Hi Everyone,<br /><br />I wanted to contact everyone about a few things.<br /><br />First, here is the petition I mentioned that is being circulated about saving theatre at UMaine:<br /><br />http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/keep-umaines-theatre-major<br /><br />Also as Crystal noted in the minutes from our section meeting at USITT I have taken over as chair so please feel free to contact me through this e-mail if you have any questions, concerns, ideas for programming, etc.<br /><br />On to the very important stuff: Since Dan (the new vice-chair) and I are both up here in Maine, Crystal suggested that we host the BBQ up here this year. How does everyone feel about this? I live about 45 minutes from our campus but would be glad to host the BBQ and then head up to school if people would want a tour of our facilities. Those of you that took Keith Cornelius' tour of Emerson's great new spaces might not be impressed but I think we do OK up here. I had been thinking late August, either the 21st or the 28th. My house is about 3 1/2 hours from Boston so it could be a day trip or you could make a weekend out of coming to beautiful Maine! <br /><br />Send me an e-mail and let me know what you think of this idea. Or, EVEN BETTER, go to the Facebook page for USITT NE and reply to the post I just put up asking the same question!<br /><br />Thanks,<br /><br />Joe<br /><br />Joseph P. Donovan<br />Technical Director and Production Manager<br />Theatre/Dance University of Maine<br />Regional Chair, USITT NE<br />207-581-1767<br /><br />
<p>On Apr 3, 2010, <strong>Crystal Tiala</strong> <tiala@mindspring.com> wrote:</p>
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<div>Dear members,</div>
<div>Below are the NE section meeting minutes from the USITT meeting at Kansas City. I took the liberty of including the email addresses of those of you who are likely not on our listserve yet. If you want to continue receiving email updates via our USITTNE listserve, go to <a href="http://www.usittne.org/USITTNEList.html" target="_blank">http://www.usittne.org/USITTNEList.html</a> for directions on how to subscribe to our listserve.</div>
<div>Sorry to those of you who experience duplications because you are on the listserve.</div>
<div>Be well and thank you for a great meeting.</div>
<div>Crystal</div>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">USITT NE meeting minutes</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">April 1, 2010<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">In attendance:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Crystal Tiala, Andre Schiff, Ruth Conrad-Proulx, Jessica Cloutier, Arther Dirks, Mark Johnson, Mike Katz, Russ Swift, Joe Donovan, William Beautyman, Deborah Brothers, Jeff Roudabush, Keith Cornelius, Mark Constable, Laura Cabo, Merrilyn Jones Taylor, Lee Taylor, Ste en Gross, Cosmos Catalano, Michael Giannitti, Mary Pfister, John Forbes, Elinor Parker, Michael Franklin-White, Dan Bilodeau</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">1.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Term limits for the chair have been approved. (A term is currently defined in our Bylaws as 2 years.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We will need to add the following to our bylaws.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The Chair of the New England Section cannot serve more than 2 consecutive terms but may return to be chair after a break of a single term.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">2.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Mike Katz and John Forbes will continue working on updating the USITT NE website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They will request specific funds from the Chair to hire a person to work on this website. This request will be made by April 30<sup>th</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Jeff Roudabush will begin posting on the USITT NE<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Facebook page to see to make the dialog more active.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We should pursue dialogues here concerning any issues we encounter in work and any workshops we may be creating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It should work as a news feed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Addressing the concern that the current economic conditions are creating serious cuts in arts programming and academic departments, we are going to take the following action:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Crystal Tiala will be starting a blog to open the dialogue world-wide on why the arts and performance are crucially important to ourselves, our education and our humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We will link this blog to the facebook and website and hope that everyone joins in the dialogue.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">- Joe Donovan will send out specific information on how we can help send the message to the University of Maine that cutting the theater degree program is not a solution to their budget crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Many of us are addressing the assessment questions our administrations are asking us to conduct about the growth of our students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These assessments come in many forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Crystal Tiala intends to continue the dialogue of how many of us have already or how we may go forward with assessments in the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She can compile a list of some the best ideas that people send to her.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">6.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">New business:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">New management for USITT:<br />The issue was raised that the management of USITT seems to be changing and no one has been told how these changes are actually happening and how they will affect all of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are requesting that the Chair find out specific information and ask that these changes become more transparent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The members seem to be quite concerned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Complaints about the conference.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Some members expressed a lot of displeasure about the conference because it (1) has been held on holidays and (2) that there is a lack of programming because of the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary and many dont like this change and (3) that the conference would be better for producing organizations if it happened about 3 or 4 weeks earlier so they could recruit employees more effectively.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Voting for Chair and Vice-Chair:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">We voted for the Chair and Vice-Chair nominations as a combined vote since each position only had one candidate nominated.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">There were 2 absentee votes for both candidates.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">At the meeting there were 24 votes in favor and 1 opposed.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">So please welcome our new officers who will serve until the March meeting in 2012.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Chair: Joe Donovan</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Vice-Chair:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Dan Bilodeau<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">A group photo was taken.</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The meeting was adjourned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Your former Chair,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Crystal Tiala</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings">J</span></span></p>
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<div>Crystal Tiala</div>
<div><a class=" parsedEmail" href="mailto:tiala@mindspring.com" target="_blank">tiala@mindspring.com</a></div>
<div>EarthLink Revolves Around You.</div>
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