February 22, 2024 Minutes

6:30 PM
Graps Wine Room

Call To Order:

VP Nathan Thompson

Roll Call:

Derek, Nathan T, Kelsey, Heather, AL, Mike, Sharon attended for first 15 minutes, left, and returned for last hour.

Approval of previous minutes:

Motion Al, Second Kelsey, Unanimous passage

Executive Director Report:

Sponsorship

Business sponsorships are winding down for the season. We have almost all of our sponsors back for the year with a couple of new ones. I am still waiting on a few checks to come in from a few people who have promised to sponsor. To date we are looking at $5,500.

The Farmhouse has said they will sponsor again, just haven’t got the final number yet, should at least be $1,000. I am hoping Jackson Dental will return as well, in the past they have been $1,000. I am also hoping to make a final push over the next couple of weeks before the One-Acts to get a couple of more in. My hope is to be at above $8,000 for the year.

Grants

We have received another $1,000 grant from BHE and are just waiting for the money to hit our account. This will be the third year we have received money from BHE. I am completing a program grant for the SD Arts Council and will send that either tomorrow or Monday, just waiting on a letter of support from the school before sending. We are requesting $5,000 for this grant. I have been told they can choose to do less than what we request. Overall I have a good feeling about this grant. It was pretty involved and a huge thank you to Heather for all of her help on it.

Tomorrow I will also be completing a grant request for the SD Community Foundation. I don’t have an amount yet on what we will be requesting, depending on their levels. This was a grant we had to apply to be able to apply to so I am hoping that is a good sign for receiving some funds. I will also be getting a grant ready tomorrow for Wharf Fund, the foundation out of the mine Coer Wharf.

Beyond that I will be applying for a Walmart grant in the coming weeks, we have received and been turned down before through them, so not sure on our odds there. I will also be looking into a Wells Fargo Foundation Grant. In March we can apply for a grant through First Interstate Bank. There are several others out there as well that I will work on in the coming months. My hope is to be around $9,000 in grants this season.

Rec Center Quoting

I am working with Renee who is the interim Rec Center Director on some quotes for some theater updates. This includes a new four wireless mic system, two of the mics have gone out. We are also looking at getting a new bluetooth projector for the theater and possibly to have it mounted so it no longer has to be out in the theater. Nate also started the process of getting a quote on new speakers. The plan wasn’t what I had in mind originally but after looking at it, I think it might work well. The solution would be a pair of curved speakers for the front that are designed for an auditorium like ours to fill the space. If that works, the back speakers could be moved backstage as monitors instead.

I need to get three quotes for the city on each item, that is a city requirement. I have spoken with Keynan at Stereos ‘N Stuff in Belle already and he is preparing quotes. I will also speak with Haggertys and Perfect Wave Productions out of Rapid City. I don’t think anything is on the fast track, but possibly some could be done this year.

Rec Center Improvements

I spoke with Renee about some small auditorium projects I would love to have done this year. She is going to talk with the city and let me know. The hope is to move the cable holder from the front of the stage to on top of it. This will hide cords better and be less noticeable to audiences. I also requested the power strip be swapped out with a black one, again to be less noticeable. If this project is done, the hope is to possibly refinish the wood on the front of the stage or paint it.

I also spoke with her about trying to get some lights on the steps out in the audience. Not sure what shape that project would end up but I wanted to let the city know about it.

Workshop

The Writers Workshop was at the end of January and beginning of February. We had 15 writers attend the workshop and about 15 – 20 people volunteer to read at the Showcase. A huge thank you to Kelsey for running the Showcase itself since I unfortunately became very ill during the Workshop and wasn’t able to stay for the whole Showcase. Also a big thank you to Allan for running the door of the Showcase. Overall I think the event went really well. I had Workshop participants fill out surveys at the end and all of the comments were overwhelmingly positive. Due to this, I am planning on holding an Advanced Writers Workshop and Showcase later in the year, all of the participants said they would be interested in that.

The Showcase was a big hit amongst the participants as well. We didn’t have many community members attend, but that wasn’t really the point of it. Everyone said they got a lot out of seeing actors read their scripts on stage and it gave them a lot of ideas on how to improve their scripts. Isabella Dietrich was a writer participant but she is also a leader of a student-led theater organization at BHSU. She brought over a handful of actors for the Showcase. I have spoken with her about finding other ways we can collaborate with her group.

This was also our first opportunity to work with Hunter Anderson. He is going to be taking photos of our events and for promotional materials this season in exchange for a sponsorship. The photos were great and I will be getting them online and on social media soon.

Black Hills Area Community Foundation

I was contacted by Eric Zimmer, Director of Philanthropy from Black Hills Area Community Foundation, about meeting up to talk about BFACT. I will meet with him on Monday, he was wondering about everything we do. I am excited to talk with him and see if there are any opportunities there.

Budget

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15zMriIJ2qlI1G3UjWepGqYo9w0gupMyrSES4hcDXcRg/edit?usp=sharing

I have worked up a basic Budget for the 2024 Season. We have never had an official budget like this in the past so it is a bit of a learning curve for me. I am hoping that this should cover everything we need to do. It is an increase from $26,918.80 from last year. That is covered by the ED raise as well as more programming for the year. I will go over the budget and reasonings behind it with the BOD.

