South Florida Swing Dance Society, Inc.

President's message:

Happy New Year to all of our dedicated members and their loved ones. A special thanks to those members who volunteer their time as Board members - both past and present, to those members who volunteer their time setting-up, cleaning-up, working the door, running equipment, serving food, running raffles, taking pictures, making dance lists, searching for music, teaching basic steps, making bank deposits, drafting promotional emails, and most of all contributing to our overall passion to dance. I also sincerely thank our many DJ's and dance instructors who schedule the time to work with our club; our caterers who tirelessly cook and create our customized meals. And finally, let's not forget those members who took the time and paid to travel to away dances on road trips to represent not only your SFSDS club but South Florida in general.

Let me start by saying that, overall, we increased our fund reserve slightly during 2011. But last year was not without its challenges. Our attendance, particularly with our Friday dances, ever so slowly declined through the last eight months year. We attribute this to the continued pressures of the slow economy. This when combined with traffic nightmares, rainy nights, and parking difficulties made the Board's job very difficult...but not impossible. We did well. In fact, given the circumstances, we did great! But we can do better!

Your Board of Directors met, as scheduled, during the first week of January. We did all things "board like". And yes, at times, you could definitely say it was "boaring"[pun with misspelling intended]. However, we accomplished a lot. We nominated and elected new board members. We assigned duties and responsibilities. In fact, here are the highlights from this January's meeting:

• We made a profit during 2011 (we're a non-profit, so we have to call it a "surplus" or "increase of reserve".....damn accountants)
• We made a profit on the New Year's Eve dance
• We made a profit on bringing in Terry Roseborough during our December member appreciation weekend
• We elected to bring in a pro, Robert Cordoba, for our January dance - 3^rdweekend of the month
• We identified actions (and will work with Danny Carter) on improving the Friday night parking (final information was not available at meeting)
• We elected to move our Sunday birthday dance to the 2^nd Sunday of the month because of  conflicts with other venues on the 1^st Sunday
• We elected to reduce our monthly number of dances from 5 to 4...this does not include the birthday dance
• ....and several other "boaring" Board things 

First let me address our Friday dances at Dance Moves. There is no doubt it's great. We are beginning our fourth year at Dance Moves. It's another venue to dance other than one monthly Saturday dance. Our Friday dance has increased our club's visibility and because of this, it helped increase our membership numbers and gave us another revenue stream opportunity. But we can do better!

Historically, we have always struggled with attendance on the Friday dance of our Saturday dance weekend. The numbers don't lie. Sometimes we do well but most of the time we don't. In fact, that Friday dance (the 3^rd Friday of the month) we seem to lose the ground we make on the other Friday dances. It is for this reason that, beginning February 2012, we will discontinue the 3^rd Friday dance of the month. The Board made this decision with a heavy heart. But it's the decision that needed to be made with our member's best interest in mind. Watch your emails, news blasts, and newsletters for more information.

I would like to recommend this year's theme be "We can do better". We're going to advertise better - like reaching out to other clubs and organizations with similar interests in mind. We're going to promote better - like giving our members the opportunity to see a future dance events schedule. We're going to maximize membership value better - like looking into promotional discounts with local vendors and restaurants. We're going to be more personable and get you involved - like working better with member volunteers.

As everyone knows, running an organization isn't easy. Any club's membership is its life-force and every club's life-force is its volunteers. We cannot do it without your help. Stop any Board member during a dance or social event and ask "How can I help?"

To be sure 2012 will not be without its challenges. We have to maintain and work with our current venues, Dance Moves and the Hollywood Moose Lodge. Your Board is always keeping a watchful eye on all member concerns and making improvements wherever we can. It's a never ending task.

We can do better!