June 29, 2026 Minutes
7:00 PM
Branding Iron
Call To Order:
Roll Call: Derek, Nathan S, Nathan T, Mike
Approval of previous minutes:
Mike motions – Nathan T seconds – Approved
Public member commentary:
None
Executive Director Report:
Center Stage Theater Camp
The camp went off very well a couple of weeks ago. I think overall Sharon did a great job and I am hoping to do a debrief coming up, wanted to give her some time after the event to relax before getting back to it. I am still waiting on some full receipts to get a picture of how much exactly was spent. We did receive some donation of snacks from Lynns Dakotamart and then past that they charged us for snacks, but did so at their cost so we are marking them as a sponsor. We did also receive a grant from Walmart for a $1,000 to help offset costs. At the Showcase we received about $197 in donations at the bake sale, I was hoping for more, but we tried to keep the ask slight so as to not make people feel like we were charging for the event. I am also still waiting for tshirt reimbursement from Sharon, there was some miscommunication between myself and Sharon early on about costs of shirts and we are only getting $10 per shirt but costs were around $18 per shirt, so we are going to eat some of that cost. JAM covered the Rec Center cost for any kid that came from JAM, and we covered from anyone not in the program. We ended up with 30 students total, some came here and there, which is a great number but about 17 were not from JAM. Some were too old and I’m not sure why others were not part of the program, I need to speak with Sharon about that. Which means we owe the Rec $300 for those kids for the length of the program. All told right now we are at $2,363.21 in expenses, that includes the $1,000 we paid Sharon. Again I am waiting on some receipts so I will know the full total later. This is a bit more than I wanted to spend but I knew going in this was going to be a learning experience, if we choose to do this again we know to get more sponsors or where to cut some expenses.
All in all, I think the camp was a great success though and Sharon was a great leader. The kids seemed to really love their time and get a lot out of it. We had a good turnout of volunteers and were able to teach a lot of different skills to the kids and many were able to try things they wouldn’t normally get to. I got to speak to some parents at the Showcase and they all seemed very appreciative and glad this camp existed and talked about how much their kids loved it. The Rec also told me that got lots of compliments about the camp. We got some good write-ups as well. So as a PR event, I think we got lots of goodwill and is something we can talk up very much in the future when applying for grants and sponsorships. I do think if we choose to do it again, there is a lot of work already done which could make it easier to put on again.
Rec Center Time Change
The Rec Center recently made a time change. We found out about it right after the change was approved through the city council, we were not alerted the change was coming. I was alerted by Jody a couple of days after the change was approved and told the following Monday the change would come into effect, June 22. The Rec now closes at 8pm every weekday and 6pm on the weekends. I asked if there could be anything done since we already had our schedule set for Minnesela but was told we could pay the $50 an hour after-hour charge to go past 8pm. This change will be in place through August and go back to normal in September. This is affecting Minnesela and the beginning of GOAT. We are making adjustments and making things work even though it is less than ideal, but the change is from the City Council and not much we can do about it, unfortunately. I am told the change was made to save money for the city.
Minnesela
Practices are going strong and even though we have had to move the cast around some, things are going well. The cast is excited and I think the show will play well in the community. I am ramping up marketing this week with posters coming by the end of the week as well as a social media blitz. I am also working on multiple news stories in the various papers and hopefully something on the news. I have also been communicating with the Roundup and will know very soon about a possible collaboration. Hopefully, that is the ability to have a table right inside the roundup and allowing us to have materials and actors present throughout the Roundup to promote the show. I have also been working on getting show sponsors for this one to help offset some cost and already have two, Pete’s Clothing and Maurice Hanify Ranch (Sheila West’s family ranch) to the tune of $700 so far with hopefully one or two more before the show starts. Also we got a donation to help purchase some nice prop guns from Colin in the show of $200. This is helpful because of the extra rental costs which are offsetting our savings of doing an original show. We have reached an agreement with Venue 519 to let us practice us there some over the next couple of weeks, so we can practice until 9 in exchange for a sponsorship, Michelle was going to let us do it for nothing but I insisted on giving her a sponsorship. The last two weeks of practices, July 13 – 17 and 20 – 22 we will pay $50 a night to stay until 9 because we need to be able to practice on stage with the set and with costumes and props. We also will pay more per performance since the Rec closes early. I estimate to pay around $2,450 on Rec rental alone for this show. My total budget ask is $4,526.70, I can provide the full breakdown upon request. One positive with Ludus is we will get to keep more of our ticket sales, which although won’t be massive, will help some.
