January 15, 2005 NIETF Board Meeting I. Meeting was called to order at 12:20 PM. Board meeting attendance: Lisa Woodruff, Larry Hinken, Kim Bernstein, Ruth Best, Mark Ladd, Ken Mertens, Heather Clark, Karin Albright, Ed Griffith, Michael “Doc” Kuhn, Myron Nidetz. II. Opening remarks Lisa let the public meeting that preceded the board meeting serve as her opening remarks. III. Approval of Minutes Minutes were submitted and approved. IV. Committee Reports a) Treasurer’s Report was submitted and approved. b) Ceremony Preview—Ed laid out his idea for the opening number the Awards ceremony. Motion to proceed was approved. c) Nominations i) Viewer Updates—Mark Ladd reported viewing at 80% and above for plays except one individual. Ken Mertens reported viewing at 83% for musicals except for one individual. Ken will speak to this viewer ASAP. Mention was made of the secured annual sponsorship of $1200 from IUN for the inserts. Myron Nidetz made this sponsorship possible. ii) Viewers Lists—Ken will get a list of the viewers out to the participating theatres. iii) Viewer Nights—Ken will draft a letter to go to theatres about a performance just for viewers. He will also check with theatres to see if this is feasible. iv) Ken reported that Drood is not a viewable show. d) Marketing Committee—The transition for the takeover of the website upkeep to Karin Albright. The committee consists of Karin Albright, Gary Jones, Sandy Assarian and they were going to contact Becky Fox. i) Committee Report—There was no report to submit. ii) Post Trib—They were going to have a meeting to work on the advertisement.There would be an update. e) Development Committee—Heather Clark reported that she would be speaking with several people to be on the committee. She talked about finding funding for each project. i) Committee Report—There was no report to submit. ii) Sponsorships from 04—Lisa reported that she would like the Website to have a new look. She passed around a website for Chicago Southland Arts Alliance and how it was laid out. Specifically the sponsors. Also talk of money from local tourism. f) Outreach Committee—Consists of Ed Griffith, Piper Barevski (sp), and Christine Wiegand. Get list from Heather of those interested in being on the committee. Ed listed some ideas: Getting the public to vote for outstanding achievement. Still working on how to get the theatres to nominate people. i) Committee Report—There was no report to submit. ii) Project Cast Subcommittee report—Subcommittee consists of Ed Griffith, Myron Nidetz and Ruth Best. There was no report to submit. The subject came up about the NIETF brochures that were designed and distributed. Lisa needs to bring the supply of brochures so that they can be distributed. Supplies at the libraries are out. Ed will ask Christine to take some to Porter and LaPorte county libraries. V. Old Business a) IUN Archives—Lisa Woodruff explained that the IUN archives are available to us as a non-profit organization of the state. Lisa is still working on this. b) IUN Auditions—These would be the Regional Auditions. Piper Bakrevski, Bryan Conger, Ed Griffith and Myron Nidetz (as liaison to IUN) were on the committee. Myron is asking for dates because the auditorium is being booked. Some points to consider: - Audition format, 3 minute cutting for plays, 16 bars of music - no fees for actors - have auditions at the beginning of the viewing season - not open to the general public for viewing - open to both producers and directors - have a resume form on the website c) Bylaws revision—Larry Hinken submitted a revision of the NIETF bylaws, Article VI. He offered 2 proposed revisions. A motion was made, the motion was not carried to accept revision B. Larry Hinken would rewrite the revision and resubmit the proposal. d) P & P Manual—Written but the format needs work. See notes from public meeting. He will work on that. VI. New Business a) Number of viewable shows—This will be discussed in length at the viewer’s retreat immediately following this meeting and tabled till next meeting b) Portage Community Theatre—The Foundation had received a letter from the Board of Directors of the Portage Community Theatre asking to join. Motion to approve was made, a discussion ensued and per the bylaws Article IV, Section 1, item C of the bylaws, the motion did not carry. c) LCTG—Angie Lowe sent an e-mail explaining that “On Borrowed Time” will be the last official “Lake Central Theatre Guild” production as per the NIETF website. They are breaking away from Lake Central but they will still be known as LCTG, only retitled with the same letters. A motion was made that “On Borrowed Time” would be a viewable show. The board voted and the motion was passed unanimously. As to LCTG breaking away from Lake Central: Lisa asked that Ed Griffith send al letter to the new Director at Lake Central. Lisa would respond to Angie with the decision made today. d) Jason Utesch idea—Decided it was a great opportunity for us to start with sponsorship. Karin Albright and Heather Clark are going to work on this. No decision was made at this time. It was tabled till the next meeting. VII) Adjournment Prior to adjourning a motion to have open board meetings to supporting members. Decided this was an issue that needed further discussion and it was tabled till a future meeting. Another motion was made to make Board meetings mandatory by Board members. The motion did not carry. The meeting was adjourned by Lisa at 1:40 PM. 2005 Important Dates: 2/20/05 Board Meeting 3/20/05 Board Meeting***? 4/17/05 Board Meeting 5/15/05 Board Meeting 7/17/05 Board Meeting 8/21/05 Viewers Election 6 PM, Board Meeting 6:30 PM 9/11/05 Board Meeting 10/18/05 Plays Rehearsal 10/20/05 Musical Rehearsal 10/22/05 Ceremony 11/20/05 Board Election 6 PM, Board Meeting 6:30 PM Respectfully Submitted, Kim Bernstein NIETF Recording Secretary 2005 BACK TO MAIN LIST OF MINUTES