BOARD OF DIRECTORS MYRNA LOY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING AND MEDIA ARTS OCTOBER 16, 2000 MINUTES The board of directors of the Myrna Loy Center met Monday, October 16th in the Myrna Loy Center at 7 PM. Leigh Bohn convened and chaired the meeting. Present were Leigh Bohn, Ellen Alborn, Chip Clawson, Peter Bovingdon, Phyllis Lefohn, Allen Lefohn, Ali Sheppard, Martin Holt, Alan Nicholson, and Hattie Jo Lehman. Not present were Board members Bob Anderson and Michelle Allen. Non-Board members present were Ed Noonan, Mike Schechtman, and Teri Drake. A motion to approve the minutes of the September 11th meeting was made by Ellen Alborn and seconded by Chip Clawson. The motion carried. Teri Drake presented the Financial Balance Sheet and a short discussion took place. Leigh Bohn led a discussion on a possible Lynn Lundborg memorial. Following the discussion, Martin Holt moved that the Board do some kind of a memorial to honor her and Hattie Jo Lehman seconded the motion. The motion carried. It was agreed that the Executive Committee would discuss the possibilities for the memorial and recommend an action to the Board. Ed Noonan presented the Administrator's report. The film-related revenues are positive for the first 6 weeks up to October 13. Work is falling into a normal routine. Krys Holmes, the Community Coordinator, is getting marketing procedures into place. Christy Stiles is doing the box office and helping Mike Schechtman with the business sponsors update. Besides the upcoming live performance series, a Jazz concern will be give on November 10. The Casey's had a good night at their performance and Stuart Weber's concert was excellent. Christian Swenson will be performing on November 17 and will perform for schools during the day and will do two benefits in the evening. His performances will be part of the Art Walk events that will feature several activities at the Myrna Loy Center. The Grants to Artists awards will be given at the second performance of Christian Swenson on November 17. Mark O'Keefe is having a fundraiser on Saturday, October 21. Another rental will be the Toadstone, who will be using the Theater for a production in January. Elizabeth Gunn will be giving a reading next week. He is also working with the Montana Rep to do a legislative performance of The Diary of Anne Frank. He has been doing Montana Shares school visits. The first film class was a success, with 3 teachers, the artist in residence in the schools, and 11 high school kids taking the class. The 2nd class for 6-8 year olds only had two registrants. He believes that talking to the teachers in advance will help build other classes. The staff has been talking over building and supply needs and has met with Martin Holt. The list of items that are being considered are as follows: curtain for screening room, new garbage cans, painting the box office, lamps, new popcorn machine, sound system, ice machine, benches for lobby, new chairs to get us up to the 250, flowers and plants, changing tables for rest rooms, and a modification to the heating system. Ed reminded everyone that Sunday, October 22 is the Board party at the Turman Gallery from 6-8 PM. Featured at the party will be live music provided by The Montana Guitar Ensemble, wine tasting, and a still to be determined special event. Allen Lefohn presented a summary of the draft Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Infrastructure Analysis study. He indicated that pending the approval of the Board, the RFP would be issued on October 18 to the four qualified consultants who responded to the Request for Qualifications. The proposals would be due back to the Myrna Loy Center by the close of business on October 31. Following a lengthy discussion that involved modifications to the draft RFP, it was agreed to proceed with the RFP process and if necessary hold telephone conference calls with those consultants whose proposals are considered most appropriate. The Board agreed that Ali Shepherd, Peter Bovingdon, Martin Holt, Ed Noonan, and Allen Lefohn would form a committee to review the proposals and recommend to the Board at the November 20 meeting, which proposal should be funded. It was suggested that Allen Lefohn attempt to identify a sixth person who had been a previous board member to serve on the evaluation committee. It was agreed that should conference calls be held, all board members would be apprised of the date and time to give them the option of participating. Alan Nicholson suggested that the consultant, who is selected, be asked during his/her review of the Myrna Loy Center to address the question of whether the Board should perform a national search during this fiscal year. It was agreed that a liaison committee should be established to work with the consultant once he/she is selected and begins the review process. Mike Schechtman presented the Fundraising Committee report. Michelle Allen has taken a leave of absence from the Board. There has been a shrinkage of members from the Fundraising Committee and it currently does not have a chairperson. Mike Schechtman presented a proposed Community, Schools, Youth, and Arts Initiative that he proposed to be submitted to The Lee Foundation. The proposal would feature the following: ? Film Literacy and Appreciation Education Program: A New Initiative ? ARTS PLUS, the Myrna Loy, and Area Schools: Planning a Strategic Future ? Development of a Long-Range