Special Meeting

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

Ex Officio: Sara Dean, Jeffrey Henson, Doug Hughes

Contents

Actions

  • Thursday May 21, Doug: Make the updated SBMT website live and push out mails and communication.
  • Wednesday May 27, Full Board: Hold Zoom meeting with our patrons.Question and Answer.
  • Steve A: Continue discussions with the set shop and studio management.
  • Jay: Send information and follow up with four potential Board candidates

Virtual Programming / eStudio Launch

Sara has completed a calendar for June and part of July. 5 events in June scheduled.

  • Cast of Earnest is starting to set rehearsal dates.
  • Derek & Cami will do a cabaret at end of June, will be pre-recorded.
  • We have the rights to live stream Almost Maine, $120 to stream it in September. Will rehearse it, make it a little more snazzy and polished.
  • Dan and Sara discussed the technical side of the events. We can stream Zoom to FB Live, and youtube.

The programs are all FREE. People will be asked to be a sustaining donor. There could still be a few paid programs, e.g. some have a first free meeting and then we have additional paid workshops to follow up from that (like directing classes from Diane Milo or Lee Ann Payne).

Sara and Michael H. met with Dan about setting up the sustainer donations. The Vendini page for the sustainer donations is not set up yet – Doug can base the copy on the shorter blurb that Sara wrote. Dan will set up ‘canned’ amounts for 20-50-100/month. People can also enter whatever they want.

We need to encourage people to become sustainers. We need about $4,000-5000/month from sustainers.

Strategy: Get as many sustaining donors as possible, to provide lots of content to hook as many people as we can. We pass the hat every time we do an event. “The PBS model,” keep asking after every event.

Actions agreed to / in motion:

  • Thursday May 21, to be done by Doug:
    • Website go live.
    • Send an email to the 6,000 mailing list.
    • Start pushing the eStudio and Sara’s video.
  • Wednesday May 27, to be done by Full Board: Hold Zoom meeting with our patrons, with some of the season proposal slides, to ask them to join us as sustainers. and explain why. Question and Answer.

Studio and Set Shop

We got some masks and gloves and cleaner from the City of San Jose for any future in-person rehearsals (at whatever location).

Set Shop

Landlord offered a 3 month deferral. Steve will continue discussion. The market is going to reset, and our rental rate for the set shop is higher than market.

Studio

Just said they would try to relet the place quickly. Steve is still discussing with the landlord and owner. Will ask for a complete list of what “revert to original state” means to landlord. then how much time they would give us to move out. May try to get them to agree to take 6 months of rent and let us out.

Jeffrey says it would take a month and a half to get everything out.

Note that If we needed to rent a storage container to put costumes in, it would still be less than what we are paying now. We don’t have the funds for the studio, even if we are doing shows, the AB5 rules mean it will be too expensive to pay the studio rent.

Using WVLO for rehearsal space

Positive conversation with WVLO – we could have ”preferred renter” status in their space, we could store some things short term.

Board Candidates

Braden Taylor, Dan Singletary, Diane Milo, and Jonathan White (current PR person) all amenable to being on the Board. Jay will send out the Board expectations to them, answer questions.

Inclusion and Diversity Committee

FYI, Meeting tonight (May 20) to discuss whether holding a town hall is really the best idea for getting diversity discussions started. Feeling from the members of minority communities is that no one takes actions from the town halls. So, what is the real action they want to take?

Suggest discussing minority candidates for the Board.

Respectfully submitted by Barbara Heninger, May 20, 2020