October 23, 2023 Minutes

Grap’s Wineroom
7:00 PM

CALL TO ORDER:

Nathan S

ROLL CALL:

Nathan S, Nathan T, Heather, Kelsey, Angela, Derek, Sharon less than 5 minutes late, Allie absent

APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES:

Motioned Kelsey, Second Nathan T, unanimous passage

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:

Rec Center Committee

I was able to attend the Rec Center Committee meeting a couple of weeks ago. As of right now the City Council Committee is still running now and there is a Committee to figure out how a citizen committee will run this in the future and replace the City Council committee but this isn’t done.

In initial discussions it seems like the idea is for this Committee to kind of run the Rec Center in a way as opposed to a Rec Center Director. There was also talk of a lot of day-to-day things being handled by several of the current managers in the Rec Center and having the City Administrator be a supervisor to it. None of this is set in stone yet, but it seems like the hope is to not have a Rec Center Director in the future, not sure what that will mean for us. I did also see that there is a job listing on the city site for a City Administrator so not sure if ours has left the job, and if so, how long that will set this process back.

There isn’t necessarily a lot for us to get involved in yet, once the Citizen Committee is set up, we should make sure to go to meetings and have lots of discussions with them. I did talk with the committee, they agreed with this assessment, and I did send a list of changes I think the theater needs and ranked by severity to them after they asked for it. Here is that list, I sent to the Committee chair, Stephanie Hobbs-Vetter:

High Priority

There really needs to be lights put on the stairs out in the seats so people can see steps when walking in the audience while the lights are off

Wheelchair seating, there really should be some specific wheelchair seating in the audience area. Also cannot reach dressing rooms from stage and vice versa for ada standards because of the stairs.

We had maintenance start moving the power strip to the top of the stage, that got done but the cable holder was supposed to be moved as well, but wasn’t

Medium Priority

Before Nate left we had started looking into getting some more speakers for the front of the stage, I would still like to get this done at some point, I think this would help sound a lot in the theater.

We need to get a speaker into the light booth since it can be hard to hear what is happening from up there.

The theater really could use a new projector, the one that is there is quite old. It would be worth getting one that a person could bluetooth into, so whatever is playing can be run anywhere in the theater. It would also be helpful to mount the projector so it isn’t just plugged into the audience area.

Lower Priority

It would be very helpful to get some actual storage at the theater, we had spoken in the past with the rec about building some storage out back of the theater for storage of theater materials.

It would be great to move the sound system up into the light booth. It would also be great to get a new sound board that isn’t an ipad, but just a normal board. If we did do this, it might also be helpful to open up the light booth some more so it is easier to see and hear

Sound

We loaned out part of our sound system for a fundraiser on Oct 7 for BF Senior Center. I think it went well for them. I just got the system back, I will work to do a better job of requiring groups that borrow our equipment for them to return it to us as opposed to us having to track things down after the fact.

We ran sound for two Concert Series events in the last two months. The first went just fine, the second there were some issues. There was a noise all during the concert I tried to fix the whole night only to find out after it was the band’s board that was the issue. I need to do some more training for lights and sound people as well as finish the sound/light document I’ve been meaning to finish for some time. Now that the play is over I will be able to get this done. I spoke with Renee and she would like for me to do some basic training once the document is done with Rec Center staff as well.

Website

Now that the play is done I am going to be spending a lot of time and energy getting the new website done, my hope is still to have it launched by the end of the year. I still need bios from everyone.

Grants

I am going to start pushing for a lot of grants over the next few months including First Interstate Bank and State Arts Council. I may need some help getting these finished and as good as looking as possible since I am not a grant writer.

*financial documents requested from treasurer to facilitate

Sponsorships

Now that the season is ended I am going to reach out to all of our current sponsors in November and give them a recap on the 2023 Season and see if they are interested in being a sponsor in 2024. I am also going to be going through my list again of contacting local businesses about becoming a new sponsor. I could use some help with cold calls, if anyone is interested. I am also going to be updating our sponsorship document to match new design standards and might make a change to ad size for our $1,000 level.

Annual Meeting

I would like to get a jump on the Annual Report if possible. I will start needing reports at the beginning of December to get them done in time.

