Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: First Board Meeting Proposals

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pdavis69
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Posted: 8/19/08 at 2:41pm

Just remember as a board member you can always vote no.

Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse

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KEB54
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Posted: 8/19/08 at 5:35pm

Is your theatre not-for-profit? If so, don't you need to keep track of volunteer hours as justification for your 501c3 status? Once they pay a membership fee, what does that do to your standing?

There are several sites, ect. that puts a value on volunteer hours, According to this one, http://www.independentsector.org/programs/research/volunteer_time.html in 2007 a volunteer hour was worth $19.51. If you need to come up with matching funds for grants, or to show community backing, these numbers are important. Every hour of every rehearsal and every hour of every show for every actor adds another $19.51 to the pot. Granted it is funny money in that you can't buy lumber with it, but it definately has worth!

KEB

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skoehler
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Posted: 8/19/08 at 7:53pm

Be VERY careful with this. Board Members donating their services pro bono, for instance a lawyer on the board giving legal advice, CANNOT write off the time. Therefore their time cannot be counted as an in-kind donation. The tax laws are pretty clear on this and I would be very careful about using volunteer hours as matching funds.

Also, most grants will ask about volunteer hours in addition to in-kind donations.

501c3 is not affected by membership, tax wise this is often seen in the same light as an individual donation, thus support of the theatre. You do not need to track volunteer hours, but you would be foolish not to, they are valuable numbers and many grants do ask for specific breakdowns of volunteer and community participation.

I didn't ask in my previous post, but I assume that membership is already a requirement for Board membership, if not it should be.

Steven Koehler
Managing Director
Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette
www.lafayettecivic.org

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LEHCo
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Joined: 9/03/07
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Posted: 8/26/08 at 2:40pm

We actually do ask all of our members to pay dues ($25/year) if they are cast in or work on a show (unless we specifically invite them, let's say because of their acting experience). The reason is that we need to be able to cover the cost of their costumes, and building sets, etc. We charge very little for our shows, $5 to $8, and don't really make a lot of money. We haven't heard a complaint from anyone, all are more than happy to pay in order to support our group. We are very small, so maybe that is why it's not a problem.

Oh, another reason people are happy may be because the other large nonprofit community theater near us charges twice as much PER SHOW!!!!!! Aaaahhhh!

Thanks!
LEHCo

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stageman 2
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Joined: 8/20/08
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Posted: 8/26/08 at 3:42pm

We do have provisions in our by-laws that Board members must be paid members and of course you must be a member to vote but even though we encourage membership, we do not insist participants pay dues. As someone stated, volunteers are hard to find and keep. Our annual dues are only $15 but we still have prominent members of the community who have been coming to our shows for years that have never joined. Go figure.

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whitebat
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Posted: 8/28/08 at 10:34pm

That is quite a different situation from our CT. We have general membership (pretty much anyone who's been in any of our shows in any capacity) and a board (about 5 officer positions, who try to get to all the meetings and make decisions), and nobody pays any dues. It's hard enough getting anyone (besides the board and 3-4 others) back to do a second show anyway.

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Davenport Scott
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Joined: 9/24/06
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Posted: 9/20/08 at 3:57pm

my CT is a membership organization ($10), but membership is not required to be in or work on the shows. The managing board, directors and assistant directors are required to be members, but no one else is. Members get some perks - workshops are free, they get a pair of tickets, vote on various stuff we do - but we make sure that everyone knows you do not have to join up to participate.

"membership" is a tricky thing, and one that I'm not overly fond of in most structure. It can really give off the vibe of exclusivity if you are not careful.

eta.... we have about 110 paid members, but in reality only about 45 are active members.

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dexter74656
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Joined: 12/29/06
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Posted: 9/21/08 at 6:19pm

My feeling has always strongly been that the actors and crew are giving up so much of their time - and with gas prices, that means a lot to people that are 25-30 minutes away! - that I do everything possible to make sure that they incur as little cost as possible. The only thing we ask them for are their show shirts - which are optional, if they don't want one, they don't have to buy it, and we ask for half the cost of their script *if* they want to keep it - if they don't want to keep it, we ask they keep it in good condition and return it to us at the end.

The only except was our first year as an organization when we had no funds, we asked for half of the costume rental cost.

