Board Meeting Minutes: 19 July 2014

19 July 2014 – The Chretien’s House

 

Members Present (voting members in bold): Heather Christie, Dennis Chretien, Emily Chretien, Bob Hollis, Laura Giorgianni, Kaila Rubin, Eric Dubois, Gabrielle Dworkin, Chris Brostrup-Jensen, Andy Affleck, and Leslie Carter

 

Finances

  • Overall at $61,731 for all accounts
  • No other discussion

Creative Team

  • Annie
    • NEED a set person to help build the mansion
      • Using build-outs from Fantastiks with a regular build-out on top (~ 3ft high)
      • Need railing added around the top build-out for safety
      • Also need a drop over the front to look like a mansion
      • Also need some small stairs for dancing
      • 4 children dancing on the structure
    • NEED an antique wheelchair and a laundry cart
      • Find at a hotel? Hospital? Anyone know of anywhere?
      • Andy has an antiques store contact for the wheelchair, will check
      • Friend of Dennis works at linen place, might have a laundry cart – Dennis will check
    • Box Office
      • M’Lynn can help!
      • Leslie can, too!
      • A few parents have also volunteered, Laura will talk with M’Lynn
      • David Gresh is the main person for this, but he’s unavailable until the week before the show
      • Phone line for reservations is open, but not website
    • Website
      • Need to update so Annie info is on there
      • Andy or Eric will update?
      • T-shirt order goes in Thursday!
      • Issue with Bios passwords/accounts is now fixed – people should be able to access it!
  • Our Town (Chris reported)
    • Rehearsals once per week
    • Mostly working on character development and initial blocking
    • Lots of time spent on the craft of acting and how to approach it
    • Cast very pleased with that approach, as it gives time to ask questions
    • Once character development and initial blocking is over, Tim will run straight run-throughs over and over and over again until the show
      • New approach, we’ll see how it works
    • No real tech work yet, but has been discussed
      • Tim’s son will do music and can change lights using sound cues!
    • No producer – Chris might take it on, but he’s in the show and we want to avoid that. Possibly a group of people? Chris will write a description of what’s needed and Heather will put it in the August newsletter
    • Carol or Andy can do playbill?
  • Shakespeare Abridged
    • Andy is ready to perform, just needs a venue and tech specifications
    • No current dinner theatre scheduled – do Shakespeare again?
    • All actors on board
    • Cranston performance?
    • Once we know the venue, we can figure out tech, but we can’t organize tech until we have a venue
      • Steve can’t – not available March – June of 2015
      • Tim might be able to help…
    • Already have costumes, sets, props, etc. Might improve some, but don’t need to
    • Cast is largely the same – adding Zach Gibb – if anyone drops, the rest will pick up the lines rather than adding someone new
    • Rights are cheap and depend on attendance, cast is happy to do more shows
    • Venue will also define whether it’s a normal show or a dinner theatre
    • If we end up in Coventry for a building, we can use this to begin building a reputation/following there
    • Also a portable show, so could perform multiple places
    • For smaller shows, we can perform in Simmons Crossing (once it’s finished) or maybe the North Scituate gazebo, just not in March
  • Workshops
    • Will help to train people
    • NEED good publication of these well in advance
      • Sign-up sheets?
    • Maybe get teen troupe involved?
      • Promote community service aspect of this and everything SMCT does
      • Teens want to learn all this – perhaps they could help with Our Town?
    • Andy needs help putting it together
    • Also need to create binders
    • John Howe could maybe help produce Our Town? But he’s in the show…
    • Andy will map out what he needs and send it around so people can volunteer
    • For classes, we would need SPACE

 

Assistant Executive Director

  • Jayne’s resignation
    • Motion to approve made by Dennis
    • Seconded by Chris
    • Motion accepted
    • Should we sent a note?
  • Nomination for position
    • Kaila Rubin nominated
    • Motion to accept made by Bob
    • Seconded by Chris
    • Election approved by the board
  • Discussion of whether there was adequate notice to those in the organization
    • We’ve had the issue for several years where the positions up for election and what those positions entail are not well communicated to those not on the board. We need to fix this.
    • We also need to make the by-laws easily accessible online so that we are transparent about the workings of our organization.
    • Heather and Kaila will organize and review the positions and descriptions so we can display them in a more prominent way.
    • Heather and Kaila will ask Jayne what’s already been done – Bob sent a bunch of stuff, if Jayne doesn’t have it, Bob will send again to Heather and Kaila
    • General note on communications that some people prefer links rather than attachments – perhaps we can include both in the future so people can choose?

 

Events

  • We need an Assistant Creative Director of Events! Heather will put it in the August newsletter, hopefully with an updated description.
  • Old Home Days
    • Schedule – we still need people to help man the booth and help with Idol. Laura will take the sign-up sheet to Annie rehearsals and possibly drop it at the Eddy building?
    • Simple decorations this year – sort of nostalgia theme – all of the t-shirts on a clothesline plus Creative Memories books
    • Emily Chretien is brainstorming games – prize is 2 free raffle tickets
    • Annie stuff – games, some kids will dress up and hand out flyers
      • Get a costume from a store instead of using our own to keep the ones for the show clean?
      • Will hand out ~100 cards for a photo with Annie after performance of their choice – Gabby will make the cards and give to Bob at Annie rehearsal
        • Include dates and times of shows
        • Photos are after the show, not before
        • Get email when they take the photo so we can send it immediately
        • Add emails to the database if given permission
        • Photos will be taken on DSLR and edited in Lightroom one the spot and emailed out – Andy and Heather will take care of this and figure out logistics
    • Need someone to collect emails from raffle drawing on Sunday to get to Leslie
    • Dennis will get sound gear for OHD
      • Kaila has 2 mic stands, Heather is asking Preston for one (?)
    • Need 1 judge for Friday (9 – 11pm) and 2 for Saturday (5 – 7pm) – Andy might be able to, need to be unbiased
    • Also need help passing out and counting ballots from unbiased people
    • One slot still open for someone to compete, preferably male, since most contestants are female right now.
    • Next year – have a video montage of clips?

 

Building:

  • Coventry Job Lot – ~1/2 mile from storage unit on Rt. 3
  • Job Lot is leasing out the middle chunk, seem very flexible with spacing, so long as we figure out the logistics and costs
  • Has columns ~8in square and ~40 ft apart, but uneven in areas (down to ~36ft)
  • Multiple board members have worked out different spacing that would work in the building
  • Need to consider soundproofing, since Tractor Supply store is open til 8pm (7pm on Sunday) and Job Lot is open until 9pm (8pm on Sundays)
  • Laura will ask how much Job Lot is willing to change the spacing and whether they will charge based on the space we use or if it’s just a flat rate
  • Will Job Lot need to store things in ‘our’ space?
  • If walls can move, that changes our potential layouts
  • Seems like Job Lot wants us to make a proposal
  • Has a sprinkler system for fire code, but bathrooms are not up to code – would need to fix
  • Has ~16 foot drop ceiling, but panels can be removed to hang lights, etc.
  • Would we want to have seats at different heights?

 

Tech

  • Will eventually need to consider moving lights to LED technology – ultimately cheaper, would allow for easier changes in color, and would last longer, but very expensive upfront cost

 

Membership

  • Leslie, Dennis, Audrey, and Heather will work on membership database to update, etc.
  • Need to update the checklist we use for membership and couple that with the email when entering in the database to make filtering more effective
  • Need audition sheets/checklists from Our Town and Christmas Story to add to database
  • Laura will give Leslie audition sheets and checklist info for all shows she has done

 

Grants

  • Bob has made a list of grants and their requirements/deadlines – current list includes Champlin Foundation, RIF, Scituate Community, CAST, and RISCA
  • Best bet is Champlin Foundation (March 1 – April 30th application period), since they give grants for real estate stuff

 

Storage Unit

  • We need to organize this, since it is very difficult to navigate
  • Dennis has a system for costume area – he, Chris, and possibly others will put this up in the next few days
  • Laura, Annie parents, and others will reorganize the costume section before Annie performances
  • We will organize everything else when Annie stuff goes back into storage

 

FileMaker and Web Access

  • New version of web access makes it easier to move around/access
  • Need to license concurrent logins – can only do 1 at a time so far
  • Costs $413 for a 5-pack of logins
  • Possibly decrease FileMaker Pro logins to increase ones in web access – would save money, too
  • Since we share this with the restaurant and they are purchasing a 5-pack, we could purchase a 5-pack and then both organizations would have 10 logins to play with
  • Need to configure the system so it logs out automatically

 

Next Board Meeting: 23 August 2014, 10:00 AM at the Benjamin Eddy Building in Foster, RI