Carson Camp Out sponsored by the Columbia River Gorge Dancers. What a fine job they have done over the years. Let's all try to make the last dance the best dance for them. Hats off to you all…and don't forget Roseburg and the Buckeroos…more to come later.

FINANCIAL ADVISOR: Bill (Neva) Reid

Review of Bank Statements:

The bank statements and enclosures for September, October, November and December 2009 of the Federation were reviewed for appropriateness. The bank account was in an overdraft situation December 1 and 2, and again from December 14 thru 17. The deposits and disbursements appeared proper.

Audit of Financial Statements and Related Accounting Records:

The financial statements for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2009, of the Federation have been audited

The documentation supporting the entries into the accounts appeared adequate. The classification of entries did not always match that of the budget, making for comparison somewhat cumbersome, but not impossible. There were some eleven categories of expenses that were not delineated in the budget. I recommend that either the budget categories be expanded to include these additional line items, or that these line items be included in Miscellaneous to better match the budget. There were three expense categories that did not align with the budget categories because of slight differences in account name, i.e. Winter Festival, Equipment Insurance, and Printing/Copies. I recommend that closer attention be given to matching actual expense categories to that of the budget.

On the reporting form (Form 990) to the Internal Revenue Service, it indicates that the accounting method used by the Federation for reporting is the "accrual basis", however in reviewing the accounts, there are several accounts that lack the proper accruals at the beginning and ending of each month, or at the very least, at the beginning and ending of the fiscal year. A prime example is the Advertising revenue and Subscriptions sales of the OFN Fund. I highly recommend that accrual entries be made at the end of each accounting period in order to more accurately report the operations of the Federation.

In summary, the Federation's financial operating results were off from expected. With interest rates presently at low levels, it can be assumed that this portion of the receipts may decrease substantially.

OFN Fund:

With the number of square dancers in Oregon decreasing, it is not surprising that there has been a decrease in subscriptions, advertisements and other revenue generating activities related to the Oregon Federation News. Decreasing revenues coupled with increasing costs are making for some very challenging times for the OFN Editor.

The situation is such that the Federation will now have to decide among some very difficult choices - such as, whether to subsidize the OFN, whether to change to an electronic version of the publication, whether to combine publication efforts with neighboring states, or whether to terminate the publication, which would leave Oregon square dancers without their primary means of communication. There may be other alternatives, but these are the major ones that come to mind.

The Profit & Loss report of the Oregon Federation News for the year ended August 31, 2009, prepared by the OFN Editor indicates basically a break-even operation for the year. This report indicates that the Editor was only paid through March 2009. The financial report of the Treasurer indicates a loss, and again with the Editor only being paid for part of the year.

In analyzing the reports to identify why there was a difference, I found that most of the individual expense categories did not match exactly, however the expenses in total were fairly close.

The Treasurer's records do not include any entries for amounts owing to the OFN Fund from the General Fund for Federation ads.

Previous reviews of the detail sheets of ads provided by the Editor compared to the revenue from ads reported on the Profit & Loss disclosed that the Profit & Loss report does not include discounts and other allowances that are Federation approved and have been allowed in certain situations.

It is difficult to discern from the records that I have seen what accounts for the difference in Subscriptions, however uncollected and "complimentary" subscriptions could account for the difference.

I thank you for your time and attention and will be glad to answer any questions.

(There were a couple comments by Bill Rooper and Vivian Fairburn)

EDUCATION ADVISOR: Barbara Tipton

As of this meeting the Education Seminar on "Recruiting and Retaining Square Dancers" by Les Seeley is history. I can report to you that the Seminar was a big success.

I am not planning an Education Seminar for Summer Festival. I only had feedback from one person in which I thank them for their input, but thought the topic was too general.

The next Education Project I am doing is to get all Square Dancers in the State of Oregon dancing at the same time at designated spots across Oregon during Square Dance Week in September. I have chosen the week of September 12 through September 18th, 2009 for all Oregon dancers to celebrate National Square Dance Week as well as Oregon's State Dance. I picked this week upon the guidance of our President, Lee Ashwill. This is the week that most clubs in Oregon start their beginner mainstream classes. What better way to advertise lessons and draw more people into the wonderful activity of square dancing? I would like all of you to take back to your councils this information and put a dancing program together in your area for Saturday the 18th from 2:00 to 4:00pm.

I will attempt to get the State Capitol Building for the dance in our area and also get the Governor to proclaim this week as National Square Dance Week.

HISTORIAN: Zola (Ray) Jones

Since the November meeting and acquiring eight unexpected boxes, mostly containing old Federation meeting minutes and many back issues of OFNs (some of them bound); Raymond, bless his heart, has been going through and doing an inventory of the contents in each box, numbering the boxes, and storing this information on a CD!

We have arranged and set-up a State Federation History Display here at the Festival on a table in the Lobby; consisting of some of the earlier 'bound' issues of OFNs, ring binders with clubs histories and photos, and a large album of year 2005 of the 54th National Convention in Portland. We also included on the table a collection box and envelopes for clubs and councils to put in their histories and photos.

We have acquired one more club history recently mailed to us, the former "Cross Trailers" Square Dance Club of Portland Area Council, by Pat Young - and we thank her for sending it. We still need the histories of the rest of the clubs and councils - and again ask all of you here today to remind your clubs and councils to please get these to us. Thank you.

We will be leaving in 3 days on our annual winter motor home trip to Southern Arizona and also will be taking pre-registration forms for this year's Oregon Summer Festival and the 2012 National Convention in Spokane to distribute. We're sure looking forward to 2 ½ months of warm desert sunshine and we'll see all of you again in May.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

BMI/ASCAP: Ralph Lambert

I have received the annual billing from BMI for the 2010 calendar year. This is the same amount that we paid for 2009. I have submitted the billing for issuance of a check that I can send back to BMI.

Everything is current with ASCAP. I am working with this years Mid-Winter on getting the paperwork that needs to be done.

YOUTH ACTIVITIES: Lisa (Mike) Kious

Youth has been busily working with families to try and get some Youth ribbons and we were successful. We had five youths at Mid-Winter this weekend thanks to all of us. Also, I will be placing an article/ad in the OFN in the coming months to advertise the Youth Scholarship we have coming due in June. I want to place a big article encouraging everybody to get their club members to apply. We have a lot of Scholarship money setting in our account and we haven't been able to spend it because nobody has been applying for the Scholarship. We have had at least three youths that I have talked to regarding applying for the USDA Scholarship. I am very excited to hear that we have participants from Oregon applying. I am hoping for more applications this year than we had in the past few years. That's it; I hope everyone had a great weekend.

ORDTA: Dennis (Elaine) Smith

ORDTA held their annual meeting yesterday, January 30th. Nominations for next year's officers were presented. With no contested positions, all were elected by acclamation: Chairman, Ken & Dianne Pratt; Vice Chairman, Patty & George Hermann; Secretary, Christina Corelli & Kirby Goode; Treasurer, Suzette & John Juhring; Members at Large, Ed Phillips, John & Linda Sauer, and Sarge & Cece Glidewell.

We finished up with a short Q&A session with Kristine and Bruce Nelson.

Our "So You Want to Be a Cuer" session was held yesterday afternoon. A good discussion was held among the cuers and prospective cuers that showed up.

ORDTA's spring meeting will be held on Saturday, May 1, at 10:00am at the Emerald Square and Round Dance Center in Springfield.

Lee Ashwill: I attended their meeting Saturday and Dennis is not going to run for Chairman again, so maybe he decided that he didn't want to come to this meeting either.

ROUND DANCE SCREENING: Barbara (Larry) Schaumburg

Oregon Round of the Month Ross
April 2010May 2010
"Return To Skye"
Record Label: Skye Boat Song
"Sunshine Wine"
Record: Star #169 Record: TNT #248
Choreographers: Peg & John Kincaid Choreographers: Bill & Maxine
Rhythm: Waltz Rhythm: Two Step
Phase: IIPhase: II

Certificates were mailed to all choreographers with a Thank You for their contribution to round dancing.

All cuers have been notified that George Clark will no longer be ordering the records for the Round of the Month. All Round of the Month music will need to be ordered from Palomino or down loaded from cuer's favorite place.

If you have a dance that you think would be a good consideration for Round of the Month, please forward that information to Barbara, so she can check it out.

Notification of selected rounds will be emailed to all cuers that are on the Round of the Month email list. Anyone not on the list please notify Barbara. Her new email address is: barbarale.schaumburg@gmail.com or phone 503-577-8836.

CALLER ADVISOR: Les (Paula) Seeley

The Caller Corner articles are in to Vivian at the OFN each month in advance of her needs.

I have contacted USDA, Pat Inglis, and have received firm clarification regarding insurance coverage through USDA and have subsequently forwarded the information to the Northwest Callers Association. There have been numerous questions regarding this. I will be getting the contact addresses for the other caller associations in the State and sending them the same information.

WEB MASTER: Tim (Kathy) Roberts

There were a number of changes to the website in preparation for the annual membership process. Our hope is that most clubs will be able to complete the entire process online. Please make sure your club delegates are careful about their spelling. People really hate to have their names misspelled in printed documents, and the Membership Chairman can't be expected to know the names of all 4,000 Federation club members.

Lee Ashwill: And why not?

STATE FAIR REPORT: Tony Haskins

To whom it may concern, the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs wishes to square dance at the Oregon State Fair again this year. The 27th and 28th of August and the 3rd and 4th of September would be great. The venue we had last year was excellent. We danced on Center Stage, the Americraft Building and the Spirit of Oregon State. Late morning or early afternoon would be preferable, that is if we have an option.

