Rec Center Montan Room
7:00 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

President Nathan S

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Sharon, Heather, Kelsey, Allie, Derek, Angela, Nathan T arriving 5 minutes late.

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motion Angela, Second Allie, unanimous passage

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

Funding

Still looking for grants. We were turned down by Walmart for a grant. $250 received from Walmart spark for being among the first to sign up. We have not yet heard from any of our other grand applications. The check from Double Star computing has still not turned up, we will ask for reissuance.

Theater Cleanup

June 10th and June 11th, 9AM on the 10th and 1PM on the 11th. On May 30th, we will be receiving a couple drawer units from DSS for small object storage options. Some things may be offered up to members for a couple days before trashing. Nate is trying to get a dumpster for us. 

Website

Still making progress on the website redesign/update. The board will be scheduled for headshots to add to the website during photo sessions for Rock of Ages

OFFICER REPORTS: 

• President
  • Contract signed by Derek. Have not yet heard from the IRS on address change but it has been submitted. 
• Vice President
  • Will complete quarterly audit prior to next meeting
• Secretary
  • Nothing to report at this time
• Treasurer
  • Bank account balance: $9353.25.
  • Pride and Prejudice gross income rcvd: Tickets: $2015, Bake sale: $574.09
  • Rcvd final payment from amazon smile of 14.46. Treasurer requests to purchase a new deposit book.
  • Motioned: Angela, Second Nathan T, unanimous passage
• Creative Committee
  • Pride and Prejudice
    • 248 tickets sold, 23 comp tickets. Of comps, some were volunteers, some punch cards, and a couple sponsor tickets. We wil be planning to increase the price of tickets to $15 regular, $10 senior/veteran, and $5 student for Rock of Ages. ticket price will go back to normal for one act and halloween show this year. Will discuss potential change in ticket prices for next season. 
  • Rock of Ages
    • All advertising will include content warnings for adult situations and language on all our promotional materials, as well as advance notice of increased ticket prices. 
    • Rock of Ages Budget:
      • $3158.82 scripts and licensing 
      • $800 theater rental
      • $550 costumes and set
      • $4723.82 Total budget,$3158.82 paid by previous vote, additional $1350 requested 
      • Motion: Nathan T, Second Kelsey, unanimous passage
  • One Acts
    • Allie will be directing, Tyler assistant directing. Auditions will be during Rock of Ages and practice will begin after Rock of Ages wraps up. 
  • Jam Camp
    • The theater will be doing a theater camp with the Jam summer/after school program June 6th through June 8th
  • Michelle Evans with the Belle Walking History tours has requested actors for monthly events beginning June 30th and continuing to September. We promote this event on our social media and encourage members to contribute if possible.                                   
• Public Relations
  • Angela will attend Riverfest to promote the theater on June 10th. She continues to attend meetings with the arts council, tri state museum, and the chamber to keep us abreast of community events and reinforce our presence. There will be a readers theater at the tri state museum in August, it will not be the same weekend as the one acts. 
• Membership Committee
  • June newsletter just went out. 34 opened, 11 link clicks, and no unsubscriptions. We will continue to promote the newsletter to get more people interested. Interested parties can now sign up for the newsletter list on our website. For some reason, newsletters go out saying “Derek” instead of “BFACT” on the sender line of the emails. Derek will look into fixing this issue. 
• Grant & Fundraising Committee
  • The karaoke fundraiser committee meeting will be Tuesday, further details to come following this meeting. The online auction has been moved to Fall. We will potentially auction some things we were planning to toss during the theater cleanup during this. Angela will assist in planning and prep for the auction which will be cross promoted with the halloween show. 

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Diversity statement -We are proud to create art with our community and have a commitment to celebrate and welcome all participants, volunteers, and patrons to our program regardless of perceived or actual race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.
   1. Motion to accept wording for official vote at next meeting: Allie, second Angela, unanimous passage.
2. Proxy voting – tabled to finalize next meeting
3. Show merch – Derek will research but may not be able to do to Rock of Ages licensing restrictions we have already agreed to when rights were purchased. 

NEW BUSINESS:

1. 4th of July Float – Nathan T will organize. Will register with city hall. Driver, trailer, and candy needed. Float banner will be for Rock of Ages, Nate has already given permission for us to hang it in the rec after the parade. 
2. Show budgeting overage procedures – bounced to the creative committee to handle. Pride and Prejudice had $400 budgeted, motion to reimburse Angela an additional $600
   1. Motioned Sharon, Seconded Nathan T, unanimous passage.

