The Board of Directors of the Albuquerque Theatre Guild convened at the Tricklock Company offices. Board Members present: Georgia Athearn, Eli Browning, Lou Clark, Kristin Loree, Virginia Ludvik, Linda López McAlister, Claudia Mathes, Preston Mendenhall, Joel Miller, Ray Orley, Hugh Witemeyer. Also present: Val Scott.

Quorum present?
Yes.

Call to Order.
The meeting was called to order by President Hugh Witemeyer at 10:05 a.m.

Fire Marshal Meeting Plans.
The first order of business was the upcoming meeting with the Fire Marshal. Five of our theatres have been visited by the fire marshals in recent weeks. One has been closed and the fire marshals have pointed out things that others need to do to bring their venues into compliance with code. Oftentimes these suggestions require expensive work to be done by licensed electricians/engineers. A meeting has been scheduled between Lt. Skip Navarrette and ATG members at the Vortex on Saturday, December 19. The purpose of the meeting is to get clarification on what’s expected of theatres and to establish a working relationship with the Fire Marshal’s Office. We feel the Guild can play an important role as a liaison between that office and our member theatres. In preparation for the meeting, Lou Clark agreed to contact theatre companies in other cities to see what their experience of safety inspections has been.

Treasurer’s Report.
Ray Orley reported that we have $12,902 in our checking account and $10,300 in CDs and savings accounts, for total cash assets of $23,202. So far this year our income has been $6,440 and our expenditures $6,317.

Board Retreat.
Preston Mendenhall and Virginia Ludvik had circulated a plan for the upcoming Board Retreat before the meeting, and the plans were discussed brieftly. The retreat will be a one-day affair on Saturday, January 9. It will start at 9:00 a.m. with a one-hour monthly business meeting and move into retreat mode at 10:00 a.m. It will be held at the N4th Theatre.
 
President’s Report on Civic Initiatives.
President Hugh Witemeyer reported on activities of ATG in relation to various other civic and arts organizations and initiatives. ATG has been “at the table” during an ongoing planning process triggered by the UNM Bureau of Business and Economic Research report on the impact of the arts and cultural industries on the city’s economy. For example, we participated in meetings of the Mid-Rio Grande Arts Business Culture Task Force and in planning sessions for the Downtown Albuquerque Arts and Culture District. We’ve also been working with the Cultural Center of the Southwest to facilitate the inclusion of ATG theatres in the video displays at the Hotel Andaluz. More recently, ATG President Hugh Witemeyer was invited to serve, as a spokesperson for the theatre community, on a Committee of Mayor Richard Berry’s Transition Team that reviewed the structure and activities of the City’s Cultural Services Department. These connections have strengthened the ATG’s relationship with “Creative Albuquerque” (formerly the Arts Alliance), which is reinventing itself as a broad-based organization of arts and culture organizations under the leadership of Kevin Hagen. The ATG has been invited to nominate a representative to stand for election to the Board of Creative Albuquerque. This is a “contributing board” where members pay to belong. After some discussion it was moved, seconded and approved that ATG pay annual dues of $250 to join the CA Board. A second motion was also passed that Hugh Witemeyer be the ATG representative to that board for the remainder of his term as ATG President. [Note: Hugh’s election to the Board was reported in the Albuquerque Journal for December 27, p. F3.] It was suggested that, since these sorts of activities are not well-known to the ATG membership at large, Hugh write a “holiday letter” that will be distributed widely to the membership describing these and other developments.

Committee Reports.

• Buzz Committee.  Linda Lopez McAlister reported on Buzz Committee activities.  The Committee met and recommended that we continue to participate in the monthly cooperative advertising insert in the Venue for another year, but that we ask Richard Boehler to design a new ad for that purpose that will show our web address more prominently and use the round logo instead of the plain one. A motion to this effect was passed unanimously. The Buzz Committee met with Ruben Muller of ACT (Albuquerque Community Theatre), the weekly television show on community access tv‘s Encantada Channel and discussed three possibilities. One was to inform our member theatres of the opportunity to publicize their upcoming shows on this program, which Linda has already done via email to theatre reps and publicity coordinators. Another was to give ACT an exchange ad in our upcoming brochure in exchange for their listing ATG as a supporter of the program. The third was to make a modest financial contribution to ACT. It was decided to make the offer of the exchange ad to ACT, but not to take any action on the financial contribution at this time. Board members need to see the program and familiarize themselves with it and to get answers to some questions about the future of this channel in light of recent issues about funding and the change in the city administration. A seminar on Arts Marketing by Terry Davis of Popejoy Presents has been rescheduled for December 12. Materials are being collected for the Spring, 2010 ATG brochure and that is going smoothly.


