Dexter Drama Club Boosters Meeting Minutes
Monday, October 11, 2016
6:00pm - 7:15pm - Dexter Dist. Library Basement Conference Room
7:30pm - 8:30pm - Dexter Pub - 8114 Main St, Dexter, MI 48130
2016-2017 Boosters
President* Kenneth Harvey✔ Set Design - Art Marie Knoerl
VP* Ruthann Mason✔/Cheryl Willoughby✔ Set Design - Painting Joyce Oberg
Treasurer (drama accts)* Mary Caplon✔ Set - Makeup & Hair Coord. Unfilled
Treasurer (non-profit)* Caitlynn Hoffman✔ Set Production* Ken Harvey✔
Assistant Treasurer (sales) Yoko Yamada✔ Unfilled (winter)
Secretary* Mollie Kemp✔ Unfilled (spring)
Drama Director* Erin Palmer✔ Sponsorships Coordinator Erica Ward
Communication Coordinator Jennifer Colby Set Build Coordinator Randy Reich (fall)✔
Fundraising Coordinator Julie Wilson✔ Greg Kemp (winter)✔
Graphic Design Coordinator** Julie Wilson✔ Chris Calleja (spring)
Hospitality - Concessions Samantha Kempf✔ SWAG Coordinator Audrey Bergen✔
Hospitality - Green Room Beth Brooks Technical Coordinator*** Michael Baker
Hospitality - Tech Week Cheryl Beauregard Thespian Society Beth Brooks
Photography Ruthann Wilson✔ Ticket Sales Coordinator Mary Caplon✔
Programs Cathy Miller✔ Ticket Sales Assistant Yoko Yamada✔
Publicity Tanya Mazurek Volunteer Coordinator Lisa Tessmer
Set - Costumes Jinelle Sherry
(*Executive Board, **Design art for posters, signs, t-shirts, and street signs, ***Contract/bio forms/Google Docs)
(Non-Profit Board of Directors 2016-17 - Director - Amanda Webster, President - Erin Palmer, V.P. Samantha Kempf, Treasurer - Beth Brooks, Secretary - Ken Harvey)
Attendance: those in attendance are checked above; Nicole Durbin and Amanda Webster also attended.
Agenda
1. Call to order – 7:00 pm
2. Booster Position Reports
A. Treasurer: Mary Caplon/Erin Palmer
1) As of last week: general account is in the plus $4,000; New York fund is $15,000 in plus; Erin told Mary that she could call Donna Wahr as much as necessary for updates (still working out what money goes into NY fund, general account)
2) Erin will email Mary and Caitlynn about how to report out information at Booster Club meetings
3) Mary will check students who are unpaid and create a list - heads of tech also help to follow-up on this with students, but as we get closer to the performance, Booster Club needs to follow-up
B. Non-Profit Update: Caitlynn Hoffman
1) We are successfully a non-profit!
2) Caitlynn reviewed who the Dexter Drama Non-Profit board members are, and distributed paperwork for incorporation.
3) Checks must be signed by two folks - either Caitlynn and someone else, or Erin and someone else.
4) Anyone can deposit into the account, using the account number.
5) Account now has $450 in it
6) Band Boosters school account will be internal account (with district) for trips (due to school insurance) & donations, and non-profit account will be used for swag, sponsorships, concessions, show money, etc.
7) How will Payschools work? Payschools can only attach to internal accounts. We can’t request money to come out of those accounts. However, PayPal is a possibility, and each of the two services charges a 3% fee.
8) If we would like to file for tax-exempt status for purchases, we would have to pay the IRS $850. We already are a non-profit, which allows us to be exempt from paying yearly taxes on our income, as long as we keep the profits at less than $50,000.
9) Donna Wahr has shared with Ken and Erin that we will need to collect taxes on concessions, but no guidelines or follow-up has been communicated. We could potentially set up a savings account as part of the non-profit account to set money aside for taxes.
10) Band Boosters school account will allow for us to go into the negative, whereas a bank account won’t allow that.
C. Sign-Up Genius: Please contact Lisa Tessmer about which sign-ups you may need, rather than waiting for
her to contact you.
D. Graphic Design Coordinator: Julie Wilson (welcome!)
1) Julie explained we should choose a drama logo and stick with it for the sake of brand recognition
2) Julie is working with an online store (through Zazzle) - this would work as an ongoing fundraiser; store would have several “storefronts” within a “mall”
3) A percent of all sales would go to Drama Club - set at 20% for now, but we could go higher or lower
4) Zazzle is able to help with keywords for search engines
5) Julie brought samples of shirts for quality - we do want to keep Underground as a shirt show, and do more generic Drama Club items through an online store
6) We can now have non-show items to sell
7) Could have a “Student section” where kids design some items
8) Zazzle often has specials, and they also have gift certificates
9) Shipping for shirts usually takes less than a week/blankets could be up to 2 weeks
10) Items are returnable if errors
11) Basic t-shirt is $14.95, plus the 20% that we would add for profit; however, Zazzle offers 15-20% off almost daily, so cost will still be around $15
12) Paypal is an option, as are checks
13) Julie has a direct contact to work with at Zazzle in case we need help
14) Julie could potentially get old designs for shows (maybe we should save our graphics)
15) Need social media group to promote this - kids and parents. She could do a little workshop on how to push out the social media piece.