NEXT MEETING:

June 17th 10 AM at Black Hills Diner

ADJOURNMENT:

Motioned Allie, Seconded Angela, unanimous passage.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman

Los Agaves
7:00 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

President Nathan S

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Nathan T, Heather, Allie, Sharon, Angela, Derek in attendance

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motioned Angela, Second Allie, Passed unanimously

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

Sound

I haven’t learned anything more about the sound system upgrades and with Nate on honeymoon we won’t hear anything until later next month. In the meantime I did create a document that has instructions on how to run sound and lights. I am in the process of finishing that up and then once Nate is back he will look over it and help me get it printed and possibly laminated and placed with the sound and light boards to help people with using them. Once these are all finished, I will start working to train new people on the light and sound boards. Will also speak with Nate at the rec about having someone look at the lights: there have been issues with the house lights not turning off in the last couple months. 

Since we are unsure of what to do with the three additional hanging mics we have until we get new speakers in, I may place them on the ground in other places on the stage to help with sound for ‘Pride and Prejudice.’

Website & Newsletter

Now that the design is done on the new website, if anyone has any other suggestions or comments please feel free to let me know soon, I have begun work on the build-out. This will take some time to do and the current website will stay live until the new one is finished.

I also helped Sharon with getting all of our volunteers in MailChimp and created a basic template to use for the newsletter. I am also working on changing out all of that information on the website about how to sign-up. Thank you Sharon for getting the newsletter out for April!

I will be doing a photoshoot for the BOD for the new website soon, I will let everyone know when. I would also like very short bios from everyone. This should only be two to three sentences long. They should be written in third person.

Grants and Sponsorships

We have now received sponsorship checks from everyone who has said they will sponsor this season except for one. I am going to make a final push next week on businesses to see if we can pick up one or two more but then the extent of business sponsorships will be done for the season. I am still working on grants though. At the end of March we applied for a grant from the Beyond Idea Grant for $5,000. Thank you Heather for your help on this. We are waiting to hear back on grants we submitted to Midco Foundation, Monument Health, Walmart, the Max & Victoria Dreyfus Foundation and the Beyond Idea Grant. All total that is $19,500. Chances are we won’t get many or any of these, but I am hoping at least one or two come through.

Walmart has started up a program for nonprofits called Spark Good. We got signed up and it works a lot like Amazon Smile, if people purchase things online through Walmart, we can get a small percentage. I have already posted about this on our social media, but I will post more still. Since we signed up so early, we are supposed to be given $250 from Walmart, it is supposed to show up in our account soon.

Theater Cleanup

I will start putting the word out in May, but we are set for the theater cleanup on June 3 and 4. This will be a joint venture between the Rec, the school and us. The school has cleared out part of a shed on the football field and some of our larger pieces will need to go there. The Rec Center has requested that everything we have fit in the cage, small room and under the stairs in the garage and behind our black walls we built on stage left. We can still have items behind the back curtain, but there has to be room for people to be able to cross the stage there. That means some things will go to the shed, things will be organized and several things will be tossed. Nate is still working on getting storage built at the Rec, this work we will do will go a long way to showing the city council we are willing to work with them and the Rec and hopefully help us get that longer term project going. The school is still hoping to have that storage area at the middle school done and we can store costumes there, but there is no specific ETA. Hopefully this coming school year. There has been some talk of pushing this cleaning weekend out to another weekend, but we don’t have anything definite set there. As of right now, the work will be June 3 and 4 and we will need many volunteers to help.

OFFICER REPORTS: 

• President
  • Getting Derek’s contract signed is a priority to be completed prior to next meeting. The rec center board is going from a city board to a community board that will also oversee parks. Plans to monitor transition and keep abreast of how this may affect us. 
• Vice President
  • Nothing to report 
• Secretary
  • Nothing to report at this time
• Treasurer
  • Bank Account $13,130.09. Didn’t get a chance to work on virtual meeting bylaw update. BFACT physical address should be changed with IRS. Nathan should get a letter in the mail when it is processed. (submitted prior to meeting in absence)
• Creative Committee
  • We met recently with the Creative Committee and will have another meeting coming up very soon. We recently announced our full season lineup which has gotten pretty good traction. We have begun very preliminary planning on next season as well.
  • Summer Camp
    • We have things lined up for sure with JAM to work with them on a summer theater camp. It will be the week of June 5 – 9. The actual days and times are being worked on as well as the curriculum. We are very excited about this partnership and will have much more information next month.
  • Pride and Prejudice
    • Things are moving forward on this show. We have begun our marketing push on this show with having the poster created and social media campaign starting to run. I will be going back several times in the next few weeks for more pictures and hopefully some video we can run to promote the show. Tickets are on sale now through the website. The news will be back to do another story on the show on May 2. We have some good buzz on this show already and will continue to push it to get the best attendance possible.
  • Rock of Ages
    • We have officially been given the go-ahead to do Rock of Ages. We have already paid for everything, which came to $3,158.82. Scripts and music will be coming in during May. I will be directing this show with Toi as Assistant Director and Sharon as Musical Director. We have set auditions for May 23 and 24. Now that HS musical is done, I will work with Toi and Sharon to get the auditions fleshed out and then start promoting them as well as a schedule and budget. This show already has a lot of buzz around it, so I am expecting it to do well both in terms of volunteers and audience.
  • Getting Our Acts Together
    • Allie is directing our one-act as part of this show and we are currently working on finding a script for this show. We have decided to purchase one this year instead of an original. Tyler Schone will be a back-up director in case Allie is unable to finish the show.
  • House on Haunted Hill
    • Heather will be officially directing this show with me as Assistant Director. We don’t have much information for this show yet, but it will start gearing up as the season progresses.
• Public Relations
  • Attended chamber charity dinner. Attended rec center wellness fair and gave out cards. Contacts to be added to member newsletter lists from door prize sign ups. Riverfest will be signed up for. As the costumer for Pride and Prejudice, Angela reports that she overspent on costumes. Budgeted $400, spend $2000. Though she does not expect full reimbursement, it is suggested that period pieces have a more generous budget for costumes. It is also recommended that we develop a plan for how to handle situations that go over budget in the future. 
• Membership Committee
  • Membership committee met on April 10th at 10:30am. Derek reviewed how to use the Mailchimp email platform to design the BFACT Newsletters. Discussion was held on how much content to include in the monthly Newsletter as well as the ideal timing to send out the email. Sharon will format the email to be sent out the week prior to the BOD meeting as well as finish inputting the new volunteer forms from P&P cast and crew. Derek will create the graphic for the Season and the shows to be include in the Newsletter, as well as upload the contacts from the shared file to the MailChimp platform. With just a few hiccups and delays the first Newsletter went out to 86 contacts on April 20th. The second Newsletter will hopefully be released a week prior to Rock of Ages Auditions and announce the fundraising Karaoke Event. Meeting info will be included in newsletters as wells as show and committee spotlights. Spark good link will also be added. Engagement was good. 48% opened, only one unsubscribed. 4% clicked links. 
• Grant & Fundraising Committee
  • Chatted with roxy at the branding iron. We will not be charged to hold the fundraising event. In the main restaurant so we can have servers and bartenders. Short on availability, tentative date of july 14th from 8 to 11. Something borrowed no longer has karaoke machine but a dj we reached out to told us how to do it on our own for free using karafun.com. Promotion to begin shortly. 

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Diversity statement – tabled, Kelsey not present
2. Proxy statements – tabled, Kelsey not present

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Show merch – will be looked into prior to Rock of Ages

NEXT MEETING:

Mayy 22nd, 7 PM Rec Center

ADJOURNMENT:

Motioned Angela, Seconded Nathan T

Submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman

Grap’s Wine Room
7:00 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

President Nathan S.

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motion to approve: Angela, Second: Allie, passed unanimously

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Nathan T, Kelsey, Heather, Angela, Sharon, Allie, and Derek in attendance

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

I had meetings with Sharon and Allie over the last couple of weeks. We spoke about Membership and Grans & Fundraising. I think both meetings went great and we will talk more during their reports. I also created a document in our Shared Drive for an email list of everyone who has participated and signed-up in the past.

