Theatre Artists Studio Board

Previous Board Meeting Minutes Approved

President`s Report
The Studio has signed the two-year lease extension, awaiting final, signed copy of it from the landlord (Jason Bowles from Whitestone REIT)

The Phoenix Fire Department will be inspecting The Studio July 19th. All artistic members have been asked to help clean up Saturday, July 6, starting at 9am (and if necessary) Sunday, July 7.

Carol and new artistic member Jason Isaac met with Phoenix City Council (District 3) Member, Debra Stark, who attended a performance at The Studio when it first opened and was, happily, surprised it was still thriving. She mentioned that she has been working with the owners of Paradise Valley Mall on their plans to revamp it as an “arts center” for the area. The Studio might be a good fit for the revised space there. Plans are underway and may be ready to begin as soon as early 2021.

It has been suggested that high-potential major donors and influential people like Debra be invited to opening night, playwright receptions during the season to help with fundraising efforts.

Fundraising celebration opening night of Summer Shorts raised $3,000 ($750 paid) from donors wishing to be Participating Producers for selected shows next season. They will be getting invitations to participate in final rehearsals and tech preparations for the show they selected. Other “perks” may also be offered.

So far, $3,000 from Donor Flyer has come in, each are $1,000 Theater Sponsors.

Financial Committee Report
Amy distributed revenue, expense details for June and Year to Date thru June (our full fiscal year).

Total revenue for the year was just over $170 thousand and total expenses were more than $177 thousand. Carol has the money on hand to balance the books to start the new fiscal year.

48% of revenue came from sales (other):

Ticket sales: $55 k

Sustaining member dues: $14.5 k

Artistic member dues: $9.7 k

Rental income: $700

other: $944

and 52% of revenue came from donations:

“Contributions:” $69.5 k

Challenge: $14.5 k

Raffle: $3.5 k

Special event: $855

The top four expenses were:

Rent: $143 k

Utilities: $12 k

Performance LIcense fees: $5.3 k

Production expenses: 5.2 k.

Member Committee Report

Business Committee Report
Clark thanked the artistic members who have expressed interest in working with him on the new CRM software (once it has been paid for and set up by the vendor, NEON). Mary said that she would also like to join that group that includes: Michael Fleck,Lidia Koelbel, Larah Pawlowski, Marney Austin, Martha Welty

Carol and I will be meeting at Amy’s office next Monday (July 8) to get the CRM things set up, hopefully.

Harry said that he has all the Sustaining Member renewal letters ready to go. He will send out first batch from his computer (as he has for the last two years) and Julie will send out a follow-up to all “subscribers” currently in the Constant Contact database. Harry reported that last year nearly 75% of Sustaining Members had renewed before the first show of the season. The three different Sustaining Member levels can be paid through the current website and paypal interface. As renewals and new memberships come in this way, Harry will input the data into the new CRM system.

Marney suggested that we find someone new to maintain and update the website. She suggested Dave, a person she has been using for a couple of years to work on her website, who charges a mere $35 a month and makes all updates very quickly. It was also suggested that we approach artistic member Joe Barden, whose day job is doing websites for clients, if he would work on this for The Studio. Carol said that she had asked Joe in the past to join the Board, but at that time he was not interested; hopefully now he might be.

Marketing Committee Report

Other Business
Artistic Committee report:

There will be a pilot program, Second Step, after Summer Shorts 2020, where Richard and Matha will present a staged reading of a First Look play from 2019 season, where the playwright has made changes based on audience feedback. The hope is to make his an annual event to help our playwrights continue polishing their plays.

Carol will be leading acting classes this season (dates to be announced).

hopefully:

Judy Rollings will present directing classes

Barbara Acker will present speech classes

and Lydia and Tom Koebel will present some improv classes

All are looking forward to a very exciting and successful 2020 season!

July 7, 2020
June 20, 2020
June 2, 2020
May 5, 2020
February 4, 2020
January 6, 2020
December 3, 2019
November 1, 2019
October 1, 2019
September 3, 2019
July 2, 2019
June 4, 2019
May 7, 2019
April 2, 2019
March 5, 2019
February 5, 2019
Januaray 8, 2019
December 4, 2018
November 6, 2018