April 8, 2020

Present: Jay Steele, Michael Hirsch, Kim Kay, Steve Sammonds, Jennifer Petersen, Steve Allhoff, Jennifer Maggio, Jordan Selburn, Barbara Heninger, Kevin Brownstein, Dallas Carter

Ex Officio: Sara Dean, Doug Hughes, Jeffrey Henson, Kathy Switky

Contents

Actions

(All actions from previous March 11 and 20 minutes COMPLETE)

Action: Community Outreach, Finance, Programming/Futures, and Development Committee leads to create short slide presentations about their status and activity.

Action: Next week, Kathy and Sara will write up a Board match description for the types of Board members that we need to add next week. Then we can advertise in the online Board Match system.

Action: Steve will fill out a form (from Sara) for the group re AB5.

Motions

None.

Reports Sent Separately (Google Drive)

Reports & Discussion

CEO Report / Financial Status

See the report sent by Jen Maggio (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dwEc9Yw2l3E5l_vQJIZ7D0-_f4rBsCqE ).

Loan application requested from the Paycheck Protection Program. Also SBA Disaster Assistance Loan. Could also apply for something to defer payroll taxes.

Moving to accounting system in-house (so that Sara and Jen can run it). Tammy will stay on board until June. Tammy understands the situation and is okay with it. Could save a couple thousand.

South Pacific finances:

  • As of 3/31, had received income for tickets for South Pacific for approx. $45,000. Have received about $24,000 donated back. Another potential $14,000 remains to be either donated or request for refunds. (See Doug’s numbers from the Marketing report for the latest.)
  • Sara working with Concord to get the royalties back for South Pacific – they will give ALL royalty fees back (100%). Will have to pay the rental for the printed materials that were shipped (scores and scripts) and returned, but that is a much smaller amount.
  • For South Pacific staff: Will pay Heather, $1400 for the set design fees when she finishes her model. If we redo the show, we would bring her back as a consultant but for a smaller fee; we would use her design already submitted. We could decide to pay a small amount to Lee Ann Payne (Director) and Cathy Snider (MD), but they don’t expect anything.

Donations:

  • We are ahead of the curve on donations, even ignoring ticket returns. We are at budget in donations for the fiscal year. Anything beyond 3/31 will be “extra.”
  • Jay reports that a major donor will be sending some money soon too.
  • Dallas and Sara went to a meeting about fundraising in crisis. This is a time to go out and seek, and tell people we may be in a tough position, and ask them for anything they might give.
  • Sara is considering sending a physical letter to our donors to tell them what we’re doing financially, here’s what we’re doing with next season.

Marketing Report

See the report sent by Doug, https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Gwqdv9FcyqyH6QpteLsDnVJ_ODTdc8L9

  • Doug summarized what we are saving from not doing print promotions.
  • Sara was profiled in the Daily Californian.
  • Blog post about sewing masks, plus video.

Facilities Report

Jeffrey gave us a big thumbs up. All is okay with our rented facilities right now.

Sara notes Saratoga Theater is not booking or reserving anything at the theater at present. So we will wait until later to consider whether we can move 1940’s show into the 2020-21 season as a fundraising event, or wait until another season.

Fundraising/Development report

From email by Jordan.

  • We were awarded a $2000 Donor Development Grant by SVCreates and should get the money in a few weeks. Given the COVID-19 situation, however, it does not include the coaching originally planned. The idea is to use this to fund some type of donor event, possibly also reaching out to some larger organizations (philanthropic foundations, corporate giving, etc.) as a way to not just acknowledge our existing base but to build it further.

[From Jordan’s email answer to question about what “reaching out” entails: What I’m thinking is to include some “get to know SBMT” aspect at the donor event, get contacts at places like (for example) the Packard Foundation and invite them along with our exisiting donors. Figuratively wine’n’dine them at the event and introduce them to the group, give them some insight into our history, mission, goals and possibly finances, see how their grant process works and what they look for, etc.]

  • I’m working on the Saratoga Rotary grant re: a projector system. Have not yet made contact with anyone in Panasonic who might be able to help with donated equipment.
  • I identified a grant from the Silicon Valley Foundation targeted at helping organizations offset lost revenue/increased shortfalls due to COVID-19. I am working with Jen and Sara for current financials and banking information.

Community Outreach Committee (Jen P)

Will be meeting Thursday evening to discuss objectives, put together a PowerPoint explaining their plan for the membership. Will share in the meeting Saturday.

Financial Committee (Jen M)

Still trying to put a meeting together. Can show a charter. Jen will create something, send to committee members to review. Items include change of accounting system, gathering some processes. Jen and Sara will share some processes about Payroll – how do they collect time, how affect when payroll runs, can give to Barbara to record for the website. Also want to come up with contingency plans (at this point, it seems like many disaster contingencies have already occurred!).

Programming/Futures Committee (Sara, Michael)

Triage for future programming done. Trying to come up with what’s next, what are the long range goals we are aiming for. Show selection will start in June. One thing will be to consider when to put in South Pacific.

Development Committee (Dallas)

Getting donations:

  • Met with folks about Tacos and Tunes (Karyn, Kim, Sara) to figure out timelines, how they will continue the process. Will bring some ideas back to Sara and Kim.
  • Went to the SV Creates event. “Don’t be afraid to ask, because people are in a mood to help.”
  • Start encouraging people to do monthly donations. Vendini supports monthly donation.

At Saturday’s event, encourage people to join the committee – they don’t necessarily have to be part of an ‘ask’ team, they can help with thanking others.

Thanking for donations:

  • Need to reach back to newer donors, help contact donors and thank them, keep in touch with them. A virtual “thank you” concert, for example.
  • Sara considering to send ED updates to the top donor level. Engage with people by asking for advice.
  • Dan is still working on automating the thank you letters.
  • Need to acknowledge in-kind donations, or performers or artists donating their fees/stipends back to SBMT.

General Meeting

10am April 11, Saturday, on Zoom.

Sara and Jay will discuss an agenda. Jay will present two awards virtually.

Zoom invitation to go out soon.

Action: Community Outreach, Finance, Programming/Futures, and Development Committee leads create short slide presentations about their status and activity.

Board Development

Will discuss at the general meeting on April 11. Barbara and Jordan are termed out, Jen P is retiring, Denise left the board a little early.

Action: Next week, Kathy and Sara will write up a Board match description for the types of Board members that we need to add next week. Then we can advertise in the online Board Match system.

Production Updates (Sara)

Joseph – had a production meeting. They will hold virtual auditions. Will ask people to submit videos. Michael Saenz will do a brief dance audition and people will have to match his dance, record, and submit.

Little Night Music – Walter, Patty, Heather, Sara discussed set designs for it. Gave them budget.

AB5

Most responses to AB5 are stalled, but musicians have been advocating for and may be getting exemptions from the law.

We MUST plan for full-time employees per AB5 for the next fiscal year. Sara gave an example of a small business owner who was asked to pay back 4 years of payroll taxes.

Action: Steve will fill out a form (from Sara) for the group re AB5.

Board discussed a question about using ‘canned’ music for a show, to reduce costs due to increased spending for AB5. Might help in offline rehearsals. But could strongly alienate our musicians.

Example: For Joseph, orchestra of 10 is a $4,000 expense using our old ‘stipend’ payment amounts applied to musicians as “fine artists”; if we go to hourly payroll it would be $8,000. If we did the canned music it would be $3,500.

FYI, SCP has stripped down their rehearsal schedule for the orchestra, to reduce orchestra payment.

Suggest that instead of going to ‘canned,’ use the potential increase as a way to get an arts support grant or to get a donation for a specific, fundable ask.

Sara is trying to put together a meeting with the musicians about AB5.

For now, assume status quo (current payment amounts).

Respectfully submitted by Barbara Heninger, April 9, 2020. Amended June 15, 2020.