Zoom Meeting
6:30 PM

ROLL CALL:

Toi Lyn Flick, Robert Soderstrom, Heather Pittman, Jonathan Tinsley, Becky Tinsley, Kelsey Gronlund, Derek Olson, Nathan Schreier

READING AND APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE PRECEDING MEETING:

Motion for approval of minutes by Jonathan/seconded by Nathan.

REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF BILLS:

Credit card bill of $9.99 for online advertising to be paid in August.  Motion to approve by Jonathan/seconded by Nathan.

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: 

Jupiter & Mars

Jupiter & Mars is progressing really great. We just recorded Episode 3. Episode 1 is all edited, just needs sound and it is done. I have begun work on editing Episode 2. The writer’s group is working on the next three episodes and those will be recorded in August at some point. Right now Episode 1 will premiere on July 28, Episode 2 on August 11 and Episode 3 on August 25. If the next episodes are ready, we will continue releasing every other week, if not we will take a short break.

Advertising has been progressing. We will promote the Event on Facebook coming up. I did an interview with the Pioneer and Rapid City Journal already and have an interview set up with KOTA on the morning of the 28th. Press releases were sent out to all of the other main news sources in the area, I never received information that a story would run on those different sources. The actual premiere will be on Facebook. I have been working on a way to run shows through Facebook live, so I will host it. I will talk about the show a little bit, talk about the auction and thank people for that and push donations. Then I will play the episode. Once it is done, the Episode will go up on our YouTube page, which I created, and the website and will stay up there.

The auction has been going well so far. We have several bids on many items and things are looking up. This first batch of items will be done on Friday the 24 and the next batch will go up after that and run up to the premiere. A huge thank you to everyone who donated items and services and a huge thank you to Heather who organized all of it.

Website

I updated the website to include our new program, Storytime Reading and I am also working on updating the Jupiter & Mars page to be able to hold multiple episodes. These aren’t major updates but something that takes a little bit of time.

Merchandise

I have created more merchandise on our TeeSpring page. We will start pushing these more as we start pulling back on social media with Jupiter & Mars and the auction. We don’t want to overwhelm people. I am also about to put up 10 Year Anniversary shirt and will be doing more designs in coming months.

Pledge Drive

I have been talking with several board members and others about the idea of a pledge drive. We would set the goal at something attainable, like $1,000 to start with. This push would happen in late August once these other events wrap up. I would create some graphics for it and we would update Facebook and our website with our progress. We get the word out we need help. A part of this drive would be reaching out to our sponsors and thanking them for being sponsors and encouraging them to re-up their sponsorship for next season. I also think we should honor all of their free tickets next season, regardless if they become a sponsor again, since they didn’t really get to use them.

Grants

I am working with Kelsey and Heather on finding some other grants that will help with COVID relief. I am working on one for the SD Community Foundation now. 

REPORTS OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES: 

• President
  • Talking with Ryan Brewer, local film maker, regarding work on a campaign/videos to use for donations/pledge drive.  This is in early stage talks, but he is interested in helping.
• Vice President
  • BFACT was successfully entered in the 4th of July parade and that seemed to go well.  
  • We have had several people record stories for our partnership with the library.  Carrie Donovan read one story, Derek Olson did 2 stories and Reva Potter and I did a story together.  The finished products are quite good, if I do say so myself, thanks in part to Derek’s presentation and music. We still have one volunteer, April Stuart, who is still working on her recording.  I have left messages with several others and I will continue to speak with people and see if they may be interested in doing more readings.
  • I looked into the annual report and it appears I need the names and addresses of the principal officers and the director.  One piece mentioned the beneficial owners, which I don’t know who those would be.  However, when I perused a little deeper it didn’t appear that is a piece we need.  If anyone knows who the beneficial owners may be, clue me in please just to satisfy my curiosity!
• Treasurer
  • Current balance is $1415.13.
• Secretary
  • No additions at this time
• Grant & Fundraising Committee
  • Online auction is live.  Donors will need to deliver items and collect money.
• Membership Committee
  • Database audit is done.  Need to contact Arts People about annual renewal email.
• Public Relations Committee
  • Ads for Jupiter & Mars/online auction are running.  We’ve spent $32 so far.  We’re not getting high engagement, so will plan on spending time boosting closer to event dates.
• Creative Committee
  • Storytime Reading
    • The Storytime Reading program is going over well so far. The Library is very happy with it. We have four videos online at this moment, with one more I am working on and I have had several people tell me they want to do one. This program will continue as long as people want to make them. We will be doing a live event for this on Aug 16 at 1pm at the Hermann Park Bandshell. We will have people who read some stories online as well as a few others read the stories for families live. We are hoping to do a bake sell the day of and maybe some giveaways we are organizing with our sponsor Open Space Creative. We will begin an online push telling people about this once we get past the Jupiter & Mars premiere.
  • Other Ideas
    • At our Creative Committee meeting we discussed some other possible activities we can do online until we are back more in-person. We are talking about doing a monologue competition, or showcase, online. People would record themselves doing a monologue and submit them. We would judge them and give out prizes. We could then promote these on our Facebook and website.
  • Summer Play
    • We discussed the potential summer play and I think everyone is still on the fence about it. If we do it, the plan would be to do the play at Community Hall instead of the BFACC Theater. We could limit the number of tickets sold so we can separate people by tables or spread out chairs to keep up distancing and encourage mask wearing. The rental fee is also cheaper at Community Hall, only $150 a night. If we did a show there we would run it two or three times. The plan is to do original pieces since we won’t have to pay for licensing. We are thinking of doing two previous High School one-acts I wrote, Collections and Party at the End of the World. Nathan would still direct these shows. We would do everything we could to limit exposure of the actors.  Discussion regarding mandatory masks at summer play was held at length.  The BOD decided that we should wait on indoor events at this time as mandating masks may invite unwanted controversy.

OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

1. 4th of July Parade- this went well for a short planning time.  We need to form a planning committee in March/April 2021 to be better prepared for the next parade.

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Christmas show- we need to see how Covid is effecting things and plan accordingly.

OTHER:

None

NEXT MEETING:

Wednesday, August 19, 2020 @ 6:30pm via Zoom

ADJOURNMENT:

Motion to adjourn by Toi Lyn/seconded by Heather.

Zoom Meeting
6:30 PM

ROLL CALL:

Toi Lyn Flick, Kelsey Gronlund,Heather Pittman, Nathan Schreier, Jonathan Tinsley, Becky Tinsley, Derek Olson, Robert Soderstrom (@ 7:45)

READING AND APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE PRECEDING MEETING:

Motion to approve by Jonathan/seconded by Heather

REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF BILLS:

No bills at this time

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: 

The Night of One Acts is still tentatively scheduled for September.

Website

I have created the Volunteer Spotlight and will be talking to other people to get stories from them. I am kind of avoiding BOD members right now but will get to them down the road. Don’t want the website to feel like BFACT is just these few people. Toi sent me her BOD bio, but I need bios and photos from everyone else. I would like to get this up in the next couple of weeks. We will begin pushing Jupiter & Mars more coming up, so hopefully we will be getting more eyes on the site and I would like that section filled out more.

I am also working on creating new sections of the website to hold Jupiter & Mars and the Storytime Readings. I have begun work on the design and once that is done I will begin the build on it.

Merch

We have our store online now. Right now it is just t-shirts and one bag all with our logo on it. My goal is to start creating other items with our logo and then create designs to go on the shirts just branded BFACT, which might increase the number of people who want to buy them. I am also going to be creating Jupiter & Mars merch, several cast members have expressed interest already in that. The goal will be to push the store via the BFACT Facebook page, but it would also be great if Board Members share it as well to their own accounts.

SD Arts Council Grant Application

With Kelsey and Heather’s help we have submitted to the SD Arts Council CARE grant. We were eligible for the smallest amount they give, $2,500. This would be to help pay staff, which would be me. Right now we don’t have enough money to finish my contract, especially if we start buying things for BFACT. This would help make sure we can still spend on events but be able to pay my contract. We should know by the end of July if we get it.

REPORTS OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES: 

• President
  • No report at this time
• Vice President
  • Happily, I have something to report about this meeting!  To be precise, I have four items about which to speak.
  • First, Kelsey and I did the quarterly audit.  We handled this over messenger as there wasn’t a terrible lot of fiscal activity over which to look.  We are currently solvent, yea!  However, we will need to generate some revenue in order to keep the doors open(figuratively)and to pay our executive director(realistically).  Kelsey, I’m sure, will have more specifics in her treasurer’s report.
  • Second, I have been in contact with several people/families about creating videos for our library reading program project.  Taran Garman had agreed to do one of the videos, but messaged me this morning that she has to forego it.  I have contacted 5 other individuals/families and so far have one maybe and one yes.  Carrie Donovan has also agreed to help with this project.  I have not heard back from the other 3.
  • Third and fourth, I wrote my bio for the web page, as Derek had requested.  I will figure out how to do the annual report and get that completed.  I saw that an extension has been given and also something about the first anniversary of formation, so I will be looking more into that.
  • I will conclude this report by saying that I think our Jupiter and Mars radio play is a “stellar” idea and that so far I really enjoy the script!
• Treasurer
  • Current balance is $2623.00.  We have received $18.95 from Amazon Smiles donations this quarter.  Quarterly audit and statement reconciliations are done.
• Secretary
  • No additions to report at this time
• Grant & Fundraising Committee
  • Considering holding an online auction. 
• Membership Committee
  • Need to schedule a meeting time with Kelsey to go over missing members in Arts People
• Public Relations Committee
  • Working on Facebook ads for Jupiter & Mars– will increase ads closer to release of show.
• Creative Committee
  • We haven’t met this month but I am hoping to get a meeting going in July to talk about some new ideas of projects to do online.
  • The Man Who Came to Dinner
    • Auditions are coming up for The Man Who Came to Dinner. I have spoken to the Rec Center about the theater. It is still closed. Nate said they will be meeting at the beginning of July to discuss when the theater will be reopened, but I don’t have a specific date yet on that. I have concerns about putting on this show. It sounds like when the theater reopens there will be precautions put in place to limit the amount of people who can be in the theater, which is great, but could hurt us. I have calculated the total cost of this show, licensing, rental and set, to be around $1,500. If we have to limit the amount of tickets sold we may struggle to make back that money which unfortunately we don’t have a lot of wiggle room with our bank account.
    • Beyond that I am still worried about COVID-19 and the theater. I have noticed most other theaters in the area have cancelled their summer season. Indoors seems to be the places with the best chance for transmission, so it would be hard to guarantee our actors don’t get sick. Beyond that, putting hopefully a couple of hundred people in the theater together at one time might really increase risk. I know Butte still doesn’t have any cases, but I fear us being the reason cases start in town. I have my thoughts on this, but I want to discuss with the BOD their thoughts on possibly cancelling this show.
    • I have been in contact with Nathan about this and we have talked about some alternatives. Possibly doing an original smaller scale show, and original that wouldn’t cost licensing or set, and really reduce the number of seats we sell or even doing it at Community Hall with enforced distance seating. Maybe even something outside. Practices could be held online for the first week or two as well to help keep spacing.
  • Jupiter & Mars
    • I held auditions for Jupiter & Mars a couple of weeks ago. It was done online only which took some scheduling but we had over 30 people try out which was awesome. We have found a place for everyone that auditioned, not all in the first episode but some others. We are planning to record the first two episodes this coming Friday, June 26. I know not everyone will be able to do that night so I will spend the week after getting audio from everyone who can’t do Friday. We are hoping to record the third episode in the next few weeks. Then I will begin editing, which will take quite a few hours to do. Once I have the first three episodes created we will start releasing, I am hoping in July. We will create a release schedule where we will Premiere an episode on Facebook with people and then it will be placed on our YouTube channel, which I have to create, where it will stay. We will probably release every other week. Everything will also be available on our website.
    • While this is going on, the next batch of episodes are being worked on, led by Robert and Isaac Otterman. The fourth episode has been started and other episodes will begin being written. On all videos once they are done we will have a list of our sponsors and we will encourage donations to BFACT since all of this is free to the community.
  • Storytime Reading
    • Toi has been a huge help in getting the Storytime Reading program, tentative name, going. She has been speaking with other people to record episodes. This will be something we do in conjunction with the library. We will have different people read stories in whatever way they want and record them. I will then edit them to make them web ready, with the library logo and our sponsors. The library will link to these videos as well. They will be on our YouTube channel and website.
    • Toi and I are also discussing doing a live show of this, closer to school starting at the bandshell. There would only be a few people involved to help with distancing and since it would be outside the worries of indoor groups are lessened. We could potentially partner with the Arts Council or Chamber of Commerce on it.

OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

1. Discussion was held on moving forward with The Man Who Came To Dinner. Concerns were voiced about the potential of the show having to be canceled at the last minute and the risk of lost revenue if that happens.  In light of the uncertainty of COVID it was decided that this show should be postponed until 2021.
2. 10th Anniversary of BFCT/First Show:  This year is the 10th anniversary of the first BFCT show.  Discussion was held on promoting this milestone.  Derek will work on a t-shirt design for supporters/members to buy.  

NEW BUSINESS:

1. July 4th Parade: Discussion was held on entering a float in the parade.  Jonathan offered to use his truck and make signs.  ToiLyn will contact the city to complete registration.

OTHER:

None

NEXT MEETING:

July 22, 2020 @ 6:30pm via Zoom

ADJOURNMENT:

Motion to adjourn by Jonathan/seconded by Heather

Zoom Meeting
6:30 PM

ROLL CALL:

Robert Soderstrom, ToiLyn Flick, Kelsey Gronlund, Heather Pittman, Nathan Schreier, Derek Olson, Jonathan Tinsley, Becky Tinsley

READING AND APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE PRECEDING MEETING:

Approved as presented

REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF BILLS:

Approved as presented

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: 

Website

I am still waiting for BOD bios, if possible please get those written so I can update the website. I also received back my questionnaire from Darin Newton and Geno Pesicka for the spotlight section of the website so I will get that up in the next week or so. To accommodate the very specific radio play project we are doing, I will need to be working on the website coming up once we have things more ironed out to make the website a place to put all that content.

Merchandise

After trying to make the system I was talking about before for merchandise I decided to go with a different option. After using the system I decided it would not be a good fit for us. We are now going to be using TeeSpring for our merchandise. https://teespring.com/stores/bfact-store I will be styling this and putting on our logo. I will then make some basic products with just our logo. My big question is what we want to charge for things. There is a base price for each product, different pricing for different types of shirts for example, and then we add in our mark-up to come up with the final price. We need to decide what we want for mark-up. Is our goal to make this a fundraiser, if so we should make sure we can make a little bit per item, or if this is just an opportunity for people to have our branded merchandise. For example, several of the shirts base cost is around $15 so should we charge around $20 and we make $5 or like $25 so we make $10. I would like some Board guidance on that. Once we have that I will start creating products.  (Discussion by BOD-plan for $5 over cost of shirts at this point.)

TeeSpring handles all of the shipping of products and unlike the other system I looked at, we don’t receive any payments directly from customers. TeeSpring is paid for everything, they take their base cost, shipping and taxes and send us our mark-up amount. I think this will be simpler, this way we don’t have monthly invoices to pay. The nice thing is this way TeeSpring will collect the taxes they need to pay for individual states and they pay them, that’s not on us to figure out. I would like to touch base with Kelsey, just to see if there is anything else we need to pay on this, taxes and what have you. TeeSpring is a very popular service and we will be listed alongside their other products on the main site. I don’t think many people not interested in BFACT would buy our merchandise, but you never know.

We will have to start paying tax on merchandise when sales are over $1000. This falls under the category of unrelated business income at that point.

South Dakota Arts Council

I did a preliminary sign-up for some South Dakota Arts Council CARES Act grants. I signed-up to say we are interested. There isn’t much information from them yet what they will have available right now. The actual sign-up period starts on June 1. I will check back then and should know if we qualify or not. If we do, I will work with Heather and Kelsey to get us signed-up and I guess we will see if we get anything. To sign-up I had to get BFACT a DUNS number. I got us signed-up and put the information in our Shared Drive if anyone needs it. It could be useful beyond applying for these grants.

REPORTS OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES: 

• President
  • First episode of the radio play is written.  Discussed possibility of creating an Improv Troupe.
• Vice President
  • Talked with Derek about the Belle Fourche library summer reading program children’s theater production idea. (See Creative Committee report)
• Treasurer
  • All checks are in with current balance of $2604.05.  Robert purchased radio show software for $28/month-needs reimbursement for three months.
• Secretary
  • None
• Grant & Fundraising Committee
  • Nothing new to report at this time.
• Membership Committee
  • Jonathan added an IRS document to the shared folder concerning raffles.  It gives examples and provides guidance on the tax implications of raffles.  It lays out guidelines on how to avoid taxes.
• Public Relations Committee
  • Facebook/social media engagement is currently the focus for marketing.  Nathan mentioned that he has a connection with a writer of children’s shows. 
• Creative Committee
  • We haven’t had a meeting in May but things are progressing on several projects.
  • We have a writer’s group for the radio play and we are plowing ahead. The plan as of right now is to produce nine episodes over several months, we would do them in three episode chunks. We will work to get three episodes ready then release them over the course of several weeks, have a mini-break then get the next three ready to go. This is because if we had to wait to get all nine episodes done to release them one after another would take months. This way we can sprint ahead and get some content out before all of it needs to be done.
  • We are aiming to release the first episode by the end of June if everything goes right. Then we would release the next two episodes either weekly or every other week. There will be a decent amount of post-production I will need to do to get everything done so releasing in this manner gives me time to get it all done. We should have a more finished pilot episode next week and after that point we will get audition information out there and figure out the best way to handle that. This will be an open casting just like any show, it just will be done online. We may need to do a second casting for the next third of the show, will know more soon on that.
  • This is a project that will last for several months which I don’t think is a bad thing. It also has us keeping up with content regardless of what other shows we are able to make happen this summer.
  • Auditions for this show will take place online which will be a new process.
  • Budget:  For the first three episodes of the Radio Play
    Marketing – $100
    SFX & Musc – $100
    Total – $200
  • Motion by Jonathan/seconded by Kelsey to approve radio play budget of up to $200.  Motion passed.
  • Toi had a great suggestion to talk to the library in Belle about their Summer reading program and seeing if we could help there so I reached out to them. The library has had to cancel their in-person Summer reading program and they were very excited about the idea of us helping them out. I don’t have final details of what this will look like at the moment, the library is working with the state on some kind of Summer program, once they have that information we will be able to plan with them what BFACT will be doing. As of right now what we are thinking is that we will do recordings of Community Theater members reading books or stories. I am ironing out details on this now and will be working directly with Toi on this program. It’s not something that should really cost us money so we will just move ahead with getting this done as more information comes in. Becky suggested asking the library if they still have their old puppet theater.

OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

1. None

NEW BUSINESS:

1. The Rec Center will reopen on Tuesday 26th.  Unsure of set strike of Jr. High show as they may try to hold performances yet.
2. 4th of July Parade Float- BFACT is “technically” 10 years old this year.  It might be fun to celebrate that with a big float.

OTHER:

None

NEXT MEETING:

Wednesday, June 24th @ 6:30pm via Zoom.

ADJOURNMENT:

Motion to adjourn by Jonathan/seconded by Kelsey.  Motion carried.