OSRDF held both its regular board meeting of April 16, 2016 at Crestwood Secondary School in Peterborough, just prior to the Spring Spree dance. Board members discussed drafting the soft shoe policy and will put this on the web site once approved. The board approved a motion to establish a new policy on providing seed money to help new clubs get established – the funds, up to $200 per application and a maximum of $1,000 per year is designed to help establish a new club with issues such as deposits on a facility, advertising or the hiring of a leader. The policy is currently being drafted and once approved, will be posted to the web site. The old version of the OSRDF web site was not only out of date, but no longer user friendly for major search engines or for us on modern phones and electronic devices – the new web site has been re-designed by an outside firm and should be up and running shortly. The next board meeting will take place in Regina during the National Square and Round Dance Festival at the end of July.
AGM – Following the regular board meeting, dancers were invited to the main hall to join the board for its Annual General Meeting and a number of dancers participated. They were given a brief overview of the current financial status – and advised that OSRDF had given out a total of $12,000 ($4,000 to each association to help with professional development and recruitment.) The Treasurer also advised that overall membership was down slightly from 3229 to 2754.