Planning and Assessing

Friday evening the board of directors held the first of two sessions this weekend in a planning retreat. A range of issues were discussed including evaluating the mission of the theatre and its continued relevance to the community. How to assess the success in concrete and measurable terms. We spent some time taking a broad look at our current financial position and operations in comparison to other theatres with similar size budgets.

Most of the evening was spent talking about ways to improve our annual fund drive, sponsorships and program advertising campaigns. Lots of great ideas were generated. You will see some of these ideas realized in the next few months. One of those ideas is an annual report of the state of the theatre that will be sent to all current members.

Our fiscal year just ended on June 30. We are currently in the processes of submitting the final report to the Kentucky Arts Council which is a requirement for the grant that we received last season. We just received notification of our new grant award for 2009/2010 and it increased above last year. The Kentucky Arts Council has awarded MHT over $20,000 in grant funding for general operational support. Along with the City of Paducah's recent support statement for the current fiscal year we are proving to the city and the state how valuable MHT is not only as a source of quality of life programming in the community but also that we are an economic asset that provides $3.2 million worth of economic activity in our community and provides over 50 jobs as a result our programming. In tough economic times it still is a good investment and return when our local and state government supports MHT.

Another investment is the Kentucky Governors School for the Arts students who finish up their classes today with a final performance featuring some of their work they created over the past couple of weeks. We are thrilled to see so many students who have participated at MHT involved in the Governors School programs. Cindy and the Miller family are watching their daughter Katy do her presentation today in Musical Theatre. Then they are off to Louisville Music Theatre to see Robert Sharkey performing in Singing in the Rain tonight and tomorrow.