Annual Reports (April 22, 2007)

AACTMAD, a nonprofit foundation, is a participatory membership organization which enriches people's lives and sense of community through traditional music, dance, song, and related arts.

AACTMAD is a volunteer organization; its activities are planned and carried out by volunteer committees. These are brief summaries about the committees' activities as of April 22, 2007.

[Ann Arbor Morris]  [Ann Arbor Swing Dance Association]  [Concerts]  [Dancing in the Streets]
[Dawn Dance Weekend]  [First Saturday Contras]  [Fourth Saturday Contras]  [Pittsfield Open Band]
[Second Friday Advanced English]  [Tuesday English]

[ECD Leader Development]  [Events Calendar]  [Facilities]  [Finance]  [Fundraising]  [Liaison to CDSS]
[Library]  [Mailing Services]  [Marketing]  [Membership]  [Name Change Project]  [Publicity Distribution]
[Scholarships]  [Sound]  [Website]  [Youth/Family/Schools/Community Outreach: Let's Dance! team]

Ann Arbor Morris - Carol Mohr. Ann Arbor Morris is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and performance of traditional English Morris dancing. They perform frequently at Southeast Michigan events and are always looking for new members. We regularly attend the Midwest Morris Ale every Memorial Day Weekend. Our regular performance events include Annual May Day Celebration at Nichols Arboretum at sunrise (a nearly 30-year tradition), the Heavenly Scent Herb Farm in Fenton, MI, the Ann Arbor Dawn Dance Weekend, the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market, the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, a production of Shakespeare's As You Like It in the Arboretum, Taste of Ann Arbor, Dancing in the Streets, plus occasional Mummer's Play Christmas parties, Halloween Guerilla Dance-Outs, and Midnight Madness in downtown Ann Arbor. We practice Sunday nights from 6pm to 8pm at Gretchen's Barn October - April, and outdoors on the UM campus May through September.

Ann Arbor Swing Dance Association (AASDA) - Scott Rice and Holly Ackerman. We sponsor a weekly swing dance on Fridays at Dance Revolution studio on the UM campus. The evening includes a free one-hour lesson followed by DJ'd music for dancing. It's friendly social dancing in a noncompetitive atmosphere; dancers change partners and welcome new attendees. The swing dance offers discounted admission to AACTMAD members. The group also sponsors occasional special events during the year, including lessons in advanced swing dance styles.

Concerts - Joan Hellmann. The concert committee sponsors occasional concerts, with a general aim of sponsoring four concerts per year. AACTMAD members are invited to offer suggestions of performers they would like to hear.

Dancing in the Streets - Sheila Graziano. Last September's Dancing in the Streets brought lots of people downtown to dance and enjoy free performances of an eclectic variety of traditional music and dance. Planning is now getting started for the 2007 event. This is our biggest outreach event of the year, touching thousands of local people and visitors over the years. The event has been recognized as a valuable contribution to Ann Arbor through its financial support by Pfizer's community grant program, this year by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the wonderful Ann Arbor News and Observer coverage. Lots of volunteers help plan and execute this event.

Dawn Dance Weekend - Debbie Jackson and Rick Szumski. The 2007 Dawn Dance was held the weekend of March 2-4, 2007 at Clague Middle School. Over 350 people attended the event and this year, dancers from more than 12 states and Canada were in attendance. With a budget of $15,200, it is AACTMAD's single largest sponsored event. This year's event made a small profit and is in good financial position moving ahead to next year's weekend. Special features included Saturday night ice cream and also the high quality Commemorative Poster designed by Jim Horton. We also sold 50 T-shirts and have 50 additional un-dated shirts for sale at future events. This year's hardworking committee was Dawn Swartz, Abby Liskow, Roger Faust, Kate Moore, Jim Horton, Phil Tuchinsky, Nina Scheider, Dave Sebolt, Bob Messer, Bronwen Gates, Paul Brown, Nancy Meadow, Ray Bantle, Joan Hellman, Richard Raymond, and Dave Kanistanaux. Over 50 additional volunteers worked to make the weekend a success.