Minnesela Budget – Nathan T motions – Mike seconds – Approved
GOAT
I have been working with Toi to find a script for GOAT. We thought we had one set but once I went to purchase licensing, it came back at about $3,000 which is crazy and something I have never come across for a one-act before. Toi understood us not using that script now and we are in the process of finding a new script. I am giving her three new ones to look through tomorrow and hopefully will have a show in place very soon. I will also work with her to set auditions very soon and a practice schedule. The Rec’s summer hours will affect this, but since this is just a one-act, it hopefully shouldn’t be overly detrimental and only for a couple of weeks.
Ludus
I haven’t had a chance to get Ludus up and running yet for our new payment system, but will do so in the next week or so. This will be up and running for Minnesela and all of our tickets will be done using this. We will need to get a CC reader for this, the one we have won’t work. I will send the board what we need once I get signed up with Ludus. I will also try using the sign-up system for jobs for Minnsela (ticket sales, bake sale, ushering, etc) to see how it works. I will also work to do some emails using the new system for Minnesela with this as well.
Volunteer Materials
I brought out our fold-up banners to River fest and the sticks which were already damaged snapped. I was able to fix them by taping a pipe to them for Center Stage Theater Camp, but they don’t look the best. I will look into getting replacement poles for them. At the same time I am working on our volunteer materials we can use for events we go to, we will use these instead of these fold-up banners. I am going to only get a few things for this and keep costs low.
4th of July
On Wednesday, we will be decorating the float for the 4th of July parade. We will be focusing on Minnesela. The decorations will be pretty minor and we will have people in very basic costuming.
Grants
There are multiple generic grants I am going to be applying for over the summer to help finish out this season and set us up into next year. We should be hearing very soon on the SD Arts Council grant, my hope is that we will still get that.
Sponsorship
I was just notified that Monument would still like to sponsor so they are coming in for $1,000 which will be very helpful. Heather is going to speak to her brother to figure out how much Farmhouse is coming in for, I still need to collect from them.
Officer Reports:
- President
- Helped with the kids’ camp and it went really well.
- Vice President
- Float is registered. Annual report has been submitted and receipt sent to Kelsey
- Secretary
- Absent
- Treasurer
- Absent
- Public Relations
- Total Views 9293 up over 7000 reactions 56 but down. 5 comments up from 2, 13 shares down from 26. Followers 1493 up 6, 315 page visits. July 9 is Hometown Thursday, is our 50/50 night to sell raffle tickets. Will try to send some Minnesela actors in costume to help sell. July Chamber event is at EM Steel Products. Wes attended the last mixer for us, we didn’t win the drawing though.
- Volunteer Committee
- No past meeting due to Katie’s job. Will have a meeting in July. Derek attended Riverfest but didn’t have a lot of foot traffic.
- Fundraising Committee
- Absent
- Senior outreach Committee
- We unfortunately have not met in a while due to Minnesela and Center Stage Theater Camp. I am hoping to have a meeting in the next week or two to get things back on track.
Old Business:
- Western Cowboy Karaoke, Nathan S will send out a message to Wes, Nathan T, Derek, Mike, Ari about a fundraiser in August.
New Business:
- Committee Guidelines – Nathan S went over document created with Committee Guidelines. Discussed positive steps our committees have already made and what we can do moving forward. Discussed at next committee meetings for each how to bring these expectations into fruition. To be discussed with each committee.
- Strategic Plan – Nathan reviewed what we have done already and what needs to be done.
Next meeting:
July 27 at 7pm Branding Iron
Adjournment:
Mike motions – Katie seconds – Approved
Respectfully submitted by ED Derek Olson
