SBMT Board Meeting, May 10, 2023
Present: Barbara Heninger, Michael Hirsch, Ed Hunter, Stacy Levin, Elizabeth Matthews, Tipu Purkayastha, Steve Sammonds, Dan Singletary, Braden Taylor
Not Present: Soni Kapoor, Nicole Tung
Ex Officio: Sara Dean (Executive Artistic Director), Doug Hughes (Marketing)
Reports
Board Chair (Michael Hirsch)
Real Estate Search continues  with Karina Ridge, Executive Director at Intero Capital Markets
Current Leases
  • Scene Shop – until May 31, 2024
  • Rehearsal Studio – until February 2024

Discussed an idea of a collective leased location that SBMT would manage, multiple theater companies would in effect rent from us. Would require someone dedicated to managing the space; would require agreements with multiple companies.

Gold Sponsor, Richard Wang, requested a meeting – is interested in donating to the theatre
Board Offsite with Patricia Gardner is Tuesday, May 16 from 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Address: 3175 S. Winchester Blvd, Campbell, CA 95008
Agenda – Food? (Tipu offered to order pizza for those who would like some; please email Tipu and Barbara)

  • Setting the Stage – Current Organization Leadership Position
  • Reviewing the data from like Performing Arts Groups and Interviews with key people
  • Discussion, Review and recommitment of key goals outlined at your last retreat
  • Clarify Next Steps

Facilities management

  • Keys, codes, manuals, software, instructions turned over from previous Facilities Director
  • Discussing what tasks need to be handled with Jay and Richard

Saratoga City Council Meeting – Barbara attended and gave a “plug” for Singin’ in the Rain in “Non-Agendized Items” section

Board membership

  • Voting in June
  • Positions nominations in July
  • Potential vacant positions:
  • Chair (Michael)
  • Vice Chair (Steve)
  • Chair: Development & Fundraising (Barbara)
  • Chair: Organizational Development (Tipu)
  • Chair: Vision & Planning (Ed, Steve)
CTO (Dan Singletary)
Lobby Design Consultation contract in progress w/ City
City of Saratoga is reworking some appearance-level features of the lobby — adding carpet, painting. They have contracted with SBMT to advise on this. SBMT is being paid for this time.

Met with AudienceView developer to talk about UI improvements

CFO (Braden Taylor)
Reported cash in bank and investment amounts. Our investments have held value.

571L – Federal and state taxes filed

23-24 budget draft completed
Attempting to be realistic/conservative on ticket sales revenue for 23/24
Salaries review, currently based on 4 part-time employees
No concert planned in budget; minimal education workshop and programs
Interviewed companies for onboarding tasks, but found that such companies don’t make sure the employees actually sign up.
Suggests we need a person, a business HR manager, who wants to do this type of task part time.

Executive Artistic Director (Sara Dean)
Discussion of other organizations’ seasons, challenges of small shows and what shows are doing well. Also discussion of other theaters’ challenges — more theaters closing or halting (BACT; San Jose Players).

Singin in the Rain is running under budget.
Ticket sales are good, at 60% now before opening, and we are on the trajectory to achieve 80% sales. Matinees are selling out.
We have some student and group performances; Zohar; the Y.

Actors Equity process — Nathaniel has been very good. Union can be slow to send paperwork. They renegotiated the guest artist contract, and had a rider for social media and video, not in our original budget. There is also a per diem because his address is NYC. However, the people at the union have been helpful.

Added set design to her tasks for this show, as set designer had to step down. Used and compensated for the parts of the design the designer had completed.

Please add Sara to the loop of decisions; concern about overstepping bounds of Board or volunteers

Marketing (Doug Hughes)

Sales – Singin’ in the Rain tix selling well. 100% of aisle seats for all matinees are now sold.
Advertising

Mercury News ad for Singin’ in the Rain has run 2x (of 6); sold 33 tix already
Emailed 20K Metro subscribers with theatre interest today
Street banners will go up on Monday May 15

Publicity
Mercury News article
YouTube videos
Sitzprobe rehearsal
Season 61 trailer
Trailer video filmed last night

See his slides — reported the seasons of a number of other companies (one other company doing Rent, but after us; one doing Mary Poppins Junior)

Fundraising & Development (Barbara Heninger)
Do not have final numbers yet for the 60th but preliminary looks good
Results raise our sponsor numbers to 80% of goal
60th Event was successful in raising good-will of supporters, and connections between SBMT supporters
Grants
Did not receive SV Creates Grant
Applied for CCI Quick Grant to cover part of consultant Patricia Gardner’s fee
Upcoming grants: Applied Materials (June) and Saratoga Rotary (July)
  EAD suggests applying to rotary for a modular set that can be reused
Other Items
Coffee sales – a coffee vendor proposed vending coffee in the lobby. We are not certain that this would net enough for that person.
Suggest that if we want to vend coffee, we look at returning to providing hot water and instant coffee in tea as we had in the past, before COVID
Teacher at St Andrew’s asked for help with a show. It sounds like what they want is to have someone act as a sort of Assistant Director to the director, providing advice and notes about how to make a smoother production. No interest from the Board at this time.
Regular meeting was adjourned at 9:10 and the members went into Executive session.