7:00 PM
Virtual
Call To Order:
Heather
Roll Call:
Heather, Kelsey, Mike, Katie, Derek
Approval of previous minutes:
Motioned by Kelsey, seconded Mike, unanimous passage
Public member commentary:
NA
Executive Director Report:
Sponsorships
Pretty much all sponsorship work is done. There are a few stragglers I am hoping to still get, but not many. We are still waiting on a few checks as well, I need to get with Mike to see if any have come in. We picked up two new sponsors and an existing sponsor went up in sponsorship level. We had one drop their level down and we have 5 that haven’t full responded yet, I’m not counting on them coming back at this point though. All in all, unless a few more come in, we are going to be down at least a $1,000 from 2025. I will keep pushing on these few stragglers though and see what we can get.
Grants
I have currently submitted to four grants (SD Arts Council, Walmart, BHE and Delta Dental). So far BHE and Walmart have notified me that they are each doing a $1,000 this year. I’m not sure when I will hear on the other two. The Walmart grant is specifically for the Kids’ Camp. There are more I am going to submit to in the coming months, so hopefully we can make up some sponsorship money in grants.
Sound
I did sound for a Concert Series on March 30, it went really well and we got a lot of compliments on how well it sounded and a shoutout from the band directly to us, which is always good. There is a Concert Series on Thursday that Mike is going to handle, then a break for a while on them.
Curtain Call
Curtain Call is all finished and all in all I think it went very well. We had four fantastic shows that I had great feedback from those that attended. I am very happy with the shows, the directors, and the casts. We had fairly large casts because so many people came out to audition, with lots of new people which is always great. I provided surveys for the cast and crew of the shows and outside of a couple that did not enjoy their time, the rest were very positive and very complimentary of our directors. I spoke with our directors afterwards and got some feedback that could be used if we do one-acts again at Community Hall, namely, spending the money on an extra day of rental at Community Hall for their to be a full practice there. Also, I think four shows, even with one being a short one, is too many to handle for practices and showtime. I think the sweet spot would be two 45 minute shows with one possible shorter one, like Break a Leg a few years ago. Also in looking back at expenses and revenue, I think we need to look at the shows being mostly original to make the money work as well. Our attendance was fairly typical for these one-acts, even though we always hope for more.
In total we had 155 tickets and made $1,745. But we spent $2,562.47 (I am still waiting on a couple of receipts from Sharon, so it will go up slightly but not by much). This is actually less than budgeted which is good and the directors did a great job of keeping costs low. Our biggest expense was scripts, licensing and rental. There isn’t much to do about rental, so where we can save is in licensing and scripts, which again, would be doing originals for these shows in the future. Again, even though we lost some money, I am happy with this show and I think it was a good kickoff to the season.
Programs
I spoke with Mona at Quality Quick Print, used to be Print Mark-et, and they have been bought again. They were great to work with to get programs out for Curtain Call, but with the new company they are going to be charging 50% of costs on any printing. We did 200 for this past show and it was only a two page program and it cost $150. For upcoming shows we will need more programs and three pages. In talking with Nathan, I think it makes sense for us to move back to printing at the school for our programs. It is more work internally but will save us possibly hundreds of dollars. Mona has been fantastic to work with in the past, but with margins shrinking on each show, we need to find places to cut costs.
Minnesela
Auditions are set for Minnesela and the word is getting out there. We have already had some positive feedback on this and have lots of excited people for this show. I will prepare a big media blitz with this show and will contact the Roundup to try and see if there is a way to partner with them at all, maybe event the downtown walking tours and shootouts over the 4th. Since it is a western and about local, albeit made up, history I am hoping to leverage that into word of mouth.
GOAT
I have spoken with Toi, and she will be directing GOAT as well as the Christmas show. I have ordered some perusal scripts and hopefully we will have a confirmed show soon.
Seussified Christmas Carol
I have contracted Rachel Crittenden to do a canvas painting that will be used for initial marketing for Seussified Christmas Carol. She is finished with this and I will get it scanned and start using it soon. I will need to get her a check for $150. We will also auction off this canvas painting during the show to hopefully make a little money, especially since we no longer do the quilt raffle anymore.
Matthews Costumes
I spoke with the Matthews as they were doing a costume purge with them losing their storage, but found out they gave most of their costumes to BHSU. When I talked with them though, they said BHSU would catalog all of the costumes and make them available to local theaters, so this could be a good resource for the future.
Scholarship
We received one scholarship application this year, for Trinity Hostetter. I have all the materials for the BOD to go over if they so choose.
Workshops
Our Workshop series is continuing in May with a Costume Workshop led by Crystal. We are starting to promote this now. Depending on how well this does, Crystal has two more workshops planned in a costume series if their is enough interest. I am also starting to talk to others about other workshops for 2026 and I think I will also hold the Directing Workshop again later in the year, I had several people request this since they couldn’t make the earlier one.
Improv
Due to Geno’s hard work the FAB dinner and Post Prom both went great for our new Improv Troupe. I want to thank everyone involved. Geno is going to take a break for about a month and then we are going to begin discussions on what comes next for Improv, hopefully a regularly scheduled show where we can charge for. I will know more after talking with him again in later May. In some good news, in thanks for our Improv Troupe’s hard work, Parent’s Who Care (the group that puts on Post Prom) has given us a donation of $1,000.
Energize! 2026
I had worked up a talk for the SD Arts Conference that wasn’t picked a while ago, 15 Years Later – How a Community Theater Thrives in a Small Town. This info was passed along to the Energize! Conference that is run by SDSU and in different small communities each year and they asked me to present at this year’s conference on May 6 in Wall. I’m excited for this opportunity and it will be a good way to get our name out there in a wider reach.
Documentary
I worked with Anna to have Stage Directions submitted to the Black Hills Film Festival. I am waiting to hear back if it was accepted. Once we know if it has or not, we will schedule a time for it to be released online and we might hold some kind of screening in Belle, open and free to the public.
Officer Reports:
- President
- Vice President
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Current balance $9728.46. Walmart and BHE grants have been received. Also received a payment of $510 we think is from BHFCU.
- Public Relations
- Views are trending down but in between projects. The last Chamber mixer went well, met with a lot of community members and discussed BFACT. There is currently a sign up sheet for chamber mixers on the drive. Please get signed up to go to at least one if you are able. The more we attend, the better our odds for winning the pot. July 9th is our 50-50 raffle at hometown Thursday nights. We need as many board members as possible to attend and sell tickets.
- Volunteer Committee
- Attended Wellness Fair at the rec this month. There were many attendants and we got to speak to many community members. Collected contact info for interested potential volunteers. Many parents with kids were very interested in the kids camp. Also a lot of interest in Minnsela auditions and the Christmas show. New info collected will be added to the volunteer list. Still working on the reorganization of the existing data. Hoping to have completed the template for our folders in drive. Planning another social hour and volunteer meeting on May 9th. Meeting at 11 and social hour at noon at Wild Magnolia.
- Fundraising Committee
- Kids’ Camp Committee
- Overall Plan
- Things are set for the Kids’ Camp, it will be held on June 9 – 12 and 16 – 19 during the day from noon – 3. There will be a showcase of some kind in the evening of the 19th. We were able to work it out with JAM where they are covering the Rec Center cost per student for the JAM kids. We may have some costs associated with that, since we are allowing students going into 9th grade to participate in our camp, but they aren’t a part of JAM. There will be a charge of $3 per nonmember kid per day for them. The committee put in a lot of hard work and I think we have a solid plan going forward of what will happen and what we need. The committee is now finished and I thank them for their hard work on this program.
- Director Hiring
- We need to look at getting a Director for the camp hired. I think we should pay them $1,000 – $1,250 for this position. We did receive a grant from Walmart for this program in the amount of $1,000 with possibly more coming. I am recommending we hire Sharon Thompson for this position. She is enthusiastic about this camp and has lots of great ideas and experience she brings to the table. We need to get this position hired soon, because the planning needs to start happening so everything is ready by June.
- The roles of the Director would be:
- Creating a behavior code for all participants
- Communicating with the parents of participants
- Planning each day of programming (this includes being present each day as well as finding volunteers to handle the various programming)
- Lead volunteer training ahead of the camp
- Planning the Showcase and executing the event
- These tasks will be worked with in conjunction with the Executive Director
- Motion to approve hiring Sharon to direct camp at the contracted wage of $1000: Mike, Seconded by Katie. Unanimous passage
- Senior outreach committee
- Getting Started
- I have sent out messages to potential people to be on this committee, Colleen and Kelsey have responded yes. I will hold our first meeting in May. If the BOD knows of anyone else who might be interested in this committee, please let me know.
Old Business:
- Scholarship – Review to make sure one applicant met specifications. Board members to look at within the next week and respond in the group chat with a decision. Documents to be reviewed are in the scholarship folder in drive.
New Business:
- 4th of July – Tabled for full discussion at next meeting. Will be tied to Minnsela. Instructing Nathan T to look into sign up asap
- Wellness fair suggest – a lot of interest in a show magnet for the year or something so people can keep a small schedule of events. Derek will look into.
- Tickets – potentially need to look at raising ticket prices in the next season.
Next meeting:
TBD
Adjournment:
Motioned by Mike, second Katie, unanimous passage.
Respectfully submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman
