BOARD OF DIRECTORS – April 18, 2007.
The meeting was called to order by Vice-President Claudia McEwen at 6:00 pm. Present were Rita Irwin, Paul Buckley, C. J. Geotis, Sylvia Rickett, Loretta Geotis, Suzanne Terpos, Christine Leird, and Natalia Gimmer. Arnie Steinmetz arrived shortly. Absent excused were Fred Hundhammer, Ginger Michael, Terry McBroom, Tom O’Neil and Gail Burnett (who left copies of the Finance Committee report for all. Absent was Dona Beckman.
Approval of the Agenda: Motion to approve, seconded and passed.
Minutes: Motion to approve, seconded and passed. Sylvia mentioned that while Gail Burnet was on the absent list at the meeting in April, she was excused and had spent a considerable amount of time preparing the financial report for Fred to discuss with the board.
General Manager:
a) The first (two) weekend(s) of “Clouds …” was a huge success. The opening night party was also very successful. Thanks to Sandy Saylor and Ward for food in great quantities and all other who donated food.
b) Body count for April is 612.
2 CINEMA
a) Slide System. There was some disappointment in the quality of the slides shown by Kelly Grinter, who mentioned the potential of using power point. All agreed that the current projector is very old. The problem with a power point projector is its cost (approximately $1000) and the need for a computer. Apart from the cost, this might cause complaints from staff due to a more complicated set up process. Regarding cost, we make approximately $12000 a year on the slides. We have a maximum of 13 due to time and the number of exposures and the pictures in between the ads. . Some discussion about adding one or two slides and covering the cost occurred. Alternatively we can look into a better slide projector since this has never been done. Paul volunteered to get together with Bob and take a look on it, and Rita volunteered to bring her power point equipment in to test.
b) The problem of the lost key to the safe is being looked into (more below).
Other stuff
a) The TDC grant is finished and was FedExed on Thursday, May 3.
b) If any of you have read over the job descriptions in the Policies and Procedures manual as mentioned at the last board meeting, please advise of any updates that need to be considered. I am currently writing procedures for Pampered Palms, opening night parties, cast parties, photo and video ordering, etc. These procedures will be presented to the board for approval hopefully by the June meeting.
c) Publix will be renting the producer’s room two days next week for a small training class.
d) Let me know if there is anyone you would like me to contact about a sponsorship for next season.
I have contacted: TIB Bank (accepted); Marine Bank; First State Bank; Abyss Dive (cannot commit at this time due to business changes); EdwardJones; Keynoter; Cooke Communications; Waterfront Resort Realty; Coral Construction; Exit Realty; Village Café; Key Colony Beach Realty and Ameriprise Financial.
e) The MHS production will not happen this year due to much red tape and a lack of time. I would like to propose that we try to work this production in to our season schedule where we have some down time, perhaps April. Last board meeting we talked about Adrienne Hutt perhaps producing a reading in February to fill in some time while our snowbirds are still here. We may want to consider some different options for the school production. Need to discuss. The biggest difficulty is fitting anything in between productions. Is it possible to maintain the school performance at the end of the year, and it is possible to try get an earlier plan and commitment from the school. Claudia suggested that, in preparation for next school year, MCT formally state that we support the high school play after the fourth show is done. For the next season, this would allow the school play to be on stage on June 6th and 7th. Our commitment is providing only the place, and the school needs to pay for the production. Individual members of the theater will likely continue to volunteer their support and services for this effort.
f) I have been thinking for quite some time about offering some social events here at the theatre throughout the summer. To be discussed under new business.
g) Larry Benvenuti, Jeff Hutt, Jessica Machetta and Cricket Desmarais recently returned from a humanitarian trip to Cuba. I have been approached by Jessica about hosting a presentation about the trip here at MCT for the public. More details to come.
h) We need two computer monitors if anyone has one they are not going to need. The hard drives have been updated but the finance computer monitor is on its way out. The second one would be for the additional box office computer. We already have a hard drive for that one.
We need to schedule auditions for the summer reading. June 9th is accepted. Auditions for OWO are on August 18th and 19th.
i) Thank you to CJ for completely re-wiring the phone system and thanks to Paul for his assistance.
j) I plan to take some vacation time May 30 – June 4, but as always, am reachable by cell phone.
Committee Reports:
Finance: (Claudia passes the information out and Rita makes the report). The extra $500 was approved for the payment of the mortgage. They need direction from the board about rolling over the $20000 CD. The finance committee recommends that this be done, since the rate is good. The motion was made and seconded, the vote was taken and the motion passed.
