BOARD OF DIRECTORS – March 20, 2007.
Meeting was called to order by President Fred Hundhammer at 6:02pm. Present were Claudia McEwen, Rita Irwin, Paul Buckley, C. J. Geotis, Sylvia Rickett, Loretta Geotis, Gail Burnett, Suzanne Terpos, Arnie Steinmetz, Tom O’Neil, Christine Leird, and Natalia Gimmer. Absent were Dona Beckman, Terry McBroom and Ginger Michael.
Additionally, we had a guest, Mr. William Otis, from Salisbury, Maryland. He is part of a team working to put a theatre together for the downtown area of their community. They are looking at how small theatres work and appreciate his being invited to attend our meeting. The goal is to obtain positive information to be presented at their City Council.
Approval of the Agenda: Motion to approve, seconded and passed with Nominating committee added under New Business.
Minutes: Motion to approve, seconded and passed.
General Manager:
a) Ticket sales have been going well for Gigi up to this point; however, they are slow from this weekend forward. Advertising will continue through the show. Please promote the show whenever possible.
b) Body count for February is 812.
2 CINEMA
a) A new triple sink is needed in concessions. Bob and Paul are researching prices. Discussed below.
Other stuff
a) I continue to need volunteers for each show. I held another volunteer school and gained two new volunteers from that who have already worked one evening.
b) Spoke with the Doerfel Family who decided that they would rather work for something than to not work. I have scheduled them for Saturday evening, April 14. I told Mr. Doerfel that I cannot promise a dollar amount to him but will do the best we can. We need to decide how much we can sell tickets for and we can, of course, make some money from our concessions for the theatre. I have volunteers already who have offered to work. Will need to decide if we want to run an ad in addition to flyers and press releases. (Need to discuss this further since Paul found a flyer today that says they are performing at St. Columbia for free. We may want to cancel this engagement.) Motion was made by Tom to cancel the event. The motion was approved.
c) We have received the computers from the school system. CJ, Paul and I picked them up. Brent Mattingly is in the process of installing them for us this week. Also, Gail Burnett donated a computer for use and I will have Brent put that together for us as well.
d) The FKWS reception was very successful. We made $280+ in concessions and $52.50 in our scholarship fund. Approximately 200 people attended.
e) The General Membership meeting is scheduled for April 4 at 7:00 p.m. A notice has been sent to the membership. I have written a press release and will post a notice in the theatre as well. Fred asked for an additional reminder closer to the end of the month.
f) Mona from Mona’s consignment shop is closing and has donated a large amount of clothes and wigs to the theatre. A tax-deduction letter has been sent to her.
g) I am proposing to work with Ralph, Headhunters, Cracked Conch and Papa John’s for a Business After Hours program for the Marathon Chamber of Commerce. My plan is to have a block party beginning at one location and moving on to the next and the next and end of up here with coffee, dessert and entertainment. Available months are May, September and October. We could possibly have tappers or singers for entertainment. This is another plan to bring people to the theatre that normally would not come here. Loretta will continue looking into this matter.
h) The FKWS art show is pulling a significant number of people into the theatre every day. They are thrilled that they have (sold) nine paintings so far.
i) I have booked the main theatre and the gallery for Saturday morning, April 21, for the Marathon High School class reunion Betty Chaplin is spearheading. They will serve a light breakfast, we can open our concessions for coffee (details to be worked out with Betty). Dan Gallagher will be making his “History of Marathon” presentation. More info to come. (Tom will be hanging the lights for the next show later that afternoon, in order to accommodate them).
j) Florida Keys Arts Council will be holding a Cultural Umbrella Application workshop here on Tuesday, April 3 beginning at 10 a.m. The application release date is March 21.
k) I received an email from Colleen Repetto via Marilyn Tempest requesting gift certificates from the playhouse and/or the movie theatre for the fundraiser at the Moose next Sunday for F.I.R.M. The question posed from Marilyn is: “Is there anything that MCT could do to help?” F.I.R.M.’s next push is to get insurance relief for commercial properties. Two theatre and two movie tickets will be given to this fundraiser.
l) We did raise the prices in our concessions area and have not had any negative comments in response.
The Tourist Development Council (raised by Loretta, addressed by Rita) has a 50/50 match building project, with funds available for October 1. The grant involves major projects, with extensive paperwork, planning, architects etc, and we are not ready for that. Projects that have been proposed in the past have involved raising the roof over the theater, and rearranging the plumbing so that the restrooms can be moved closer to the entrance, providing more work area backstage. This is a yearly grant. Fred mentions that this is something that should not be passed by, and asked Arnie and CJ to form a committee to look into it further.
Committee Reports:
Finance: Gail reported that the finance committee met on April 13th, when the cash balance was: Playhouse: $12636, Cinema $14459, Capital Improvements $14992, Operating Reserves, $29762, Petty Cash $1450, for a total of $ 73299 plus the TIB CD which matures in June $20000. Voted to make the extra $500 payment on the mortgage principal. Unfortunately, the body count for February: Last Year Cinema 2533, Playhouse 1728, this year 2753 and 812. YTD cinema slightly up and playhouse slightly down. Revenue is down, poor quality movies and expenses up (mainly roof). Budget items are due: and must be turned in ASAP, since the draft needs to be completed for review in April: chorus budget, advertising for OWO, and tablecloths.
VP Production: Please remember to check with VP of production before scheduling any events at the theater, so they can be coordinated with our ongoing show rehearsal needs.
Playreading: All plays have been selected and Jorg has agreed to direct California Suite. Scripts for 2 of the shows are ordered (California Suites and The Smell of the Kill). Christine volunteered to produce for Rita (Smell). Still waiting for dates for the summer reading of Clouds from the director.
Stage Committee: All is running well. We have new light bulbs and spares, and the music is working well.
Building: A new sink for the food prep area in the cinema is needed. Prices are $400 to $800, and there is one quote for a good one that will last a long time for about $700. There was a motion to approve up to $700, which was seconded and passed. There was a power failure today which impeded testing the emergency lights. Paul needs some equipment (batteries and fixtures) to the order of about $60, these do not require special approval and so can be purchased.
Entertainment: For the General Meeting April 4th Christine will take care of organizing it. Food donations will be appreciated. Christine can’t take care of the opening party for Clouds, since she will be stage-managing, but she will be able to donate a case of Champagne. Pampered Palm date was set for June 16th.
Membership: Please make sure the membership form is filled out completely and correctly. For example, it is very important that the rate is clearly mentioned, for this indicates whether it is a family or an individual membership. Also please remind casts and directors that all involved in the show need to be current members of MCT.
Other: None
Old Business: None
New Business:
Nomination Committee: March is the month in which the nomination committee is formed. Fred asked for a volunteer to chair the committee. There will be other people involved and the goal is to come up with, and contact, people who are willing to serve MCT. They may be new people, or people already on the board if they are up for reelection. Some effort needs to be made to select people who will add to the group. It is hoped that people who are selected are willing to serve in various committees and work to support the operation. Natalia volunteered to chair, Suzanne and Fred will serve on the committee. Fred, Christine and Gail are all willing to run for office again. Other current Board members will be contacted.
Early auditions for next year’s musical are scheduled for April 14th. Anyone interested in auditioning for other plays can also do so (it is expected that auditions will be videotaped). For those who will be in town for both sets of auditions, you can auditions twice if you wish. Loretta is going to prepare a press release, both for the auditions and for volunteers.
Good of the Order: Rita said that, as we get ready for the upcoming theatre year, think about volunteering for office. Some of the officers have served for a long time and are getting “old and grumpy”! We wish all the cast and production staff of “Clouds over the Sunshine Inn” all the best for this show.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 6: 43 p.m.
Submitted by Sylvia Rickett, Secretary