• Unity Committee.  Virginia Ludvik reported that the Unity Committee has expanded with the addition of several new members. The holiday party is scheduled for Sunday, January 24 from 5:30 to 7:30 at ALT. John Davis and Erin Hulse are exploring the possibility of a workshop for high-school-student theatre programs and possibly a theatre festival. Another workshop under consideration is a makeup workshop after the first of the year, possibly at Popejoy. It would be devoted to the basics of hair and makeup and enrollment would be limited. The big annual ATG party will take place in May, with details to follow.


• Finance Committee.  We have a grant proposal pending with the McCune Foundation, and we should know in February if it will be funded.


• Actors Circle.  Georgia Athearn reported that she has so far received 20 responses to the survey sent to potential Actors Circle members. Some of the things they’re expressing interest in are auditioning, speech, movement, character development, dialects, and period acting. Georgia will prepare a list of classes and workshops available for actors in the Albuquerque area so that information can be disseminated to ATG members. No specific plans for future meetings or activities have been planned as yet.


• Directors Circle.  Linda López McAlister has distributed a questionnaire to over 100 directors with a response deadline goal of December 18. The questionnaire will try to ascertain what the Circle might do to meet the needs of its members and to identify directors who may want to work with the Playwrights Circle on their March production. Linda will compile the results of the survey before the next meeting.


• Web Committee.  Joel Miller reported that he is the only remaining active committee member, though Marty Epstein and Wendy Orley are nominal members. Joel is trying to contact Ian Alden regarding his offer to fill the assistant Webmaster position, and is in the process of soliciting input on the site design for upcoming improvements.


• Tennessee Williams Festival Committee.  Preston Mendenhall reported that Phil Bock is continuing to firm up the slate of plays and participants for the festival. Camino Real is considering a biographical piece about Williams called Rancho Pancho.


• Membership Committee.  Hugh Witemeyer reported that we have 121 active individual memberships [note: as of December 21 that number was up to 137]. The 48 lapsed members have been contacted and reminded of the pro-rated membership opportunity. We currently have 32 organizational members (including Popejoy as a non-voting member). Duke City Repertory Theatre has expressed interest in joining the ATG and wants to be included in the next edition of the brochure, so we expect to receive their membership shortly. Although the first DCRT production will not take place until Fall 2010, the Board approved their acceptance as an organizational member before that date, based on their strong track record of fundraising and advance planning. The Committee hopes to work with Erin Hulse on the creation of a new membership category for high-school theatre groups, perhaps via “thespian troupes” rather than APS drama departments.


• Youth Circle.  Hugh Witemeyer reported that the ATG Youth Scholarship Program will be renewed in 2010. Publicity will begin in mid-January, applications will be due in March, and announcements of recipients will be made in May. This year six students received scholarships; we are aiming for ten next year.


• Playwrights Circle.  Hugh Witemeyer reported that: (1) Since the new ATG play-reading series is a cooperative venture between the Vortex and ATG, the Circle has agreed to share the cost of printing programs for future events in the series. $150 has been authorized for this purpose in 2010. (2) The Circle is planning a festival of 10-minute plays in March at The Box Performance Space. The deadline for submissions is January 9. The Board asked whether this will be a revenue-generating event, but no one present at that stage of the meeting could answer the question.

Other Business.
Agenda items to be moved to next Board Meeting: 

• PayPal for ATG website,
• Play review process,
• Business Cards/ Stationery to be decided via email.

Adjournment.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:36 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Linda López McAlister, Secretary
with thanks to Preston Mendenhall for his notes on the last half hour of the meeting.