We have received checks from Alpine Impressions, Jackson Dental and BHE which is great. We are still waiting on three checks from businesses that said they wanted to sponsor, I will work on getting those over the next few weeks. I am also going to make one more big push at the beginning of April to hit places that haven’t committed one way or another on sponsorship, but then I think we should consider business sponsorships done for the year. There is the chance some others may come up, but we will have hit up almost every business in town and some in Spearfish. As far as grants go, I have a big one I am finishing up now that has to be in by the end of March. We are still waiting to hear back from Midco Foundation, Walmart and Monument Health on grant requests we already submitted. I will continue on grants all season, there will be no real end date on those. I am still hoping for a few thousand more in grants this season.

I will be meeting with Nate and Adam from the school tomorrow to talk about theater storage. Adam has an update on the storage area we have talked about before. Nate and I will also go over our contract with the city again. He did talk to the city about a discount for us, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. There is a chance the rate may go up in the next year or two as well. Nate and I spoke and he should be getting quotes on new speakers for the front of the house in the next week or two. We still may need to contribute depending on the quotes. 

As the HS musical gets going I am going to be setting up the wireless mics for them and writing up instructions on how to use the sound and light boards. I have had to go in several times in the last month because either system wasn’t working correctly. All of the times the issue was a change was made to the boards by someone. Just a reminder to everyone on the board, I will mention to other groups as well, to not try and troubleshoot much on the boards. If there is an issue to contact either Nate or myself.

OFFICER REPORTS: 

• President
  • Attended meetings with Allie and Sharon on memberships and fundraising. Planning to have executive director contracts signed before next board meeting.
• Vice President
  • Nothing to report, interested in assisting with lights and sound as per our contract with the rec center. 
• Secretary
  • Nothing to report at this time
• Treasurer
  • Bank balance: 12,872.09
• Committee Reports:
  • Creative Committee
    • Since Emma has left, we have asked Tyler Schone to join the Creative Committee and he has agreed.
    • Pride and Prejudice
      • Auditions will be this week for Pride and Prejudice. I think we have done a good job of getting the word out. Nathan and I were interviewed by the morning show for KNBN/KEVN on the 10th. The reporter told us she would be happy to come back again once we have some costumes and such and she might come up for other shows as well. It took some time, but Nathan and I were able to get a schedule worked out for practices for this show. The theater is being used a lot this April and May. We also worked up a budget for the show and I would like to get approval for it.
      • Licensing 390
        Scripts 183
        Rec Center Rental 600
        Printing (Scripts, posters, auditions, etc) 40
        Misc 50
        Advertising 75
        Costumes & Props 400
        Set building 350
        Total 2088
      • Licensing and scripts have already been paid via previous motion. 
      • Motion to app rest of budget:Sharon, Second Nathan T, passed unanimously 
    • Summer Musical
      • Unfortunately we were turned down for the rights to Mamma Mia so the Creative Committee decided to try for Rock of Ages instead. We have requested the rights for that show and are just waiting on approval. Our backup if that doesn’t work is Mary Poppins. If we do Rock of Ages I will be directing with Toi as my Assistant Director. As soon as we get approval on the musical I will create a season poster and announce the full season. Shows July 27th – 30th
    • Getting Our Acts Together
      • Allie will be directing this one-act and starting soon we will begin the process of picking this show. Shows Aug 25-27, Belle night is 26th
    • Halloween Show
      • We have decided on House on Haunted Hill for our Halloween show and it will be October 20 – 22. We will be finalizing other details over the next month or so.
    • Summer Program
      • Toi was supposed to check with the school about our potential partnership with JAM. I will hopefully have more information next month.
  • Public Relations
    • We wrapped up  Within the Law with 1903 Reader’s Theater performances on March  17th&18th, another potential reader’s theater in Aug. I’ll be at the BF Chamber Annual Banquet this Friday, March 24th. Will hand out business cards at the exchange event at the banquet. We’ll have a table at the Annual Wellness Fair at the BF Rec Center on April 1st. FAB variety show April 30th.
  • Membership Committee
    • The membership committee met 3/10 and discussed current membership benefits as well as goals – increasing participation, tracking memberships via a Google doc versus the Arts People platform,  formatting a newsletter for distribution to members and business sponsors.  We are looking at possibly changing the member benefits to more of a Personal Sponsorship format.  We will need to develop this concept a bit more clearly in the future. Currently planning to identify members who paid last year but have not paid this year for outreach. Also looking into surveying why people choose to or not to be members. Will be changing membership to match season/calendar year rather than membership being due a year from previous payment. Quarterly newsletter planning underway; will be looking into mail chimp(a newsletter service) to see if we can use their services as arts people has not worked well. 
  • Grant & Fundraising Committee
    • I met with Derek and Nathan this week to discuss what we would like to see from the fundraising committee. We agreed a large part of the committee’s purpose would be to search and apply for grants. We are also wanting to see some fun events that can get many people involved and create community outreach. For example, this summer we could have a movie night in the park that is free to attend but we can sell popcorn and soda. 
    • We discussed the possibility of a larger event, perhaps a karaoke night. If we solidify Rock of Ages as our musical, we could have an 80s themed karaoke night where attendees can pay to sing a song, or pay to make a member of the cast sing a song. 
    • We also discussed that we would like 2 to 3 more members to join this committee. They do not need to be board members, just people who like to be involved that I can lean on for planning help.
    • Planning to continue bake sales with shows and will also look into another summer auction, perhaps to coincide with Rock of Ages. 

