1. Leadership Conference 2015
Sponsor Meeting
Leadership Conference 2015

2. Welcome Thank you for sacrificing your time and resources to attend.
WELCOME TO THE CAPITAL PLAZA
Thank you for sacrificing your time and resources to attend.
We hope you find it well worth your while.

3. The State of MST Currently 127 High School Troupes, 8 Junior Thespians
2468 total Thespians in the State
Largest Troupe in the state is Francis Howell Central – 54 initiated members!
Newest Troupe – Thomas Jefferson School
New Troupes to Leadership - Cape Central, Normandy, and Seneca
2 re-instated troupes in the last 6 months
Missouri continues to be active leaders in Educational Theatre – Debbie Corbin VP of EdTA.

4. Educational Support Missouri Alliance for Arts Education- Ben Martin
DESE Rep - Tom Tobis
EdTA Vice President - Debbie Corbin

5. Thank you!
Thank you for helping us to grow – this year’s State conference was the largest one ever
1,761 registered high school delegates
plus college reps, guest artists, and vendors.
Well over 2,000 attendees were at conference
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 presented workshops or productions. Thank you in advance for performing your adult delegate (sponsor) duty – it helps make everyone’s conference experience more enjoyable.

6. Some other reminders
We continue to tweak activities and policies to provide the most advantages, the safest, and most cost effective conference for the most number of students.
In order to reduce potential mistakes in the future we ask that you do not use old forms or assume “it’s always been done this way so…”
Lorie O’Leary has created documents to help you with registration and the conference in general – please use this resource.

7. Some other reminders
We have tried to increase the amount and timely manner in which we send/post information for you and will continue to try to do so. (Note: sometimes we are at the mercy of other non-MST board members for this)
Related to the above - please remember all the members of the board hold the same jobs as you– theatre teachers who have classes to teach and productions to direct. It is not always possible for us to answer you as quickly as you/we would like.

8. Conference 2016
Hotel reservations –uniform/online forms are necessary for all of us to use. Still some unknown info (credit card holds) and info being sought.
Consent Forms tweeked, as well as the addition of an Administrative Approval Form.
Insurance Costs have meant an increase in what we need to charge in order to stay solvent. (Think an increase of almost 5X what we’ve ever paid). We have tried to limit this increase as much as we can afford to.
We also will have increases in Security and Emergency Medical Treatment costs.
We are trying to offer more workshop opportunities for our adults specifically.
Fortunately Marty Strohmeyer has stepped forward with a plan for our next All- State. We would love to see troupe across the state involved in this production.

9. Expense Breakdown Scholarships - $3.12 (4%)
Office/Conference Supplies - $1.12 (1%)
Chapter Travel - $.97 (1%)
State Conference Expenses (not counting Guest Artists) - $47.99 (64%)
Guest Artists (Meals, Travel, Hotel) - $4.48 (6%)
Website (1%)
State Board Expenses - $2.02 (3%)
State Non-Conference Specific Student Activities - $4.94 (7%)
Advocacy - $.48 (1%)
Awards, GA Stipends, and Honorariums - $8.10 (11%)
NOTE: none of the above takes board members donations (usually unofficial) into account

10. Financial Report Treasurer’s Report
Please make sure in the future you update your bookkeeper’s W-9
Some schools still sent payment to Debbie Corbin
Ken Franke can send you an electronic copy of this if needed
Reminder that you can print off invoices online.

11. Financial (cont.)
Due to venues requiring pre-payment of goods and services we can no longer wait for your PO check to arrive – we need the funds well before conference to pay for the conference.
It is due to the above that we also have been building our reserves in the bank so we can give deposits in advance of receiving troupe funds or allow a little bit of ‘float’ for troupes where needed.
It also allows for emergency situations where a financial commitment is required without our prior knowledge.

12. Priorities for
Create a policy within our organization for an increased presence of our Alumni who wish to remain active and use their skills to help run the conference in order to encourage a continuing involvement after graduation.
Continue to increase the number of Jr. ITS troupes in the state and the number of them attending our state conference.
Continue to bring the largest and most efficient conference possible for the largest number of students.
Explore potential funding options and/or sponsorships to help continue to bring activities to conference but keep costs low for our students.
Create a formalized method of addressing emergency situations that may happen at the local level but were a state level response could be helpful and/or desired.

13. Future Sites 2017-2018 – St. Louis Renaissance
and Under advisement. We hope to announce at the 2017 conference.

14. Voting Adult Board - we have 8 great candidates! Tabatha Babcock
Amie Gossett
Chad Little
Andrea Martin
Alex Moore
Lorie O’Leary
Melissa Queen-Couch
Ryan VanDyke