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February
2006
Change – it’s never easy and for LTCT it
has been a long time coming. The amount of change that is occurring within
the group may ultimately be as extensive as the reorganization that occurred
in the early 1960s. Since last summer the Board of Directors has been
working hard to make some changes that will help ensure the future of
the Civic Theatre.
In January the Board held a retreat at Bob and Sue Davis’s home on Thumb
Lake. Friday evening was spent socializing and Saturday we had Ann Chastain,
a facilitator with the MSU Extension Office, lead us in team building
and goal setting sessions. As a result of that we took LTCT’s old mission
statement and re-forged it into a Statement of Purpose. The new Statement
of Purpose now reads, “Little Traverse Civic Theatre will be an independent
self-sustained arts organization providing affordable, quality live theatre
respected and supported by the greater community.” Those of you who knew
our old mission statement may think that this is the same as the one before.
However, we’ve added a key phrase that really sets this apart and points
to the future of LTCT. That phrase is independent, self-sustained. LTCT
will become independent of the largess of other organizations and will
become self-sustained through fundraising and grants. There will be more
to come on the Board Retreat in the March newsletter.
The second and more important change that we have undertaken is creating
the position of an Executive Director. We sought funding, advertised the
position, held the interviews and have now hired an Executive Director.
On February 27, Sumner Green will start as the new Executive Director
for LTCT. We feel that Sumner will make a wonderful new addition to the
organization. She has some innovative fundraising ideas for Civic Theatre,
which are greatly needed at this time. Please stop by the office and welcome
Sumner to LTCT.
We are most grateful to Betsy Willis for ALL of her efforts in her position
as Business Manager and keeping LTCT functioning for the past few years.
Without her efforts this would not have happened. Thank you Betsy, from
the bottom of our heart, for everything that you have done for this group.
We can’t say it enough – THANK YOU!
One of the major goals that the Board set during the retreat is to raise
$30,000 for operational funds and $30,000 for the Endowment Fund by the
end of December 2006. The Board has come to the realization that we need
to fundraise in order to cover our production costs. We can no longer
count on ticket sales, program advertising, corporate sponsorships and
membership dues to provide us with the bulk of funding for our operating
costs. With the latest increases in rent and other expenses, we have no
choice but to seek funding from sources beyond our normal circle. With
the limited number of arts patrons in the area, we can’t keep going back
to the same well, we need to find other sources of income. So we as a
group need to look at this, not as a debasing of the theatre, but as a
new opportunity.
Finally, I welcome Lauri Rowe to the Board of Directors. She will
be serving as Publicity chair and Gary Albert will be heading up the new
Fundraising chair. If Lauri or Gary contact you about helping, thank you
in advance for lending us a hand.
See you at the theater! -Sabra
January 2006
With every New Year many
of us make new resolutions of changes that we'd like to see within ourselves.
I personally made a few. At the last two Board meetings of 2005, the LTCT
Board also resolved to make some changes that will affect not only the
rest of 2005/2006 season, but other seasons to come.
As some of you may not be aware but the first major change is that we
are in the process of hiring an Executive Director. We came to the realization
that we need to have someone who can keep Civic Theatre moving ahead and
that we need to make this a permanent position - and this cannot be on
a volunteer basis. Over the past few months we developed a job description
and wrote grants to help fund this position. We are currently reviewing
resumes of potential candidates and will begin interviews soon. Hopefully
we will have the new Executive Director in place by early February.
The second major change has to do with our lease with the Crooked Tree
Arts Center. We had entered into a 20-year lease with CTAC in 1995, but
since the renovations, both groups have realized that the old lease really
doesn't apply anymore. We began lease negotiations with Crooked Tree in
October and are still negotiating at this time. One of realizations that
has come out of these negotiations is the need for rehearsal space. For
years we were the only group that needed the stage. That is no longer
the case and Arts Center is being used much more frequently by CTAC and
other groups. We also had an urgent need for heated storage space, as
well as additional storage space for the "Schooner" set. With
all of these pressing needs, the Board has entered into a month to month
lease with Fletch's at the Curtis Weir building on 31. We are currently
storing our paint supplies, the "Schooner" set and we will also
be rehearsing "You Can't Take It With You" at this location.
This Board decided to lease this space on a month to month basis so that
we may consider other options. The Board wants to make this decision by
the end of this season. If you have any suggestions, please feel free
to contact me.
The base result of these two decisions is that our financial obligations
have increased dramatically. That is why one major responsibility for
the new Executive Director will be grant writing and fund raising. We
seriously need to increase our income to cover these larger expenses.
So for those of you who have not renewed your membership this year, I
encourage you to do so. And for those of you who did renew your membership,
I encourage you to either increase it, or perhaps even consider donating
to the LTCT endowment fund. We need to increase the endowment so that
we will be able to use the interest earned on the corpus to help pay for
the Executive Director's position. We will also be considering other fundraising
options.
