1. Sponsor Meeting
Conference 2018

2. Welcome to Conference 2018
We are excited to share this time with you and your students! A reminder as with every year experience challenges and problems (some new) which will require us to meet and to overcome

3. A brief look at the state of MST
Missouri is continuing to add new troupes and has lots of potential for growth
Debbie Corbin is President of EdTA
We continue to look at our activities to ensure they are valuable, cost effective, and worthwhile experiences for troupes and individuals alike.

4. A big Thank You!
• We look forward to bringing a great educational theatre conference opportunity to more Missouri ITS students. One of the ways we can do this is through the active involvement of our sponsors. Thank you to those of you who are presenting workshops and productions. Thank you in advance for performing your adult delegate duty – it helps make everyone’s conference experience smoother.

5. By the Numbers this year (last year’s total)
Total Troupes – 87 (90) EdTA Reps - 4 (3)
Total Delegates – (1897) Total Student Delegates – (1673)
Total Jr. Delegates – 120 (49) Total Jr. Student Delegates – 102 (44)
Colleges & Vendors – 39 (38) Total College/Vendor Attendees – 111 (115)
•Invited Guest Artists – 25 (26) Total Registered Alumni 10 (6)
•TOTAL (2067)

6. Troupes Largest Registration - Parkview (68)
Newest Troupe - Barnwell Middle School - 1/10/18
Welcome to New Troupe :
Calvary Lutheran
Welcome back:
Brentwood

7. Conference Reminders 2018
Please read the be familiar with Delegate Guidelines (on Guidebook and program if you need an additional copy)- later claiming “I didn’t know” will not excuse consequences delegates in your troupe may experience as a result of not following them. It really helps us all if we are all on the same page.
Reminder: We are not allowing students to enter and leave the late night activity space. Once they enter they will be there. Please make sure you communicate with your students as to what they wish to do. If you are allowing students to be in their hotel rooms please have an adult on the floor with them. If you have more than one adult and you have students in both places please have a rep in each area to supervise your students.
Reminder: All sponsors need to be sure to complete his/her Sponsor Duty. These are necessary in order to make the conference run smoothly.

8. Hotel Specific Stuff
If you are staying in the conference hotel – please collect your student delegate’s room keys each day and only allow them in their rooms when you see fit. This allows you greater control as to where your students are and releases you (and us) from any liability in case a student is in their room when you don’t want them to be.
Also if you are in the conference hotel we have given you hang tags for the rooms you have (strongly advised). We ask that you participate in this program so we can all look out for each other’s students and only knock on the doors that are of our delegates.
If you have allowed your students to have Keys (not advised) tell them secure them without their room number displayed on it anywhere.

9. Usual Conference Stuff
Health forms and badges - please make sure ALL your delegates are wearing both items at all times
Please be present in the halls and workshops – your presence encourages appropriate conference and theatre behavior. In addition please model positive behavior and correct inappropriate behavior.
Go to General Sessions. There are less of them, so the ones that exist will all have very important announcements.
Please hand out t-shirts as soon as possible so we can try to correct mistakes quickly.
Please have your students tear off their meal tab while they are standing in line for the meal. This will keep the line moving and make the process easier for everyone involved.

10. Last Conference Specific Reminder
Dismissal from conference may be less hectic than usual since we are in 2 tracks - but you may want to warn your students given the weather report and various other things it may not be as smooth as we would all wish.
We have a phone specifically for emergencies - it is (in program and Guidebook as well). PLEASE ONLY USE THIS FOR EMERGENCIES (ie if you are planning on calling an ambulance so someone is in imminent danger call it first and then us so we know). If it is something that is not urgent but you would like resolved by the end of conference please see a board member to help with this.

11. Advocacy
Teri Turner has set up an Remind101 line for Advocacy alerts throughout the year.
If you are interested in signing up, attend her workshop on Friday or visit her table in the college area.
Any advocacy questions? Feel free to stop her and ask! As part of the ALN, we are continuing to increase our advocacy presence in the nation, which is needed now more than ever.

12. Financial Report
•Treasurer’s Report will be posted on-line including a general ledger for all accounts.
•Thank you to all those who paid their conference bill on time. We are at 99.3% paid.
•Please make sure in the future you update your bookkeeper’s W-9
•Reminder that you can print off paid invoices on-line at any time after you have paid and/or received notification of payment received.
•If you have a credit on your account we will be issuing checks Thursday after 3 PM.

13. Expense Breakdown
•Scholarships - $4.25 (5%) •Office/Conference Supplies/Badges - $.85 (1%)
•Chapter Travel - $.85(1%) •Website/Postage (1%)
•State Conference Expenses (without Guest Artists) - $56.95 (67%) •Advocacy - $.85 (1%)
•Guest Artists (Meals, Travel, Hotel) - $5.95 (7%) •State Board Expenses - $2.55 (3%)
•State Non-Conference Specific Student Activities (All-State/STO/ect)- $11.90 (14%)
NOTE: none of the above takes board members donations (usually unofficial) into account

14. Financial Report Main Checking: $238,097.68 (as of 1/10 $99,769.87)
All State: $4,498.85
Money Market: $156,967.94
CD: $14,309.14
Credit Card: $-9,894.08
Total: $403, (as of 1/10 $265,651.72)

15. Financial Report
Due to venues requiring prepayment of goods and services we can no longer wait for your PO’s check to arrive – we need the funds by the requested due date to pay for the conference. We do understand that many of you are at the mercy of your schools but for the most part 75% of the conference needs to be paid for BEFORE the conference and the other 25% is directly after the conference.
Beginning with Leadership ‘18, any invoice paid after the due date will result in an additional fee that equals 25% of the total owed. Also, invoices for the 2019 State Conference will be ed to schools using the online Quickbooks Invoice.

16. Leadership •Voting for new board members (student and adult)
•Leadership ‘18 will be held at the Capitol Plaza in Jefferson City on Sept 8 (with some optional evening activities/workshops held on Sept 7). Look for more information to be released as to hotel room prices and registration in early May on the website and in s.
•If there are workshops you would like to see presented and/or would like to present please Jennifer Forrest-James
•As with last year, Leadership will have the following activities:
•Voting for new board members (student and adult)
•Voting for the conference logo
•Honor Troupe presentations

17. Gentle Reminder
PLEASE read all s completely from Missouri Thespians. We know you are busy people and we try to be very judicious in how we use the blast system. Some s may be very long, but they contain information that you need to know to help your students have a successful conference experience. It is imperative that you read for detail.

18. Running for Office
•Students and Adults who are interested in running for office at Leadership in will be able to get the application on-line by March 31st.
•All applications are due June 1st with interviews happening at the July meeting.
•All interested should look at the on-line listing of dates and times for board meetings to make sure they can meet the obligations.

19. Future Sites 2019/20 - Return to KC.
2021/22 - Looking to return to STL. Look for this announcement soon.
2022/23 - Currently researching