March 28, 2022 Minutes

Grap’s Wine Room/Zoom
7:30 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

Toi Lyn

ROLL CALL:

Toi Lyn Flick, Derek Olson, Kelsey Gronlund, Angela Hastings, Nathan Schreier, Heather Pittman, Becky Tinsley

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Nathan/Kelsey

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

Fundraising

I have continued calling sponsors on my list, I will be fully done before the night of one acts. Unfortunately I have not had much luck with sponsors lately, I am hoping to get a few more before the season gets in swing. I did apply for a couple more grants, including Midco, probably won’t hear for another month or so. I did find out we didn’t get the Walmart grant, I will look into when we can apply again.

State Arts Conference

The State Arts Conference is coming up in May. It does cost some money to attend. I applied for a scholarship to attend and I will find out in April if I was chosen for that. If I am not, I think it would be good for me to attend and network with other arts organizations in the state. I will put in a request for money to attend if I don’t receive the scholarship. If anyone else is interested in attending, let me know. Might be good to go together.

Sound Issues

Anna and I went and saw the play Urinetown in Rapid for BHCT. It was great but what I really noticed was how good the sound was. This has led me to realize we really need to address the sound issue at the Rec Center. I will reach out to Nate on this. It will probably require a plan between us, the city and the school district to try and tackle this. I have already improved sound in the theater over the last few months, but it still has a ways to go.

Other Community Theaters

I am going to reach out to all other community theater organizations in the area to see if there is anything we can do to help each other out in the theater world. I will let you know what I find out.

Individual Sponsorships

I have been looking around at other community theaters and I wonder if we should look at individual sponsorships. Set a level for people or families to donate, and have different levels to it and then promote them on the website and in programs. We can tie it in with memberships as well. Might be something that can offset some of our struggles with business sponsorships.

OFFICER REPORTS:

President
- No update
Vice President
- No update
Secretary
- No update
Treasurer
- Current balance $10395.90. Amazon Smiles donation $24.08. State Arts Council grant payment $1666.66.
Creative Committee
- Take a Bow
  - This is what we are calling the night of one acts. The show is April 22 & 23 at 7pm in Community Hall. We can’t get into there until the day of the show so I would take any help from anyone on the day of to move set pieces downwe- set up tentatively at 9am Friday morning. We will need some volunteers for both nights if anyone is interested. Practices start in earnest this week but I won’t be there because I am having surgery tomorrow. I should be back for practice next week. Allie Verry is directing one of the shows and assistant directing the others. She will handle practices for me this week. Tickets are on sale now and we should have posters very soon and table tents to get out. Promotion will start in earnest this week on that show.
- Don Quixote
  - I have worked with Rachel on a budget for the children’s show, Don Quixote. Rachel talked with Karlee Gusso who will be her assistant director which is great news. That show will be June 10 – 12 with auditions on April 18 & 19. We will start promoting auditions at the beginning of April. Here is the budget I would like approved for this show. Total $1,736.72
    - Scripts & Licensing 486.72
    - Rec Center Rental 600
    - Printing (Scripts, posters, auditions, etc) 200
    - Misc 50
    - Advertising 50
    - Costumes & Props 100
    - Set building 250
    - Total 1736.72
  - Motion Angela/Heather to approve budget as presented.
- Dinner Theater
  - Emma has picked a show for this, Ledge, Ledger and Legend. We are hoping this show will be June 24 and 25 at Grap’s. I am waiting for final approval from them. I have worked with Emma on a budget for this show, here it is and I would like to get it approved to get materials purchased so we can get ready for auditions coming up. It is a total of $555.
    - Scripts & Licensing 175
    - Printing (table tents, posters, auditions, etc) 50
    - Advertising 50
    - Costumes & Props 30
    - Set building 250
    - Total 555
  - Motion Nathan/Kelsey to approve the budget as presented.
- You Can’t Take it With You
  - Nathan has picked the show You Can’t Take It With You for our summer show. The date of this is set for Aug 19 – 21 and auditions for that will be June 20 & 21. Nathan and I will work on a budget coming up and have that at an upcoming meeting.
- Gala
  - We are set for our gala on Oct 15 at Venue 519. We will be putting together a small committee to get the gala up and running. Once we have more information I will bring it to the board.
- October Show
  - We are set for a hybrid virtual/in-person Halloween show on Oct 29 at Venue 519. We haven’t picked a show yet. Once we have I will come to the board with a budget, this should be a cheaper show in the grand scheme of things.
- Christmas Show
  - We have begun talking with the city about a partnership around Christmas that will include our Christmas show, A Christmas Carol. We will be creating a small committee to work on this project, mostly in what pertains to our partnership with the city. The show itself will be Dec 9 – 11.
- Misc
  - Angela has set us up for a booth at River Fest on June 11 and Oktoberfest on Oct 15. We will need volunteers to be at the booth for both events. We will be partnering with FAB for both booths. If you are interested in volunteering, let me know. We also want to have a float at the July 4 parade this year. We are beginning talks on what needs to be done for that to happen- Nathan is head of this event. Through CC we have created a document that outlines responsibilities for directors and producers for shows, we will start using that this summer with our directors.
Public Relations
- Punch cards printed to use for door prizes or other ideas to increase attendance. Tables will be at events as listed in the Creative Committee report.
Membership Committee
- We now have a Tik Tok account- BelleFourcheACT. Emma now has access to ArtsPeople. Kelsey is sending a membership list from the Annual Meeting to Emma and Angela. Emma shared Playbill from recent BHCT to show ideas we may want to include- Company bios, season schedule, “Playbill” on top of our programs, physical examples of merchandise available for order on the website.
Grant & Fundraising Committee
- Planning fundraisers now that the season schedule is set.