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Fireproof Cabinet- City may have one, Nate with the rec center is looking into it. If one is not available, the city, the school, and bfact may purchase one together. Until then, paint will be stored near the piano backstage. 
2. Sound system lending contract – motion to approve current contract:Kelsey, seconded Allie, passed unanimously
3. Rec contract – See Executive director report
4. Address update with IRS – Kelsey will handle this month when the annual tax document is submitted
5. Review mission statement- Complete

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Redefine membership- see membership report
2. By law update and diversity statement (meeting virtually, proxy voting, immunity, and liability as per sd codified law 4723.27 and 4723.09) – Heather will write diversity statement, Kelsey will write meeting virtually and proxy voting, both with collaborate on immunity and liability statement. Exact language to be cleared at April meeting, announcement of upcoming amendment vote will be announced in accordance with bylaws, vote to amend will take place at May meeting. 
3. Individual sponsorships- agreed that this is not necessarily tied to membership. Tiers and promotion will be discussed by membership/fundraising committees. Tabled to discuss implementation at next meeting. 

NEXT MEETING:

April 24th, 7 PM Grap’s

ADJOURNMENT:

Motion to adjourn: Kelsey, seconded by Nathan T, passed unanimously

Submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman

Grap’s Wine Room
7:00 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

Nathan S, President

ROLL CALL:

Sharon Thompson (left about 15 minutes into meeting), Kelsey Gronlund, Heather Pittman, Allie Juso Verry, Angela Hastings, Nathan Schreier, Derek Olson, Nathan Thompson (arrived about 10 minutes into meeting)

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motioned, Kelsey, Seconded, Sharon, passed unanimously

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

Sound

Per board approval before the Annual Meeting, I got a check from Kelsey and purchased the sound system from Bob Olson for $350. It has the Microphone, two mic stands, two speaker stands, two speakers and mixing board. Right now it is stored under the stage for our use, but I think we should be open to lending it out, I or somebody else would probably have to be with it or at least help set it up. I think this could be a good way to work with other organizations in town.

I went through the various other wireless microphones in the theater. I made sure they all worked and made sure microphones were with the correct receivers and stored together. There are about 6 or 7 other wireless microphones other than the main set of lav microphones. I also purchased a couple of small lights for backstage and the light booth. Jacey had some during the Christmas show and they were so handy, I picked some up. I also purchased different kinds of batteries for the different microphones so if they ever have to be used, we have the right kind there.

I talked with Nate and the current plan in the theater is for the Rec to purchase some new main speakers to replace the Bose speakers. If these are powerful enough, we may not need speakers in the middle of the theater, it all depends. I am also waiting to hang the three microphones we were able to find in storage. Originally I was going to hang them in a row behind the current hanging microphones, but depending on how good the new speakers are, we may find some different placement for those microphones. We will just have to see when the new speakers are in. There is no current ETA that I know of, but I know Nate was hoping soon.

Once the High School musical starts they will need the wireless lav microphones setup. I am working with them on a time for me to get this done. My hope is once I get those microphones working again, we can just leave them in all the time for others’ use. I will also use this opportunity to work on an instruction guide on running sound and lights that can be left at the theater for people to look over if they need questions. I will also be trying to find some new people to learn lights and sound, several of the people we have had in the past are no longer in the area. We have to provide someone to run lights and sound for other activities as part of our agreement with the city. I am not always able to do them, so it is helpful to have several others who know how to run the system. If you know of anyone interested, please let me know.