"I attend about 22 dances a year. Overall, this was a top-notch dance. I rank it with the best in the country."

"This is my second year at AADDW and of the six weekend contras that I went to in the last year, it was my favorite!"

First Saturday Contras - Richard Raymond. The First Saturday Contra Committee has continued to put on top-notch dances, but also worked at achieving a balance between established and newer performers; keeping prices reasonable and paying performers decently; and continuing to encourage new dancers. And we've still produced a healthy profit for the organization's general fund (partly from our responsible payment schedule, partly from volunteer labor, partly from sponsored events, partly from the annual silent auction). We've also worked to include all committee members in making decisions.

Fourth Saturday Contra Dance - Ed Vincent. After adjusting the programming strategy in our second season, we're now planning for upcoming dances. We're dancing through the summer this year and will see how that goes. We've been getting a lot of new dancers each month lately. We're just trying to provide a lot of encouragement each dance to get them to come back. We've included musician workshops with Dr. Grangelove for several months. After last year's efforts to create a presence at UM, we've not been able to sustain UM Contra as an active student organization, but having the official student organization status allowed us to hold the December Lizards weekend at the Michigan Union Ballroom, which people enjoyed. We'll be pursuing a winter weekend again as the Leaf'n (Ormand) Lizards appeared to have generated interest for making this an annual event.

Pittsfield Open Band - John Lesko and Sylvia Lewis. POB meets twice a month on first and third Saturday afternoons to jam. The band plays jigs, reels, and waltzes, and musicians at almost any level and almost any instrument are welcome to sit in and play. The POB is scheduled to play for at least four regular contra dances. They have arranged for occasional workshops on specific topics and for skilled musical directors to work with the band before many of their gigs, which has helped the group develop more repertoire, variety, and technique. Some people get together an hour earlier than the regular start time to work on playing tunes by ear.

Second Friday Advanced English - Fae Fuerst. The Second Friday advanced English dance is going very well. Attendance has been consistently good. We've added a few extra events to our out-of-town callers' schedules, including a harmony sing in February and an English dance for all May 12 with Jenny Beer of Philadelphia. Many thanks to our volunteers, musicians, callers, dancers and AACTMAD! We welcome your feedback; please talk to Fae Fuerst.

Tuesday English - Shirley Harden. Tuesday English continues to work on developing the overall dance quality while incorporating newcomers. We're fortunate to have friendly dancers, many callers who bring a variety of perspectives, and the wonderful musicians who commit to playing for our group multiple times a month. We dance all year round, every Tuesday, except for the last Tuesday in August and the last Tuesday in December.

Support and Services:

English Country Dance Leader Development - Ray Bantle. We maintain a lending library (catalog is available on our website) of support materials including dance instructions and recorded music for use by our callers. We maintain the "Dances Called" lists for both the Tuesday and Advanced dance series and make them available on the websites. We have thirteen active English dance callers in Ann Arbor and attempt to provide venues and opportunities to as many as possible. We support and encourage caller development by organizing workshops and mentoring opportunities.

Events Calendar - Ray Bantle. Ray collects, edits, and publishes a printed version of the bi-monthly calendar, which is distributed statewide, as well as a web version (www.aactmad/org/cal/frontpage) of the bi-monthly events calendar. We are continuing to design a new web-based approach for a perpetual calendar and will be transitioning to this process during 2007. Sandy Cherry-Garr maintains the calendar information in the Dance Phone recorded messages.