I sent that to the Oregon State Fair Entertainment in care of Sara Hamler-Dupras and to Eric Marcuse. I have a returned email from Eric Marcuse or a phone call that says: Call me back on the 10th of March when we have more information about what's going on. I got that, but for the State Fair I already have Mid-Willamette Area wants to dance at the State Fair. Barbara Tipton has put that in to me. The Oaky Doaks from the PAC would like to dance and I have a question mark behind the River City Dancers who may want to dance also. So I have one more club availability for square dancing at the State Fair. If anybody is interested, let me know because it is not going to last long. We have a lot of fun.

STATE TRAILERS: Jim (Avis) Kinkaid

Before I give my report I need to know the dates of the Starlight Parade.

Tony Haskins: June 5th and I think the River City Dancers will be contacting you.

Jim Kinkaid: They already have and they said two trailers and I don't think that is right.

Tony Haskins: We connect the PAC trailer behind the State trailer.

Jim Kinkaid: I don't know if you are aware, but the State does own two square dance trailers. They are both stored out at our place and I am working on them.

Jim Kinkaid: The trailers had a total of ten uses for 2009. They went from the Hood River/The Dalles area to the Medford area and areas in between.

I am in the process of refinishing the floors this winter, almost done. It has been 4 years since this was done. The floors on both trailers are not in the best condition. They are showing considerable wear, tear, and deterioration. There was a rotten area, 12" x 18", on one extension that I cut out and replaced. (The rotten area was passed around for all to see.) (There were many comments from the board on the rotten piece.) There were numerous areas on an extension on the other trailer where the plywood was separating so I replaced the entire floor on this extension. Some other areas, especially along the edges and around some of the bolts are showing some softness. I strongly suggest that a contingency fund/account be set up for floor replacement on both trailers. The trailers are 28 years old according to the titles. So you can expect anything at anytime.

I am in the process of redoing how the canopy frame pieces are attached for storage, hoping this will make them user-friendlier and more secure for transporting. There are or were too many bolts, nuts, and other pieces that came loose and are missing because of lack of attention by users. No tools will be needed to assemble canopy frame.

The licenses for both trailers are due for renewal in April. Like everything else, it has gone up. When I get renewal notices, I will make a copy and send it to the Treasurer for reimbursement.

I have submitted a bill for trailer repairs and upkeep. This is over the budgeted amount for the year. The President indicated to me this would need a motion for approval. He has a copy of the expenses and everything else.

Lee Ashwill: Thank you Jim. I do have a copy of the money Jim has spent to repair these trailers. I think Mr. Bard is going to make a motion that we approve those expenses out of the General Fund. But, first of all you need to know that Jim does the repair of all of this at no expense for his labor to this body. We sincerely appreciate it Jim, and we sincerely appreciate you storing them at your place so long at no cost to us.

Floyd Bard: I move that the expense for the trailer repair and maintenance be approved from the General Fund. Seconded by Sylvia Davis.

Lee Ashwill: The motion is to reimburse Jim Kinkaid from the General Fund for repair and maintenance of the State trailers. Motion carried.

DELEGATE MEETING REPORT: Dennis Marsh

This is the first time back at having a Delegate Meeting at Mid-Winter Festival. I think it is going to work out good.

We had three things to discuss. The first was the trailer for the River City Dancers. We had a great presentation from them again, with their update to it. The concerns of the Delegates were about giving them a certain amount, a specific amount to give them or a portion of it. We figured that most of it would be discussed today. We don't feel that the whole amount needs to be done.

On the Membership we had a good report from Sylvia giving us an update, along with the help of others. We are 100% behind that one, for the changeover.

On the third, gifts for board members at the State Meeting. We were in favor of that. Would you like me to make a motion on that?

Lee Ashwill: I would love to have you make a motion on that.

Dennis Marsh: I make a motion that we delete the portion in the P&Ps where the hosting council has to have gifts for the State Meeting. Seconded by Floyd Bard.

Lee Ashwill: Any Discussion? I need you to know that I asked Dennis to take that to the Delegates because my personal feeling is that we put pressure on the councils hosting these meetings to provide the officers and delegates with a gift and I don't see that as a necessity. I would just as soon they do away with it and Dennis did bring that up to the Delegates.

Floyd Bard: That was the motion I was going to make and I am glad that you did it. I think it would be appropriate for you to do it. It is Section II, Page 3, Line 26, Item 4; that we are totally deleting out of the Helpful Suggestions for Areas Hosting State Meetings section of the P&Ps.

Lee Ashwill: The motion is to remove the requirement or suggestion that the councils provide a gift for the officers and delegates during the State Meetings in Section II, Page 3, Line 26, Item 4 of the Practices and Procedures. Motion carried.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

  1. CPA (IRS) Committee Report (Bill Reid)

    I have been in conference with our CPA firm from our company; they are LaMaster/Danials out of Spokane, Washington. They have stated to me that the IRS is paying much closer attention to tax-exempt organization such as ours and the member clubs. Therefore, it is imperative that we get after the documentation that is required both by the Federation and by the IRS. Those requirements, of course, are corporate filings with the Secretary of State of Oregon for non-profit status. The second requirement is for a federal ID number. The third requirement is for tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service. So it is imperative for each member club to have those in their record file so they are available if anyone would want to look at them. What we have at issue is basically a problem with unrelated income for the clubs to deal with. The reason you should be concerned about unrelated income, and that is a defined term by the Internal Revenue Service, is because your tax-exempt status could be in jeopardy if you get to much unrelated income. Either income from non-members attending dances or non-members attending lessons or completely unrelated income such as a bake sale or something unrelated to square dancing.

    Some suggestions, and I would totally recommend that we come to terms with these and get these completed. On lessons and new dancers it would be important to include them in the membership, such as, some designation like associate member, some non-voting status, but still keep them as members of each group. Therefore when they are paying for lessons, it is member revenue rather than non-member revenue. The other thing that they have recommended is that we, in each club's by-laws, include language that allows for reciprocal agreements between the clubs so that we allow members of another club to attend our dance as members. So each clubs' language in their by-laws allows for members of another club be treated as members when they attend a dance. All this sounds like just a bunch of stuff, a bunch of BS, but to protect our assets from the Internal Revenue Service we need to do some of these things.

    It is also important to follow the Practices and Procedures that are outlined for the Federation because the Internal Revenue Service looks at your organization and if you are not following your own rules they will find fault with you and question your tax-exempt status in that way.

    The final requirement is that most of the clubs do have non-member and unrelated income. We need to start tracking those revenues and we need to start tracking the expenses related to those revenues. Any time that you have that situation it is suppose to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. There is exemption for small. It doesn't matter how big, how little, whatever. You do have a $1,000 exemption from income of unrelated income, but that comes off of your reporting to the IRS. In other words, you have to report to them what you actually had in unrelated income, subtract $1,000 to see if you have any taxable situation for the Internal Revenue Service.

    So the things to protect ourselves are to do things a little bit differently and including new dancers in our membership, and including language in our corporate structure to allow for dancers from other clubs to be members when they attend dances of our club. Are there any questions at all about that?

    Gary Sohn: I have several in there. You said members and non-members. The first problem that comes up with me is that if we list everybody as members then we have to classify them as insurance members and then we are going to be paying insurance on a large number of people that don't really belong to our club. If a guest member comes to our dance do we classify them as one of our members?

    Bill Reid: Let me clarify. When we are talking about members from other clubs, they are members of other Federated Oregon clubs. They have insurance, and Kay can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that every member of every Federated club has insurance coverage. So they have coverage from a different club. You would not have to cover them additionally.

    Gary Sohn: Is this going to throw off our membership count if we list them on some kind of a roll call?

    Bill Reid: No you are not going to list them. What you want is language that allows you to have them attend your dances and include their payment to get into that dance, whether it be a contribution, if you want to call it that, or a gate receipt, if you want to call it that. It allows all those revenues to be classified as member revenue, strictly an IRS requirement. It doesn't do anything in regards to the insurance as far as I can see.

    Gary Sohn: I know a lot of clubs are probable going to have some problems trying classify these different entries. Can you give us some kind of a guideline? A printed guideline that we can send to our clubs and say, we suggest at the door you classify guest as guest members. Income from bake sales, newspaper drives and stuff like that should be listed under this kind of a category for tax purposes. This would really help all of us on trying to document where our income is going.

    Bill Reid: We will put together some guidelines on revenue classification so you have more details.

    Lee Ashwill: If you will send that to me Bill, I will get it out to everyone.

    Gary Sohn: You also said something about it meeting our P&Ps. Do you mean our State Federation P&Ps.

    Bill Reid: You have to meet your State Federation P&Ps as this group. This group needs to do that. You have to be aware that the members of this Federation are all the clubs in the Federation, so they need to be meeting their by-laws, their set of regulations, their internal controls.

    Gary Sohn: I don't know if we have too much of that on controlling our finances. I know our club doesn't have anything set up to do that, but we may have to reorganize.

    Kay Rogers: I wanted to clarify that when you are given your insurance paperwork every year you are also asked to supply a list of supplemental members. It is a secondary list and each club has been given that. It is up to you to list members who dance with your club or who belong to your club. You could expand that list without liability and that covers you so that my records show that all people are a member of your club. The way the insurance database is set up, and we can thank Tim for this, it shows me who is paying your insurance and what your number one club is. So far the only thing I have used it for is to see if I can find someone that belongs to two clubs and neither one is paying for them, because each one thinks the other one is doing it. That is in place, available and already in operation and perfect for this purpose if they just use it.

    Bill Reid: That will go a long way in supporting this notion of associate or what you call supplemental, whichever label we want to put on it, we need to make sure we are consistent with the record keeping. Those types of members are identified in the corporate structure of the individual member clubs.

