December 16, 2025 Minutes
7:00 PM
Branding Iron
Call To Order:
President Nathan S
Roll Call:
Nathan S, Nathan T, Kelsey, Heather, Katie, Wes, Mike, Derek
Approval of previous minutes:
Motion to approve: Nathan T, Seconded: Mike, unanimous passage
Public member commentary:
N/A
Executive Director Report:
Grants
Now that the season is set I am going to approach BHFCU, BHE and then Midco and Walmart about Grants. Once that is done I will be looking at Arts Council and expanding out from there. I will be starting with generic grants to help with the season but I will be also looking for specific grants to help cover the cost of the kids’s camp.
Sponsorships
I have started contacting sponsors about 2026. I sent my initial sponsorship letter to our existing sponsors and have already heard back from Watson Hennessey Group, and they are back in, their check is on its way. I will follow up with the rest of the sponsors again at the start of the year. I will be calling people on the rest of my list on Thursday and will get through as many as a I can. Whatever I can’t on Thursday I will hit early in January and try and get the basic list done right away so I can see about expanding our business sponsorship search beyond that, Bella had made me a list of regional businesses to try as well.
It’s a Wonderful Life
That’s a wrap on It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. The show itself was stressful to get across the finish line, it wasn’t the easiest show to put together on short notice, and a big thanks to Bella for stepping in to cover it. The cast and crew did a fantastic job on the show and I heard nothing but compliments on the show, it was a big hit from everyone who saw it. We did have to cancel the Friday show due to weather unfortunately, but we weren’t charged Rec Center rental for that night. I am trying to see if we can get licensing costs back for that night as well, but I haven’t heard back yet from the company. I will follow up again later this week. Ticket sales across the board were unfortunately, not where I wanted them to be. I knew this wouldn’t be as well attended as some, but it was less than I even anticipated. I don’t think the weather helped at all. At the end of the day, I think it was not the right show to have for Christmas, and that was my call. Part of the reason we chose this show was to be a more low-key easier show to end a busy 15th Season with. Christmas is always hard to do a show so I wanted something simpler that wouldn’t conflict with everything and wouldn’t require as much. Which, in that respect, it was. We didn’t spend much on the actual show itself and there weren’t that many practices in the grand scheme of things and there was very little set to have to move around the other evens in the theater. What hurt us is how much things have increased in price. We chose this show back before we knew of the Rec Center rental increase, which is really about 2.5x as much as we used to pay. Licensing has also dramatically increased over the years, we now pay some for program printing, Arts People fees have increased and such, so while Bella kept costs low on her end, everything else has gone up. I think this was our best radio show, but we can’t afford to ever put one on in the theater again due to costs.
I am still waiting on final numbers from what we owe Arts People, so these numbers will change soon, but as of today we spent $2,408.97 on the show and made $999.51, that includes the bake sale. So we will have spent more on Arts People when I get that final bill but we might be getting a refund on some licensing, so we will see where we totally end up. We sold 110 tickets between the two shows. All in all, I am proud of the show that was put on, it was very well done and something that is a feather in our cap, it just unfortunately lost money.
Silent Auction
I am hoping to hold the Silent Auction right around the first of the year and I am still looking for items. We have the prints from Is He Dead? Some honey was donated and Angela donated six really great baskets we can put up. Hersruds has donated some and I am hoping to figure something out I can donate, but we still need a few more items, so if anyone has any ideas, just let me know. Thanks.
Next Season
The next season main shows are set, even if all of the shows aren’t. We have the night of one-acts which will probably be March 20 – 22, I need to go reserve Community Hall for this show. I have 2 of 3 directors set, Ari and Crystal, and am about to ask the third. I have talked with a few people I thought would do this, but ended up not being able to, but I am zeroing in on the final director. The directors will be picking their shows in the next couple of weeks. Then we will have our summer show directed by Bella on July 24 – 26. We are almost have that show picked, right now the top contenders are Little Women or Our Town. There is the possibility it could be something else, but I am hoping to have a decision made right after the first of the year. Then we will have GOAT on September 17, Sharon is directing that show and she will let me know on a script in the next couple of months. We will end the year with a Christmas show. Learning some lessons from this year, it will be a bigger show and Toi will be directing. We are possibly looking at Little Town of Christmas or Seussified Christmas Carol right now, but that could change. I am hoping to have a final decision on that in January. I am still hoping to have some smaller shows or readings throughout the year, but these shows are the main stage season.
Sound
Mike and I completed our basic training of the sound system and have a fairly good understanding of running it now. It is incredibly complex if you want it to be, but the basics are not that hard to do. Using something beyond a single wireless microphone is more than a regular person should just attempt though and would require someone to set it up and possibly run the sound. We have helped set up for a couple of shows at this point and run sound for a Concert Series and Mike ran sound for “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The sound is fantastic and so much better than it ever has been. The real test will be once we get to the High School musical, which is something we can help Nathan and Allie with. After the first of the year I will go into the theater and go through all of the old sound equipment, the Rec’s as well as ours and organize it and find places for everything. There are tons of cords sitting behind the main curtain that don’t need to be there anymore, and I want to get that cleaned up and all receivers put away and organized as well. The rec has talked about building some shelving for everything back there, I will work with them on what exactly would be needed in that regards to get the best possible usage out of that area.
Annual Report
Just a reminder, I would like all reports by the first of the year.
Workshops
We are scheduled for our first Workshop of the year, Improv with Geno on January 6 and 7. He will be planning and running this event. After this he will work up auditions that will lead into the actual Improv program we are setting up, so this is just the first step. I have also scheduled our first ever directing workshop on January 28. I will lead this and will focus on directing for Community Theater. Theory is great, and we will touch on that some, but I want to talk about the practicalities and realities of working within the community theater system. I will talk with our directors this year and have them attend, even if they are somewhat experienced; it could be a good refresher, but good to probably just require it and leave that going forward.
Website
I have been spending time on the website lately. I have been getting it updated, minutes and agendas, news and shows. I am working on getting the current season info up this week. I am also adding in new people to our Volunteer section to highlight and will eventually share them on social media after other announcements are made. I have also finally finished the production history of the website, all past shows are on the site. I would like to go back and add some more information to a few shows here and there, but the basics are there for every community theater show.
Officer Reports:
- President
- Reminder to complete the annual reports and executive director review
- Vice President
- Closed discussion
- Secretary
- Nothing to report
- Treasurer
- Bank $13,696.34
- Public Relations
- Engagement currently up due to Christmas show. About to promote annual meeting and silent auction
- Volunteer Committee
- Will do postcards for annual meeting. Volunteer appreciation hopefully in February. Derek is chair of a small temporary committee to plan this
- Fundraising Committee
- Working on silent auction
- Strategic Planning Committee
- Final review of draft.
- Motion to app draft: Mike, Seconded: Wes. unanimous passage
Old Business:
- Annual Meeting Date: 1/24/26 Branding Iron backroom. 2pm social hour, meeting at 3pm.
New Business:
- Board Retreat: will discuss dates with facilitator in the group chat.
Next meeting:
As reported above
Adjournment:
Motion to adjourn: Mike, seconded by Nathan T. unanimous passage
Respectfully submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman
