Date: 11/15/2023
Board members present:
Guests: Judy Kropp, Makayla Barber, LaDonna Barber, Mason Montemayor, Zeke McPherson
Meeting called to order at 5:30 PM by President Alex Night
- Secretary’s Report:
– The minutes from the previous meeting were sent out by email with no corrections. Jered motioned we accept them as presented. Linda seconded it. Motion passed; minutes approved.
– Julie asked board members if they have a long or detailed report, it would helpful if you have a written report that you can give her a copy to transcribe or condense. - Treasurer’s Report: Bill Hays reported the account balances as follows:
Arvest (General) $6648.18
Union Bank (Building) $12,874.00
First Financial (concessions) $2586.92 - Concessions – Bill
– By Dec. 10th we will have 7 drink choices in bottles and several candy choices along with popcorn.
– Charges for Drinks will be $2, boxes of candy $3, other candy $2, and popcorn $2. No more family sizes of popcorn will be sold. We need a 3rd refrigerator. Bill will buy the fridge out of concession account ASAP.
– We will continue to use bags for serving popcorn. - Office Report—Alex
– One family membership sold. As of Sunday, 15 Magi tickets and same amount for Scrooge tickets.
Benson report was discussed. It was discussed whether competition in the trophy awards makes the event more fun. Possibly it attracts more interest. Perhaps it is possible to save money on the awards if we save for them along the way from the profits of each show. No decisions were made; discussion tabled until after the new year begins.
– It was suggested we promote memberships as Christmas gifts on social media and at shows.
-Alex will be on vacation from Dec. 19th to January 4th. During that time period, Brad will handle anything of importance. DO NOT BOTHER ALEX!!
– Brad went to Arts District meeting at the depot. He met with Missy Fields from the yarn store who wants to create 3-minute videos of people enjoying things around Mena, including OLT. She will write short scripts and provide the necessary equipment. She is looking for actors for short vignettes from our theatre group. Missy wants to promote businesses and cultural opportunities. She may attend in January our meeting, looking for all ages to be part of her videos.
– Also discussed at the Arts District meeting was the development of an arts and cultural district in downtown Mena. Rick Chrisman, David Maddox, another attorney, Melanie and Tasha from Chamber were also present. They are discussing building an “art park” from Port Arthur to railroad including sculptures and restaurants. They suggested “Art Walks” downtown, especially on nights of an OLT show where the sidewalks are open to shoppers and visitors; possibly wine being served in connection with this. They would like to consider our theatre and art gallery to be a main part of this. With this, grant money would be easier to get as we would be seen as a large part of cultural events in our community.
– Clue survey results will be handed out to board members at the end of tonight’s meeting. - Artistic Director Report—Judy
– Great crowds for Clue. Keep the ball rolling for the Christmas shows. Get posters up ASAP!
– Gift of Magi dates are Dec. 8,9, and 10. Scrooge dates are Dec. 14-18.; Judy encourages us to bring new people to the OLT.
– Arsenic and Old Lace will be Feb. 16-18 and 23-25, Romeo and Juliet will be over the solar eclipse weekend before eclipse day on April 8th. The other dates are yet to be determined. The Little Mermaid is happening this summer, directed by April Burt. We need to get going on a Christmas show for next year if we want one. It was suggested we should plan on doing one every year, not necessarily alternating with a JOLT project as has been done in the past, since JOLT does not have a permanent sponsor at this time.
– Judy is working on costumes with Ruby K Manis.
– When we have a new person coming in to do a job, we need to mentor them. Judy has asked the directors to do so in the past, but it doesn’t always get done. It was suggested it might be best if she did the orientation herself. However, Judy wants to keep the directors involved, so she is going to have written directions for each director. IF YOU ARE A DIRECTOR, PLEASE BE MINDFUL OF THIS RESPONSIBILITY!! Remember that microphones and costumes need to be cleaned after each show.
– COSTUMES: Donations of costumes are full of random things, many of them broken. The committee decided that when the office manager receives them, Alex (as office manager) needs to let the donators know the contributions will be donated elsewhere if they are not able to be used by OLT. We don’t need any clothing after 1980. We also don’t need men’s black shoes or WW2 uniforms. We will need to get rid of a lot of excess stuff. - House—Brad
– Brad will fix the paint coming off the façade before we get too involved with developing the arts district. This will be a slow process.
– People often come in to ask Alex about the building. It’s a nice reminder that it is a landmark. - Play Selection—Judy
– No additional report. - IT Report—Jered –
– He is updating the website behind the scenes.
-Jered is also doing layout changes on ticket orders, complete with all the price increases there.
-There is a problem tracking patrons using season ticket only once, but he will keep working on it.
-Volunteer database is being worked on. He showed us how to put our hours in. log in to website and go to my account, and link up, write in volunteer hours. For board members, admin, etc. send info to Jered if there is a common task we do often. Keep roles separate (for example: secretary vs. publicity tasks.) - Box office—
– Amanda got Linda, Judy, and Jered for box offices. Lists were discussed, Jered will help them get it ready. - Publicity—Julie –
-RE: Celebrating 100 Years at the Lyric: I need to have a meeting with my full publicity committee soon. We will wait until after the holidays to discuss the 100-year anniversary of the Lyric Theatre. Of a more pressing nature, could someone volunteer to come up with a banner type logo to put over our OLT logo for all our publicity in 2024 before the end of the year? Alex volunteered to come up with a logo. I’m thinking of maybe getting a banner for the lobby if it’s not too expensive. Rudi is looking at sidewalk advertisements as well. Do we want or need an event? Maybe t shirts or mugs to sell with the logo. Also, Julie noticed the history on the webpage needs updating. She will work on that when things slow down a little bit.
-Waiting on audition and play dates to advertise for Arsenic and Old Lace auditions. Amanda has given me a full character description.
-Julie is working on publicity and ads for Christmas shows.
-Questioned: is printing the OLT Newsletter on Facebook intended for everyone, or should it be considered a perk for members only? Based on the amount of high interaction by the general public with the newsletter, it was generally concluded that it is advantageous to leave it on Facebook as well as the website. - Readers Theatre – Ann
– Things are moving along. Only one scheduled meeting in Dec. (last Saturday of the month.) - Old Business
– Ticket prices – Since we raised the ticket prices, it was mentioned that perhaps the season ticket should include more perks. Among these perks, shouldn’t all shows including an annual Christmas show and any presentation that might be made by the JOLT organization be included? That would give us about 5 shows per ticket which makes it more of a “deal.” We will leave it advertised for now as 4-5 shows per year. - New Business: none
- . Adjournment
-Motion made by Judy to adjourn, it was seconded by Ann, motion passed unanimously.
Meeting adjourned at 7 PM