Sponsor MeetingConference 2015

Welcome

WELCOME TO THE DOWNTOWN MARRIOT KANSAS CITY AND KANSAS CITY CONVENTION CENTER

A gentle reminder – whenever we move to a new site we experience “growing pains”. Please bear with us as we try to figure out the ins and outs of this new space and how it impacts our

conference.

A brief look at the State of MST

• Missouri continues to grow – with more than 5 new troupes affiliating in the last 6 months.

• Missouri continues to be active leaders in Educational Theatre – Debbie Corbin Vice President Elect of the National Board.

• Missouri also has one of the largest delegations at the ITF festival in Lincoln every year.

• Leadership will continue to be looked at to be an activity you and your students view as a valuable experience in your season. If you have workshop suggestions for things you would like to see at Leadership 15 please let Jennifer Forrest-James know.

Thank you!

• Thank you for helping us to grow – the 2015 conference has the largest number of delegates, troupes, and colleges/vendors ever! We look forward to bringing a great educational theatre conference opportunity to more Missouri ITS students.

• One of the ways we can do this is through the active involvement of our sponsors. Thank you to those of you who are presenting workshops and productions. Thank you in advance for performing your adult delegate duty – it helps make everyone’s conference experience smoother.

Numbers • Total Troupes – 89 (83)

• Total Delegates – 1769 (1668)

• Total Student Delegates – 1550 (members 1235/non 315)

• Total Jr. Delegates – 66

• Total Jr. Student Delegates – 54

• Colleges – 25 (26), Vendors – 5 (10)

• Total College/Vendor Attendees – 90

• Guest Artists – 26

• TOTAL - 1951

More Numbers

• Largest Registration - Lee’s Summit North – 80

• Welcome to New Troupes (or at least have not attended for more than 8 years):• Battle• Carthage• Liberty• Nevada• Platte County• Raytown• Raytown South• Warrensburg• Winnetonka

Conference 2015

• If you are staying in the conference hotel – please collect your student delegate’s room keys each day and only allow them in their rooms when you see fit. This allows you greater control as to where your students are and releases you (and us) from any liability in case a student is in their room when you don’t want them to be.

• Also remember our insurance does not allow for delegates to use the pool (and the Conduct Guidelines state it as well) so please do not allow your delegation to do so. If you do it is at your own risk.

• You should not have needed a credit card at check in – however this means you can not charge incidentals (wifi, parking, room service) to your room. People who do so will be locked out of their room until they provide payment. In addition those troupes will not be covered on our security deposit next year.

• Reminder that there will be a luggage holding room when checking out and the suggested gratuity is $1 per bag.

• Remind your bus driver that if they move the bus they may risk losing their spot. Same with cars.

Conference 2015 Reminders

Each adult delegate received a punch card for snacks in the MST store in their troupe’s packet upon check-in.

Please be present in the halls and workshops – your presence encourages appropriate conference and theatre behavior.

Go to General Sessions. There are less of them, so the ones that exist will all have very important announcements.

Dismissal from the final session will be complicated since (again) we are in a new space– please keep this in mind and prepare your students to be aware it may not/will not be super smooth

Finally – please read the Sponsor Reminders in your handout. It helps if we are all on the same page.

New/Tweaks to 2015

• College Sponsored Scholarship Breakfast – was successful last year and will continue to be tweaked to make it a tool that students and colleges find a good use of their time.

• Guidebook – again, EdTA made it affordable and helped expand it’s possibilities.

• 6 in 60 – a new performance opportunity for students

All State APplications

• We did not receive any applications to produce/direct an All-State Show for 2015-16 – even with several inquires and direct marketing to parties we thought might be interested.

• Reasons?• Production Costs • Time commitment• Interest• Structure

• We will continue to look at this program as see if there is something we can do to make it a reality – or does this need to be on a 3 year (instead of 2 year) cycle? We welcome your input (especially from those directly active in the process in the past)

Next year changes• We are going to try to continue to keep these to a minimum – however

we are going to continue to tweak activities and policies to gain the most advantage, the safest, and most cost effective conference for the most number of students. In addition a new site will mean new challenges.

• In order to reduce potential mistakes in the future we ask that you do not use old forms or assume “it’s always been done this way so…”

• We have tried to increase the amount and timely manner in which we send/post information for you and will continue to try to do so. (Note: sometimes we are at the mercy of other non-MST board members for this)

• Related to the above - please remember all the members of the board hold the same jobs you do – theatre teachers who have classes to teach and productions to direct like you do. It is not always possible for us to answer you as quickly as you/we would like.

Expense Breakdown

• Scholarships - $4.25 (5%)

• Office/Conference Supplies/Badges - $.85 (1%)

• Chapter Travel - $.85(1%)

• State Conference Expenses (not counting Guest Artists) - $56.95 (67%)

• Guest Artists (Meals, Travel, Hotel) - $5.95 (7%)

• Website/Postage - .85 (1%)

• State Board Expenses - $2.55 (3%)

• State Non-Conference Specific Student Activities (All-State/STO/ect)- $11.90 (14%)

• Advocacy - $.85 (1%)

NOTE: none of the above takes board members donations (usually unofficial) into account

2014 Registration Actual Breakdown

Financial Report

• Treasurer’s Report

• Thank you to all those who paid their conference bill on time. We are at 93% paid.

• Please make sure in the future you update your bookkeeper’s W-9

• Reminder that you can print off paid invoices on-line at any time after you have paid and/or received notification of payment received.

Financial Report

• Main Checking: $108,335.29All State: $4,183.77Money Market: $10,000CD: $14,135

• Total: $208,654.55

Financial (cont.)

• Due to venues requiring pre-payment of goods and services we can no longer wait for your PO’s check to arrive – we need the funds by the requested due date to pay for the conference. We do understand that many of you are at the mercy of your schools but for the most part 85% of the conference needs to be paid for BEFORE the conference and the other 15% is directly after the conference.

• Some of the large checks that have already been written and sent before we arrived:Security Deposit for Marriott: $27,500Downpayment for Marriott: $52,606.50Hotel Rooms: $157,819.50Overflow Hotel Deposit: $15,640

Financial (cont.)

• Reminder: any school/troupe who owes money (either registration or hotel) on Jan 10th will be charged a 20% rate for the ‘loan’ MST had to extend to the troupe to cover their pre-conference expenses. (NOTE: this is not inclusive of late/change fees but will include charges to hotel rooms if they show up on the final bill).

All-State Show

• After reaching out to several parties we thought might be interested we received no applications for the All-State Show. • Variety of reasons

• Lack of knowledge• Lack of interest• Application process

• Application Forms will be available on our website starting Feb 1

• If you have suggestions for shows you’d like to see produced email Jennifer Forrest-James

Leadership

• Leadership ‘15 will be held at the Capital Plaza in Jefferson City on Sept 13 (with some optional evening activities/workshops held on Sept 12). Look for more information to be released as to hotel room prices and registration in early May on the website and in e-mails.

• If there are workshops you would like to see presented and/or would like to present please email Jennifer Forrest-James

• As with last year, Leadership will have the following activities:• Voting for new board members (student and adult)• Voting for the conference logo• Honor Troupe presentations

REMINDER

PLEASE read all emails completely from Missouri Thespians. We know you are busy people and we try to be very judicious in how we use the email blast system. Some emails may be very long, but they contain information that you need to know to help your students have a successful conference experience. It is imperative that you read for detail.

Priorities for 2015

• Create a policy within our organization for an increased presence of our Alumni who wish to remain active and use their skills to help run the conference in order to encourage a continuing involvement after graduation.

• Look at how MST/ITS troupes can help support troupes in crisis in a planned out/structured way.

• Increase the number of Jr. ITS troupes in the state and the number of them attending our state conference – especially from parts of the state that are not just STL.

• Continue to bring the largest and most efficient conference possible for the largest number of students.

• Explore potential funding options and/or sponsorships to help continue to bring activities to conference but keep costs low for our students.

Reminders: Running for office

• Students and Adults who are interested in running for office at Leadership in 2015 will be able to get the application on-line on March 1st.

• All applications are due June 1st with interviews happening at the July meeting.

• All interested should look at the on-line listing of dates and times for board meetings to make sure they can meet the obligations.

Future Sites

• 2016– Downtown Kansas City. Hotel costs may be very slightly higher but pretty similar to this year.

• 2017-2018 – St. Louis Renaissance Grand Hotel and America’s Convention Center.

• 2019-20 Currently under investigation.