I.  Meeting was called to order at 6:35 by Lisa Woodruff
Board members in attendance:  Lisa Woodruff, Larry Hinken, Kim Bernstein, Eric Best, Ruth Best, Mark Ladd, Ken Mertens, Ed Griffith, Karin Albright-Coleman, Anne Nicholls.

II.  Opening remarks
Lisa thanked everyone for the reports that were submitted. Board minutes were received late and not sent out. They were distributed and the Board was given a few minutes to review them.

III. Consent Agenda Approval
A motion was made to accept the submitted reports minus the minutes. The following reports were approved and seconded. Motion carried to accept these reports:

Treasurer's Report
Play Nominations Secretary's Report
Musical Nominations Secretary's Report
Development Committee Report
Marketing Committee Report

IV. Non Submitted Reports
February Minutes - Corrections were asked to be made to 2 typing errors and 1 grammatical error. A motion was made to accept the minutes, seconded and approved. The minutes were accepted as amended. The secretary was asked to email the corrected minutes to Karin to be posted on the website and the member theatres.

Outreach Report - Ed has his committee set which consists of; Larry Hinken, Stephanie Naumoff, Kim Bernstein and Debbie Johansen. The first meeting is not yet set.

i) The preliminary scholarship guidelines had been done. A meeting is set. Myron to go over guidelines and funding. A motion was made: Accept Myron Nidetz's gift, thru the Legacy Foundation, to establish a scholarship fund per the initial guidelines. The floor was opened to discussion. Questions and concerns were voiced about; funds in perpetuity and roles & responsibilities with getting information out to member theaters, (press release, posting to website). Use of the DOE website was given as far as contacting schools. Motion was seconded and approved with 3             abstentions. Motion passed.

V. Old Business
Website - Will be up within a week/end of month at the latest. To check on the updates that have been made just use the refresh button. Anne was asked to put together a press release. Using the words redesigned website would work best. Asked that the next insert also give this information.

Bylaws and P&P Manual - According to previous Board meetings the P&P modifications have been made. The Bylaws are the legal document defining our purpose, the P&P  describes who does what and how we operate. It should be a slave to the Bylaws. A     committee was formed consisting of Karin and Larry, who will review them and take all recommendations from the board on corrections/content. This will be done by email before the P&P is approved.  A motion was made: Amend the Bylaws and add Article Y. in Section 3 as Project C.A.S.T.  Motion seconded and approved with 1 abstention. Motion passed.

Calendar - The revised calendar had been sent out with the added column showing who was responsible for each line item along with the date changes requested by the Development Committee chairperson. No additional changes requested.

Viewing Percentages & Guidelines - This section was added to the P&P Manual from Bylaws. Request was made to untable the motion in reference to viewing percentages and guidelines. Without dissension so moved.  Determined that since this was now in the P&P manual to be reviewed it would tabled again. (Ref. page 6 P&P Draft)

Detailed Slate & Deadline - Request made to untable the motion in reference to the deadline for nominations and the detailed slate to be written. Without dissension so moved. The floor was open for discussion. Member theaters need the names of those running for the Board early enough to take to Board meetings and a date in order to have a representative present. Suggestion was made to have a separate meeting/get together early in December for the Board election. Set the date as 1st Sunday in December (This year Dec. 3rd). Slate would close approximately 2 weeks before. A motion was made: Set the deadline for Board position applications as 2 calendar weeks after the annual Gala. Verified that according to Bylaws and P&P it states the Board is elected at the last meeting of the calendar year. The motion was seconded and approved. Motion passed.   

In order to continue discussion about the slate the decision was made to approve Section 2, Article B on page 1 of current P&P and a motion was made. The floor was opened for discussion. Added #6 to read; Must be able to complete the duties of the office. The motion was amended to include #6, seconded, approved and the motion passed.  

The question was asked, if we have no applications for a certain position would the office/board position remain vacant? The floor was open for discussion and the following motion was made: In the absence of a candidate for a position, nominations will be accepted from the floor. Any voting member present can nominate a person but the nominee must be present to accept the nomination. Motion was seconded, approved and the motion passed. Karin, Marc and Larry will work on the Board application form for the next meeting.

VI. New Business
a)  Ceremony - Ideas were requested for the annual Gala. Suggestions were made. Some names were given to contact.
b)  Article in Sunday, Feb 26th was mentioned. A copy was passed around and thank yous went out to Anne for a job well done.
c)  Ed proposed Project C.A.S.T. funds be used to support member theaters who go to state competion. The Board agreed and would consider such proposals as they fall within the guidelines of Project C.A.S.T.
d)  The new Board member is Jim Jones but he was unavailable to make this meeting.

VII. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned by the President of the Board, Lisa Woodruff, at 8:15PM.

Next Board meeting 6:30 PM, 4/23/06 at CTG

2006 Board Dates:

April 23rd          August 13th
May 21st           September 17th
June 25th          November 19th
July 16th          

Other important Dates for 2006
Viewer Elections Aug. 13th 5:30 PM
Viewer Meeting Aug. 27th 6:30 PM
Initial balloting Sept. 10th 5:30 PM
Plays Rehearsal Tues Oct 24th 7 PM to 9:30 PM
Musical Rehearsal Thu Oct. 26th 7 PM to 10 PM
Gala Sat. Oct. 28th setup at 11 AM
Board Elections Sun Dec. 3rd 6:30

Respectfully submitted,
Kim Bernstein
NIETF Recording Secretary 2006