October 23, 2025 Minutes

7:00 PM
Branding Iron

Call To Order: 

President Nathan S

Roll Call: 

Nathan S, Kelsey, Heather, Mike, Katie, Wes, Derek (half hour late), Nathan T (arriving at end of meeting)

Approval of previous minutes:

Motion to approve: Katie, seconded, Mike, unanimous passage

Public member commentary:

Geno – parents who care is looking for post prom entertainment. Would be needed for April. Perhaps a whose line or family feud style improv game. Plan to meet in November to hopefully start classes in December. Post prom could be a soft launch of our improv program. 

Executive Director Report:

Center of the Nation Playwriting Festival

The Playwriting Festival wrapped up last weekend and although I was unable to attend due to prior engagements, I was told it went very well. I was at the first Workshop on October 6 for the writers and helped backup Bella who ran it. It went well and there were six writers that attended plus a mother and daughter that were just interested in the Workshop itself. The rest of the week Bella ran workshops for the writers and worked with them on their scripts and she said that went very well and there was great back and forth and the writers got a lot out of it and were able to finish their scripts, something none of those writers had ever done before. Then the scripts were passed on to directors and actors, something we did have a hard time tracking down, so a huge thank you to everyone who helped there. They worked about a week to get the Showcase together. On that Friday morning I moved over the sound system and our banners and such and set up for the event and Bella and her crew took over from there. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help on Friday and Saturday, and to Katie for tracking down helpers. From what I’m told it went well and we had about 40 patrons over both nights. It would have been nice to have a few more people, but the point of this whole thing was the writers and we had six people go through it that had never finished a script before and they did, so I count that as a big win. We also had lots of people ask about next year, so it may be worth doing again next year. Bella is working up a report on what worked, what didn’t and what we could do better if we do a second year.

We had a great write-up in the Pioneer about the event, Anna forwarded that to Arts Midwest and they are going to be running a nice story about that as well. This is a big publication that goes out to about a seven state region. They called and interviewed me, will interview Bella and a participant. I will let everyone know when that is out. We also had $400 come in for the donation drive during the event and $82.19 for the bake sale. We spent $400 and a little more in tax for the Community Hall rental which is less than we would have for the Rec Center. We were originally set for that but were told we could no longer use it due to them starting work on the new sound system. We also spent $400 in a deposit that we will get back in a couple of months. Beyond that we paid Bella and extra month of work for her internship to help run this. I also told her to pay for pizza for all the helpers which was $58.91 and she is going to let me know a couple odds and ends she had to pay for. All in all it didn’t cost much and one of the grants we got for 2025 was to help pay for this event.

Donation Drive

Currently we are at $1,163.51 for the Donation Drive if all of my totals are correct. That is including a $175 check I need to still get to Kelsey that I collected for my birthday. Our goal was $1,500 so I am feeling like we should get there by the end of the year which is great! That isn’t including the $1,500 match we already received, all of this should help us going into 2026.

Sound

They have begun work on the electrical upgrades to the theater that need to happen before the new sound system can be installed. I am not sure how long this process will take exactly. I need to speak with Jody about a timeline, it is supposed to be done before the High School show in November though. I haven’t hooked back up our sound system after using it for the Showcase, but I am going to wait until I speak with Jody, because we may not need to. There is a Concert Series on the 30th, so it will all need to be figured out before then. We have to provide someone for lights and sound for that event.

GOAT Retreat

We have our GOAT retreat set for January with the other three theaters but I recently found out we did not get the grant we applied for to cover all of the costs for this event. I had mentioned to the board several months ago that if that happened, all of the theaters may need to chip in to pay for it. The total cost would be $500 for each theater to pay. This would cover meeting place rental, food, materials, a spot for two people, and for paying Anna to facilitate the retreat. Would BFACT still be OK with paying that $500? If we are OK I still need to make sure the other theaters are also OK before we proceed. Depending on the Boards answer I will report back what the other theaters say.

Missing Easel

We had borrowed an easel from Anna back for the Sherlock Holmes show at Venue 519 to hold some of our materials. Unfortunately, I am not sure where it ended up after. During strike for Is He Dead? I looked everywhere backstage for it and couldn’t find it. I’m not sure if it ended up in someone’s car or garage by mistake, but if we can’t find it I think we should reimburse Anna for it since we borrowed it and didn’t bring it back. The one Anna purchased was $28.99, it isn’t available on Amazon right now. There is a 2-pack right now on Amazon for $39.99, we could purchase that, give her one and keep one for ourselves so we have one, we need easels quite a bit. Or we could just reimburse her the amount.