Facilities - Chair: Abby Liskow. The Facilities committee has been engaged over the last several years in first assessing the need for next-generation dance space and then in creating a new building to ensure the future of dancing locally. We are working with two complementary entities as partners for this building; the partner group is AACTMAD, Shalom Community Church, and Greg Meisner and Gretchen Preston. Based on experiences of dance groups all over the country who are finding themselves without suitable homes, the Ann Arbor area needs a facility suited to our programs, that meets the needs of our community for quality music and dance activities, including child care capacity, and that will be available into the foreseeable future.
Facilities committee members have been meeting regularly with the other partners over the past year to define requirements, create the building floor plan, create the site plan, and write a detailed legal operating agreement. Many weekly meetings and hours of effort later, we now have plans that can be visualized and the reality of a new facility is much closer.
Partner representatives have drafted a detailed operating agreement that lays out the specific mechanisms for working together, making decisions, assessing costs, etc. The AACTMAD Board has reviewed an interim version, and each partner is reviewing the agreement with their own legal counsel, with the goal of having a final version ready for signatures by the end of September 2007.
Early in the past year, several design-build firms were interviewed. AR Brouwer was selected, and the architectural firm with whom he works is Ludwig Architects. In November, the floor plan was produced for the group of four partners for a 17,000 sq. ft. building at a cost of $2.4 million.
That design was included in a preliminary site plan submitted to the Lodi Township Planning commission for a hearing on Nov 28. Arts in Motion Dance Studio withdraw from the partnership just prior to the November Lodi Township Planning Commission meeting. The Planning Commission staff viewed our Special Use request for our Agricultural zoned property as being in compliance with the township ordinance. However, they expressed other concerns and requested additional information.
One concern was whether the "ditch" area was a wetland. Although it is not on the state's published maps of designated wetlands, the township asked that we get a ruling. In January 2007 a representative from MDEQ visited the site and determined that, indeed, there are wetlands present. A survey delineating wetland area was accomplished shortly thereafter. The partner group began working to create a new, smaller floor plan. With no small contribution of creative thinking, the partner design team worked with the architect to create the current 11,660 square feet plan. This floor plan includes two rooms with sprung wood floors: a main assembly hall of almost 3,000 square feet and a multi-purpose room of almost 1,200 square feet. It also provides a childcare room with an outdoor play area, partner storage space, conference room, a work room, warming kitchen, and a silo as a proposed signature feature. The rough cost estimate for this plan is $2 million.
The new site and building plans were submitted to Lodi Township Planning Commission, addressing their requests for additional information, including wetlands delineation and mitigation, preliminary landscaping and a tree survey. The project will be addressed at the Township Planning Commission meeting on Tuesday April 24 2007. We're hoping the Planning Commission will recommend that the Township Board of Trustees will approve the project. AACTMAD members and supporters are welcome to attend this meeting to demonstrate support.
Pending Township approval, we are developing timelines for construction, planning the next phases of the capital campaign, and the next phase of project management.

Finance - Ray Bantle. We maintain the accounting system for the organization on behalf of the Treasurer. We provide both annual Financial Statements as well as periodic Operating Statements for the board. We also file all required state and federal financial information including tax returns. We publish financial reports and tax returns on our website. We also assist the board in its annual budgeting process, which utilizes the Annual Reports & Request for Resources (ARRR forms available in the "AACTMAD office" page of our website. These will be due by May 31 for next season's budget.)

Fundraising - Debbie Jackson & Ray Bantle. They assisted in obtaining grants for the Dancing in the Streets festival and have applied for grants to support the Let's Dance! team's activities. They are involved in helping to plan the Capital Campaign and are exploring options for construction and landscaping donations for the new facility. They have developed a general donor brochure and are working on a planned giving program and the content to support these programs on the website.

Liaison to CDSS - Joan Hellmann. Joan receives mail and other communications from CDSS and channels the information appropriately.

Library - Ruth Scodel. Cataloguing of the library continues. Volunteers are welcome. Dances from several contra dance books are available dance-by-dance in Excel on the model of the "English Resources" database so that callers can search for particular figures, choreographers, sets, or types of tune. In addition to the trove of material collected by Joan Hellmann over decades and some interesting member donations on vinyl and in other traditional formats, last year we received the Hinds collection of dance records on indefinite loan from MDH; this has a catalogue created by Glen Morningstar.