FIRM is going to go to the high school, but will keep us in mind for next time. The finance committee recommended a $50 clean up fee and that they cover the cost of a rider in the insurance policy (in case someone fell off the stage – this is an insurance technicality).
There was some discussion about making the rules across the board and consistent for the different non- profit groups that may want to use the theatre. It becomes difficult to classify the various organizations. The motion was made that non-profits wanting to use the theatre would continue to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but all would need to comply with a minimum of $50 dollars cleaning fee and to be in compliance with our insurance. This motion was seconded and approved.
Cash is improving and closer to where we normally are. We are fortunate to have a good movie showing at the moment. Rita mentions that movie companies are changing how they act. They used to charge a lower percentage if the movie was shown the week after the national opening and proportionally less each week thereafter. One of the companies has already changed this policy: the price will remain the same throughout and we will only find out the percentage charged after the showing! This may change the way we show movies, since the cost may become the same for immediate releases and for delayed ones.
April cash balance: Playhouse: $15931, Cinema: $13930, Capital Improvements: $15022, Op. Reserves: 29877, Petty Cash $1450, for a total of $76260. Add the $20000 CD for a total cash deposit of $96260. The Cinema body count was 2117 (down 712 from 2006) and Playhouse 612 (down 436 from 2006).
VP Production: All of next season’s scripts are here except Rita’s. The script company was sending the scripts to whoever was the last person from the board to order. Loretta has asked them to send them all in her name to the theater.
(Laura Hutt joined the meeting) OWO information needs to be put on the website. Paula Roberts was asked to help with the music.
Grace Jones brought up the idea of a “Marathon Idol” event to Laura. This would be a one-night event, and voting would be done on the same evening. The proceeds would be split between MCT and Grace Jones. There would be an entry fee to be a participant, a small entrance fee, food donations could be taken and sold at concessions. Anyone who signed up would have to become a member. All think the idea is good, but the questions arise: do we think it will work, who can work on it, and when could it be done. The available date seems to be the July 21st. Due to time constraints, it would be limited to 30 Participants (about 1 ½ hours). There were a series of logistic questions, and a committee would need to be formed (Laura, Rita, Suzanne and Loretta volunteered). With an entrance fee of about $10, the event may not be worth the effort. Laura is going back to Grace Jones to mention that while we like the idea, they need to figure out if it can be made worthwhile: we need to make at least $5000, so that the split is around $2500.
Playreading: Waiting on the last reading (Adrienne Hutt’s) to be decided.
Stage Committee:
Building: Paul checked the emergency lighting today. Two fixtures are out of order; he found them online at a much better price than in the store. Fred has OK’d Paul to hire the locksmith to open the safe for which the key is lost. There is approximately $850 in the safe. This will cost about $200. The neon lights need to be fixed, and Paul got a $1200 quote for Plexiglas to be installed. He will look into doing it himself at a much lower cost.
Entertainment: none
Membership: none
Other: none
Old Business:
Nominating committee report: please let Natalia know if you have someone you would like to serve on the board. Dona was sent an email, as well as the people who live out of town. Adrienne Hutt asked that the bylaws be amended. (This cannot happen before this year’s elections, but the bylaw committee has it on its list).
New Business:
One night social events: Loretta mentions how people are always saying they are sad at the last show. She wonders whether having occasional social evenings at the theatre over the summer might keep people involved. One example is the idea formed by the visit to Cuba. The Keynoter is going to publish coverage, ending on Wednesday, June 11th. The idea is that on that night the travelers could present a slide show and talk about the trip. They could also hang (and maybe sell pictures). The Keynoter would provide advertising, and a suggested price for tickets would be $5. Even if we made all the concessions revenue, the amount generated would not be large. Arnie proposes that we rent the room for $350 and they make all that is made at the front door and we make the concessions (they may make more money this way). If they want the pictures hung and sold, we will waive the rental of the gallery, but we get our 20% cut on what anything sold. Pay at the door system. The motion s seconded and passed.
Suzanne’s idea, which is to have a dance party night, is for a fun social gathering, and also as an avenue to get more people into the theater. The idea is to have a dance. However, we don’t have an available floor, so while the idea is great, it is unfeasible. Loretta completes the idea with suggestions for humor nights, Halloween party, etc. Claudia and Rita mention that we don’t want to burn out the people who regularly participate and the volunteers.
Claudia suggests that ideas should be brought in a more elaborate form and that there be information about size of event, date, committee, advertising, etc. The board then can evaluate the idea, rather than spend too much time trying to develop it.
Good of the Order: Move to adjourn.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 7:29p.m.
Submitted by Sylvia Rickett, Secretary