Austin Swing Syndicate general updates and announcements
Our first of two Town Hall meetings of 2019 will be held on January 17th at 9pm in the Georgian Room. We will present some financial information from 2018, a preliminary budget and schedule for 2019, and take feedback from any members in attendance. We encourage all members to stop by and learn more about our non-profit!
Are we open on Thanksgiving? The answer is YES!
Since we won’t have our normal staff, the dance will be FREE, as it is every year. However, please consider donating to help cover the cost of renting the venue (yes, we still have to pay on Thanksgiving) and to support our year-round efforts as a local swing dance and music non-profit. You can also donate online here: https://austinswingsyndicate.org/donate/
Austin Swing Syndicate is getting a roomie! Starting Oct 4th, Four on the Floor (FotF) will teach progressive Swing dance lessons at 7pm and 8pm. This is your one stop shop to learn Lindy Hop, Balboa, and Collegiate Shag at all levels!
Grab your dance shoes and check out the schedule on their website. Hope to see you this Thursday!
More info below from our announcement on 9/12/18:
“Four on the Floor has been teaching Swing, Lindy Hop, Balboa and Collegiate Shag on Tuesday nights at the Fed for around 20 years. Now, we’re happy to welcome Four on the Floor to teach progressive classes before our Thursday night dances. We hope this change will allow our beginner and intermediate dancers easier access to more advanced classes at an already convenient time and place, bringing the level of dancing in Austin even higher.
As a result of this change, starting in October, the only class that will be included with our Thursday night dance will be our regular 8:15pm Intro to Swing class in the main ballroom. All other classes from 7-9pm will be taught by Four on the Floor and will include Lindy Hop, Balboa, and Collegiate Shag classes of all levels! These classes will be purchased separately from the dance admission and will be run by Four on the Floor. Our DJ’d side room and main ballroom schedule from 9pm-midnight will remain the same.
We hope you’ll make our new roommates feel at home during this time of transition. Welcome Four on the Floor!”
For the next two weeks, please enter the Fed using the side entrance facing 24th street. Due to normal floor maintenance in the Ballroom, social dancing will be in the Foyer, Parlor, Library, Art Gallery and Georgian Room on August 2nd and August 9th. You’ll get to dance in the fancy sitting rooms next to the beautiful old fireplaces and the infamous creepy doll collection.
Normal classes and dancing in the main ballroom will resume on August 16th.
The Austin Swing Syndicate Board of Directors elections start this week with online voting! Last week we had a great Town Hall where the candidates fielded questions from our members, and biographies were posted in the hallway before the main ballroom. Please click below for our candidates’ biographies and read on for more information about the election cycle.
Feb. 5th – Nominations open
Feb. 19th – Nominations close
Feb. 22nd – Election Town Hall (Biographies posted this week)
Mar. 1st – Online voting begins
Mar. 8th – In-person voting, polls close at Midnight
Mar. 9th – Election results (including exact vote counts) sent to members by email
Mar. 22nd – New Board first meeting
Elections for the four open Board of Directors spots will be held in March. Joining the board is a great way to give back to a community you love, help us decide what our next priorities should be, and get in on the inner workings of the organization. Plus you’ll get to hang with fun people, it looks great on a resume, and you get in free to our dances/events.
Being on the board is a two-year commitment. Officers (President, VP, etc.) are elected internally among directors once elected. The elections are run by the Elections Committee, a neutral group nominated by the current Board.
We hope you love dancing at the Fed as much as we do, and we’re grateful to the Austin swing dance community for supporting our weekly dance and events! Our rent is going up for the first time since early 2013 (the last time we raised our prices), so our door prices and membership rates will go up starting on January 1st, 2018. Special live music event prices will stay the same. Our next Town Hall Meeting will be January 18th at 8pm where we will provide a full financial report, and we’d love to see you there.
New prices
Regular dance: $5 members / $8 non-members
Membership rates: $30 students / $40 regular
The Austin Swing Syndicate is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and is entirely volunteer-run. Thanks again for dancing with us and supporting our mission of spreading the joy of swing dancing to as many Austinites as we can! Hope to see you out on the dance floor.
Featuring:
The Elections Committee would like to announce the beginning of the Austin Swing Syndicate 2017 election cycle.
The elections will be run a bit differently this year in order to align our practices with the law and the recommendations of our lawyer.
Key differences:
1. Members will elect seven board members without designating offices (President, VP, Treasurer, Secretary). Once elected, the board with then elect the officers from among the elected directors. This is required by non-profit law and our bylaws, but has not been applied in recent years. “Following inauguration of elected Directors, the Board shall select officers, including a President, a Vice President, a Treasurer, and a Secretary. The positions of President, Vice President, and Treasurer shall not be filled by minors” (Austin Swing Syndicate Bylaws, Section 3.04).
2. We are transitioning to staggered two-year terms upon the strong recommendation of our lawyer. In order to start implementing this system, the three candidates who receive the most votes will be granted two-year terms on the board. The remaining four candidates will serve one-year terms, and their spots will be up for re-election for two-year terms in the 2018 election. Officers will be voted on internally by the board each year.
Feb. 8th – Nominations open
Feb. 23rd – Nominations close
Mar. 2nd – Biographies are posted, online voting begins
Mar. 9th – In-person voting, polls close at midnight
Mar. 10th – Election results (including exact vote counts) sent to members by email
Please email [email protected] to declare your candidacy or if you have any questions. If you would like to nominate someone else, please copy the nominated party on your email. They will have to accept the nomination to be included on the ballot.
ALX 2016 is fast approaching and we’ll need to start planning asap! We’re looking for someone (or some people) to head up our ALX Committee this year. If you’re interested, please submit a proposal to the board at [email protected]. The proposal should include the following information at minimum:
– A schedule for the weekend
– Music plan (live bands, DJs, etc.)
– Venues
– Merchandise (T-shirts, stickers, etc.)
– Marketing
– Budget/Sales plan
– Rough committee deadlines
Please be as detailed as possible. If you have enquired with specific bands or venues about availability and/or pricing, please include this information in your proposal.
All proposals are due April 7th, 2016!