    Kay Rogers: I need to clarify a couple more things too. When you have class members that are dancing, if you send me your class list, then they become listed on paper as being a class of your club. That automatically makes them members. You can do that free and they don't have to pay for that until they graduate from classes and join the club. Also on your sign-in sheets at the front desk, you could change your heading from guest to other members.

    Bill Reid: The insurance documentation goes a long way. What we need to couple with that is a change in either the Articles of Incorporation of member clubs or a change in the by-laws of the individual clubs to recognize that they do have members in their association or club that are not full members, they are new dancers members, associate members or whatever we want to label them. We need to get the language right in order to protect ourselves from the IRS. That is all that I am after. I am not after any changes other than some corporate language changes and record keeping.

    Cece Glidewell: Two things. One is that at the time that we got notice of the filing the form to the IRS for the tax-exempt clubs I was an officer in the KCs. I was doing the Treasurer as well as the President job. I looked into the IRS website and they do have a lot of information and they have a monthly electronic newsletter. I subscribe to that so I get monthly updates of the things that the IRS discuss in this matter and of course other things that I check periodically. I don't have that URL with me but I could email it to the Federation so if you wanted to share that with the clubs and their treasurers, or whatever, could subscribe to that website and get that newsletter. It is very helpful.

    Bill Reid: The IRS website is irs.gov. If you go into that you can get to what Cece is talking about

    Cece Glidewell: One of the things that the KC Squares do is that in their By-laws it states that any person who shows up, whether it be a workshop or a dance, once they pay the fee they become a non-voting associate member of the club. That is how they deal with not having non-members.

    Bill Reid: That is exactly the language that the CPA firm is suggesting.

    Zola Jones: I was referring to where you have guests come to your dance, members from other clubs, come to your dance. They are also members of the Federation. Anybody that belongs to a Federated club is automatically a member of the Federation, wouldn't they be covered under the umbrella of the Federation?

    Bill Reid: No that is not the case because we don't report to the IRS at the Federation level for all the clubs. If we wanted to do the accountings and bring the financials of all individual member clubs into one reporting, Form 990 from the Federation, then all those members of all those member clubs would be treated as members of the entity. But we do not report to the Internal Revenue Service all the Federation club activities, just the Federation activity by itself. There is a difference. Member clubs are individual entities the tax-exempt status has been applied for.

    Bill Rooper: Bill, the Federation is an individual entity as far as the IRS is concerned too. A Form 990 is filed every year for the Federation. I am wondering how the proceeds from the Mid-Winter Festival or the Summer Festival would be affected?

    Bill Reid: Both the Mid-Winter Festival and the Summer Festival are sponsored activities by the Federation and therefore they are related income rather than unrelated income. They don't have a problem with that one.

    Ron Schmit: Bill when I filled out the paperwork many moons ago to do this I had a lawyer in the club and he went with me to IRS. The IRS guy said that when your club members checked in, they could put an X or something by their name or cross through the line. For those that do not come in you could put a check by them and they would show up as being there.

    Bill Reid: Just some personal advice, don't do it. I would stay clear of fraud. You don't want to get yourself into worse hot water than you would already be in. I heard a lot of advice from IRS over the telephone, you call them back and you get the opposite advice. You have to be law-abiding citizens and entities and follow the regulations.

    Floyd Bard: I would like to clarify something that Bill said. That is the clubs aligning with the Federation's Practices and Procedures. Actually that is not really true. The Practices and Procedures are the guidelines of the way the Federation conducts our business and the way the officers and chairmen conduct their business within the Federation. It may involve the areas and clubs on how we interact with them but we don't drive their business. But, on the contrary it is stated here clearly Section III, Page 2 that the applying clubs agree to comply with the State Constitution and By-Laws. They sign that. They do agree to the contract and comply with the Federation Constitution and By-Laws. That is who we are, that is where our legal status is determined and defined with our tax-exempt status with the IRS is our Constitution and By-Laws.

    Lee Ashwill: Bill if I heard you right, I don't think you were indicating that the clubs needed to follow our P&Ps, but we need to follow them. Is that not true?

    Bill Reid: There is language in the P&Ps in the Financial Advisor section that require all member clubs to file with the Secretary of State of Oregon and get non-profit corporate status and to file with the Internal Revenue Service and get tax-exempt status. If they have not done that and the IRS looks at the Federation's books they will have one black mark against them. That is the point. It is not that the P&Ps dictate the day-to-day actions of the clubs, it does not, but there are requirements within the P&Ps for the individual member clubs to follow.

    Floyd Bard: And that particular committee chair or officer has to ensure that the clubs do that. So where the buck stops is on the person that is the officer with the Federation to make the clubs do it.

    Bill Reid: That is correct.

    Frank Schuchard: Bill, I understand that we are going to get some kind of list of things to go back to the clubs and let them know what they need to do then?

    Lee Ashwill: You understand correctly.

    Barbi Ashwill: I have one major concern with what I am hearing today. It is something that has bothered me for a while and I thought when Bill got started with this process it would come to the forefront, and I think it has today. One of those requirements, and I don't know why it is in our guidelines, says that any new member club must file with the IRS for tax-exempt status. Do you know what that costs? Do you know how many new clubs that you are going to get in this Federation if you keep that requirement in place? My question to this body is, whether you need to see a CPA or you need to see a tax attorney, why do new clubs have to have tax-exempt status with the IRS? Why is it not enough that they have a Federal ID Number and they file with the Secretary of State as a non-profit corporation? Those are doable financially but they have raised the fees to file that application. Now, if you think any new club has that kind of money, guess again folks.

    Steve Murphy: I am by no means a tax expert but, like Cece, I looked at the tax code that the IRS goes by and looked into this for the KC Squares because I wanted to understand it. This is my understanding of it. First, be aware that the clubs in existence now in the State of Oregon are not all tax-exempt, period. You must be, according to what Bill Reid says and what the President is saying and I take exception to that. It is my understanding that to be a member of the club, which many clubs are now in Oregon, I won't say the majority because I don't know what the percentage is tax-exempt and which are not, you just have to be a non-profit organization. It has nothing to do with tax-exempt. Tax-exempt is the big thing and if you are tax-exempt with the IRS, if you take that step, it is a lot of work, a lot of money, and if you ever change one word in the by-laws of your club, it must be re-approved by the IRS. Now I am hearing, that's the way it has to be. I am saying that is not the way it is or has been for 20 years. I don't know if that is in there now. I heard the story that back in the 80's, and this is just a story I heard, that when a new President came in some time, I have no idea about the details, that they said "Oh I interpret this (exactly the way I am hearing now) is everybody has to be tax-exempt with the IRS." Some clubs started the ball rolling, the KC Squares being one of them, and it's 6, 8, 10 months, a year, or more of getting the tax-exempt through the IRS. It was some months later that this body decided "Oh no, that is not what it meant." It meant you could be tax-exempt, but you weren't required to be. The only other thing that I would put forth also, that I would take exception to, someone else that has said, and that is if you are IRS tax-exempt, they have the categories, and I am hearing members and non-members. I don't believe the IRS says that. When you file for IRS tax-exemption, and this is something, like I said I am not the expert but this is the way I understand it, you tell them what your primary income is from. If it is from dancing, it is from dancing. It doesn't say members, non-members, members of other clubs, members of other states, and members of whatever. It doesn't say anything about that. It says if your primary income is from dancing, any income from that is not counted against other income. For instance, if you were selling hot dogs at a fair for a fund-raiser, that is not dancing. That is the way I take it. But, that would have to be decided legally. So I thought I would put my two cents worth in. I don't like the direction that everybody was going in because there is a tremendous amount of assumption being made here and things being thrown out that are going to bind every club in this State to be tax-exempt. That has never been the case, to my knowledge for what it is worth.

    Bill Reid: In response, the Practices and Procedures outline that all member clubs be tax-exempt. That is what I am going by. Those Practices and Procedures are the rules of this organization as far as I know. If they are not, then lets throw them away and start fresh or something. But right now you have in writing, the Practices and Procedures, and they include the requirement for member clubs to be tax-exempt. I have them right here if you would like to read them. Additionally, in regards to individuals' interpretation of the IRS regulations, I have discussed this topic with two different CPA firms. Certified Public Accountants generally know what they are talking about and they differ from some of the individual opinions stated here. Members verses non-members, to both the CPA firms I've talked to, are critical. So you can interpret that which way you want to, rest assured when the IRS comes they will have their interpretation and it is probably going to be more in-line with the CPA firms than what the individuals in this room choose to interpret.

    Bill Rooper: There are several different kinds of tax-exempt organizations with the IRS. The 501-c (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11, & 12), there are a lot of different tax-exempt organization social club. The Federation is a 501-c (7), 501-c (3) is the normal tax organization that people think about when they go to donate money to and deduct it on their income tax. 501-c (4), and 501-c (7) and some of the rest of them are social clubs, chamber of commerce, and that type of thing. I agree 100% with Steve that the IRS is interested in what your main theory is and if your main theory is social and social includes dancing and your income comes from dancing I don't think that is taxable income. The whole idea of the taxable income for non-profit is whether or not they are competing with regular profitable organizations. If you have a dance hall or dance club that is in business to make money that is different than a regular social club. And Bill is probably right that the CPAs that he knows, or has talked to, are down to the very fine line on the interpretation. They can't afford not to be. Perhaps that is the way we should go. I know from experience, I've talked to the IRS last summer and tried to file for a Wasco County Pioneer Association. I got in touch with the IRS and they didn't have their new Form 990 available. They told me to wait until January. When I got in touch with them in January they still didn't have it available.