E. Hospitality
1) Beth is ready to bag the individual meals.
2) Cheryl is all set with Erin’s Pcard.
3) Erin suggests we survey people again after the show, regarding food preferences, so that they can form an opinion on how it went with the bagged meals.
F. Publicity: Tanya Mazurek
1) Road signs will be out tomorrow
2) Hope Vestergaard has been contacted regarding digital signs
3) Tanya is putting out few more posters, will plan to put wooden signs out also, if they’re done
G. Concessions: Samantha Kempf
1) Is there some way to create corporate account with stores we frequent (Menard’s, Lowe’s, Costco) through our new non-profit account? Caitlynn will look into this.
2) Sam will arrange storing the extra concessions in the new storage space at the high school.
H. Programs/Sponsorships:
1) Erica Ward is now managing this.
2) Cathy Miller is not getting any response on inside front cover or inside back cover - she is waiting for graphics from these sponsors.
3) Sam would like to implement a manager position to stay outside/watch the money - wondered about giving that position a comp ticket. Erin is concerned that we should not continue doing comp tickets - gets very confusing and costs us money. We need to change the culture so that volunteers aren’t hurrying from their volunteer job to see the show.
4) Address comp tickets at parent meeting - suggest parents volunteer up front for set-build if they are planning to see every show. Folks should NOT count on seeing the show if they are working the show.
5) If you are in charge of tickets, concessions, swag, flowers, etc., you’re encouraged to have someone sub in for you so you can see one show
6) Programs are costly and will need to paid through the internal account this time
I. Ticket Sales: Yoko
1) Tickets are done, using Julie’s design
2) Different colors based on student, senior, adult
3) Mary, Yoko will get cash withdrawals from non-profit account via treasurer (Samantha) - she will communicate with Caitlynn.
4) Erin, Caitlynn, Sam, Mary, Yoko, need to develop a procedure for deposits and withdrawals for the new non-profit account.
5) Erin will check to see if she has the money boxes - Yoko will take those over for this year.
J. Swag: Audrey
1) Clothes coming in the 17th, and Audrey and publicity student will try to get items out by the 18th.
2) Posters are signed and ready to go.
3) We will set up our own tables for swag (located under stairs in cafeteria).
4) Signage: Jinelle may be a good resource for this. No tri-fold signs exist for swag.
5) We should have a box designated for signs we could re-use.
6) Might be wise to get pre-made table skirts with our logo for future, as well as welcome signs that could be easily stored - we should investigate this.
K. Set Build: Randy
1) Mostly finished - will try to complete some items tomorrow night, and may need to spill into Thursday. Erin will send Randy a list of what is still needed.
2) Set strike - no need for trucks to go to Copeland. Sign-up genius will go out for this soon.
L . Photography: Ruthann
1) Headshots are done
2) Hallway shots will be ready later this week (Erin says costume parade is this Thursday)
3) Lisa Schultz is photographer who has been helping
3. Old Business
A. Copeland Usage Update: (Ken):
1) Board meeting last night felt successful; Dr. Timmis is also engaging DCP and how to accommodate them; board members wanted more information and were not aware of this conflict with drama groups; Bridgette was effective in communicating Drama Club’s needs. Ken stressed that this is a temporary band-aid, and the district needs to find a more adequate location for the alternative program.
2) Ken spent time with alternative ed teachers, and they understand the need for other groups to use this space.
3) No timeline in place for making a decision - Ken feels we should push for this.
4) If DCP makes it work, then it could show the Board and Dr. Timmis that we could potentially make it work - that could be a challenge.
B. Boosters’ Contact Information: Our emails are available via the website; Mollie will distribute the phone
and email list to folks once it is updated by Ken.
4. Old Business
A. Unfilled Positions: Ken will work toward getting parents to fill roles that are still vacant.
B. DVDs: Leon has been selected to do the DVDs for this show. He offered a less expensive price.
C. Busch’s Card - Jennifer will continue working on this. Ken would prefer that all of the funds earned be shifted into drama general fund, rather than have parents designate to their students
D. Mandatory Parent Meeting - Meeting went well, per Ken. Will try to include information about comp tickets next time.
5. New Business
A. Ticket Packages: Ken suggested offering a ticket package at a discount to families if it is pre-purchased. Erin said when this was tried years back, it confused patrons to have varying prices - would prefer not to go this route due to amount of coordination needed. Other parents seconded this.
B. Press Release: Dick Lundy (school board member) would like a “brag” paragraph/press release to put out to community about Drama Club’s accolades and accomplishments - Erin will work on this.
C. Tools: Ken said we need to have some means for keeping track of Drama Club tools - may want to think about having dedicated boxes for different tools. Need to lock each time, and account for all tools.
6. Close Meeting: 7:52. Next meeting is Tuesday, November 13, 6pm at Dexter Library, 7:30 at the Dexter
Pub.
Submitted by:
Mollie Kemp
Secretary
October 13, 2016