[Usittne] meeting minutes 4_1_10

Sat Apr 10 11:00:12 EDT 2010

HI Joe,
You'll never get everyone.  However, it is good to try new dates to see if you can get some new faces.
Labor Day weekend is the last free time before school starts.  I usually use it to prep but if it works for a lot of other people, I would be willing to spend a day in Maine.  
The further into the Fall it gets, the busier I become.  
Crystal

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: 
To: usittne at mit.edu
Cc: mconstable at jacobspillow.org
Sent: 4/8/2010 2:46:08 PM 
Subject: Re: [Usittne] meeting minutes 4_1_10

I got an e-mail back from Mark at Jacob's Pillow saying that the August dates don't work for him because he is busiest in the summer.  Would something in the fall be better for people?  I know a lot of us are in educational theatre and would prefer the summer, just thought I would do this democratically, so let me know what you think...

Joe

Joseph P. Donovan
Technical Director and Production Manager
Theatre/Dance
University of Maine
207-581-1767

On Apr 6, 2010, Mark Constable <mconstable at jacobspillow.org> wrote:
Hi Joe,

It was nice to meet you at USITT this year.  Congratulations on your new position with USITT NE.  At Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival our prime season runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day weekend so Jeff Roudabush nor I will be available.  If dates outside that range work for others I would love to attend and make a trip of it as you have suggested.  If not no worries, I will find another time to visit your theatre.

Thanks,

Mark D. Constable
Director of Operations and Production
Jacobs Pillow Dance
Festival, School, Archives, Community Programs
358 George Carter Road
Becket, MA 01223
413.243.9919 x170 Office
585.703.7801 Cell
413-243-4744 Fax
www.jacobspillow.org

From: joseph at donovan.net [mailto:joseph at donovan.net] 
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 9:30 AM
To: tiala at mindspring.com
Cc: USITTNE at mit.edu; rubieslipers at aol.com; dbrother at williams.edu; Jeff Roudabush; Mark Constable; merrilynjones at hotmail.com; leeh239 at earthlink.net; steven.gross at castleton.edu; mgiannitti at bennington.edu; mpfister at willams.edu; michael.franklin-white at uconn.edu
Subject: Re: [Usittne] meeting minutes 4_1_10

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to contact everyone about a few things.

First, here is the petition I mentioned that is being circulated about saving theatre at UMaine:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/keep-umaines-theatre-major

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.

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!  

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!

Thanks,

Joe

Joseph P. Donovan
Technical Director and Production Manager
Theatre/Dance University of Maine
Regional Chair, USITT NE
207-581-1767
On Apr 3, 2010, Crystal Tiala <tiala at mindspring.com> wrote:

Dear members,
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 http://www.usittne.org/USITTNEList.html  for directions on how to subscribe to our listserve.
Sorry to those of you who experience duplications because you are on the listserve.
Be well and thank you for a great meeting.
Crystal

USITT NE meeting minutes
April 1, 2010 

In attendance:
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

1.
Term limits for the chair have been approved. (A term is currently defined in our Bylaws as 2 years.)   We will need to add the following to our bylaws.
Â“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.Â”

2.
Mike Katz and John Forbes will continue working on updating the USITT NE website.  They will request specific funds from the Chair to hire a person to work on this website. This request will be made by April 30th. 

3. 
Jeff Roudabush will begin posting on the USITT NE  Facebook page to see to make the dialog more active.  We should pursue dialogues here concerning any issues we encounter in work and any workshops we may be creating.  It should work as a news feed. 

4. 
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:
-  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.   We will link this blog to the facebook and website and hope that everyone joins in the dialogue.
- 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. 

5. 
Many of us are addressing the assessment questions our administrations are asking us to conduct about the growth of our students.  These assessments come in many forms.  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.   She can compile a list of some the best ideas that people send to her.

6.
New business:
New management for USITT:
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.  They are requesting that the Chair find out specific information and ask that these changes become more transparent.  The members seem to be quite concerned.  

Complaints about the conference.
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 50th anniversary and many donÂ’t 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.

Voting for Chair and Vice-Chair:
We voted for the Chair and Vice-Chair nominations as a combined vote since each position only had one candidate nominated.
There were 2 absentee votes for both candidates.
At the meeting there were 24 votes in favor and 1 opposed.
So please welcome our new officers who will serve until the March meeting in 2012.
Chair: Joe Donovan
Vice-Chair:  Dan Bilodeau 

A group photo was taken.

The meeting was adjourned. 

Your former Chair,
Crystal Tiala
J

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

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