    Barbi Ashwill: I would like to add just one more thing in regard to what Bill Reid has talked about. When a lawyer and CPA were involved in set up of, our Articles, our By-Laws, everything for the 54th National Square Dance Convention, they defined two types of members. Specifically to go along, number one with Oregon law, because Oregon Constitution says that all members have a voting right, be able to vote on something. That distinction was there, so I think you need to listen to what Bill said with regards to that and heed that. There was one other thing but I can't think of it now, maybe later.

    Lee Ashwill: Bill I want to thank you for your work in this and we will certainly pay attention to what you tell us. Since we are in the process of rewriting the P&Ps, this may be the time to take that entirely out of there. I will leave that up to the Chairman of the P&P Review Committee. But, I certainly appreciation what you have done Bill.

    Steve Murphy: This will be quick. Like I said, I am no expert and I did not mean to say that Bill is wrong or the CPAs were wrong, or anything else. I am just saying that something else that you might look at, is the way that the rules are being looked at. Something I didn't mention, that just occurred to me. Are we bound by our P&Ps legally with the IRS?

    Floyd Bard: No, how we act -- The P&Ps is not a legal document outside of our organization. But it is how we conduct ourselves that will get us in trouble with the P&Ps, okay. So if it states that the clubs have to file for or get an IRS tax-exempt letter, that is what it is saying or whatever your status is going to be and we don't follow that we are in trouble by not making all the clubs do that. So we have already said that we are 50% in compliance with that right now. If that is an invalid requirement, than we need to research that, strike it from the P&Ps and then move on, period.

    Tim Roberts: I wonder if I could provide a little historic context for those that might not know this. The Federation was audited in the mid-1980, about 1985 or so. The IRS actually threatened to withdraw our tax-exempt status because we had not been following these rules. The excellent 8-page article in the Practices and Procedures from Jean Brigl, who was the Financial Advisor at that time, came out of that because everyone was terrified about the possibility of having to pay back taxes for 30 years. Basically, what's in Jean's article is almost word for word what Bill has been saying today. Partly one of the reasons I hoped we would go through this process was to update that article, throw it out, or revise it. It sounds like, in a large part, it is still accurate. Over the years since then, the terror has faded away. That is a bit of a danger. When you start losing your terror of the IRS that is a big danger.

    RECESS

  2. Tabled Motion: Motion by Sylvia Davis "I move to modify the membership process where the forms are distributed at the May State Meeting and returned at the Summer Festival State Meeting.

    Lee Ashwill: Is there a motion to bring the motion that has been tabled off the table? That is the Membership motion.

    John Guches: Mr. President, I make the motion that we remove from the table the Membership motion. Seconded by Floyd Bard.

    Lee Ashwill: It is off the table. Dale will you read that motion.

    Dale Worthington: The motion was made by Sylvia Davis. I move to modify the membership process where the forms are distributed at the May State Meeting and returned at the Summer Festival State Meeting.

    Lee Ashwill: That motion was seconded by Floyd Bard. Sylvia, do you have any discussion?

    Sylvia Davis: It does make sense, because for the most part people don't even have their elections until April or later. I believe one of the clubs does theirs in the summer time. This will makes it so they have a little more time to fill out the forms and send them back. It also doesn't take as long for the information to be given to the 2nd Vice President or Vivian or whoever is making the Directory. They don't need the required amount of time that they use to.

    Lee Ashwill: Any other discussion? Hearing none we call for a vote. Motion carried.

  3. Tabled Motion: Motion by Al Wolf; I move that the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs provide a Grant to the River City Riders of the River City Dancers Square Dance Club for the purpose of procuring a trailer to transport their "horses" to sites where the River City Riders will be performing.

    Lee Ashwill: Do we have a motion to bring off the table the motion made by Al Wolf?

    Al Wolf: I move that we remove it off the table. Seconded by Floyd Bard.

    Lee Ashwill: It has been moved and seconded. Dale will read the motion.

    Dale Worthington: The motion was made by Al Wolf. I move that the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs provide a Grant to the River City Riders of the River City Dancers Square Dance Club for the purpose of procuring a trailer to transport their "horses" to sites where the River City Riders will be performing.

    Discussion followed.

    Lee Ashwill: Question has been called for. Dale will you re-read the motion please.

    Dale Worthington: The motion was: I move that the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs provide a Grant to the River City Riders of the River City Dancers Square Dance Club for the purpose of procuring a trailer to transport their "horses" to sites where the River City Riders will be performing.

    Lee Ashwill: The question has been called for we will now take a vote. One vote yea. Motion defeated.

NEW BUSINESS

Lee Ashwill: Mr. Bard I think you indicated during your report that you had some motions to present.

Floyd Bard: Before I move on to that I would like to address the motion that was just defeated. There is a Grant Committee that is in the Practices and Procedures and the motion that was made last meeting and tabled and brought up here is contrary to how the Federation is suppose to work with Practices and Procedures. I understand the timing as far as the trailer and getting a price and everything, but if you file a request for funds from the Federation you need to do it in accordance with the Practices and Procedures and meet those requirements. As that Committee and that standard goes, that requirement is still valid even though it hasn't been used. I think you might have seen a much different outcome on this last vote if that would have happened. Thank you.

  1. Floyd Bard: My first motion is: Move to remove the following items from the Practices and Procedures that are historical and submit to the State Historian for archiving and updating as necessary.

    - Section VII, Page 34 - Randall Award Recipients

    - Section VII, Pages 7-9 - Benefit Dance History

    - Section VIII, Pages 7-9 - Summer Festival History

    - Section IV, Page 2 - Remove Federation meeting history from 2003 and earlier.

    Lee Ashwill: Do I hear a second? Seconded by John Guches. Floyd would you like to explain the motion?

    Floyd Bard: All these things are; one not maintained very well because they change every year and we keep adding names and everything to it and second of all, it is more historical and it doesn't really drive how we do our business. We have an Historian to maintain that information and we also have a history section to our web page that we are also going to incorporate in that. The Federation Meeting History it goes way back to the months that the areas host the meetings which is May, November, and September. We don't need to know historically where they were except we are recommending that we go back maybe 10 years just to see where they were. We don't have to go back 25 years. That is why I said 2003 and earlier would be removed. We maintain 2004 and up to the current time.

    Lee Ashwill: Questions? Discussion? Seeing there is none, can you re-read the motion Dale?

    Dale Worthington: Motion was to remove the following items from the Practices and Procedures that are historical and submit to the State Historian for archiving and updating as necessary.

    - Section VII, Page 34 - Randall Award Recipients

    - Section VII, Pages 7-9 - Benefit Dance History

    - Section VIII, Pages 7-9 - Summer Festival History

    - Section IV, Page 2 - Remove Federation meeting history from 2003 and earlier.

    Lee Ashwill: All those in favor signify with the green paddle. Opposed? Motion carried.

  2. Lee Ashwill: Motion 2.

    Floyd Bard: Motion 2. I move to include the following in the Practices and Procedures.

    Section IV - State Meeting (In the Rotation Chart Paragraph): State Meetings will be scheduled by area and month no less than 3 years in advance and historical information will be maintained for only 10 years.

    Lee Ashwill: Do I hear a second? Seconded by Gary Sohn. Discussion?

    Floyd Bard: Okay, this is the same thing we did on part 4 up above. It would remove the 2003 and earlier. This is now to put in to the Practices and Procedures how to manage that and keep that from happening again. So we will maintain only 10 years of historical data and we will go out no less than 3 years into the future so everybody will know when the areas are hosting our State Meetings.

    Discussion followed.

    Lee Ashwill: Call for the vote. All those in favor indicate with a green paddle. Opposed? Motion carried.

  3. Floyd Bard: I move to add the following duties to the State Historian,

    - Section VII, Page 22, Paragraph 6: Review Practices and Procedures with the Recording Secretary and Parliamentarian to move historical information to Historian files and the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs website.

    Lee Ashwill: Do I hear a second? Seconded by Sylvia Davis. Discussion?

    Floyd Bard: Obviously if we want to maintain our P&Ps in a non-historical document then we have to have the vehicle for putting this into the Historian duties and this does that. I have talked to Zola, actually Ray is the one that said that is what has got to happen and you know how Zola is with Ray. Basically it is saying that and without changing the Practices and Procedures if you will read, the Recording Secretary is responsible for the Practices and Procedures with the assistance of the Parliamentarian. That is why I put that in that particular motion in the duties. It will be the requirement of those responsible for the Practices and Procedures along with the Historian to remove the historical information.

    Lee Ashwill: Questions or discussion? Seeing and hearing none, do you want to read the motion one more time Dale?

    Dale Worthington: The motion was made to add the following duties to the State Historian,

    - Section VII, Page 22, Paragraph 6: Review Practices and Procedures with the Recording Secretary and Parliamentarian to move historical information to Historian files and the Oregon Federation of Square and Round Dance Clubs website.

    Lee Ashwill: All those in favor indicate with a green paddle. Opposed? Motion carried.

  4. Floyd Bard: Motion 4. I move to change Section VI, Page 2 (Appointed Officer Duties) line 7 by removing "Caller Advisor" and ending the paragraph at Education Chairperson. Move Section VI, Page 27 (Webmaster) to Section VII, Page 42. Add Webmaster to Section VII, Page 2 as a Standing Committee, on the line after Caller Advisor.

    Lee Ashwill: Do I hear a second? Seconded by Larry Reetz. It has been moved and seconded. Discussion?

    Floyd Bard: I will explain it a little more now. My good partner here off to the side, being the Webmaster noted that there was an error. The actual Webmaster was put in the wrong section, shown as this is a Chairperson, actually an Appointed Officer but should have been moved into the Chairperson side. So what we are doing is taking the reference of the Webmaster as an Appointed Officer and putting it into the Chairperson. So we are taking the name off the list of Appointed Officer and then also the page where it explains the duties of the Webmaster and putting it in Section VII where it is suppose to be. Appointed Officers are more strict on how they are maintained in the By-Laws.

    Discussion followed.

    Lee Ashwill: Call for the vote. Would you re-read the motion Dale.

    Dale Worthington: The motion was to change Section VI, Page 2 (Appointed Officer Duties) line 7 by removing "Caller Advisor" and ending the paragraph at Education Chairperson. Move Section VI, Page 27 (Webmaster) to Section VII, Page 42. Add Webmaster to Section VII, Page 2 as a Standing Committee, on the line after Caller Advisor.

    Lee Ashwill: All those in favor indicate with a green paddle. Opposed? Motion carried.

  5. Floyd Bard: My last motion, I move that the OFN Subscription Rate be raised from $15 a year to $17 a year and from $40 for 3 years to $45 for 3 years.

    Lee Ashwill: Do I hear a second? Seconded by Gary Sohn. Discussion?

    Floyd Bard: We discussed it earlier when we were talking with the POOF report and so I think you have heard the justification of where we are at and what we have done already with the Oregon Federation News. We have not raised the rates for our subscription for 10 to 12 years. I don't think this is out of line with what has been happening in our environment.

    Barbi Ashwill: What is the Effective Date?

    Floyd Bard: I will restate the motion and put in the effective date. I move that the OFN Subscription Rate be raised from $15 a year to $17 a year and from $40 for 3 years to $45 for 3 years, effective 1 October 2010.

    Lee Ashwill: Still a second Gary? (Yes)

    Discussion followed

    Lee Ashwill: Re-read the motion, please.

    Dale Worthington: The motion was made that the OFN Subscription Rate be raised from $15 a year to $17 a year and from $40 for 3 years to $45 for 3 years, effective 1 October 2010.

    Lee Ashwill: All those in favor of the motion indicate with a green paddle. Opposed? Motion carried.

  6. Floyd Bard: Everybody received a copy of the new Correspondence Secretary Job Description. Now remember in my report as 1st Vice President I asked all the Appointed and Elected Officers and those Committee Chairpersons that have sections within the Practices and Procedures to review and get back to the P&P Committee by 1 April of this year. Well, Vivian and Cheryl went ahead, because of the time crunch of mailing out ballots, needed to have this move on up. So, they are ahead of the game. So what this is, this is a little contrary as to how I want to see changes made to the Practices and Procedures, I don't want the whole section rewritten and proposed in a motion. I want motions of changes. If you do give me something like this either underline, highlight, or bold the areas that are changing so I don't have to do a comparison between the old and the new to find out what is actually changing.

    Floyd Bard: I will make the motion. I move that we adopt the corrections in the Corresponding Secretary Job Description in the Practices and Procedures in accordance with the changes that have been handed out at this meeting.

    Lee Ashwill: Seconded by John Guches.

    Discussion followed.

    Lee Ashwill: Please re-read the motion.

    Dale Worthington: The motion was to adopt the corrections in the Corresponding Secretary Job Description in the Practices and Procedures as presented.

    Lee Ashwill: All those in favor signify with a green paddle. 1 opposed. Motion carried.

DELEGATE REPORTS

Emerald Empire Council: Dennis Marsh (Lawanna Harper)

Emerald Empire would like to thank everyone for attending this celebration of 50 years. As you look in front of you, a special thanks goes out to Sqdini for the engraving on the glasses and to The Victorian Chocolate Company, here in Lebanon, for all the goodies stuffed inside. There was a coupon in our book and you can go and buy more.

We have someone in Oregon who is really in bad shape. The Whirl-a-Ways have started a fund with all the clubs in the area for a benefit for Jim Steele, which will be on April 28th. If you watch the OFN there should be an ad coming out on that. Sandy Eddings will be chairing that to make sure everything go as planned.

Lee Ashwill: Thanks Dennis and thank you for getting that motion that there are no gifts which start with Rogue Sis-Q, next meeting.

Interstate Highlanders Council: CeCe (Sarge) Glidewell

The Interstate Highlanders got 2010 off to a great start with a productive meeting on January 4th. We finalized plans for our March 6th Home Show Dance with Wayne Weaver calling and Sarge Glidewell cueing. Our May Day Dance on May 1st is posing some problems. There is not a consensus on how to dance around a May Pole, but we are determined to have that ironed out before May, and hope to see you at one or both of our upcoming dances.

The same officers from last year have agreed to another term in office for the Klamath Country Square and Round Dance Club. We had a very productive business meeting on January 11th. Most committee positions have been filled. Plans, for our October 2010 Potato Festival, are underway. Craig Abercrombie will be the caller and cuer for Saturday evening at our location formerly Altamont School now Triad School. More details on the Potato Festival will be provided throughout the year.

Lincoln-Tillamook Council: Wally (Sandi) Brunelle

The Sea Twirlers as couples have attended some club dances in the valley including the Rainbow Squares and the Independence Wagon Wheelers. They also have been round dancing with the Toledo 49rs and other clubs. They plan to attend the Mid-Winter Festival in Albany and they are also busy planning their own 13th Birthday Dance on Sunday afternoon, September 13th, at the Gleneden Beach Community Club with George Hermann as the caller and Patty Hermann as the cuer.

Some member couples of the Toledo 49rs have gone south as "snow birds" to Arizona and are scheduled to return in the spring. Dean Hill and Lily Phelps represented the club at the Lebanon Birthday Dance. The remaining 49rs plan on attending the Mid-Winter Festival and they continue to actively dance to CDs and tapes. They invite you to join them on any Monday at the Newport Senior Center at 7:30pm. For more information contact Kathy Buczkowski at 541-764-3443. The club is also busy planning their 61st birthday dance Sunday afternoon, June 13th, from 2:00 to 5:00pm at the Gleneden Beach Community Club. The caller will be KC Curtis and the cuer will be Christina Corelli.

Mid-Willamette Area Council: Gary (Norma) Sohn

The MWA is preparing to graduate many of the 114 new dancers that started lessons in September, and many clubs are looking at starting new classes after Mid-Winter is over. Several have started Round Dance lessons again and several are starting Plus level classes. We recommend everybody check the OFN for new dancers classes starting up.

Norma and myself have attended all but two "New Dancers" dances and have a great time visiting with many of our new dancers and club members while selling ribbons for this year's Mid-Winter Festival! I had a great time and I think most of those dancers are doing fantastic. I was very impressed with the number of new dancers that came out to the dance and the quality of their dancing at that point.

Our Council President, Barbara Tipton, had foot surgery this month and due to snow, we cancelled December's meeting.

Thanks to Kay Rogers work on the state insurance packages, everything went smoothly with each and every club. Kay thanked every club for doing such an excellent job at getting the information correct.

Due to summer temperature and people traveling, along with the Christmas season, Mid-Willamette Area has voted to skip meeting in the months of July and December. We still have to vote on the By-Law change at this month's meeting, to make it official. All clubs are in favor to save delegates travel time and expense.

We have several clubs in the Council that will be celebrating their 50th Birthday Celebration in the next 6 months. Please watch the OFN for their announcements and try to visit these clubs on their birthday dances. When so many of our clubs are having trouble keeping their heads above water, it's nice to see those that have kept going for 50 years.

The health condition of Jim Steele from Redmond was sent out to all club members in the Council. Many of us danced to Jim when he lived and called in the Willamette Valley. We all hope he gets better and is able to get back to calling again. We are really feeling for him and would like all of you to send him an email. He is reading the emails and he loves to get emails from all of you. Everyone please keep him in your prayers!

Portland Area Council: Al Wolf (Gail Domine)

First of all I would like to thank all the councils that voted for me for the Randall Award. Although my square dance partner and true friend Gail Domine wasn't nominated, I share this honor with her. Gail has been dancing for over 47 years. She is very worthy of this award. Thank you.

Most clubs will be completing or have completed lessons within the next few weeks and will be graduating their dancers. Hopefully many will join their club. A few clubs started lessons this month. River City Dancers is fortunate to have 18 dancers join our club. This is a record for us.

The Tri-Council Christmas Dinner held on December 15th was attended by approximately 45 people. This was hosted by the TVC.

The PAC made a profit and the clubs made the same total amount for the sale of entertainment books. Each club's profit varied depending on the number of books they sold. A total of 197 books were sold.

The nominating committee is busy securing a slate of officers for 2010-2011.

The next Tri-Council dance will be October 30th, sponsored by the Evergreen Council. This will be held at the Clark County Square Dance Center.

The Chaps & Petticoats will celebrate their anniversary on February 19th. The Happy Rock'rs will celebrate their 48th Anniversary on March 27th. The Happy Hoppers Plus Club will celebrate their 51st year of dancing on April 3rd. See your OFN for details.

The Country Capers will have their annual Elvis Dance on Saturday, March 6th, with Mark "Elvis" Wheeler calling. They will have as their caller Wade Driver at their November 20th Dance.

The Memorial Weekend Dance will have as its' theme "Star Spangled Memorial Weekend". Tom Gay, President of the Bachelor 'N' Bachelorettes is the chairman. Johnny Preston and Randy Dibble are the callers and Tami Helms and Jeanine Norden will cue. This will be held at the Milwaukie Community Club on May 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st. Flyers were available in several halls this weekend.

Our next 5th Friday dance on April 30th, will be a benefit dance for Jim Steele with proceeds going to help with his hospital bills. Several callers and cuers will be doing this dance.

Rogue Sis-Q Council: Glory (John) Guches

In view of the time I am going to keep it short. I want to remind everybody that we have distributed the information for the next State Meeting dinner and dance. If anybody did not get a copy, please see me, I have extras.

South Coast Council: Chuck (Coleeta) Quigley

I am changing the format of the South Coast Area report for State Meetings.

Each month each club has the opportunity of sharing newsworthy items in the OFN. I feel the reports at the State Meetings are redundant or a repeat of those items. Thus…for time saving purposes (and the reports from each officer/delegate do tend to get lengthy) I believe the State report from each council should be an overview of items the "entire council" wished to share with the State Officers or things their council feels will benefit any other council/clubs.

That said: The South Coast Area Council is alive and well! With all clubs having beginner level dances, all our beginners are getting lots of floor time!

Dave Cooper has started a new club, "Riptides". It is an EZ level dance club so that also keeps our beginners on the floor. It dances the 4th Friday of each month and includes "beginning callers" also!

Our Round lessons are also going fantastic. Donna Hiserote has been teaching beginners and advanced with Cathy Houston following with lines. A new class for 2-step just started in Port Orford with Dave and already has 20 couples. In Coquille, Denise Harris will be starting the 2-step after Mid-Winter.

The excitement is contagious so we're expecting big things from the South Coast!

Sunset Empire Council: Kathy (Dale) Worthington

The Hayshakers have finished the mainstream lessons with 6 new dancers. They have been participating in our regular dances for the past two months. We will be starting new classes at the end of March. Many of the students know of other people that would like to learn to square dance. We are excited that our club is starting to grow. I would also like to wish an early Happy Birthday to Dale.

Lee Ashwill: Thank you Kathy. I am a little concerned about you setting between those two guys though, because I look at their wives and they are both damaged.

Tualatin Valley Council: Mike (Sally) Duyck

Coast Swingers: Class beginning February 13th at 1:00 pm. This will be taught in three intense classes, two weeks apart. Next dance will be on February 13th. Anniversary May 8th, 2010.

Eager Beavers: Anniversary April 25th, 2010. Plus class in March at the Aloha Grange on Wednesdays.

Fireballs: The club began in 1975 and ceased as a club in December 2009.

Hoedowners: Class completing February. Have several new members from this mainstream class. Upcoming dances: February 13th, 7:30pm Chocolate!!! Chocolate!!! February 27th, 60th Anniversary Dance with "The Crew", Chicken Dinner at 6:30pm; March 13th, 7:30 pm Wearin' O' The Green; March 27th, 7:30pm Rock n' Roll; April 10th, 7:30pm Wild, Wild West; April 24th 7:30pm Rich Man - Poor Man; May 8th 7:30pm Dance Under The Big Top; May 22nd, 7:30pm International Festival.

Mix 'N' Mingle: Dark September 4th. Dance Plus at the Winona Grange 1st and 3rd Saturdays. Pre-rounds level 4 & 5 at 7:30pm, level 2 & 3 at 8:00pm and squares at 8:30 to 11:00pm.

R Square D: Dance 1st Saturday and 3rd Friday at the Longview Square Dane Center. Pre-rounds start at 7:30pm with mainstream from 8:00 to 10:00pm.

Sunset Promenaders: Mainstream fall class is completing. Dances: February 6th, Valentine's Day Dance; February 20th, President's Birthday Dance; March 6th, Hillbilly Hoedown; March 20th, Irish Fling Dance; April 3rd, Easter Dance; April 9th thru 11th, Club Campout; April 17th, Regular Dance; May 1st, Fiesta Dance; May 15th, Mother's Day Dance.

Toe Draggers: Classes started January 3rd for mainstream and round dance. Dances: February 5th, Love is in the Air; February 19th, Regular Dance; March 5th, Ice Cream Social and Sock Hop; March 19th, Dance at IOF Hall; April 2nd, Regular Dance; April 16th, The Mystery of Pirates' Cove Dance; May 7th, Regular Dance; May 21st, Western Stampede Dance.

Tri Squares: Mainstream class is completing. Workshop held every Sunday in February, 2:30pm to 4:30pm. Dances: February 6th, 8-Ball; February 19th, Sweetheart Dance; March 6th, Crazy Hat Dance; March 18th, St Patrick's Day; April 3rd, Lemonade Dance; April 16th, Costume Dance; May 1st, May Day Dance; May 21st, Hawaiian Luau.

Valley Squares: Mainstream class began January 5th. Dances: February 6th, 7:00pm Round Dance 3, 7:30pm Round Dance 2, 8:00pm Mainstream Regular Dance; February 20th, 7:00pm Round Dance 3, 7:30pm Round Dance 2, 8:00pm Mainstream "Presents a Glimpse of the Future".

TVC Sponsored Dances: Spring Fling May 29th.

Our council is working hard on new members and retaining membership. Our clubs are currently completing fall classes and beginning winter classes. We are in the process of electing new officers for both clubs and council.

Personal comments: We are very lucky to have a callers' instructor in Portland and Daryl Clendenin is very successful in helping those interested in becoming callers. We could advertise this callers' school a little to get more new callers, although the word seems to get out.

Perhaps the Oregon Federation could assist these new callers gain floor experience. "Callers Co-Op" is holding dances in Salem. They may not be able to schedule these for long without support. We could get these added to the OFN schedule even though these callers are not a Federated club. It could be enough to guarantee that their expenses are met to establish this as a continuing event. It sounds great for the Salem Square Dance Center and the callers. I was told yesterday that they should be in the OFN this coming year if they paid their appropriate dues.

Vivian Fairburn: What are you talking about?

Lee Ashwill: New callers.

Vivian Fairburn: The Co-op?

Mike Duyck: Yes, the Callers Co-op has been advertising but they have not been listed.

Vivian Fairburn: They have an ad every month.

Lee Ashwill: Yes, but they have not been listed in the event section.

Vivian Fairburn: Oh, the where and when. Thank you.

Mike Duyck: They are not paying for it either apparently. One of my club presidents passed me a badge. Apparently there is a board with current badges on it. So, I will pass this up to our President to be put on the board.

Umpqua Area Council: Frank (Rita) Schuchard

Buckeroos: They are going to have their 58th Birthday Dance, April 3rd. It will be Rock & Roll/50s theme. Most everybody has received information on that here. Dale Roberson is calling and Neil Koozer is cueing. The Buckeroo Round-Up will be June 4th, 5th, and 6th. RV parking is available. Dan Preedy and Dale Roberson will be calling. Dave Cooper, cueing. That is one of our big fun events of the year.

Boots & Calicos: Their Birthday Dance is March 13th.

Dancing Friends: Our Round Dance Club does not have a report.

Pioneers & Petticoats: Peter Wood will be taking over the lessons for Kenji Wheatley.

Timber 8's: Our Plus Club has changed their dancing from the 1st and 3rd Fridays to the 2nd and 4th Saturdays at the barn.

Blue Mountains Council: David Stutzman

LaGrande Star Promenaders: The club recently installed a furnace in the Grange Hall to replace a heater, which was not getting the job done. For the rest of this winter we will be dancing without our coats on. The club tried the idea of providing free lessons, this year, to attract new students to our activity. With one introductory lesson left, the results have been dismal. Only one new couple attended last week.

Baker City Elkhorn Swingers: The club was unsuccessful with square dance lessons this year. Introductory round dance lessons have been held the last couple weeks. The next couple weeks will determine if there is enough participation to sustain these lessons.

Milton-Freewater Muddy Frogs: The club started lessons in January with 5 new students and with last year's students also participating.

Central Oregon Council: Liz (Bert) Teitzel

The Central Oregon Council is planning a benefit dance on February 14, 2010, for Jim Steele. As many of you are aware, Jim has been very ill, diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis. He is home from the hospital and came to the Bachelor Beauts dance on Saturday, it was good to see him. He actually called a tip last Saturday for the Sagebrush Shufflers. Jim Harrison set up a "Caring Bridge" website that you can visit to keep updated on his improvement and any changes in his condition.

Bachelor Beauts: The Bachelor Beauts started their mainstream lessons January 7th. They had 25 new students and a good turnout of angels to help students. Lessons are on Thursday nights from 7:00 to 9:00. Ron Bliven is the instructor.

The Beauts will have their birthday dance Luau on April 17th.

Red Rock Squares: The Red Rock Squares graduated 10 new dancers from their mainstream lessons.

The Red Rocks will have their birthday June 4th.

Sagebrush Shufflers: The Sagebrush Shufflers are planning their 4th Adopt a Highway Cleanup for this spring. The fall cleanup only took them about 1½ hours, a big improvement over the 8 hours it took the first time they did the cleanup of the mile stretch of highway.

The Shufflers will hold their birthday dance on March 13th.

Swinging Mountaineers: The Swinging Mountaineers are planning their annual Spring Clean-up of the Pine Forest Grange hall and grounds.

The Swinging Mountaineers started their Plus lessons/workshop January 3rd. They had a good turnout of dancers eager to learn plus or improve their plus skills with 5+ squares. Lessons are held on Sunday evening from 6:30 to 8:30. Ron Bliven is the instructor and is including DBD in the lessons.

Sundown Round Dance Club: The Sundown Round Dance Club completed their Phase 2 Waltz lessons in December. The students voted to continue lessons and learn Phase 3 Waltz followed by the Fox Trot. Joyce Brown is the instructor. Lessons are from 7:30 to 9:00 Tuesday evening after Joyce's Upper Level Rounds from 6:00 to 6:30.

Central Oregon Roundup: The Roundup Committee is busy planning this year's Roundup. Vern and Kathy Boggs are our featured caller and cuer. Roundup is the 2nd weekend in August.

We have a Council dance scheduled for April 30th. Denny Lantz is calling and Christina Corelli is cueing. The dance is at the Pine Forest Grange.

The Central Oregon Council and Clubs invite all of you to join us for Jim Steele's benefit dance. It will be a donation dance with all the proceeds going to Jim Steele. The callers and cuers are donating their time and the Pine Forest Grange is donating the use of the hall.

Eastern Oregon Council: Jim (Kay) Rogers

Now that Mid-Winter is over, it is time to start thinking about the Summer Festival. As my wife, Kathy, says (Kay, I need to write my name down for him) it is time to start thinking about the Summer Festival. Everything is coming along fine.

ACTIVE GOODWILL AMBASSADORS

Don & Lonna Bramhall:

Congratulations and thank you to Chuck and Sandy Eddings and the entire Mid-Winter Committee on their "Golden Jubilee" celebration - 50 years of anything is a terrific accomplishment!

Since the November meeting Lonna's company moved into a beautiful new building, four times the size of the old one and every day is filled with new challenges. Don is winding up his second year as President of Sundown Round Dance Club and being Lonna's House Manager and Cat Wrangler. We are both also busy putting together the logistics for summer travel to Pendleton Summer Festival and Chinook Cloud for Mike Sikorsky plus week. You can bet we are taking a lot of Central Oregon with us. So far our winter travel consists mainly of driving north and south on Highway 97! However, I would like to mention the fact that even though we don't do a lot of traveling Don's hat got to travel on the head of one of the young men in the Showcase of Rounds. He forgot his hat and he liked the way Don's looked, and asked if he could borrow it.

Lessons are under way in Central Oregon now: The Bachelor Beauts have 27 new beginners on their third week of lessons and Ron Bliven continues his tradition of plus workshops every Sunday evening. There's plenty of interest in round dance with recent waltz graduates continuing to the Phase III level.

Speaking of Central Oregon, we are pleased to have the privilege for the second time, of hosting the Oregon Federation Benefit Dance for H.O.R.S.E.S. (Adaptive Riding) which will be held on April 11, 2010 at the Pine Forest Grange in Bend. The featured caller will be determined at a later date. The cuer will be Dave Cooper and perhaps a surprise or two. Please come and join us on the east side of the Cascades - Don will be happy to send you the GPS coordinates! Oh yes, Don is the MC!

As you know, we have had a sobering autumn with the loss of two members of our dance family - Ken Kaler and Jack Williams. A number of others, including our well-known Jim Steele, are suffering major health issues. Last Saturday, we attended a memorial service for one of Lonna's co-workers. The only actual family member was the gentleman's wife; however, the room was filled with caring, vocal and very supportive friends - ardent members of CRA, the Christian Riders Association. These men and women proudly wore their leathers, riding boots, badges, jewelry and tattoos and came in force on their Harleys, Yamahas and Kawasaki's to honor their dear friend and his wife. The widow was surrounded by this unusual extended family and the love and respect they generated was immense and powerful.

This example of a huge, supportive and caring extended family is mirrored by our own huge, supportive and caring extended family of dancers - around the State and on the local level. Any time, day or night, a call for help will always be answered: a volunteer to sit at the hospital with a grieving and frightened husband, a friend to eat lunch or walk with, someone to change a bed, walk a dog or take the laundry home to do; someone to set up a website to exchange information, a casserole or meatloaf left by the front door, a timely phone call, hand-picked flowers with a crayon card, a book or movie to share - a hand to hold, a shoulder to lean on. This is a great blessing in this age of long-distance kin who have no more vacation time to come home to help. With the spirit of a thankful heart, please take a moment to appreciate the members of your extended dance family who can always be counted on - one of them is probably you.

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, you need one". - Jane Howard

Genevieve Churchill:

Two weeks ago I flew to Ontario, California, where my daughter, Cory, picked me up. We then drove to Lancaster to see my other daughter, who is very ill. We were able to visit with her then we drove back to Riverside where Cory lives.

I was there while they had that rainstorm that washed down the hillsides where the fires burned last year. A lot of the greenery was gone so they had mudslides. Not nice.

Cory and I danced with her club the Single Swingers in Riverside. They were reluctant at first to dance with me, but they soon relaxed and we had a good time.

I will be going to see my daughter again in a few weeks as she is not going to get well.

Bill & Annadale Rooper:

After the November meeting, we came home looking forward to the Holidays. We (Bill, my kids, and their families) had Thanksgiving with my son and his family in Washougal. My birthday was the following Saturday so my family presented me a birthday cake with a candle (number 80; 08 if you turn it around) on it and all the nice things usually done for people with birthdays. I mentioned I had received an email from a cousin in Arizona apologizing for missing the luncheon. What luncheon? I hadn't heard about a luncheon and there was a birthday card in the mail from a stepson that doesn't know anything about my birthday. What is going on? No one knew anything.

I asked Bill and he didn't let out a peep!

Then my sister and sister-in-law suggested we go to lunch on Saturday, which we often do when someone in our family is having a birthday. I told them it depended on what my daughter and her family (from Idaho) will be doing that day since they were staying with us over the holiday. She had plans and left early Saturday morning so I called my sister and agreed for her to pick me up about 1:00.

I told her about the email and the birthday card. She just smiled and laughed at me. Didn't know a thing. We picked up my sister-in-law and drove around town, deciding where we wanted to eat. Jean (the sister-in-law) said she had to leave something at the church. So we stopped at the church. Both girls got out and went to the back of the car. I waited then asked if I could help. "Sure", they replied. Then is when I walked into the 'trap'. Inside the door was a large room full of family and friends. Even my daughter and family that had 'plans', and Bill. What a great day. What a surprise. How gullible.

On top of that, my four kids arranged for the weekend after Christmas at Lincoln City with no spouses. Wow. What a weekend - and the weather was perfect. Don't I have the neatest family?

Back to square dancing. Plans have been wrecked because of the weather. We didn't go to the Tri-Council Christmas Dinner because of storms in the gorge and it snowed four inches New Years Eve and the first dance in January was cancelled because of ice. We did have a dance on the 23rd.

We received a note from Dick and Marge Pentecost saying they were happy in their digs at Flagstone after 4 years. She reported they entertained their square dance friends in the dining room and have given up their car. She uses a large wheeled walker when outside.

George and Lorene Griffin sent a note at Christmas telling us George leased his farm ground after 62 ½ years. He commented on how pleased they are for the Randall Award.

Bill is studying AARP stuff so he can help with taxes this spring.

Larry & Barbara Schaumburg:

Larry and I have been in Texas for 2 months now. After getting settled in to a routine of daily living, I decided to paint. The weather was nice and I could open the house up and let it all dry. We had very dark paneling and I had to lighten it up. After two coats of Kilz and a layer of paint I was done in 10 days. It is a real nice cream color. Larry gave me instructions from the couch. Smile… He was down on his back and couldn't help.

Our weather has been stinky lately. Rainy and cold, so we haven't been to the Island. We usually take our motor home and stay a few days so Larry can fish and I watch the people. I had to work (cue) some through the holidays. The cuer here, in the lower valley, had to go back to Indiana because her Mother was gravely ill. She asked me to fill in and cue at her two plus **clubs while she was gone and each club dances twice a week. I also had to cue her New Years Eve dance. That night, we had 25 squares. At the regular dances during the week we have 9 to 17 squares every dance each week. I had the good fortune of working with Larry Letson one morning. He is a hoot.

We had a real nice Christmas. The RV Park where we use to stay invited us over for dinner and Chinese gift exchange. After that we joined in a pool tournament and Larry came in first. The people in the RV Park have been really nice about inviting us over to all events. Last evening 16 couples got together and went dancing. We are spreading goodwill all through the valley and it is a pleasure to see so many square and round dancers. God Bless all.

Steve & Valerie Murphy:

I want to make a correction on a flyer and a statement that was made today. This concerns the Diamond Lake Festival. They have the cuer erroneously listed as Cassey Parker, that is Sharon Parker that is actually doing the cueing.

As some of you know I occasionally dabble in cueing. In the last few months I've been fortunate enough to cue for the Ronde' Vouz Round Dance Club, the Swinging Mountaineers, Lantz's Dantzers' Christmas Dance, Sundown Round Dance Club, a Carousel Club Christmas Dance, and the Bachelor Beauts at their Casino Night. We also visited the Charlie Brown Square Dance Club for their 42nd Birthday dance. I enjoy cueing, but like most of you, I enjoy dancing even more. Cueing means I don't get to dance much, as you callers know. We're about to remedy that with a trip to Mesa, Arizona, for some 7 days a week dancing for 6 weeks or so. That is 2, 3, 4 times a day. This will be our third year as dancing snowbirds and it's always been a treat to wear short sleeves in the middle of winter. You ought to hear those people complain down there when it gets into the lower 70s, they whine. Most of the Square Dancing there is Advanced and Challenge level along with Phase 4, 5, and 6 levels Round Dancing. We manage to cram 6 months worth of learning into 6 weeks. There are actually few, if any, square or round dance clubs in Mesa. Instead, several dozen callers and cuers each host their own classes and dances. Many of the national callers and cuers live in Mesa and the surrounding areas, so they spend their winters there at home, teaching and holding dances for snowbirds like us. In the summer time they head out Nationwide and International-wide. We'll be leaving for Mesa tomorrow.

