April 7, 2008

Forming a Club

Filed under: discussions — Fred Loehr @ 8:24 pm

I did a little research on the web, and found that the USDA (United Square Dancers of America) strongly recommends that new dance clubs be incorporated. I won’t go into all the reasons; anyone interested can find the USDA pamphlet at http://www.usda.org/educ.htm (look at Club Incorporation).

I have incorporated a non-profit before and would be willing to help if we decide that’s what we want to do, but be warned: forming a corporation is easy, but running it is a pain. We would need a bank account and an accounting system; someone to deal with tax returns and various filings; and we would need a board that meets and keeps minutes and other records. And we would need seed money to start — as I recall, the state requires around $1,000 to incorporate. $800 is returned once the IRS issues a determination that the corporation is non-profit, but that takes a while (months, possibly years). Until that determination is made, the club has to pay a minimum of $800/yr to the state franchise tax board.

I assume the Saucy Squares are incorporated already; maybe we could work something with them, and not duplicate the effort.

Either way, I’d be willing to lend a hand.

Fred

April 6, 2008

First 50 Celebration

Filed under: discussions, general, news — annette @ 10:56 am

Hey ya’ll

Just a reminder that we’ll be having ourselves a little party on April 14 to celebrate the completion of the first 50 calls by our SECOND beginners class.

Bring a bite to share, dress up if you’d like and we’ll take some time ‘tween the early and later class to whoop it up!

annette

April 1, 2008

How to Post to This Blog

Filed under: how to write a post — Michael Wills @ 2:56 pm

For those of you who haven’t used a WordPress blog before, here are a few tips for posting and reading posts.

First, you will need to log in by clicking on the “Login / Logout” link at the top of the right sidebar. You’ll be taken to a login screen where you will need to enter your username and password. If you don’t have one, send an email to our contact email address below and I’ll issue you one.

After you log in, you will be taken to the screen called the Dashboard that looks like this (click on the thumbnail for the larger version):

From the dashboard, you can begin to write a post by clicking on the “Write a New Post” button. This will take you to the compose page, which looks like this:

The Write Post page looks like a word processor with a few options. You can categorize a post so that it is easily accessible using the categories links on the lower part of the left sidebar. The default category is “uncategorized”, so you should remember to check the appropriate category for your post. Posts that are categorized “discussions” are easily accessible using the link under “Forum” on the lower part of the left sidebar.

Remember that your post will not be private unless you check the “Keep this post private” checkbox above the Save and Publish buttons to the right of the compose area. When you check “Keep this post private” only registered and logged in members of Redwood Rainbows will be able to see your post.

To edit or delete your post at a later time, click on the “Manage” button at the top.

By default, comments are turned on for our posts. This means we can have a discussion by adding comments to the post by clicking on the “comments” link at the bottom of the post. If you’re a registered user, your comment will appear immediately; if you aren’t logged in, it will go not be published until I review it. Moderated comments are a way for us to avoid getting spam in our blog.

If you would like additional categories, just email me at contact@redwoodrainbows.org and I’ll add it.

That’s pretty much it. Feel free to explore the Dashboard and your profile.