2025-6-19 Meeting Minutes

June 19, 2025
Ouachita Little Theatre Board Minutes
Guests: No guests
Jered called the meeting to order at 4:45 p.m
Secretary’s Report-
● It was confirmed that Mikayla made the motion to accept the minutes of the May 5th board meeting, and Drew seconded the motion. The motion carried, and the minutes from June 9th have been updated to reflect that action.
● A motion was made by Mikayla to accept the minutes of the last meeting as corrected, Drew seconded, and the motion passed.
Treasurer’s Report- Bill
● Arvest (General/Operating): est. $2,500 (After monthly bills)
● First Financial (Concessions): $ 1,270.01
● Union Bank (Building Fund): $2,149.87
● Edward Jones: $300 cash dividends.
● $2,000 was moved from concessions to the Arvest account, and $2,000 from the Union as well. Bill stated that there is a $3,000 expense for Frozen royalties. Bill talked to the people at MTI for an extension, and we did get one. We have multiple expenses right now due to the termites and bills coming due.
Publicity Report-Zeke
● Promotion for Chitty: A couple of posts went well, which is big. Rudy has also been posting on Facebook, and Zeke appreciated the posts Rudi had posted. We updated our partnership with the Mena star. This coming month, we will also be utilizing their radio outlet to do radio advertising for each show. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang will be the 1st one, so for the two weeks of that show, we will run radio ads. Alex is catching up on Instagram posts, and the cast announcements will be posted on social media soon.
● We will want to continue the promotion we have with Books and Stuff that we previously had with Kindergarten.
Concessions-
● No report was made at this meeting

Office Report-Alex (sent by email and read by Lexie)
● Chitty tickets are on sale on the website and added to the slider as well. This month, Chrys Geyer, who lives in Texas,who sends us a donation twice a year, has donated $500 and Judy Kropp donated $100 before the Bensons. Thank you notes were mailed out.
● We had one new renewal of an Angel membership, which was Jeff and Julie Ulmer. Due to Chitty we have gotten lots of new individual and family memberships. The Chitty crew has done a great job in collecting memberships and insurance for each cast and crew member. We still have about a dozen left.
● Alex recently went through all the expired memberships of both individual and commercial and removed them from the coupons on the website, so they would not be allowed to get free tickets. They also sent out letters encouraging renewal.
● Alex is collecting bios for Chitty and getting the program information together, and Zeke has gotten the cast photos as well.
● Alex’s summer goal is to continue to clean the office and clear out the space underneath the table, this means scanning in every piece of memorabilia that is left and start working on the past shows on the website.
● Bill got a new commercial member signed up for “The Shop”.
● Break Down of Kindergarten sales:

• Tickets: $2,245
• Concessions: $637
• Donations: $350
  ● Bill brought up the Kindergarten license cost, which was $1,212.00. Jered said we spent about $1,850 on the play.
  Artistic Director Report-Judy (sent by email and read by Lexie)
  ● Judy said that they were happy with the audience response for Kindergarten and the new people that were involved and hope to see them in future productions.

● We are getting a check from MTI in the mail, waiting for it to get to the Kropps’ house.

● No movement yet on any new plays for February or spring at this time.

● Jered stated that the Chitty building would not cost too much, mostly paint for the set. He also has someone to weld the car parts for us.

House Report-Zeke
● The breakdown on the last play went well, and it only took a day. Shout out to Robert and Scotty.
● The fire inspector came and inspected everything and found a rusted-out fire extinguisher and replaced it. Inspection was paid for and signed off as well.
● Termite treatment: They are currently working on it. It will take 4-5 hours to complete. It should not have any funny smells and should be safe for us to still be in the building while it is being treated. The cost is $1,100 plus tax. It provides us with a one-year warranty. $170 plus tax yearly after, to keep up maintenance. Damage in the front end of the building, in the center,and a couple of posts rotted and molded out that need to be replaced.
● There are going to be some changes in the upcoming play: a screen projector that is 21 feet, and a new projector for the play as well. Anyone who is on the catwalk, be careful of an HDMI cable.
● Rudi is officially donating the projector to the theatre that we have been using.
IT Report-Jered
● We are ordering a video production third party for Chitty, which was $1,032.
Box Office-Amanda
● No report was made at this meeting

Social Committee-Linda
● Discussed how the Bensons went, and Jered said that he thought the Bensons went well; He enjoyed the food and singing.Linda said she thought everything went really well and wanted to thank everyone who helped, only heard positive things and loved how it turned out. She said she spent about $150 of her personal spending on the Bensons. Rudi said he would like the results of the awards posted on the website for people to know. Drew said people have been asking why the results were not in the paper
● Discussion about the new Bensons voting rules: Having an academy voting system. Someone had mentioned that it would not be a good idea as some members who would not be apart of the academy would be excluded and feel left out
● Discussion was brought up on how we need to vote on the next Bensons Rudi. brought up having check marks in the new ballot to check what shows you have seen and be able to vote on only those they have seen.Steph said it would be a good idea to have multiple roles from the same play on the ballot. Linda likes Rudi’s idea of having something to show that they have seen the play. Linda said we need to fine tune and keep the nominations from the directors. We are trying to find a fair way to make everyone happy and knowing that not everyone would be happy. Zeke is good with the current option, but does like the new idea that Rudi brought up. Jered suggested that we involve people that were not members or are current members’ votes included. Zeke mentions an invitation to them to vote and have and then to know that they have RSVPd to vote. Discussion will be brought back at a later date closer to the next Bensons
● Benson cost breakdown:

• Trophies was $550
• Meal $1,355, some people paid on the meal, but it was less than $100
• Bensons roughly costed about $2,000

Reader’s Theater -Ann
● No report was made at this meeting

New Business
● Jered opened the floor for anyone who had new business, he thanked all the new board members for showing up and being here

Old Business
● No report was made at this meeting

Adjournment: Bill made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Linda seconded and all approved adjournment.
The meeting adjourned at 5:26 p.m
Next meeting is July 17th @ 4:45 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Lexie Payne Secretary