HomeMy Public PortalAbout20170518FOTTMinutes.doc
Friends of the Tybee Theater
Regular Board Meeting
May 18, 2017
Present: Bill Blakey, Scott Garner, Keith Gay, Steve Johnson (invited guest), Jim Kluttz, Karen Penick, Jerry Reeves, Daniel Turberville, Alfie Waite, and Jaime Whalen (Tybee Post Theater
Office Manager).
Absent: Cody Gay, Renee DeRossett, Maria Lancaster, Patricia Miller Wann and Virginia Ward.
Call to Order: Jim Kluttz called the meeting to order at 5:00 pm.
Finance Committee: Alfie had previously distributed the April 30, 2017 balance sheet and income statements for the one and four months then ended, with a comparison to 2016. Alfie
commented on available cash of $76,885 and the current portion of long term debt of $40,840. 2017 four month income is down versus 2016 due to reduced ticket sales for the wine festival
(fewer events and May start date). April’s income was $11 thousand.
Director’s Report: (Jaime presented on Melissa’s behalf.)
Memberships: We’ve 400 active memberships as of today, making up a little ground from the 388 total last month. We brought in 32 memberships and renewals in the last month. They include
two Star level, or $500 memberships and one director level, or $1,000. Those are the memberships that make a big difference. We sent out between 40 and 50 renewal letters Wednesday.
We had Jim, Keith and Bill read through the names and add a personal note to the individuals they knew. We think that helps get their attention.
Performance Results: Following a couple of record-breaking months at the box office, April was not so hot, as we predicted at the last meeting. We ran a Godfather series, which didn’t
do well, a fundraiser, which just covered our expenses; the Salute to Steinway, which netted a couple hundred dollars, the Savannah Stage production of Call of the Wild which got crushed
by Orange Crush. The one highlight was Johnny Mercer on Tybee, which came close to selling out and netted us about $2,000.
May has been brighter, starting off with the Wine Festival, which Jim will go into in greater detail. But our Date Night movie, MASH, brought in 70 people, which was a surprise, so
we actually netted about $400. And then we had the home school youth ensemble back for two nights of Pride & Prejudice, which brought in $3,900 in ticket sales, which we split with
the group. Both nights were about 10 tickets away from a sellout. Then Julie Wilde’s Songs from the Silver Screen sold 148 tickets and brought in about $2,200 in ticket sales. That
was also a split with the group. We’re screening Gifted over the next four days starting tonight. It’ll be a moneymaker even though 35% of ticket sales go back to the studio. We
sold an unprecedented 112 advance tickets to just Thursday night’s showing alone. Later this month we have a Rockabilly Beach Bash and our Family Movies Series starts Tuesday May 30.
Upcoming: Once again, we’re showing family friendly movies, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 3 and 7. We have a great lineup of about a dozen recent releases such as Moana, Sing
and A Dog’s Purpose. We’re also bringing back our Gray’s Reef Tuesdays starting in mid-June. We’ll have seven of those ocean documentaries, which were extremely popular last year.
We split the donation revenue with Gray’s Reef, which typically brought us $300-$500 each night. We had a $1,000 sponsor last year, which covered all our production expenses. We
are hoping for that again this year.