[Usittne] What to expect at USITT in Houston

[Crystal Tiala]

Dear USITT New England members and friends,
 
There are going to be two major changes in the section meeting at USITT in Houston on Thursday morning. 
 
First, due to the enormously high cost of food at the hotel [70 dollars for one gallon of coffee plus 25% admin fee plus tax] we have chosen NOT to have food or coffee at the meeting.  Bring your own.  Sorry – we are just not that wealthy of a section.  
 
Second, I am NOT going to talk about the events of our past year.  I will hand out this very sheet that has the information (see below) and you can read it at your leisure.  Instead, I want you to bring your ideas, suggestions and participation. Over the past decade all the events we have done have been organized by only a handful of people.  Participation has been very low.  These people, like you, are very busy.  If we cannot involve more people in the organizing and the participation of the events then we simply do not have the manpower and funds to keep adding more.   It cannot continue to be the exact same individuals over and over again.  So I want to know what you want out of the section and how/if you are willing to be involved.  If no one has any desire to add anything then we will find a comfortable spot, hopefully a warm one away from the winter weather, and we will sit and create friendly chit-chat for an hour and a half and the section will continue to what we al
 ways have without change.  
 
I encourage all the officers of USITT NE to also send out their reports on the listserve by Tuesday and, if they cannot make the USITT conference, to include their ideas for our future now.   
 
Report on the year’s activities & news
March 15, 2008
 
Officers:
Name                                       Office 
Crystal Tiala                           Chair               
Ron Dallas                              Secretary/Treasurer
Michael Cottom                       Vice-Chair
Michael Katz                           Communications
Jeff Gardner                            Webmaster
 
We now have a Facebook group.  Join us at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10514673145
 
Events in the past year:
REPA Job Expo Co-sponsored the 8th annual REPA Job Expo in Boston along with StageSource and The Boston Dance Alliance
Over 200 applicants and 30+ employers in attendance
August BBQ at Crystal’s house in Boston. Everyone is welcome.  There were about a dozen people in attendance.  
KCACTF Region I; [Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival]  January 29th to February 3rd, 2008.
o      USITT NE sponsors a couple of awards and helps to add programming. 
o      “We are USITT”:   Sylvia Hillyard Pannell & Michelle Smith came to discuss the what USITT was about.   The reception was provided by Ed Hyatt of the Boston Illumination Group.  
o      Sponsored the Tech Olympics.  Our Tech Olympics winners were:
·       First place:   Jamie Steffen: Southern CT
·       Second place: Michelle Merola: St. Michaels
·       Third place:  Bobby Wilcox: U. Southern Maine
o      Sponsored the Technical Craftsmanship & Innovation award that awards a student with USITT membership and money for USITT publications.  The winner of the Tech/Craftsmanship was Cazimir Bzdyra from Southern CT State. 
 
Membership:  
Our group has grown very slightly over the past years.   We have had increased numbers show up at the section meeting at the national conference.  [Last year around 25 attendees].   However, our paid membership remains rather stagnant.  
We need to find our niche in the bigger picture.  Why would people want to join our group?   There seems to be some major themes emerging:
Those of us who are established in our careers enjoy the social aspect of the group and see friends that we have known for years.  
It allows all of us to interact and exchange information about what is happening in locally or in our region.
We have established ways of seeing what others are creating and help each other learn new technologies.   
Those who are new in their careers can find opportunities to meet people and network.
Those seeking to add to their credentials can participate in activities that demonstrate to their employers that they are performing a valuable service by promoting the performing arts profession in a variety of ways.  
We all need to work to promote our membership and keep these activities alive. 
 
Web Site & list serve
Need a new photo – Be prepared to get your picture taken at USITT.  
 
 
News from the Regional Officer’s meeting:      
The 50th anniversary for USITT is coming up.  Sections may be asked to help with the celebration
 
USITT sending 3 students from our region to conference:  
Rafael Jaen began the initiative to figure out how these students would be selected.  With our schedules, however, we never finished the process and we missed out on sending students to the conference. 
 
Visiting Local Theaters:  
Mike Katz and Karen Perlow have volunteered to spearhead arranging visiting local university or professional theaters in our area.  There has been no activity toward this goal.  
 
Software workshops:   
We agreed that each summer we should arrange a workshop around some software that people would like to learn.  It was also proposed that each member submit to the website a list of workshops that they would be willing to provide to schools that would like to bring them there. 
 
Vectorworks workshop:  
Crystal Tiala and John Forbes were going to arrange a Vectorworks workshop. This did not happen due to Crystal’s hectic schedule in the fall.  She may try to incorporate a workshop into the KCACTF venues in January of 2009.  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Crystal Tiala
tiala at mindspring.com
EarthLink Revolves Around You.
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