[Usittne] Agenda for Kansas meeting_New England Section

[Crystal Tiala]

Well, OK, I didn't think it was necessary to type out Kansas City, Missouri.  Everybody knows which meeting I am talking about. 

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


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dirks, Arthur 
To: tiala at mindspring.com;USITTNE listserve
Sent: 3/2/2010 9:09:47 AM 
Subject: RE: [Usittne] Agenda for Kansas meeting_New England Section


[Not that it makes any difference whatsoever – except maybe liquor laws] ALD
-------------------
I’ll be there. Just a note, as everybody will find out – the conference isn’t in Kansas.
 
Arthur Dirks
(A one-time Kansan)
 
 
 
From: usittne-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:usittne-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of Crystal Tiala
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 10:44 PM
To: USITTNE listserve
Subject: [Usittne] Agenda for Kansas meeting_New England Section
 
Agenda 
Kansas City USITT New England Section
Thursday morning meeting
If you cannot be at the meeting and are a paid member of the New England Section, please read the issues below and send in your votes on items 2 and 6. 
 
Agenda:  (description of issues below)
We only have an hour this year so we will need to be brief.   Please be aware of the issues in advance to expedite the discussion. 
8:00-8:05  Introductions 
8:05-8:10  Vote on term limits for the chair of the section. 
8:10 – 8:30   Website: 
Brief update on website (Mike Katz/John Forbes) 
                                                    i.     If you can send a written update to read in advance, that would be great
                                                  ii.     Determine top items that should be on our new website
 
8:30 – 8:40 Advocacy for design and tech in academia 
8:40 – 8:50  form assessment group for schools asking to assess student performance over their 4 years at college 
8:50 – 9:00  Vote on Chair and Vice-Chair 
Welcome new officers 
 
#2 (Vote ‘yes’ if you are for term limits and ‘no’ if you think this proposal is a bad idea.)
The bylaws define a term for Chair of the section as two years.  I propose that the bylaws include that a Chair of the New England section cannot serve more than 2 consecutive terms.  This means a chair would have to pass on the position after a maximum of two terms in a row (4 consecutive years) but could also return at any time after at least one term away.   My feeling is that the section becomes too sedentary without a change in leadership after a while and that people are more likely to nominate themselves for chair if they know there will be limits.   This applies only to the position of Chair of the section. 
 
#3
The website was the one item that a committee had intended to address within months after the meeting one year ago.  However, so many people had so many grand ideas that the process was stymied.  We should briefly address the issues and determine what can be accomplished and what should be included as a minimum on the website. 
 
#4
Schools are considering cut backs and often the arts often suffer.  We have seen schools like Brandeis consider cutting the graduate design and tech program and have heard of other schools considering the same.  Is there something we can do as USITT NE to be better advocates for the design and tech programs in our area or even nationally?  
 
#5
Many of our colleges are asking us to come up with assessment tools that determine what our students have learned after 4 years of education in our departments.  Although these issues cannot be solved in 10 minutes, perhaps we should form a group of interested academics and students who would like to continue this discussion.  This may also tie in with #4. 
 
#6  - the nominees (vote for one Chair and one Vice-chair)  
 
Nominations for Chair:
 
Joseph Donovan (Technical Director/Production Manager) for the Division of Theater and Dance at the University of Maine in Orono.  He teaches Stagecraft and other courses in Technical Theatre such as Drafting, Stage Management and Technical Direction.  Previously Joe worked as the Production Manager at the Penobscot Theatre in Bangor and prior to that was the Technical Director at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey for three seasons.   Other credits include work with the Barnstormer’s Theatre, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, the Barn Theatre and Humboldt State University where he received his MFA in Technical Production.  
 
 
Nominations for Vice-Chair:
 
Dan Bilodeau (Scenic & Lighting designer) has worked as a designer on many productions in the New England area.  His favorite designs include, Crime and Punishment, and Radio Free Emerson, at the Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theatre, Proof, and Almost, Maine at the Public Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Theater at Monmouth, and Doubt at the Portland Stage Company. Recent work includes Last Ma! ss at St. Casimir and Collected Stories at the Public Theater, Twelfth Night, The Mousetrap, Hamlet, A Little Hotel on the Side, and The Wind in the Willows  at the Theater at Monmouth, and Aristophanes’ the Birds at the University of Maine.  Dan has an MFA in Design from Brandeis University, and is an assistant professor of theatre at the University of Maine. 
 
 
 
Crystal Tiala
tiala at mindspring.com
EarthLink Revolves Around You.
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/usittne/attachments/20100302/3636acc9/attachment.htm