Kid’s Camp Grant

As a part of next season I want to do a Kid’s Camp during the early part of the Summer. I am going to be putting together a committee very soon, once I have someone who is interested in running it, Nathan I will need a committee created. Beyond that, a grant came up that I had to apply to right away so I did. This was the Jim Hess award that we applied for and didn’t get last year. It had to be for a specific program so I went for this. I ended up putting in for a moon shot kind of money, that if we really wanted to do the program right here is what it would cost and here is what I asked for:

• Stage Space – $400 x 5 = $2000
• Camp Program Director – Prepping the program, coming up with the program, being there the whole time = $2,250
• Assistants – 4 adults to be there during the week $650 per = $2,600
• Snacks & Water = $10 per student per day $200 a day = $1,000
• Materials – Printing, paper, pens, scripts, acting exercises, etc = $700
• Sets & Costumes – $1,500
• Tshirts = $700
• Administrative Cost = $500
• Total = $11,250

Now if we don’t get this grant we wouldn’t spend $11,000 on this camp but it would cost us some money, but I wanted to let the Board know I did apply for this. I have already spoken to Sharon and Toi about being involved in this and they were interested. I need to speak with Reva as well. I also spoke to Rachel and she was somewhat interested if she could make the time work.

Silent Auction

Nathan T and Wes, I would love to meet with you guys in the next week or two to go over the silent auction for the Christmas Show.

Sponsorships

I will begin talking with Businesses about 2026 Sponsorships over the coming weeks. I will start with our current sponsors and move out from there. I have a document in drive called sponsorships that has the information of places I contact. If anyone is interested in helping or knows a specific business you could talk to due to an existing relationship, please let me know. 2025 was down from 2024 and I have a feeling 2026 will be down from this year so anything we can do to get as much as we can would be good.

2026 Arts Conference

The 2026 Arts South Dakota Conference will be held West River in Rapid City and they have put out a call for presenters and I am going to submit a session about BFACT. It will be about our 15th Season and everything we have learned and how we have grown and succeeded as a community theater in a small rural town. I have to have this in by November 1 so I will be working on that this and next week. I will let the board know if we are selected to present.

Next Season

I am very close to having the next season fully solidified. After speaking with different people from the Creative Committee and the new Volunteer Committee as well as others I have a good feeling about what we are looking at. We are looking at a more cost effective season due to funding unknowns going into 2026 as well as being unsure about our contract with the city, so that means we won’t be doing a musical or a show that requires a large set or anything like that. I should have a full season set by the Christmas show.

Night of One-Acts

Our Night of One-Acts always go over well and is a good way to get people involved and in the program. They are usually cost-effective and easy to produce. I have already spoken to some directors and will get those solidified over the next couple of weeks. I will then work with the directors to pick the one-acts they would like to do. This show would be done during the Spring.

Kids Camp

As mentioned before, this would be done during late Spring or early Summer. It would probably be over a week with some kind of Showcase at the end. I would like it to be free for the kids, probably around Middle School age. I would like to pay some to the people in charge of this event for being there. I will get a committee together for this to develop the curriculum. I want to get this committee started in the next month or so.

Kids camp committee: Katie, Derek, Geno, Nathan S, potential others?

Summer Show

We will do a Summer show either late June or late July. We are looking at either Dracula or some kind of female heavy show with some kind of recognizable name. Bella will be directing this show with Crystal as assistant director. I am working with her to get the show picked and will have it picked in the next couple of weeks.

GOAT

GOAT had to be moved to accommodate the other theaters to October. I have a few directors in mind for this show and will get that set for soon. I will work with that director to pick the show. This date is already set.

Christmas Show

I have decided we should do a Christmas show since it is always such a hit and brings in so many tickets as well as volunteers. I want to do a show that is more a series of vignettes, like Four To Go For Christmas or Little Town of Christmas so it is easier to direct and work around people’s schedules and other events happening during the holidays. I will be working to find a director over the next month and then work with them to pick a show.

Other Events

I would like to have some other events throughout the year since some of the things we are doing are of a small scale. I am working with Geno to get Improv off the ground during 2026. I would also like to have several different workshops throughout the year from acting to writing and if there is anything else people are interested in leading. I would also like to do another Gala like 90s prom at some point and maybe even another Playwriting Festival. I have had people interested in doing a reading series of different scripts that could be done simply and cheaply, or even maybe two people shows that won’t cost us about anything. I think we have some opportunities to do different things during 2026 and vary up our offerings without alienating our core audience. This doesn’t need to be all decided by the Christmas show, only our core season shows.

Officer Reports: 

• President
  • Paid printing bill, less than $20
• Vice President
  • Planning to complete audit soon
• Secretary
  • Nothing to report
• Treasurer
  • Current balance 18,719.91
• Public Relations
  • Engagement down as show is over and the festival is not as big of an event. Looking into signing up to do a chamber mixer. Maybe partner with Hersruds? We would need a place to host. Mixers are typically 4:30 to 6:30 on the 3rd Thursday of each month. We would be looking at doing February or March. 
• Volunteer Committee
  • Only had a couple people come to the last social hour. Currently working on getting info booths at all our events and perhaps sending invite postcards for things? Looking into cost
• Fundraising Committee
  • Silent auction planning underway, will soon start collecting donations
• Strategic Committee
  • Planning to present at November meeting 

Old Business:

1. Bylaws vote – unanimous passage of all proposed bylaw changes 

New Business:

1. Closed session

Next meeting:

November 24th, 7pm Branding Iron

Adjournment:

Motion to adjourn: Wes, Second, Nathan  T, unanimous passage

Respectfully submitted by Secretary Heather Pittman