Sponsorship

I have used my list of Belle Fourche businesses and have contacted everyone on that list, some several times. Most places have been given packets. I am going to be reaching out to straggles again over the next couple of weeks to make sure I hit everyone in town. So far we have more sponsors this year, but some for less than previous years. All in all, I think it has been successful. I am still hoping to get a few more business sponsorships before Pride & Prejudice in May.

As it stands now we have received money from, $500 sponsors: Black Hills Title; Black HIlls Diner; Pioneer Bank & Trust; SME’s Treats; Double Star Computing. We have received money from, $250 sponsors: First Interstate Bank; Wild Magnolia; Heartland Home Health & Hospice.

Michelle Watson from Kellar Williams has pledged a $500 sponsorship and Fast Break Screen Printing has pledged a $250 sponsorship, I am just waiting for checks from them. Allie has also worked on a $250 sponsorship from her workplace, just waiting on a check from them as well. I have also been told Dakota Lumber, Jackson Dental and Schreier Engineering are all wanting to sponsor again, but I haven’t received checks or amounts yet from them.

This is not a bad amount especially in conjunction with the $2,000 we know we are getting from BHE and BHFCU grants but I am still hoping for more especially with Mamma Mia! coming up.

Grants

I have begun work on getting some new grants this year for BFACT. We are not going to be eligible for any SD Arts Council grants this year so I am trying to expand out the types of grants we apply for. We have already applied for and got $1,000 from Black Hills Energy and BH FCU. We did request more money originally for each, but I am really happy we got what we did. We did apply for a Midco Foundation grant of $2,500, Monument Health for $5,000 and Wal-Mart for $3,000 but I haven’t heard responses from any yet.

There are other grants I am applying for, Kelsey just gave me some budget numbers for last year that I needed for a grant I am working on through The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation. I will complete that one coming up and hopefully we receive it.

We do not qualify for many grants I have found for various reasons and I could use some help searching for more grants for us to apply to this year. Since we can’t get any from the Arts Council, that is a chunk of money we need to replace this year.

We did receive $89.93 from the Center of the Nation Foundation from their giving campaign this year. I was told by them, this year was not as big as they had hoped, but are hoping it will be bigger this coming year and we should be able to participate again. Thank to Angela for getting us involved with this.

Storage

I spoke with Adam N from the school about the storage at the Middle School we talked about last school year. He said the plan is still to get those created, but I don’t think much progress has been made. Adam said he would let me know when progress happens, and the plan is still to let us use some of that space with HS/MS theater to hang costumes.

We have started storing paint under the stairs in the garage, it is a much better and cleaner place to do so. Toi had told me though that some of the paint may have gone bad due to the cold. I need to look into that. If it is causing the paint to go bad, that is not a good space for that. The only real solution might be to get a fireproof cabinet for the paint, but those are around $1,200. It might be something multiple organizations in town can go in together to get purchased.

Website

I had mentioned before that due to some technical issues, it would be best to move the BFACT website to WordPress over the next year. Due to some other technical issues, we can’t just move it over so the site has to be rebuilt. I am beginning the design process now, websites should be refreshed every few years, and it has been over three years since this one was created so it was about time anyway. If you have any thoughts, needs and wants for the new website, please let me know as I begin work on this. This will probably not be fully done until sometime later summer.

Black Hills Community Theater

I was able to have a meeting to talk with the new Executive Director of BHCT about various theater things a few weeks ago. It was interesting to hear some of the issues we have, are the exact same ones a bigger theater like theirs has. We did discuss that they have had trouble getting people to get involved in various workshops and the like, just like us. They had success doing a theater adult summer camp type thing, and I will speak with CC about this. It was also interesting to hear that they have most of their fundraising success with individual donors to their theater. I think this is something BFACT needs to look into. Merlyn, the new ED, is hoping to get more involved with other local theater organizations to see how we can help each other which I think is great and could help our reach. I don’t know exactly in what form this will take, but they have already said they would help push our FB posts of events which should be helpful.

