We are in the last days of the current fiscal year. Last night was the last board meeting of the year led by President Renie Barger. Renie thanked Randy Davis and Mary Jean Grief for their 3 years of service as they retire from the board. She welcomed the new board members Denise Bristol and Pam Benzing who attended the meeting as guests. Other new board members Sid Hancock, Heather Overby and Melisa Mast who could not attend the meeting will begin their board terms in July. A board retreat is planned for Friday July 10 and Sunday July 12.
Fundraising Chair and Past President Valerie Pollard was also thanked by Renie for her 6 years of board service as she retires from the board. Valerie did the wrap up for the Curtain Call Auction of parts for the Wizard of Oz. After expenses the theatre raised over $14,000 from this event and everyone felt it was a great success. Valerie has agreed to continue to help on the fundraising committee as a non board member for next years event.
President elect, Cindy Miller, talked briefly about ideas for a couple of fundraising events for next season and ideas for the board retreat. Cindy officially takes over as President July 1. The board agreed to operate on a temporary budget for the new year until a final budget is approved in July.
As we end the year we are doing better than we expected financially thanks in big part to the success of the High School Musical and the Wizard of Oz box office. We will still end the year with a deficit but it will be much smaller than we had originally estimated back in January. The January predictions of a $30,000-$50,000 deficit were a real possibility. With the ice storm devastation to ticket sales of Southern Comforts and the loss of a major grant from the city, along with lower contributions because of the stock market we began to aggressively cut expenses back in January. Those cuts have kept us on a solid financial footing and I'm pleased to say that with the cuts and box office from the Wizard of Oz it looks like our deficit will be approx. $10,000. That $10,000 will be borrowed from the theatre's next fiscal year. The board will seek ways to make up that $10,000 in the next budget.
Staff members April, Jim, and Janice are in high gear for the Disney Kids Sleeping Beauty Musical Camp performance Friday and Saturday. Costumes are being made, props created by the kids in the camp and sets and lighting are being worked on. After the board meeting last night I set the preliminary light cues for the show. Today we will scan the artwork created by the kids in the camp as the scenic projections for the show. The sound system has to be set up for playback of the music for the kids to sing and dance to.
April does a daily newsletter for the kids in the camp to remind them of what they have accomplished each day and to help them remember what is important to work on before the next day. The camp is only two weeks long and the campers learn choreography, learn music, and develop characters for the show Sleeping Beauty. Jim Keeney has put in lots of work on a magical orb for the evil queen and a large dragon effect for the climax of the play when the queen turns herself into a dragon.
April has now called me 3 times about her rehearsal this morning so its time for me to head out the door.
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