August 14, 2023 Minutes

Grap’s Wine Room
6:00 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

Nathan S

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Nathan T, Heather, Kelsey, Angela, Sharon, Derek

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motioned: Sharon, Second Angela, unanimous passage

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

Sponsorships

Before “Rock of Ages” we were able to get a $500 sponsorship from Schreier Engineering and a $1,000 one from the Farmhouse in Spearfish. Both made it to the programs and I am happy to have them on board. I am done pushing specific sponsorships for the season but will start back up in the winter with our existing sponsors. We finished the season with 3 Assistant Director level sponsorships, 7 Actor level sponsorships, and 6 Patron level sponsorships. We also received 3 business donations and have 3 in-kind sponsorships. Grand total in business sponsorships and donations, $8,200. Grants are my next big push to finish out the season. Lastly Print Mark-et expressed interest to me at “Rock of Ages” of sponsoring program printing, so we will use them for GOAT.

Rock of Ages

“Rock of Ages” went fantastic. We had a great run and entertained a lot of people. We had 33 volunteers between directors, actors, and tech. On the Thursday performance we had 122 tickets for $1,400, Friday was 92 tickets for $1,100, Saturday was 123 for $1,525 and Sunday was our biggest with 141 for $1,930. All total we had 488 tickets and made $5,955 from ticket sales. I am not sure where the bake sale ended up in total, but it was a good amount. We did go over our projected budget of $4,723.82 by $157.34 ($4,881.16). This was mostly due to the printing we did fully account for. Overall we were really able to keep costs low on this show when it came to what it took to put it on. Scripts, licensing and rec center rental was $3,952.82 which means we did everything else for less than a $1,000. I think the ticket increase went over just fine and and was worth it on our end. I want to thank everyone who participated and helped with this show, it was quite a success.

Painting

The Rec Center will be getting us paint to paint the stage this Wed. I would like to paint the stage before the show next weekend. Unfortunately, I will be out of town starting Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. That means, would anyone be able to take lead on getting this done? The best thing to do would be to paint during the morning or afternoon on Saturday and then do a second coat on Sunday? No one is available currently but hopefully will get it done before Halloween show.

Tickets/merch

Considering raising tickets for next season. It cannot be don’t for GOAT as we already agreed on a price with the other theaters but may be able to be done for the Halloween show? $15 adults, $10 seniors and veterans, and $5 students. Will work on new designs for merch store and promotion.

OFFICER REPORTS:

President
- Want to move forward with archival project with assistance from Nathan T. Also want to meet with Sharon on personal sponsorship with the plan being to launch it next season. Planning to perhaps do a membership drive prior to annual meeting. Will start uploading archival info to the drive.
Vice President
- Nothing to report
Secretary
- Nothing to report
Treasurer
- Rock of Ages bake sale total: $771.86. Thursday was our biggest night for donations. Arts people fees so far for ticketing are $353.75. Current bank balance $13823.32. Tshirt invoice in. 20/shirt, 2 to concord for licensing, 16 to vendor, approx. 50 cents for taxes = $1.50 made per shirt. Still working on getting signature cards for the bank.
Creative Committee
- Meeting
  - Hope to have shows picked before Halloween show. No musical this season. Once shows are picked, a season banner will be created and promoted. 8’x3’ banner is the largest size the rec center and accommodate for us. We can hang it 3 weeks prior to shows. Planning to hold the volunteer thank you night on the same day as Fab, December 2nd. Plan would be to share rental costs but for Fab to mostly have their event first and ours after.
  - Tentative season plan:
    - Valentines Day: Dinner theater?
    - March: Night of one acts
    - June: Agatha Cristie
    - Early Oct: GOAT
    - Late Oct: Radio Show
    - December: Kids Christmas show
- GOAT 2023
  - The one-act is proceeding well. We had a decent turnout for auditions which is great. Practices have started and are going every night until the show. Promotions have started with the show, posters should be out now. I will be taking photos with the cast on Wed to start really promoting on Facebook with good pictures. I will be at the theater on Wed and next Mon to help Spearfish and Lead get used to our stage and tech so Allie doesn’t have to worry about that and can just practice. Tickets for this show will be back to $10 and $5, we already agreed on this price with everyone months ago. Friday the 25 will be at Spearfish, Saturday here and Sunday in Lead. Everyone is very excited and I think this will be a heck of a show. I will talk with people about the various volunteers we need for this show.
- House on Haunted Hill
  - Things are starting to gear up with this show. Heather will be directing with me as Assistant Director. We have auditions set for Sept 6 and 7, which we will start promoting later this week. We are working with the Rec and the school on a finalized schedule for practices, hopefully we will have that by next week. I have a proposed budget for the show of:
  - HOHH Budget
    - Licensing: 0
      Scripts: 0
      Rec Center Rental: 600
      Printing (Scripts, posters, auditions, etc): 100
      Misc (Include Photo Booth): 140
      Advertising: 50
      Costumes & Props: 300
      Set building: 250
      Total: 1440
    - Motion to app budget: Angela, Second Sharon, unanimous passage
Public Relations
- August – Appreciation Bags for GOAT Casts – Positive Potato and looking for other suggestions. How many do we need? Give them out at our performance in Belle on Saturday the 26th?
- August – BF Writers extended submission deadline for “Life’s Landscapes” Anthology until the end of August – submit your poetry or short stories (under 2,000 words).
- September – Fall Kick Off Open House at BF Rec Center on Sunday September 10th (1-4pm). Need visuals and/or posters for our table. The usual door prize and raffle?
- October – Silent Auction – online event via BFACT FB page October 14th-19th then paired with live event for hybrid auction during our Halloween Shows October 20th – 22nd.
- October – Pumpkin Fest at Tri-State Museum on October 15th – advertise auction and show. Also, would very much like to have 2024 Season Posters to hand out at this event – Doable?
- November – Give Big Campaign – Week of November 27th – awaiting details for Souper Opener from chamber – will put BFACT in for free money and see what we get.
- December – FAB is looking at Christmas Karaoke event at Grap’s on Saturday December 2nd at 2:00pm – if this solidifies, would be a tag-team event with FAB & BFACT – good idea?
- January – Annual Meeting – Meeting set for January 13th at 7PM
- Feb / March – 1903 Readers Theater’s “Dark Secrets” postponed until the Spring due to lack of folks at August auditions. Cross-pollinate and have a few BFACT regulars in this show?
- September 24 – Membership Gala Sept 21?
Membership Committee
- Working on August Newsletter, planning to meet to discuss individual sponsorships
Grant & Fundraising Committee
- Chair Allie absent

OLD BUSINESS:

Vote on Bylaw – Motion to app: Derek, Second Nathan T, unanimous passage

NEW BUSINESS:

Auction – on track for promotion during Halloween show
Scholarships- Nathan T and Angela will work on getting templates together on scholarship applications.