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Running Your Theater
Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board :Theater Administration :Running Your Theater

Topic: First Board Meeting Proposals( Topic Closed)
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Author	Message
pdavis69 Celebrity Joined: 3/26/06 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 437	Posted: 8/19/08 at 2:41pm
	Just remember as a board member you can always vote no.
	Patrick L. Davis Fort Findlay Playhouse
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KEB54 Celebrity Joined: 7/24/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 227	Posted: 8/19/08 at 5:35pm
	Is your theatre not-for-profit? If so, don't you need to keep track of volunteer hours as justification for your 501c3 status? Once they pay a membership fee, what does that do to your standing? There are several sites, ect. that puts a value on volunteer hours, According to this one, http://www.independentsector.org/programs/research/volunteer_time.html in 2007 a volunteer hour was worth $19.51. If you need to come up with matching funds for grants, or to show community backing, these numbers are important. Every hour of every rehearsal and every hour of every show for every actor adds another $19.51 to the pot. Granted it is funny money in that you can't buy lumber with it, but it definately has worth!
	KEB
	IP Logged

skoehler Lead Joined: 5/19/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 37	Posted: 8/19/08 at 7:53pm
	Be VERY careful with this. Board Members donating their services pro bono, for instance a lawyer on the board giving legal advice, CANNOT write off the time. Therefore their time cannot be counted as an in-kind donation. The tax laws are pretty clear on this and I would be very careful about using volunteer hours as matching funds. Also, most grants will ask about volunteer hours in addition to in-kind donations. 501c3 is not affected by membership, tax wise this is often seen in the same light as an individual donation, thus support of the theatre. You do not need to track volunteer hours, but you would be foolish not to, they are valuable numbers and many grants do ask for specific breakdowns of volunteer and community participation. I didn't ask in my previous post, but I assume that membership is already a requirement for Board membership, if not it should be.
	Steven Koehler Managing Director Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette www.lafayettecivic.org
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LEHCo Walk-On Joined: 9/03/07 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 7	Posted: 8/26/08 at 2:40pm
	We actually do ask all of our members to pay dues ($25/year) if they are cast in or work on a show (unless we specifically invite them, let's say because of their acting experience). The reason is that we need to be able to cover the cost of their costumes, and building sets, etc. We charge very little for our shows, $5 to $8, and don't really make a lot of money. We haven't heard a complaint from anyone, all are more than happy to pay in order to support our group. We are very small, so maybe that is why it's not a problem. Oh, another reason people are happy may be because the other large nonprofit community theater near us charges twice as much PER SHOW!!!!!! Aaaahhhh!
	Thanks! LEHCo
	IP Logged

stageman 2 Player Joined: 8/20/08 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 13	Posted: 8/26/08 at 3:42pm
	We do have provisions in our by-laws that Board members must be paid members and of course you must be a member to vote but even though we encourage membership, we do not insist participants pay dues. As someone stated, volunteers are hard to find and keep. Our annual dues are only $15 but we still have prominent members of the community who have been coming to our shows for years that have never joined. Go figure.
	IP Logged

whitebat Celebrity Joined: 8/05/07 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 137	Posted: 8/28/08 at 10:34pm
	That is quite a different situation from our CT. We have general membership (pretty much anyone who's been in any of our shows in any capacity) and a board (about 5 officer positions, who try to get to all the meetings and make decisions), and nobody pays any dues. It's hard enough getting anyone (besides the board and 3-4 others) back to do a second show anyway.
	IP Logged

Davenport Scott Walk-On Joined: 9/24/06 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 7	Posted: 9/20/08 at 3:57pm
	my CT is a membership organization ($10), but membership is not required to be in or work on the shows. The managing board, directors and assistant directors are required to be members, but no one else is. Members get some perks - workshops are free, they get a pair of tickets, vote on various stuff we do - but we make sure that everyone knows you do not have to join up to participate. "membership" is a tricky thing, and one that I'm not overly fond of in most structure. It can really give off the vibe of exclusivity if you are not careful. eta.... we have about 110 paid members, but in reality only about 45 are active members.
	IP Logged

dexter74656 Lead Joined: 12/29/06 Online Status: Offline Posts: 36	Posted: 9/21/08 at 6:19pm
	My feeling has always strongly been that the actors and crew are giving up so much of their time - and with gas prices, that means a lot to people that are 25-30 minutes away! - that I do everything possible to make sure that they incur as little cost as possible. The only thing we ask them for are their show shirts - which are optional, if they don't want one, they don't have to buy it, and we ask for half the cost of their script if they want to keep it - if they don't want to keep it, we ask they keep it in good condition and return it to us at the end. The only except was our first year as an organization when we had no funds, we asked for half of the costume rental cost.
	IP Logged