December 16, 2020 Minutes

Zoom Meeting
7:30 PM

ROLL CALL:

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

READING AND APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE PRECEDING MEETING:

Motion to approve as presented passed

REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF BILLS:

See treasurer report

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: 

I have been sick for the last couple of weeks so I wasn’t able to get the screen built for the Rec Center. I will be looking to get that done in the next few weeks, hopefully with some help from Board members and other volunteers. The Rec is wanting to have this done this year if possible. I am also working with the school for their various concerts coming up, getting sound and lights set up for them. I’ve done a little training with the Rec on sound and lights as well. I am going to begin work on an extensive document on how to run lights and sound in the theater. Will take a little while to do.

I have started working on Sponsorship materials for the coming year. After talking with Heather we decided to keep all of our sponsors we have now through the end of the year, which means they will all be sponsors for the Christmas show. Then on January 1st we will begin with new sponsors and that will run through like the end of September like normal. I am hoping to cram in a lot of stuff until then, shows, workshops, etc to help justify sponsorships with a shorter time frame. I sent out thank you letters to all of our current sponsors for their contributions and asking them if they want to sponsor again. I have heard back on some but I will keep pushing it. I will also be going after new sponsors after the first of the year, I don’t think there is much time to do that around Christmas time. I will try and get some help in contacting businesses to talk about sponsorships.

I applied for two grants this past month and one has come through. Black Hills Energy has awarded us a $2,500 contribution. I have been working with Kelsey to get all the paperwork in they need, I am hoping we receive the money soon. I applied to the SD Fund as well. I asked for $5,000 with that one, I am hoping to hear if we qualify in the next few weeks. I am keeping my eye out for more grant opportunities as well. I am hoping we might pick up a few more this year.

REPORTS OF OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES: 

  • President
    • No Report
  • Vice President
    • No report
  • Treasurer
    • Current balance $3750.94, additional $10 from Christmas show
  • Secretary
    • No additions at this time
  • Grant & Fundraising Committee
    • No report as chair not present
  • Membership Committee
    • Working on media blitz for member recruitment in January
  • Public Relations Committee
    • No report
  • Creative Committee
    • I have asked Hanna Bricker to join the Creative Committee to help me out with some projects. She will be going back to school East River soon but she said she would still like to help remotely. I am going to be doing a Creative Committee meeting towards the beginning of January to discuss upcoming projects.
    • Workshops
      • I am in the process of trying to work up a couple of different workshops to do over the next few months. Hanna Bricker does a lot of costume work and she said she would be interested in helping with a costume and prop workshop. I can talk about props and maybe get help with some other board members to come up with a cool workshop around that. Anna also knows a professional writer in Wisconsin that she has reached out to see if she would like to do a writing workshop. I think there are some people who could help lead that as well. There is a lot of details to be ironed out on any kind of workshop but I am going to start moving forward with this project idea.
    • Monologue Competition
      • We had talked about this a while back and I am going to start moving forward with this. We would have some select monologues that people could choose from and then people would perform them and put them online and we would create a panel of judges and give out some kind of prize for winners. Hanna is doing some research on monologues that can be used for this. This is in the early stages so I will let the board know when it is closer to being ready.
    • Christmas Show
      • I have been working with Nathan on our Virtual Christmas Carol. He has done a lot of the work to get this ready and is directing it. I have been working on the marketing and technical side of things. Nathan and I have figured out how we will stream this show, which is something we might be able to do again down the road. I had to work with Arts People some to get tickets figured out but the system is now working. We have sold a few tickets and I am hoping a lot more come in right before the show. I sent press releases to most of the media outlets in the area but didn’t get much response. The Pioneer is going to run a story though that Nathan wrote up. Hanna also helped me contact several different senior centers in the area and we sent out information to them. Some have responded and they are very excited about showing their residents. The show will still be online after the live show so the senior centers can show their residents who can’t watch it live. My plan is to make the show live to our YouTube page in a couple of weeks so anybody can watch it. The Tinsley’s donated money to sponsor the show which is great because we have had some hard costs, some marketing costs and the Rec is charging us $156 for the rental. I was able to get them down from their normal cost since we won’t have an actual audience there and we only need the theater for a few hours.

OLD AND UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

  1. SD Arts Council comments/recommendations can be sent to [email protected]

NEW BUSINESS:

OTHER:

NEXT MEETING:

January 20, 2021 @ 6:30pm via Zoom

ADJOURNMENT:

Motion to adjourn approved by all

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