CALL TO ORDER:

President Nathan S

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Nathan T, Kelsey, Sharon, Angela, Allie, Derek, Heather *attending electronically

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motion Kelsey, Second Nathan T, unanimous passage

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

Website

I am finally through the bulk of coding on the new website. That means what is really left is some cleanup and porting all of the content over from the old website which will take some time. I am still hoping to be done by Annual Meeting, but we will see.

Sponsorships

I have made it through almost my entire call list. As of right now we have checks or pledged for a total of $3,500. There are still several previous sponsors that will be back but haven’t fully committed yet. My hope is to be closer to $6,000 by the time of the first show in 2024. I will also be expanding my list to hit any business I may have missed as well as some in Spearfish and the surrounding area. If you have any business that needs to be added to the list, please let me know.

Grants

Grant writing is starting to gear up. We have submitted for the Midco Foundation again for $2,000. We should know about that one in the next few months. I have an Arts Council and First Interstate Bank grant on my list to do in the near future, we just need a finished budget, which I am working on. For each of those, we will be requesting a few thousand dollars. Anna also came up with a list for me of other theater grants to go for, so my list is pretty full and will hit those hard after the first of the year.

Budget

I have started working on a budget for 2024:

Proposed 2024 Budget

If the BOD could give it a look and let me know anything I am missing or suggestions, that would be fantastic. I hope to have this done soon so it can be used for grants.

Annual Meeting

Just a reminder to start working on your Annual Meeting reports so I can have them by Jan 1.

Sound

The sound and lights document has already been used at the Rec Center but I did have to stop by for a few events already to help troubleshoot issues. I think I need to create an addendum for other technical support questions. I am still waiting to hear back from the Rec on when they want to set up a training session and I think I will reach out to the school and offer the same training.

Photography

To help us get better photography of shows in 2024 I have reached out to Hunter Anderson, a local photographer, to help out. I have worked with him at shoots for TDG so I know he does a great job and is very reliable. The hope is for him to take promotional photos for each show and in exchange we will give him a business sponsorship and ad.

Volunteer Appreciation

The Volunteer Appreciation night on Dec 2 went really great! We had a fantastic turnout, more than I expected. People had fun and it was great to have different people from different casts interact with one another. We also talked about the Annual Meeting a lot and I think we have some people from that event who will be coming. I think the fun laid-back atmosphere worked well instead of a more formal banquet or something like that.

Season Poster

I am waiting on the last bit of confirmation of a few things and then we will have Season Posters done and ready to hang up. Hopefully by the Annual Meeting.

OFFICER REPORTS: 

• President
  • Met with Sharon and Derek regarding membership. Submitted printing costs for expense report
• Vice President
  • Nothing to report at this time
• Secretary
  • Nothing to report at this time
• Treasurer
  • Current bank balance $14,156.64
• Creative Committee
  • Dinner Theater
    • We have decided to move forward with a dinner theater event on Valentine’s Day. Toi will be in charge of this show and is starting to work out all of the details, we hope to start promoting in a few weeks on this.
  • Writer’s Workshop
    • Since we will be doing dinner theater in Feb, we are moving the Writer’s Workshop into late Jan – early Feb. I am in the process of locking down dates. I have checked with the Rec, and since we won’t be charging anything for this, we won’t have a rental cost. I will be leading this and the plan is two nights to do the actual workshop and the third night being a showcase where we bring in actors to read scripts on stage and that will be open to the public.
  • Break a Leg
    • Nathan and I have begun work on our scripts and have been communicating with Sharon and Stephanie about these. I will work with them very soon to get a practice schedule and audition dates set up. These will probably be in early February. At the last Creative Committee we discussed paying our local authors $50 for doing their shows, it’s not a lot, but it is something. So for this show it would be to pay Nathan Schreier and myself. I just want to be transparent about this.
  • Murder on the Orient Express
    • I am still in the process of finding a director for this show. The first person I spoke to about it was unfortunately unable to do it. I have approached another director who is supposed to be getting back to me soon. Hopefully this person can, otherwise I will keep looking.
  • Sherlock Holmes & the West End Horror
    • Tyler has picked a show, “Sherlock Holmes and the West End Horror” for our radio drama. I have purchased licensing and scripts for this already so we are good to promote it.
      • Licensing: 170
        Scripts: 139.90
        Shipping and Handling: 12.50
        Total: 322.40
  • GOAT
    • I am still trying to lock down dates for sure by everyone. If I am unable to very soon, we will just promote the show as in October instead of the specific date. We will be looking for a new local author to write this show, with the proposed licensing fee from above.
  • The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical
    • We have decided to do The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical for the Christmas show this year. The cost for licensing and scripts should be $2,544. I’m waiting on an answer to a question I had and then I will get this purchased so we can promote it and lock it in. This is more expensive than we had initially planned, but the Christmas show usually brings in a large amount of people so I think we will make back up the cost. Sharon and Rachel are both very excited about the show, so I am sure it will be amazing.
  • Public Relations
    • Still attending meetings with arts council, writer’s group, chamber of commerce, and tri state. Will promote upcoming writers workshop to council and writers group. 
  • Membership Committee
    • Sharon, Nathan S, and Derek discussed personal membership/individual sponsorships. Tiers and benefits outlined below:
    • Individual Sponsorship Form
    • Still planning to clean up some working surrounding members and committees and purchase Mail Chimp (approx $100) for ease of newsletters.
• Grant & Fundraising Committee
  • Starting to look at fundraising for the coming year. May be planning to step down from board but willing to remain on committee. 

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Scholarships: final work from school counselor received that parent signatures are not required. Presented final form for scholarship app. Motion to app: Nathan T, second Heather, unanimous passage
2. Bylaw vote: Motion to app bylaw updates as discussed in special session on 12/6/23: Sharon, second Nathan T, unanimous passage
3. Anna: planning date for board planning day. Asks all members to complete a 5 question survey to help us decide what we want to cover so the retreat guides us but also accomplishes what we desire to achieve. Derek is planning to attend a strategic planning seminar on January 12th to assist with this. 

NEW BUSINESS:

1. ED reviews: Nathan S, Nathan T, and Derek will meet to sign the updated contract prior to the 1st of January.
2. Annual Report: All annual reports must be submitted to Derek by the 1st of January so he may prepare the final presentation.
3. AACT: Derek is planning to purchase an annual membership to the American Association of Community Theaters for approximately $200. They can provide additional resources as we continue to grow. 

NEXT MEETING:

Annual Meeting: 1/13/24 @ Venue 519. Doors open at 6 PM, Meeting to begin at 7 PM.

ADJOURNMENT

Motion: Angela, Second Sharon, unanimous passage.

Submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman

Virtual

CALL TO ORDER:

Nathan S

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Nathan T, Kelsey, Heather, Sharon, Derek. Quorum achieved. 

THE FOLLOWING UPDATES WERE AGREED UPON:

1. Spelling and grammar updates throughout
2. Replace director of membership with 3rd members at large
3. Specify VP submits annual report to the state
4. Update election years 
5. Update responsibilities in managing membership

Exact language to be voted on at the December monthly meeting.

MOTION TO APPROVE UPDATES:

Nathan T, 2nd Kelsey, passed unanimously. Angela and Allie submitted electronic votes after the meeting.

MOTION TO ADJOURN:

Heather, 2nd Nathan T. passed unanimously.

Grap’s Wineroom
6:30 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

President Nathan S

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Nathan T (left during CC report and returned 15 minutes later), Kelsey (5 minutes late), Heather, Angela, Sharon, Derek

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motioned Sharon, 2nd Nathan T, passed unanimously

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

Website

I am currently working through the website now and getting close to having the basic coding all done and then will work on content porting. I am still hoping to have the website launched by the Annual Meeting.

Sponsorships

I have started looking for business sponsors for 2024. I have already messaged all of our sponsors and business donors from last season. First Interstate Bank, Dakota Lumber, Schreier Engineering, TDG, Print Mark-et, and Grap’s will all be returning as sponsors for next season. They will be joined by Monument Health who will be an actor sponsor in the new year. Any of these businesses that I don’t hear from by the end of this week I will reach out again. I am hoping most of them will return as sponsors. I created a new version of the sponsorship document, it is in our Shared Docs. Our sponsorship list is also shared there. I am currently updating it for 2024. If anyone is helping with contacting businesses, please let me know.

Grants

On November 17 I attended a workshop in Custer about Grant Writing. I took a bunch of notes and it was a great workshop. There will be more in the next year. These events are free but a spot needs to be reserved. Derek plans to continue attending. I have shared my notes in our Shared Docs as well. I am going to use this information to help me with my Grant Writing. In the next month I am hoping to have grant applications out to Midco, First Interstate Bank and the State Arts Council. There will be many other grants to do throughout the year and I may need help with finding, writing and gathering information for.

GivingTuesday

We are participating in GivingTuesday this year. It is an annual event through social media. We are looking for $500 in donations, we will see how close we get to that. I have many different social media posts set to go up through the day highlighting our volunteers. I took info I already had from Kelsey and Heather and I got new quotes from Whitney Bridgers and Anna Robinson for it. If you have a chance please share these posts and info about GivingTuesday throughout the day tomorrow. All donations will be taken through our PayPal, the link is on our website. I will need to get with Kelsey throughout the day to get updates on the amount collected.

Sound/Lights

I finally finished the sound/lights document. I sent it to the Rec Center to be printed and laminated. I am waiting to hear back from Renee on a time for me to do some training with her staff. Once I have that time, I will put it out there for anyone interested in learning more about how to run lights and sound. This should help us out whenever we need to provide a lights/sound person for the Rec Center.

Annual Report

I am hoping to start constructing the Annual Report in mid-December so I will need reports by then. Refer to last year’s Annual Report if you have any questions. I will also start promoting the Annual Meeting later this week on social media.

Budget

One of the biggest things that came out of that grant workshop for me is that we really need to have an actual budget for 2024. We have never done an official budget but I think it would help us out. I will need to get information from different people on what they need to spend throughout the year to get this created.

Ancillary Materials

I would like to create some ancillary materials we can use in the 2024 season and beyond. I am working on a list now but it will include a couple of stand-up banners, other banners, rack cards, business cards and more. Once I have a full list I will come to the board for approval to pay for all of it.

OFFICER REPORTS: 

• President
  • Met with Nathan T on committee assignments and expectations. Still compiling printing costs and still planning to meet with Sharon.
• Vice President
  • Met with Nathan S, reviewed bank statements for audit. 
• Secretary
  • Nothing to report
• Treasurer
  • Current balance: $13797.42. Please make purchases by 12/15 for ease of fiscal year as this is when the credit card statement ends. 
• Creative Committee
  • Volunteer Appreciation
    • Creative Committee will handle Volunteer Appreciation this coming Saturday. We are going to spend a little on extra snacks for the event. Other than that, we will decorate, bring games, get the word out, etc. Sharon, can we use your tablet that has the karaoke software for the event?
  • One-Acts
    • We have decided on doing new one-acts written by myself and Nathan for this show. We will also use a short one-act I wrote for another event this past year. Stephanie Bussiere and Sharon will be directing these shows. I will get with them soon to get all of the details in and set audition dates for. I should have a budget for this at next month’s meeting. The rental has already been paid for at Community Hall.
  • Writer’s Workshop
    • I am working up the Writer’s Workshop and will hopefully host this in February. During this event we will be on the lookout for a play/playwright for use in GOAT later in the season. There should be no real costs with this event other than some promotions and posters. I will have that next month as well.
  • Improv
    • I am setting up a meeting with Geno to get this moving forward. We don’t really have any new information yet for this event.
  • Murder on the Orient Express
    • At Creative Committee it was decided we don’t have any one of our regular directors to direct this show. I have started reaching out to other groups to find a director. If anyone has any suggestions of who to talk to, please let me know.
  • Sherlock
    • There is no new information here.
  • GOAT
    • We don’t have much information on this show. Allie may direct it, but that is not set in stone, so again if anyone has any other suggestions please let me know. We have requested the Thursday performance date, but I haven’t heard back from the other theaters yet if that works for them.
  • Christmas
    • Rachel will be directing this show with Sharon. We are looking at doing The Best Little Christmas Pageant Ever, licensing will be purchased.
• Public Relations
  • Went to Soup giving event. Low engagement but maybe more in future. Still attending meetings with chamber, writers group, arts council, etc. 
• Membership Committee
  • Struggling to find time for newsletters with everything happening during the holidays. Still planning to purchase mail chimp subscription
• Grant & Fundraising Committee
  • Absent

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Scholarships: the following updates were made to rough draft of scholarship application:
   1. Scratch transcript request
   2. Clarify 1 letter of recommendation
   3. Submission instructions clarified-send to Derek and strip identifying info
   4. Submission date of 3/15 added
   5. Checking with high school counselor to see if adult signature needed
   6. Final app to be approved at next meeting.
2. FAB discussion: table

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Executive Director reviews:
   1. Due 1 week prior to next meeting. 
2. Committee assignments:
   1. Need to amend bylaws from membership chair to 3rd member at large. Planning an additional virtual meeting to discuss. Bylaw amendments must be announced 2 weeks prior to vote and this change needs to take place prior to annual meeting and elections. 
3. All submissions for the annual report due January 1st.

NEXT MEETING:

• 12/21/23. Executive session: 6:15 PM
• Regular meeting: 7:00 PM
• Special session: 12/6/23. 6:00 PM

ADJOURNMENT:

Motion: Nathan T, 2nd Sharon, passed unanimously

Submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman.

Grap’s Wineroom
7:00 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

Nathan S

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Nathan T, Heather, Kelsey, Angela, Derek, Sharon less than 5 minutes late, Allie absent

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motioned Kelsey, Second Nathan T, unanimous passage

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

Rec Center Committee

I was able to attend the Rec Center Committee meeting a couple of weeks ago. As of right now the City Council Committee is still running now and there is a Committee to figure out how a citizen committee will run this in the future and replace the City Council committee but this isn’t done. 

In initial discussions it seems like the idea is for this Committee to kind of run the Rec Center in a way as opposed to a Rec Center Director. There was also talk of a lot of day-to-day things being handled by several of the current managers in the Rec Center and having the City Administrator be a supervisor to it. None of this is set in stone yet, but it seems like the hope is to not have a Rec Center Director in the future, not sure what that will mean for us. I did also see that there is a job listing on the city site for a City Administrator so not sure if ours has left the job, and if so, how long that will set this process back.

There isn’t necessarily a lot for us to get involved in yet, once the Citizen Committee is set up, we should make sure to go to meetings and have lots of discussions with them. I did talk with the committee, they agreed with this assessment, and I did send a list of changes I think the theater needs and ranked by severity to them after they asked for it. Here is that list, I sent to the Committee chair, Stephanie Hobbs-Vetter:

High Priority

There really needs to be lights put on the stairs out in the seats so people can see steps when walking in the audience while the lights are off

Wheelchair seating, there really should be some specific wheelchair seating in the audience area. Also cannot reach dressing rooms from stage and vice versa for ada standards because of the stairs. 

We had maintenance start moving the power strip to the top of the stage, that got done but the cable holder was supposed to be moved as well, but wasn’t

Medium Priority

Before Nate left we had started looking into getting some more speakers for the front of the stage, I would still like to get this done at some point, I think this would help sound a lot in the theater.

We need to get a speaker into the light booth since it can be hard to hear what is happening from up there.

The theater really could use a new projector, the one that is there is quite old. It would be worth getting one that a person could bluetooth into, so whatever is playing can be run anywhere in the theater. It would also be helpful to mount the projector so it isn’t just plugged into the audience area.

Lower Priority

It would be very helpful to get some actual storage at the theater, we had spoken in the past with the rec about building some storage out back of the theater for storage of theater materials.

It would be great to move the sound system up into the light booth. It would also be great to get a new sound board that isn’t an ipad, but just a normal board. If we did do this, it might also be helpful to open up the light booth some more so it is easier to see and hear

Sound

We loaned out part of our sound system for a fundraiser on Oct 7 for BF Senior Center. I think it went well for them. I just got the system back, I will work to do a better job of requiring groups that borrow our equipment for them to return it to us as opposed to us having to track things down after the fact.

We ran sound for two Concert Series events in the last two months. The first went just fine, the second there were some issues. There was a noise all during the concert I tried to fix the whole night only to find out after it was the band’s board that was the issue. I need to do some more training for lights and sound people as well as finish the sound/light document I’ve been meaning to finish for some time. Now that the play is over I will be able to get this done. I spoke with Renee and she would like for me to do some basic training once the document is done with Rec Center staff as well.

Website

Now that the play is done I am going to be spending a lot of time and energy getting the new website done, my hope is still to have it launched by the end of the year. I still need bios from everyone.

Grants

I am going to start pushing for a lot of grants over the next few months including First Interstate Bank and State Arts Council. I may need some help getting these finished and as good as looking as possible since I am not a grant writer. 

*financial documents requested from treasurer to facilitate

Sponsorships

Now that the season is ended I am going to reach out to all of our current sponsors in November and give them a recap on the 2023 Season and see if they are interested in being a sponsor in 2024. I am also going to be going through my list again of contacting local businesses about becoming a new sponsor. I could use some help with cold calls, if anyone is interested. I am also going to be updating our sponsorship document to match new design standards and might make a change to ad size for our $1,000 level.

Annual Meeting

I would like to get a jump on the Annual Report if possible. I will start needing reports at the beginning of December to get them done in time.

House on Haunted Hill

The show went really great. The cast and crew worked very hard to pull it all off. Volunteers were a little light but we made it work. A huge thank you to Heather for directing the show, Nathan Thompson for doing lights, Angela for all of her work on the auction, Kelsey and Nathan for doing tickets and Sharon for helping with the bake sale. We had great attendance and people seemed to really love the show itself. Here is the recap:

• Friday Performance: 39 Adult Tickets; 30 Senior/Veteran Tickets; 26 Student Tickets; 2 Comp Tickets; 1 GOAT Free ticket; Total 98 Tickets
• Saturday Performance: 48 Adult Tickets; 18 Senior/Veteran Tickets; 28 Student Tickets; 2 Comp Ticket; Total 96 Tickets
• Sunday Performance: 36 Adult Tickets; 45 Senior/Veteran Tickets; 11 Student Tickets; 3 Comp Tickets; Total 95 Tickets
• Grand Total: 289 Tickets $3,100
• Bake Sale: 570.54
• Total Income: $3,670.54
• Total Expenses: $1,548.01 (Including Arts People Fees) We were slightly under budget for this show, $1,440. The only reason the expenses are more than that is because I added Arts People Fees into it now even though we haven’t included that in budgets in the past. I am going to start including estimates for fees in budgets for upcoming shows.
• Total Profit: $2,122.53

This Season

Overall this season went fantastic! We had 248 tickets to “Pride and Prejudice,” 488 tickets to “Rock of Ages,” 98 tickets to “GOAT,” and 289 tickets to “House on Haunted Hill.” We had a total of 1123 tickets. “Pride and Prejudice” and GOAT still used the $10 and $5 tickets and ROA and HOHH used the new pricing structure which helped on income. We will continue using this cost structure on everything except possibly excluding GOAT.

• Pride and Prejudice Profit: -$100.73
• Rock of Ages Profit: $1,491.95
• GOAT Profit: $297.76
• HOHH Profit: $2,122.53
• Ticket Profit: $3,851.16
• Show with the most profit: HOHH
• Show with the most expenses and income: Rock of Ages
• Most inexpensive show to produce: GOAT

Ancillary Materials

I have been talking with Kelsey about some ancillary materials we should produce this coming season. We should get a runner for the ticket taking table with info. Maybe a banner for the Bake Sale area. We will work on a Season Banner. I would also like to create some brochures and volunteer banners as well. Once I am ready to work on these individual projects, I will come to the board.

OFFICER REPORTS: 

• President
  • Planning to meet with Nathan t and Sharon for committee frameworks and membership after high school show is over. Will compile printing costs for next meeting
• Vice President
  • Filed annual report with the state. Donated filing fee
• Secretary
  • Submitted receipts for reimbursement
• Treasurer
  • Current balance $12124.11. reminder that Jan 1st must renew ed contract
• Creative Committee
  • Next Season
    • We have set the next season for BFACT. We are also looking at adding some Improv, we have spoken with Geno about spearheading this some. We also want to have a writer’s workshop as well as director’s boot camp this coming season as well.
    • Break a Leg: A Night of One-Acts
      • This show will be March 15 and 16 at Community Hall. The Hall is already reserved and paid for. We have yet to set directors and pick one-acts, we will be doing that very soon. Rent was 400 with a 250 deposit that will be returned. 
    • Murder on the Orient Express
      • This show will be June 28 – 30 at the Rec Center. We have dates locked in and licensing and scripts already paid for. The scripts have already arrived as well. We still need a director for this show.
    • Sherlock Holmes: A Live Radio Play
      • This show will be August 17 and 18 at Venue 519. The venue is reserved but not paid for yet. Tyler Schone will be directing this show and he is currently choosing which Sherlock Holmes story to do for this.
    • GOAT
      • This show will be sometime between October 10 – 13 at the Rec Center. We haven’t gotten the exact date picked yet but have some dates reserved through the Rec already. Sturgis will be joining us this year which means the show will be four days instead of three. We don’t have a director or one-act picked yet for this.
    • Christmas Show
      • This show will be December 13 – 15 at the Rec Center and Rachel Munce is directing. We don’t have a show picked yet, but it will be kid/family-centric. The dates are locked in.
  • Meeting
    • We will be meeting in the next few weeks to make some decisions on actual shows as well as talking about the Volunteer Appreciation event.
  • Volunteer Appreciation
    • We have set our Volunteer Appreciation night for December 2 at Grap’s Backroom. We are looking to go from 6 – 9pm. The Creative Committee will discuss exactly what we are doing at this event, if the Board has any suggestions let me know. This event will only include BFACT now, not FAB. We will pay for the full rental. This date is locked in with Grap’s but not paid for yet.
• Public Relations
  • Auction: $2335 taken in. a few things still to deliver. Most things picked up after show on Sunday. In future, online and in person at the same time is very tough. Need to better supervise distribution of items to prevent last second dishonesty in winning bids. Pumpkin fest was well attended. Sold $140 in raffle tickets. Still attending arts council meetings, writers group, chamber meetings. 
• Membership Committee
  • Oct newsletter out. Will start paying for mail chimp to make things easier in the new year.
• Grant & Fundraising Committee
  • Absent

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Scholarships – Belle Fourche high only. Seniors only. Tabled, final vote next meeting
2. Yearly state report –  completed 
3. Board planning day – tabled, will discuss with new board 

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Annual report – get working on them, please be ready to submit the beginning of December          
2.  rcvd check donation from an estate of 100. Nathan S will send thank you letter
3.  FAB met and discussed junior/senior. Look into doing a potential improv night for them? Perhaps contact scared scriptless
4.  potential fundraiser idea: date night with movie or trivia? Tabled

NEXT MEETING:

11/27/23 at 6:30 @ Graps

ADJOURNMENT:

Motioned Kelsey, Second Sharon, unanimous passage.

Submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman