USITT Ohio Valley Section
Meeting Minutes
August 22, 2021
Opening
The regular meeting of USITT Ohio Valley Section Board was called to order at 1:00 PM August 22, 2021 via Zoom.
Present:
Kathe DeVault, Chair
John Seaman, Treasurer
Alex Barnhart, Secretary
Sarah Russell, VC of Programming
Ronnie Chamberlain, VC of Operations
Elynmarie Kazle, VC of Special Projects
Jo Sanburg
Miriam Patterson
Caleb Stroman
Marly Wooster
Dave Glowacki, Safety Training Chair
Business
Kathe will add access to calendar/drive so members can add to Board documents file
Treasurer’s Report
Not much activity since July 1st. Current balance 23,700/ 2020-2021 Break even year.
Operations Report
Volunteers for every position. One at large position left vacant- 2 year appointment.
Programming Report
Ohio Northern University hosting conference Octover 9th. Split between Theater/classrooms at the Freed Center and Taft costume and production shops.
Dependent on Covid 19 situation. No vaccine mandate, masks required indoors.
Beauty and the Beast will be oon stage but not running. Session on projections?
Parking-free. Cost-food. Continental breakfast, boxed lunches.
Hotel-block of rooms?
Possibility to zoom sessions, ask session leaders if they have capability to run session digitally if necessary. Important for digital sessions to be accessible-closed captioning.
Keeping Peggy Ezekiel Awards online- viewable from OVS website as well as monitors at conference.
Board choice winners physical presentation of award or digital?
2019,2020,2021,2022 Winners shown at national conference.
Communications Report
Sabrina, Adam, Caila meeting Tuesday August 24. Ronnie will compile statement for at-large position for next newsletter.
Conference Costs
Use same price model from Northern Kentucky Conference.
Sarah is working on list of High schools, will share with Sabrina for Conference deals.
10/$100 highschool fee- save the date w/deal timeframe
Meme for High School students? Info for HS admin
Kathe will reach out to USITT for information
Kathe meeting w/ Sabrina 8/23 to plan info release
Ronnie will reach out to Kentucky
Reach out to playhouse square for Dazzle Group
Membership Meeting
September 2nd, 5:00 pm.
Kathe will let Sabrina know to communicate date
Get list from Nationals of members in region
Kathe working on Meeting agenda
Special Projects
Travel Awards
Ken Clothier willing to help.
3 awards, $750/each. Interview Students at Section conference?
Announce at September Meeting
Deadline/QR code for travel award application at conference.
Information session at conference?
Ezekiel Awards
Online worked well, planning to continue
Kathe has google form. Will revise and share.
Marly working on rubric for Ezekiel. May reach out for contributions in individual areas.
Kathe will forward rubric suggestions to Marly
Plan is to use rubric this year
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Miriam looked into session series, Art Equity-expensive.
Anti-racism daily practice-250/person. Two- 4 hour days.
Strategies for Change- becoming anti-racist organization-$75/person
Reaching out to try to get an organization rate
OVS should pay for members to take training
Does Nationals have DEI resources to reach out to?
Kathe will bring this to the other section board chairs to ask if they are interested in a group training.
What is the budget for this? 5000?
Committee
Elynmarie will help compile committee lists
Create a drop down menu on website to join committees
Misc.
Special projects- submit ideas for special projects?
Compile list of Ezekiels through years
List of board members through years
Board should get more organized at passing info too successors
Covid Protocol
Should OVS board establish Covid protocol for fall conference or use Northern Ohio’s Protocol?
-Masks required regardless of university policy
-Eating locations?-tent, picnic tables, etc.
-Refund policy if groups lose ability to come to conference or pivot to online?
-Most of conference being online, some on site?
Training
Event Safety Alliance Training-Recommended
Training Ideas
-Covid Compliance
-Live Entertainment Awareness- Presenting vs. Producing
-Richard Cadena- NEC, NFPA Info- Access to pre-recorded sessions?
-ETCP Training? In person/Virtual
Make a poll in membership meeting Zoom-Training
-Interest in Masterclasses
Dave happy to help/pull list.
Ronnie will start creating a poll