Mailing Services - Nina Scheider. The mailing committee prepares mailings to members and other dance groups six times a year. They schedule flexibly to coordinate with the dance calendar production, and always have great fun doing the job. Nina's regular crew includes: Tom and Nancy Taylor, Nora Karsch, Kay Brown, Dick Fortune, Amy Griffith, and occasional drop-ins. Sometimes the Tuesday English dancers help, as well.

Marketing - Marge Cramton. Marketing worked with two teams from the UM Business school Consulting Club from September into January again this year. The teams made overall recommendations regarding our branding and communications as well as researched the process of changing the organization's legal name. Marketing has also been supporting other committees as requested; for example, we worked with the Youth and Family team to develop a flyer for the Let's Dance! program. Additional volunteers are welcomed, especially people who have writing, graphic, or other marketing-related skills or interest.

Membership - Ray Bantle. The membership committee maintains the membership rolls, database, and support materials used for enrollment, mailings, and contact information. As of April 17, 2007 we have 251 members, who have supported the organization generously by donating $4,430 over and above their annual dues to the General Fund thus far this season.

Name Change Project - Nawal Motawi. Pursuing alternatives to AACTMAD's current legal name, which is: The Peter Mattis Foundation for the Perpetuation of Traditional Music and Related Arts. Ann Arbor Council for Traditional Music and Dance was the original name, which has been continued as a DBA ("Doing Business As"). Although we're used to it, people who aren't members think AACTMAD ("act mad") is a dumb name. Nawal is collecting suggestions, including the suggestion to retain AACTMAD in some form. The board will survey the membership for their preferences and make a decision this summer.

Publicity Distribution - Joan Hellmann. Joan gathers events listing information from any committee that wishes to submit the information, and distributes a monthly listing of AACTMAD and other events to various media outlets in the area. This supports the marketing efforts of all the AACTMAD events committees.

Scholarships - Chair: Greg Meisner. Scholarships are a way of developing more committed and skillful dancers, musicians, callers, and organizers and encouraging dancers and musicians to become active in the local music and dance community. Membership Scholarships are a one-year first-time AACTMAD membership. Regional Event Scholarships pay up to half the registration fee for regional camps or festivals. National Event Scholarships pay up to half the registration fee for national events or activities of 3 to 7 days, such as camps or courses offered by the Country Dance & Song Society (CDSS) or festivals, to encourage AACTMAD members to become leaders in our traditional dance, music, and song community and to gain exposure to and awareness of traditional music and dance leaders at the national level. CDSS Group Affiliate Priority Spots are managed by the scholarship committee.

Sound - Chair: Joan Hellmann. The sound committee maintains and schedules use of AACTMAD's sound system, which is used at many AACTMAD events and is available for rental by others for a nominal fee. Currently, AACTMAD has sufficient equipment for two simultaneous users under most circumstances.

Website - Webmaster: Ray Bantle; Content editor: Marge Cramton. The web team has continued to expand, modify, and update our website at www.aactmad.org. It contains our public face as well as the events calendar, news, information, and documents and forms in use by AACTMAD. The site is found by search engines, allowing people to contact the organization with a variety of requests. We have recently added new sections for the POB and the Let's Dance! team. We are in the midst of rolling out a major update of the current site as well as the development of an interactive site to support the longer-term needs of the organization. We also maintain the vault of source materials in use by the entire organization.

Youth/Family/Schools/Community Outreach: Let's Dance! team - Anne Ogren (music coordinator), Tammy Corwin-Renner (caller coordinator), Nora Karsch (contact director), and Ray Bantle (facilitator). We promote and organize outreach activities within schools, for home schoolers, and for church and retirement communities. Over the past three school years, we have produced over 50 events. We have a wonderful partnership with the Ann Arbor District Library and work jointly on programming with them. This season we have developed a brochure and mailed it to all of the Ann Arbor public school PTOs. We also launched a website, www.aactmad.org/letsdance, which contains info about our dance events and residency programs. These events are big fun! We'd love to get your specific group referrals.

Whew!
That's a lot for this little crew of folkie volunteers to accomplish...maybe more than you realized yourself... Thank you all for your creativity, commitment, and the fun you bring to the community!