Volunteer Workshop

Now that we are members of the American Association of Community Theatre, we have access to free virtual workshops. I attended one this past Wednesday, AACT Roundtable: Recruiting, Retaining, and Recognizing Your Volunteers. It was really great and worthwhile. I took notes and came up with some ideas when it comes to volunteer outreach. I also found some information on a possible free volunteer tracking solution we can use. My notes available upon request.

Ancillary Materials

I am still hoping to create some ancillary materials for this season and beyond. This project has taken a bit of a backseat recently with getting the One-Acts going as well as all of the sponsorship and grant work. I am hoping to get back to it and get some things in before the One-Acts in March.

Teen Court

I was contacted by Christine Allen, she used to work at the Homestake Opera House and is doing some contract work still, about her involvement with Lawrence County Teen Court. We are on her list as an organization students can get in their community service hours with. I have given her our list of shows and she might be able to provide some kids to help with our performances. We will see how the One-Acts in March go. If this works well I will reach out to the Butte County Teen Court and see if we can get on their list as well.

Wellness Fair

I have signed up for space at the Belle Fourche Rec Center Wellness Fair. The cost was $40 and has been paid. Angela has attended this event the last few years. The event is on April 13, starting at 8am. We can setup the night before at 5pm. We will need a volunteer or two to help man our table and setup. My hope is that I will be able to attend as well.

Concert Series

There are Concert Series events coming up on March 22 and May 9. I should be able to do the March event but will probably need someone to run the one in May. I will talk with the new volunteer committee about lights/sound people for events and get a list of possible people. I ran lights and sound for a Concert Series event on January 29 and it went very well and we got some nice compliments on how it sounded.

Officer Reports:

President
- Absent
Vice President
- Nothing to report
Secretary
- Nothing to report
Treasurer
- Current balance $10,938.01. Donation received from Walmart spark of $5. Filed 1099 for Derek and filed governor’s report.
Creative Committee
- Meeting
  - We will be having a committee meeting on March 1 to talk about everything coming up in the 2024 Season.
- Break a Leg
  - Auditions went great and the casts have begun practices for Break a Leg: A Night of One-Acts. I worked with Hunter on getting photos for the poster and that will be done this coming week. Everything is proceeding well with the show and the production date will be coming up very soon. We will need volunteers for ticket taking, bake sale, and ushering. We will also need to set up and tear down chairs at Community Hall for this production. If anyone on the Board is interested in helping, please let me know. I am also hoping to work with the new volunteer committee to help track down volunteers as well for this. We ended up having to pivot with this show, originally the one-acts were going to be all original by Nathan and myself, but we ended up having to make a change. Two of the scripts are written by me and one was purchased.
  - I have a budget created for this event:
    - Licensing: 180
    - Purchased Scripts: 53.70
    - Community Hall Rental: 400
    - Scripts Shipping: 11.60
    - Printing: 50
    - Advertising: 50
    - Costumes, Set, Props: 300
    - Total: 745.30
  - We have already purchased the scripts and paid licensing for Nobody Sleeps. We have also paid the Community Hall rental as well. We had to pay a $250 deposit, but we should get that back after the show.
  - Motion to app budget: Nathan T, Second Mike, unanimous passage
- Murder on the Orient Express
  - I have been working closely with our director for Murder on the Orient Express, Melita Quinonez. She is very excited and has a lot of great ideas for the show. I know she will do amazing. We are in the process of finalizing audition dates as well as the full schedule and should have that approved by next week. We have already paid for licensing and scripts for this show and I should have a finalized budget by our next meeting that includes everything else.
- Workshops
  - The Writers Workshop went so well we are hoping to have a few more this season. The hope is to have an Advanced Writers Workshop and Showcase as well as a Directors Bootcamp and possibly an actors workshop as well. Hopefully I will have concrete plans in the next month or two for these events.
- Improv
  - Improv has hit a bit of a snag. We were hoping Geno would be able to lead this program, but unfortunately he will not be able to. My hope is to still move forward with this program this year, but maybe not until much later in the year. We need to find a new person to lead it. We will be talking about this at the next Creative Committee meeting.
Public Relations
- Attended arts council photo contest on behalf of the theater
Membership Committee
- Transitioning to volunteer committee. Currently working on newsletter. Meeting with derek and working on forming committee. Working on collecting data from one act participants.
Grant & Fundraising Committee
- Not currently in use

Old Business:

Chamber silent auction donation needed by 3/18: agreed to donate tickets for Murder on the Orient Express
Cleanup of Drive: tabled, to be discussed with Nathan S

New Business:

Determine Committee chairs for members at large: tabled, suggested makeup
- Sharon : Volunteer committee
- Al: fundraising committee
- Mike: PR committee
- Official appointments must be made by President
Discuss strategic plan committee: tabled, something to work on later this year
Discuss long and short term goals: tabled, this is part of the above item.
FAB wanted to do a murder mystery dinner theater for April/May, do we have suggestions? Can we do it? To discuss at next meeting.