April 29, 2020 Minutes

Zoom Meeting
7:30 PM

Roll Call:

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

Reading and approval of the minutes of the preceding meeting:

Motion Jonathan/second Nathan to approve as presented

Review and approval of bills:

Motion Heather/second Nathan

Report of the Executive Director:

Website

The website is now launched. I will begin bringing in other content to it, such as information on previous shows. There is also a section for highlighting BFACT Volunteers that I am going to get up and running where I interview various people. I will also be working up a template for BOD bios that I will send out for people to fill out so we can expand that section.

I have created my bio and shared with the board. If possible, it would be great to get this page updated soon with everyone’s bios and better pictures so we can share this out to people now. I don’t want people to forget about this. The more content we can push now the better. Eventually I will take new photos of everyone, but in the meantime if everyone can provide me with a decent picture of them.

I also worked up questions for the Volunteer Spotlight section. I am going to start with Geno Pesicka and Darin Newton. I will get them the questions and then get that section on the website.

I also worked more with merch but have run into issues. The system I was going to use isn’t going to work, so I am trying to figure out the best replacement. I also did some research into taxes that will need to be paid on merch, there is a lot out there.

Merch

I haven’t gotten business cards yet, at this point I don’t see the point. Once things are more open I will get them made at Sand Creek Printing. I have also signed us up for Printful after doing a lot of research on various options. They are a print-on-demand company. We need a storefront so we will be going with Ecwid. This is free software I have used in my work. This will connect into our website. The free version allows us to only have 10 items in our store at one time which I don’t think will be a problem.

The way Printful works is that we set up different designs and then set the price point. We will be paid from the end-user and then we receive an invoice from Printful for the cost of making the product and shipping. So it will take a little figuring to get the pricing right, the nice thing is that Printful’s base costs are pretty good compared to some other companies. I will be working with Kelsey on figuring out sales tax and the like. My plan is to create a basic shirt to start with and then we can do cooler things later.

Taxes on merchandise are being worked out. We potentially will need to add the tax into the price of the merchandise and pay it ourselves instead of having Printful pay the taxes on our behalf.

Marketing

I have been talking with Nathan on ways to get our sponsors to the forefront while things are slow. Nathan is now pushing sponsors through our Facebook page. I will also be in touch with our sponsors about events we will have coming up once we have dates.

Renaissance Faire

I have helped Anna get this committee going, Robert has made her the chairperson. We had an initial meeting with Toi and Robert and started getting ideas down. Anna will start creating reports for the board as things get farther along.

Reports of Officers and Committees:

President
- Working on the radio play. Making a new crown for Mr. Beautiful Fork. Wondering if it would be a good idea to roll Mr. Beautiful Fork into the Renaissance Faire?
Vice President
- Wondering about doing something for kids? Kelsey suggested reading fairy tales-we’d need to look for public domain stories/material.
Treasurer
- Current balance is $3913.21. Paid $131.37 to purchase 150 checks/deposit slips/binder/business stamp.
Secretary
- None
Grant & Fundraising Committee
- Grant application did not get submitted this year, but we will have a better chance of approval in the future when we have more financial records.
Membership Committee
- It looks like people may still be missing in Arts People. Jonathan and Kelsey need to do an audit to see who is missing.
Public Relations Committee
- Social media is being updated regularly. The link for picture upload is active.
Creative Committee
- I was in the process of getting Mr. Beautiful Fork ready when we decided to postpone because of the pandemic. As of right now and after talking to the other contestants and Grap’s, we are just postponing this event. The goal is still to do this, just later in the Summer or even the Fall once things are more open. No other real info here right now.
- After talking with the Creative Committee we think it makes sense to cancel the Summer One Acts. Auditions would need to happen in a few weeks and experts are saying our peak may not be until June so I don’t think it would be wise for use to be doing practices and have the show right in the middle of this. I will contact the Rec Center and let them know about this.
- We are also going to move the dates for The Man Who Came to Dinner. This is set right now for July 24 – 26. We want to move this by a month to the end of August. I will contact the rights’ holder, DPS to see if they will allow us to do this. I don’t think it should be an issue with everything going on, besides we haven’t paid the invoice yet. I will also need to talk with the Rec Center about dates so once I have those I will let the Board know.
- As of right now we are still on for the September show with the other Community Theaters in the area. This is set for the end of the month so we should still have enough time to get this together while also pushing back The Man Who Came to Dinner.
- Since we won’t have anything until the end of August, the Creative Committee has decided on something else we can be doing in the meantime. We are going to put together an original radio play. I have already had a brainstorming meeting to start figuring out specifics. I am creating a writing room right now to get the creative sorted out. The end goal will be to put this on our YouTube channel, potentially other platforms as well, and do a premiere watch party through our Facebook account. This would be free but we should treat it like a show. Costs will be low, really only marketing. I will get writers and directors figured out and eventually hold some online auditions for actors. I think this is a unique thing that could get traction outside of Belle to the surrounding area. We will mention our sponsors just like a show, maybe even do little ads in the vein of old Radio plays. Plus we could tell people that if they want they can donate online to maybe get in some revenue from it. I would like this to happen later May or early June.
- The Man Who Came to Dinner
  - I was able to move this show after contacting the right’s company and the Rec Center. We are now set for August 28 – 30 with auditions on July 20 and 21. I sent the invoice to Kelsey to be paid but we may want to wait to pay that until we have to, just in case we have to move the show again.
- Radio Play
  - Working with the Creative Committee we worked up the idea of a radio play. From there I organized a brainstorming group and met and came up with some ideas. From there I created a writer’s group and we start solidifying our plan. We have met several times and the rough draft of the pilot is being written now by Robert and Isaac Otterman. This is based on their ideas, some of mine and some of the group. Once they have a rough draft we will discuss and refine as the group and then people will start writing more episodes.
  - Once we have enough episodes written we will hold online auditions and start getting some dates set up. The idea is that we will record episodes with the cast and I will edit them together and then we will put them up on our YouTube page and then we will hold a Facebook Watch Party to premiere each episode, if possible just a week apart. We will push donations that we can take on the website for people instead of any kind of charge. Once I have a date I will begin advertising it pretty heavily, will try and get as much Black Hills coverage as we can, maybe even statewide.
  - I will have to do some work to our website to work with this type of content. Will begin work once I have more things ready to go on this.

Old and unfinished business:

None

New business:

The middle school set needs struck from the rec center stage. Derek will notify volunteers of date/time to meet and assist with this.
Jonathan motioned/Kelsey seconded to give Derek an advance on July wages for the amount of $1171.88.