White Rabbit, Red Rabbit

I was approached by the Homestake Opera House to participate in an experimental show they have coming up called White Rabbit, Red Rabbit. This is a one-person show, but the actor is given no direction, can’t know what the show is about and read the script until the show starts, so it is one big cold-read. This is apparently a pretty popular show and I will be performing it on March 16 at 7:30 pm. There are only 30 tickets for each performance. I think this is another way for us to get closer to other local theaters and get in front of different audiences.

OFFICER REPORTS: 

• President
  • Nothing to report
• Vice President
  • Nothing to report
• Secretary
  • No updates at this time.
• Treasurer
  • Current bank balance $11,330.06. January Amazon smile rcvd of $58.79
  • Memberships rcvd at annual meeting added to arts people
• Committee Reports:
  • Creative Committee
    • We were supposed to have a Creative Committee meeting last week but I had a sinus infection and had to reschedule. We will be meeting tomorrow instead. I am hoping in the next week or so to get the last of the dates all figured out and locked in so I can create a season poster so we can start getting them up around town.
    • Pride & Prejudice
      • Nathan will be directing Pride & Prejudice on May 12 – 14. He is figuring out his schedule now, which I will check with the Rec on. It sounds like auditions will be mid-March. Once we have those dates we will start ramping up promotion on this. Nathan and I will also work on a budget for this show and have it for the next meeting.
    • Mamma Mia!
      • We are currently searching for a director for this show. If we are unable to find someone, I will direct the show. Once we have that figured out for sure, audition dates will be set so we can promote this soon as well. For licensing and scripts, this show may come to around $4 – 5,000. Due to this cost I am working on some ways to offset it with possible special sponsorships or even some kind of fundraiser. That being said, sooner is better when it comes to licensing big shows like this and we don’t want to run into any issues. If we have enough money in the bank account to cover this potential licensing and any other costs we have coming up, I think we should get it purchased now and then work on some other ways to help pay for it after. I don’t have a specific amount, because I get quoted from the company once I start the process. I can communicate that with the board in-between meetings, but I would like approval to do this.
      • Motion to pay licensing for Mamma Mia by Angela, Seconded Allie, Passed unanimously
    • Northern Hills One-Acts
      • We have dates for the Northern Hills One-Acts, August 25 – 27. Sturgis was unable to participate again this year. The 25th will be in Spearfish, the 26th in Belle and the 27th in Lead. Everyone is very excited about this show again. Allie is directing
    • Halloween
      • We are still picking the Halloween show and working with the school to find the best dates for it that won’t conflict too much with their fall show. I will hopefully know more next month.
    • Summer Program
      • We have talked about trying to do a youth week-long theater camp this summer in conjunction with the school. As BFACT CC we really want to do this but would have trouble with all the logistics ourselves, that’s why we are talking with the school to see if we can partner with their summer program to create this. Toi was going to talk with the school to gauge their interest, I will hopefully know more next month.
  • Public Relations
    • Photography contest went well, planning to do it again next year. March 24th, Chamber dinner, Angela donating a pride and prejudice themed basket to silent auction. We are now members of the chamber. April 1st, Angela will be present at wellness fair at the rec.continues to attend arts council meetings, chamber meetings, and writers meetings. 
  • Membership Committee
    • Sharon reported before leaving that she had looked into what the previous chairperson was doing and was interested in remaining the membership chair.
  • Grant & Fundraising Committee
    • NA, Allie agrees to take on assignment 

OLD BUSINESS:

1. Rec center contract- Have not yet heard back 
2. ED Contract- Nathan S and Derek met to review. Review were overall positive. Derek requests additional support in some departments. For next year’s review process, it is suggested we revisit the language of the contract. Current review process discusses strategic planning which is not really something that fits this organization. Physical contract to be signed by next meeting time. 
3.   PEO meeting – Meeting attended by Angela and former president Toi. Members of PEO were highly interested in our organization and suggested adult acting workshops to help give potentially interested parties the confidence and experience to audition. 

NEW BUSINESS:

1. Discussion of mission statement – tabled due to absence of Sharon. 
2. Discussion of committee assignments – Angela, Allie, and Sharon all indiciated that they were interested in maintaining the current assignments of PR, Fundraising, and Membership.  President Nathan S. wishes to shift the focus from one chairperson handling all their duties to forming committees for each chair. 

NEXT MEETING:

March 20th 7:00 PM Grap’6s

ADJOURNMENT:

Motion to adjourn by Kelsey, seconded by Nathan T. Passed unanimously

Submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman.