Minutes from the Board Meeting:   February 17, 2008

Meeting Location:   Conference Call

Minutes prepared by:   Citabria Phillips

Approved by unanimous vote of the board on:   March 2, 2008

Attending

Absent:

Next Conference Call:

The following items were agreed on:

  1. Minutes of February 3rd meeting approved unanimously.
  2. Richard has updated the website http://www.caldancechamp.com/nasspda
    • Please let Richard know of updates or corrections.
    • Richard will add a page with a list of North American same-sex competitions.
  3. Domain name was unanimously adopted: Nasspda.org.
  4. Web Hosting
    1. Sonja has done great research on this. Out of many providers, 1&1internet. com seemed good and inexpensive.
    2. Sonja has offered to buy the domain name and be reimbursed.
    3. Questions came up about hosting and customer support. Sonja will do (has done) more research regarding these issues.
    4. Richard brought up and most agreed that we would like to buy the domain name for the longest amount of time possible. Probably 10 years.
    5. Barbara expressed that it would be great to have a website soon.
  5. Barbara reported that currently NASSPDA has $218.94 in its account.
  6. Subcommittees:
    1. Chairs were appointed for the various subcommittees as follows:
      • Membership and dues structure: Richard
      • Mission statement: Benjamin
      • Board terms and how Board officers are chosen: Winter
    2. Responsibilities of the Chairs:
      1. Coordinate meetings.
      2. Provide summary to whole board.
    3. At the next meeting, each sub committee will report its progress.
  7. Sanctioning of events
    1. The need to create rules for events was expressed.
      1. Such as: It needs to be a same-sex competition.
    2. In order to remain sanctioned, once we adopt rules, the event needs to become compliant with the adopted rules.
    3. The event must maintain a level of quality and standards set by NASSPDA in order to keep its sanctioning.
    4. Events can be sanctioned, even if not a titled event, such as the California Dreaming event.
    5. A competition can offer more than one title and be the State Championship and the North American Championship.
  8. Sanctioning of State championships.

    It was unanimously decided that:

    1. The State Championships will be "Open" which means that anyone can win regardless of residency.
    2. A letter should be drafted and sent to organizers of the following competitions to offer sanctioning as the State Championship event for their state or province.
      • April Follies as CA State Open Same-sex Championship.
      • 5 Boros as NY State Open Same-sex Championship.
      • Liberty Challenge as Pen State Open Same-sex Championship.
      • Vancouver Queer Dance Classic as BC or Western Canada Open Same-sex Championship.

    Winter volunteered to draft the letter.

  9. Sanctioning of North American Title Event:
    1. We discussed the possibility of having the North American title event held at the same competition for two consecutive years so that the experience gained from the first year could easily be applied to the next.
    2. In the future we might create rules where a couple must qualify for the North American title by attending another sanctioned competition in the same year.
    3. North American title will be an "open" event. Anyone can compete in the event, but a qualifying couple may only win the title.
      1. The winning couple might eventually represent North America.
        2. Rules for Qualification of a couple might include:
        1. At least one member of the couple must be a permanent resident of the US or Canada, or have a US or Canadian passport.
  10. 5 Boros 2008
    1. They do not yet have a confirmed venue.
    2. On March 9th, NASSPDA will decide if the 2008 North American title event will be held at the 5 Boros event in NYC. If not, if it will be offered to the Vancouver Queer Dance Classic for 2008. This was unanimously approved.
    3. If the North American title event is held at the 5 Boros event in 2008, it will be offered to the Vancouver Queer Dance Classic for 2009. This was unanimously approved.
    4. The organizers of the 5 Boro event were concerned with what NASSPDA could offer organizationally.
    5. NASSPDA could offer:
      1. Assistance with publicity and wording of publicity.
      2. Assistance with online registration.
      3. Tasks that can be done in advance and do not necessitate physically being in the location of the event.
      4. The cost of the trophies and anything else directly associated with the NASSPDA title.
      5. NASSPDA will not financially secure events which are going to happen regardless of NASSPDA's participation.
  11. NASSPDA will meet Sunday April 27th at 10am in Oakland or Emeryville, California (location TBD) in person and those not present will be on teleconference.