March 20, 2023 Minutes

Grap’s Wine Room
7:00 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

President Nathan S.

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motion to approve: Angela, Second: Allie, passed unanimously

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Nathan T, Kelsey, Heather, Angela, Sharon, Allie, and Derek in attendance

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

I had meetings with Sharon and Allie over the last couple of weeks. We spoke about Membership and Grans & Fundraising. I think both meetings went great and we will talk more during their reports. I also created a document in our Shared Drive for an email list of everyone who has participated and signed-up in the past.

We have received checks from Alpine Impressions, Jackson Dental and BHE which is great. We are still waiting on three checks from businesses that said they wanted to sponsor, I will work on getting those over the next few weeks. I am also going to make one more big push at the beginning of April to hit places that haven’t committed one way or another on sponsorship, but then I think we should consider business sponsorships done for the year. There is the chance some others may come up, but we will have hit up almost every business in town and some in Spearfish. As far as grants go, I have a big one I am finishing up now that has to be in by the end of March. We are still waiting to hear back from Midco Foundation, Walmart and Monument Health on grant requests we already submitted. I will continue on grants all season, there will be no real end date on those. I am still hoping for a few thousand more in grants this season.

I will be meeting with Nate and Adam from the school tomorrow to talk about theater storage. Adam has an update on the storage area we have talked about before. Nate and I will also go over our contract with the city again. He did talk to the city about a discount for us, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. There is a chance the rate may go up in the next year or two as well. Nate and I spoke and he should be getting quotes on new speakers for the front of the house in the next week or two. We still may need to contribute depending on the quotes.

As the HS musical gets going I am going to be setting up the wireless mics for them and writing up instructions on how to use the sound and light boards. I have had to go in several times in the last month because either system wasn’t working correctly. All of the times the issue was a change was made to the boards by someone. Just a reminder to everyone on the board, I will mention to other groups as well, to not try and troubleshoot much on the boards. If there is an issue to contact either Nate or myself.

OFFICER REPORTS:

President
- Attended meetings with Allie and Sharon on memberships and fundraising. Planning to have executive director contracts signed before next board meeting.
Vice President
- Nothing to report, interested in assisting with lights and sound as per our contract with the rec center.
Secretary
- Nothing to report at this time
Treasurer
- Bank balance: 12,872.09
Committee Reports:
- Creative Committee
  - Since Emma has left, we have asked Tyler Schone to join the Creative Committee and he has agreed.
  - Pride and Prejudice
    - Auditions will be this week for Pride and Prejudice. I think we have done a good job of getting the word out. Nathan and I were interviewed by the morning show for KNBN/KEVN on the 10th. The reporter told us she would be happy to come back again once we have some costumes and such and she might come up for other shows as well. It took some time, but Nathan and I were able to get a schedule worked out for practices for this show. The theater is being used a lot this April and May. We also worked up a budget for the show and I would like to get approval for it.
    - Licensing 390
      Scripts 183
      Rec Center Rental 600
      Printing (Scripts, posters, auditions, etc) 40
      Misc 50
      Advertising 75
      Costumes & Props 400
      Set building 350
      Total 2088
    - Licensing and scripts have already been paid via previous motion.
    - Motion to app rest of budget:Sharon, Second Nathan T, passed unanimously
  - Summer Musical
    - Unfortunately we were turned down for the rights to Mamma Mia so the Creative Committee decided to try for Rock of Ages instead. We have requested the rights for that show and are just waiting on approval. Our backup if that doesn’t work is Mary Poppins. If we do Rock of Ages I will be directing with Toi as my Assistant Director. As soon as we get approval on the musical I will create a season poster and announce the full season. Shows July 27th – 30th
  - Getting Our Acts Together
    - Allie will be directing this one-act and starting soon we will begin the process of picking this show. Shows Aug 25-27, Belle night is 26th
  - Halloween Show
    - We have decided on House on Haunted Hill for our Halloween show and it will be October 20 – 22. We will be finalizing other details over the next month or so.
  - Summer Program
    - Toi was supposed to check with the school about our potential partnership with JAM. I will hopefully have more information next month.
- Public Relations
  - We wrapped up Within the Law with 1903 Reader’s Theater performances on March 17th&18th, another potential reader’s theater in Aug. I’ll be at the BF Chamber Annual Banquet this Friday, March 24th. Will hand out business cards at the exchange event at the banquet. We’ll have a table at the Annual Wellness Fair at the BF Rec Center on April 1st. FAB variety show April 30th.
- Membership Committee
  - The membership committee met 3/10 and discussed current membership benefits as well as goals – increasing participation, tracking memberships via a Google doc versus the Arts People platform, formatting a newsletter for distribution to members and business sponsors. We are looking at possibly changing the member benefits to more of a Personal Sponsorship format. We will need to develop this concept a bit more clearly in the future. Currently planning to identify members who paid last year but have not paid this year for outreach. Also looking into surveying why people choose to or not to be members. Will be changing membership to match season/calendar year rather than membership being due a year from previous payment. Quarterly newsletter planning underway; will be looking into mail chimp(a newsletter service) to see if we can use their services as arts people has not worked well.
- Grant & Fundraising Committee
  - I met with Derek and Nathan this week to discuss what we would like to see from the fundraising committee. We agreed a large part of the committee’s purpose would be to search and apply for grants. We are also wanting to see some fun events that can get many people involved and create community outreach. For example, this summer we could have a movie night in the park that is free to attend but we can sell popcorn and soda.
  - We discussed the possibility of a larger event, perhaps a karaoke night. If we solidify Rock of Ages as our musical, we could have an 80s themed karaoke night where attendees can pay to sing a song, or pay to make a member of the cast sing a song.
  - We also discussed that we would like 2 to 3 more members to join this committee. They do not need to be board members, just people who like to be involved that I can lean on for planning help.
  - Planning to continue bake sales with shows and will also look into another summer auction, perhaps to coincide with Rock of Ages.

OLD BUSINESS:

Fireproof Cabinet- City may have one, Nate with the rec center is looking into it. If one is not available, the city, the school, and bfact may purchase one together. Until then, paint will be stored near the piano backstage.
Sound system lending contract – motion to approve current contract:Kelsey, seconded Allie, passed unanimously
Rec contract – See Executive director report
Address update with IRS – Kelsey will handle this month when the annual tax document is submitted
Review mission statement- Complete

NEW BUSINESS:

Redefine membership- see membership report
By law update and diversity statement (meeting virtually, proxy voting, immunity, and liability as per sd codified law 4723.27 and 4723.09) – Heather will write diversity statement, Kelsey will write meeting virtually and proxy voting, both with collaborate on immunity and liability statement. Exact language to be cleared at April meeting, announcement of upcoming amendment vote will be announced in accordance with bylaws, vote to amend will take place at May meeting.
Individual sponsorships- agreed that this is not necessarily tied to membership. Tiers and promotion will be discussed by membership/fundraising committees. Tabled to discuss implementation at next meeting.