This coming year, 2010, will be a busy year for us. I keep a calendar of up-coming dancing events and it's filling up fast with events throughout the Northwest and Midwest. Colorado is hosting USA-West this year in Greeley. We've had our ribbons for some time and recently confirmed our RV reservations. Like Oregon, Colorado is a very active state when it comes to dancing and we're looking forward to meeting and dancing with people we've only heard about.

That's nothing new, though, meeting people we have only heard about. When we started dancing 5 years ago we danced strictly locally just like almost every other new dancer. Being Federation Delegates introduced us to traveling throughout Oregon to dance. When I retired in 2008 we decided to take up dancing and traveling pretty much full time. It's amazing how many great people you get to know when you get outside your own local dancing area. I urge all of you to encourage new dancers especially, to visit clubs they've never danced with before. The clubs will appreciate the visit and they will have a great time.

GOOD OF SQUARE DANCING/ROUND DANCING/CLOGGING/YOUTH

Doug Keys (Washington State Federation President): One thing I do say is that you should never let a caller or Federation President have a mic. It is good to be here and it is something of a relief to discover, or to find out for sure, that this Federation is facing some of the same questions and problems that the Washington State Federation is facing. I think that we can work together maybe to help one another to solve and resolve some of these or to maybe get answers. I notice that there was a comment made about a CPA in Spokane, so it is obvious that Washington supplied a little information. Whether good or bad, I am not going to go there. It is a pleasure to be here, Lee, I learned a couple of things about running a meeting. Our version of POOF which is the XP's are going to discover that maybe there is going to be a minute limit on the next agenda.

Don Pruitt: I am Don Pruitt and with my wife Cheryl, we are the General Chairmen of the 61st National Square Dance Convention® that is going to be held in Spokane, Washington in 2012. We are very pleased to have as our advisors Lee and Barbi Ashwill to help us with this thing. We have been working on it for 4 years now. Next year is our Pre-Convention. People who we have been asking, you going to register, you going to help us, they say it is too far away. It is here, 1 year, we're ready, we're not ready yet, but we are getting that way.

I have some registration figures of different conventions that I want to share with you. Louisville just went over 4,000. They are at 4,026 dancers, 91 from the State of Washington, 46 from Oregon are registered. Detroit is at 1,012 dancers, 66 from Washington and 7 from Oregon. Spokane we have 1,062. We haven't counted the last couple weeks. Washington has 561 and Oregon has 61. So, we are hoping to increase this. You said that you had 4,000 dancers, and we have 4,000 dancers. If we could get only 25% of each one that would be 2,000 dancers that would be in Spokane. It is going to be a beautiful, excellent time. We are looking forward to it. We have been traveling all over promoting this thing and all the work that goes into it. Lee knows all about it, you guys know about it, you went through it. Come on down, or up.

We have added a few committee people over this weekend. Some of your dancers have agreed to take jobs and I am go to have some of the other people come up and talk about that. One of those people was Genevieve. She said, I am going to come up to your Convention but I want one of these badges. I said you don't have a job. She said, give me a job. So we got her a job.

Lee you said that you don't ever take any gifts and you wanted to cancel that practice. That little package there in front of you is a little something that we found for you. You may not have known whom it came from but I wanted you to have that.

Lee Ashwill: All right, more candy thank you. It says the University of Oregon. And they won both ball games this weekend. On the cup it says "Awesome Dude". (Barbi, now I have to live with him) You get to live with me. Before Don leaves, I think he is on his third new pickup since they started this project.

Janet (Roy) Belcroft (Assistant General Chairmen): Last October we had a retreat with the Apple Core Board. One of the goals of our Service Committee Chairman for that retreat was to do a power point of the Spokane Convention Center and the Doubletree. They met their goal. We have that power-point that shows color photos of the Convention Center, the Riverfront Park, the area of the Spokane River and just a wonderful presentation that shows what our Convention Facility will be. Roy and I are ready to start traveling throughout not just Washington, because this is the Pacific Northwest Convention. Yes, it is Oregon too, Idaho, Montana, and Washington. We would like to come to all of the councils, not only us, but the rest of our board, for those of us that can't get all the way to Eastern Oregon with you. We know we can't do it all at once because many of the Oregon councils meet on the third Monday of the month. It is going to take us a little while to get to the Portland Area Council. I think Mid-Willamette in Salem meets the same night as Portland Area Council. So we can't even get in the same month to see both of you. I talked to Tony earlier and I already got a call out to my friend that has the Focus, but we are willing to come and show that power-point so you can see what our facility is and how the committee plans to use the Convention Center. Show you what we have to offer and how we are going to be using that. Later in the year we have a person that we would like to come in and show you what our facilities are and how we will be using the Convention Center and share with you what we have. As Don said, our Pre-Convention is only a year away. It is in March of 2011. We'd like to really have you understand what we have to offer, our plans for developing and let you know how things are shaping up for our 2012 Convention, so that you can share that. For those on the East side of the mountain all of our members of the board will have a copy of power-point presentation in the future and they will be able to share that with you also. Let us know if you would like us to come and share it with you. We would like to get you on our calendar. We do have some meetings to work in but we would like to come and share with you and help build enthusiasm. As Don said, we are geographically spread out to get those Vice-Chairmen. Casey and Linda Curtis have come forward and they will be doing the clinics as part of the Education Committee, so you will see them looking for some more people to be part of different committees. There are a couple of other people that have now, as of this weekend, stepped forward and are on other committees as well. So you will be seeing other people come out and be part of other things too.

Tony Haskins: Janet, tentative PAC is February 15th for your power-point?

Janet Belcroft: Yes, I am waiting for a phone call. We are scheduled for PAC on the 15th of February at 7:30pm.

Larry Reetz: As far as Mid-Winter for 2011, we will have that the 5th weekend of January, which is prior to their Pre-Convention. This is on notice that that Mid-Winter Festival will be also promoting, quite heavily, the National Convention for that Pre-Convention. We are backing you for that and we will be doing what we can to help promote for you.

George Broom: I am the Business Chairman for the 61st National Square Dance Convention®. We would like to thank you folks for the wonderful weekend we had here this weekend. We love to come here you put on a real great show. We would also like to thank you folks for supporting our Ways & Means that we have here. The Pluggs, Gail and Ron Plugg, have worked very hard and they have boxes out with many different items in them. Like Don said, we have 1,062 dancers registered for the 61st National with 61 from Oregon. We need help, we really need your help. Also, we have a festival coming up in June, it is going to be in Ellensburg and I believe it is the third weekend in June (19-20). We would like to invite you folks up to that. Another thing, like Doug was saying, I think a lot of you folks need to share some ideas of running our different Federations back and forth in the State of Washington because we are family. Thank you very much.

Lee Ashwill: Thank you George and we really want to thank the Washington folks, our friendly neighbors, for coming to this Festival. If you guys went to the Grand March last night and saw Washington go by they really support this Festival. We need to get on board and support their Convention. Let's do it. Git er done guys. Anyone else for the Good of the Order? Marilyn says she still has 18 Directories for sale. She needs the money.

Don Bramhall: Want to say a quick thank you to Floyd for the obituary you did in the February issue for Jack. His family appreciates it. Thank you.

Kay Rogers: I want to get real serious with you all about registering for Summer Festival. At this point we have more talent than we have dancers. We have a blue grass band, we have The Crew, we have Marshall Flippo from Texas, and we have two great Washington cuers, Susan Healea and Ron Woolcock. What we need now are registrations. So I need to get real serious with you about that. By the next State Meeting you should all have ribbons hanging on your shirts.

Lee Ashwill: She is very serious. We do need the registrations. Let's don't lose another Summer Festival this year. I would like to see everyone on this board with a ribbon on at the next meeting.

Tony Haskins: Yes sir, as you may or may not know I am also Master of the State Grange. There is a new law in the Oregon books, if you have a center or building with 50,000 square feet with 15 to 20 people meeting in it, it is a law now that you have to have a defibrillator. They run anywhere from $1,250 to $2,000 depending on where you get it. The batteries cost $115 every 4 years and additional costs of $50 every two years. I wrote a Grant Application to Providence Medical Center and got ours free. We also got the people that put them out to come in and give us lessons on it and show the members in my Grange how to operate it. Very simple, it won't do anything unless somebody is having a heart attack. The thing of it is, is that it is there. The reason that I got it for my Grange, it is not 50,000 square feet, but we have a dance club, three churches, and our Grange members, we are all older generation for the most part. If anybody here would like an application or a contact person to get a defibrillator, please email me and I will send you out that information.

Lee Ashwill: Tony, writing a Grant Request is not the easiest thing in the world. If you got yours through, could you provide a copy of that to folks so they have something to follow? (Tony, I will.)

John Guches: Earlier when the Bramhalls were doing their report, they mentioned the Benefit Dance. It is April 11th at the Pine Forest Grange in Bend. On Wednesday night I got a phone call from our featured caller. He has to back out of his calling engagements. So, the flyers that are on the table that are going out we crossed off his name and put to be announced. I am still looking for a caller for that event. If anybody can give me some names I would definitely appreciate it. The ones I have contacted this weekend most of them already have other engagements scheduled. I would appreciate any help I can get. Thank you.

NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING

Sunday, May 23, 2010, at the Josephine County Fairgrounds, 1451 Fairgrounds Road, Grants Pass, OR

Lee Ashwill: I would like to thank Dennis and the Emerald Empire for hosting this meeting today. Thank you guys very much.

ADJOURN: MOTION TO ADJOURN


Lee Ashwill: I would accept a motion to adjourn?

Larry Reetz, I move that we adjourn. Seconded by Dennis Marsh.

Adjourned at 1:50 pm.


Dale A. Worthington
Recording Secretary

Complete copy of the minutes is available by contacting the Recording Secretary at dkworth@hotmail.com.