Strategic Plan for Youth-focused Arts Education and Programming After a lengthy discussion, Chip Clawson made a motion that the proposal should be revised and submitted to The Lee Foundation with more emphasis on the programming aspects and less emphasis on planning. Martin Holt seconded the motion. The motion carried. Mike Schechtman then presented the Business Sponsor Campaign. Mike discussed the Employee Appreciation Night events that will take place during the month of November. Further discussion then took place on the campaign that will soon be initiated. The campaign involves: develop draft work plan for the FY2001, develop plan for giving levels and benefits, mailings to "Open the Doors" business sponsors, verify contact information, create hard copy files, add business sponsors to the MLC official database, add Series prospects to database, prepare and send mailings to Series prospects, place community sponsor ads in the IR, recruit solicitors, and conduct follow-up/recruitment campaign. Mike presented the latest draft of the Fundraising Committee Job Description and informed the Board that he was going to present the material to the Committee at its next meeting for possible adoption. Phyllis Lefohn presented the Marketing Committee report. The committee has held two meetings so far and a third meeting will take place this week. The committee has presented several recommendations to staff concerning various strategies that could be implemented in marketing the films and the upcoming live performance series. She indicated that one of the recommendations from the committee was to point out in the ads in the IR that reviews of the movies are available on the website. Based on feedback from the staff, the audio sample on the Myrna Loy Center's web page for the Stuart Weber performance encouraged at least 1 patron to attend the performance. Allen Lefohn presented the Board Development report. Two candidates for board membership were discussed. Chip Clawson made a motion that Melinda White be approved as a Board member. Phyllis Lefohn seconded the motion. The motion carried. It was moved by Chip Clawson that Pat Clinton be approved for board membership. Ellen Alborn seconded the motion. The motion carried. It was moved by Allen Lefohn that Wilbur Rehman be approved for Board membership. Phyllis Lefohn seconded the motion. The motion carried. Allen Lefohn would contact Melinda White, Ellen Alborn would contact Pat Clinton, and Ali Sheppard would contact Wilbur Rehman. Chip Clawson presented the Program Committee report. The Program Committee Job Description was submitted to the Board. He indicated that the Performance Questionnaire had been completed in draft form and that Ed Noonan had agreed to send the draft questionnaire to a qualified individual to review and modify if necessary before the questionnaire is made available for distribution. Chip Clawson indicated that the Grants to Artists selection committee has been formed and that it would meet on November 13 to make its final selections. The Grants to Artists recipients will be announced at the second performance of the Christian Swenson event on November 17. Chip Clawson indicated that some progress has been made with the performance core groups. These core groups are to assist with the audience development activities associated with specific events. Martin Holt presented the Building Committee report. He indicated a job description would be forthcoming. The leak in the building has been fixed and a video on the heating system is in the works. There are still roof and pigeon issues that will be addressed. Ed Noonan described the $5-$10-$15 Live Performance Series in detail. There will be 5 performances and the tickets will be no more than $15. The five performances are: The Ying Quartet (January 26), Obo Addy (February 23), ART (April 19-29), The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Quiet Cricket (April 23), and One Swell Swoop: The Art of Skateboarding (May 12&13). The Metis Music Project with Philip Aaberg, Darol Anger, Master Metis Fiddler, and Jimmie La Rocque will work on developing its music and will offer rehearsal performances. The Rhythms of Helena with Katherine Kramer performance is still in the discussion stage. Allen Lefohn presented the database and web update report. The database for the Myrna Loy Center is being updated and will be completed in time for the mailing of the 5-10-15 Series brochure. The number of visits per month is around 1700. Both audio and video samplings have been placed on the web page and very positive feedback has been received from web visitors. The Board was reminded that the On Broadway fundraiser will be on November 13th and that Board volunteers were needed to talk with diners about the Myrna Loy Center that evening. Ed agreed to coordinate the volunteer scheduling. Phyllis Lefohn made a motion that the next meeting be held at the Myrna Loy Center on November 20th at 7 PM. Chip Clawson seconded the motion. The motion carried. Martin Holt made the motion to authorize the Executive Committee to act on the Board's behalf to take any necessary action that must be taken before the next Board meeting. Ali Sheppard seconded the motion. The motion carried. Ali Sheppard moved that the meeting be adjourned. Martin Holt seconded the motion. The motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 10:25 PM. Approved (date): ____________________________________ 1