House on Haunted Hill

The show went really great. The cast and crew worked very hard to pull it all off. Volunteers were a little light but we made it work. A huge thank you to Heather for directing the show, Nathan Thompson for doing lights, Angela for all of her work on the auction, Kelsey and Nathan for doing tickets and Sharon for helping with the bake sale. We had great attendance and people seemed to really love the show itself. Here is the recap:

Friday Performance: 39 Adult Tickets; 30 Senior/Veteran Tickets; 26 Student Tickets; 2 Comp Tickets; 1 GOAT Free ticket; Total 98 Tickets
Saturday Performance: 48 Adult Tickets; 18 Senior/Veteran Tickets; 28 Student Tickets; 2 Comp Ticket; Total 96 Tickets
Sunday Performance: 36 Adult Tickets; 45 Senior/Veteran Tickets; 11 Student Tickets; 3 Comp Tickets; Total 95 Tickets
Grand Total: 289 Tickets $3,100
Bake Sale: 570.54
Total Income: $3,670.54
Total Expenses: $1,548.01 (Including Arts People Fees) We were slightly under budget for this show, $1,440. The only reason the expenses are more than that is because I added Arts People Fees into it now even though we haven’t included that in budgets in the past. I am going to start including estimates for fees in budgets for upcoming shows.
Total Profit: $2,122.53

This Season

Overall this season went fantastic! We had 248 tickets to “Pride and Prejudice,” 488 tickets to “Rock of Ages,” 98 tickets to “GOAT,” and 289 tickets to “House on Haunted Hill.” We had a total of 1123 tickets. “Pride and Prejudice” and GOAT still used the $10 and $5 tickets and ROA and HOHH used the new pricing structure which helped on income. We will continue using this cost structure on everything except possibly excluding GOAT.

Pride and Prejudice Profit: -$100.73
Rock of Ages Profit: $1,491.95
GOAT Profit: $297.76
HOHH Profit: $2,122.53
Ticket Profit: $3,851.16
Show with the most profit: HOHH
Show with the most expenses and income: Rock of Ages
Most inexpensive show to produce: GOAT

Ancillary Materials

I have been talking with Kelsey about some ancillary materials we should produce this coming season. We should get a runner for the ticket taking table with info. Maybe a banner for the Bake Sale area. We will work on a Season Banner. I would also like to create some brochures and volunteer banners as well. Once I am ready to work on these individual projects, I will come to the board.

OFFICER REPORTS:

President
- Planning to meet with Nathan t and Sharon for committee frameworks and membership after high school show is over. Will compile printing costs for next meeting
Vice President
- Filed annual report with the state. Donated filing fee
Secretary
- Submitted receipts for reimbursement
Treasurer
- Current balance $12124.11. reminder that Jan 1st must renew ed contract
Creative Committee
- Next Season
  - We have set the next season for BFACT. We are also looking at adding some Improv, we have spoken with Geno about spearheading this some. We also want to have a writer’s workshop as well as director’s boot camp this coming season as well.
  - Break a Leg: A Night of One-Acts
    - This show will be March 15 and 16 at Community Hall. The Hall is already reserved and paid for. We have yet to set directors and pick one-acts, we will be doing that very soon. Rent was 400 with a 250 deposit that will be returned.
  - Murder on the Orient Express
    - This show will be June 28 – 30 at the Rec Center. We have dates locked in and licensing and scripts already paid for. The scripts have already arrived as well. We still need a director for this show.
  - Sherlock Holmes: A Live Radio Play
    - This show will be August 17 and 18 at Venue 519. The venue is reserved but not paid for yet. Tyler Schone will be directing this show and he is currently choosing which Sherlock Holmes story to do for this.
  - GOAT
    - This show will be sometime between October 10 – 13 at the Rec Center. We haven’t gotten the exact date picked yet but have some dates reserved through the Rec already. Sturgis will be joining us this year which means the show will be four days instead of three. We don’t have a director or one-act picked yet for this.
  - Christmas Show
    - This show will be December 13 – 15 at the Rec Center and Rachel Munce is directing. We don’t have a show picked yet, but it will be kid/family-centric. The dates are locked in.
- Meeting
  - We will be meeting in the next few weeks to make some decisions on actual shows as well as talking about the Volunteer Appreciation event.
- Volunteer Appreciation
  - We have set our Volunteer Appreciation night for December 2 at Grap’s Backroom. We are looking to go from 6 – 9pm. The Creative Committee will discuss exactly what we are doing at this event, if the Board has any suggestions let me know. This event will only include BFACT now, not FAB. We will pay for the full rental. This date is locked in with Grap’s but not paid for yet.
Public Relations
- Auction: $2335 taken in. a few things still to deliver. Most things picked up after show on Sunday. In future, online and in person at the same time is very tough. Need to better supervise distribution of items to prevent last second dishonesty in winning bids. Pumpkin fest was well attended. Sold $140 in raffle tickets. Still attending arts council meetings, writers group, chamber meetings.
Membership Committee
- Oct newsletter out. Will start paying for mail chimp to make things easier in the new year.
Grant & Fundraising Committee
- Absent

OLD BUSINESS:

Scholarships – Belle Fourche high only. Seniors only. Tabled, final vote next meeting
Yearly state report – completed
Board planning day – tabled, will discuss with new board

NEW BUSINESS:

Annual report – get working on them, please be ready to submit the beginning of December
rcvd check donation from an estate of 100. Nathan S will send thank you letter
FAB met and discussed junior/senior. Look into doing a potential improv night for them? Perhaps contact scared scriptless
potential fundraiser idea: date night with movie or trivia? Tabled