Other news is that the Board has undergone change yet again. Due to personal
and/or health issues, Karen Tank, Larry Kilmer, and Joe Hickey have all
had to resign from the Board of Directors. We at LTCT wish them all well
and hope to see them around the theatre in different capacities. They
will be missed at the meetings, I personally valued each and every one
for their opinions and insights while they served on the Board. We welcome
Brynne Klawuhn, who replaced Karen Tank as secretary. Dick Ruemenapp has
agreed to be treasurer, replacing Joe. We are still looking for a replacement
for Larry Kilmer. Please call me if you are interested in serving on the
Board. Our next meeting has been changed to Wednesday, January 18 at 5:30
at the Arts Center.
As I stated in an earlier newsletter, and as you can tell by my previous
comments in this newsletter, we need volunteers. New committees will be
forming and if you receive a call to serve on one of these committees,
please help. There are only a few of us doing the job of many. Everyone
on the Board is doing their job, and then some. And as you can see, we've
been very busy, not including the work of regular productions. LTCT NEEDS
YOU MORE THAN EVER!
I'm an optimist and despite the obstacles facing LTCT, it will be great
new year and a great end of the season. See you at the theatre! -Sabra
September
2005
September has been a great
month for LTCT. On September 16th I attended the fifth annual eddi Awards
at the Crooked Tree Arts Center. Lee Graham was one of nine people/organizations
to receive an eddi Award that evening. It was a pleasure to see one of
our backstage crew get the award for Performance Artist. That is a true
testament to the fact that it's not just the actors who are performers.
Everyone involved a production is a performance artist - from the props
people to the costumers to the set designers to the house managers - everyone
is a vital part of the team! Congratulations Lee on a well deserved award.
This past weekend I also attended the Community Theater Association of
Michigan (CTAM) Fall Conference at Boyne Highlands. Chris Anderson, Larry
Kilmer, Brynne Klawuhn and Joe Hickey were there also. It was a lot of
fun being able to meet people from other theater groups around the state.
I can tell you that many of the issues we have in our group (filling seats,
finding volunteers, etc.) are the same issues that all of the other groups
(from the smallest to the largest) are encountering. So now that we know
we are not alone, we can all try to work together to find solutions. By
attending the various workshops, I learned of many new ideas and hope
that we can implement some of these practices within our group. I am so
fired up and can see a bright future for LTCT.
I hope everyone takes the opportunity to come see "The Jungalbook"
which opens on October 20 and runs through the 23rd. The children are
working very hard (as are the tech crews and parents) and we would love
to pack our theater! Come along and see what the future holds for us.
-Sabra
August
2005
As I'm gearing up to direct "Jungalbook,"
let me make this brief. For those of you who didn't count the number of
Board members mentioned in last month's newsletter (there were only 9),
you will be pleased to know that we have added one more member to our
Board to replace Rebecca Sand. Larry Kilmer has agreed to serve on the
board as co-chair of the Artistic Committee. Larry brings a wealth of
experience with LTCT to the Board and we are pleased to have him "on
board". With the addition of Larry we now have a full Board and we
are being very productive! Keep an eye out for future newsletters to find
out what we're doing and how you can help. Have a safe and fun holiday
weekend. —Sabra
July
2005
What an interesting and exciting summer
I have had. As Michael Corleone so eloquently stated, "Just when
I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" When asked to run for
the board, I said yes. Then on June 11, at Civic Theatre's Annual Meeting,
there was a changing of the guard and I was elected president. A heartfelt
thanks to Doug Flewelling for getting us through an extraordinarily busy
season last year. We went from doing 3 shows per season, to 5 shows in
one season - with two of those shows being musicals! And this year we're
still busy doing 4 shows this season! The Artistic Committee and the Board
of Directors decided that 5 was just too many for Civic Theatre at this
time.
We've already had
our first meeting and I'm very excited about the people that I will get
to work with this season. And for those of you who attended the Annual
Meeting this roster is different than what you expected. Doug Flewelling,
Suzanne Shumway and Rebecca Sand have all resigned from the Board since
June 11. Doug and Suzanne have numerous other commitments and both feel
that they don't have the time to serve on the Board and try to help on
productions as well. Becca will be leaving us this August. Thank you to
all of you for serving on the board this past year and Good Luck Becca!
I know that you will do well! These resignations bring me to the biggest
dilemma that LTCT faces going into our 60th year - commitment. Over the
past 2 years, we have had 8 of the 10 board members elected to serve,
resign before their terms were up. I'm not trying to imply that any of
these people who resigned were not committed to Civic Theatre. LTCT is
an all volunteer group, including the Board of Directors. And we are a
"Working" Board. If you go back and look at the program over
the past ten years, you will see the same names working every show and
the majority of those names also on the Board. But we are only a handful
of people and we cannot do it alone. Everyone in Civic Theatre needs to
be committed to LTCT or we may not celebrate a 65th season! So if you
get called upon to help with a show, please don't say no - come help!
By the time you're reading this, we will be days from opening the first
show of our 60th season, "Twelfth Night". If you haven't made
reservations to see the show yet, I encourage you to put down this newsletter
and do so right away! It's promising to be a fun show, with a lot of new
talent onstage and backstage. Welcome to all our "newbees" and
thank you for the hours and hours of work you have given us. We hope to
see you in upcoming productions. Here's to a hot and happy summer!
-Sabra Hayden
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