Open Forum

I'd love to hear from some folks who have a school chapter governed by something outside the traditional President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer. Do you have a student advisory board? Committees?  Reps from each grade? 
Thanks!

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Elana Kepner
Theatre Instructor
The Oakwood School
Greenville NC
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We have a Board of Officers.  We meet monthly to plan meetings and events and each officer is expected to participate.  They rotate hosting, publicity, activities and such for each meeting and chair various committees and events.  I moved to this structure many years ago as the traditional set up leaned more towards the President doing everything (sometimes because they were domineering and sometimes because no one else stepped up) and we had a few instances of the secretary gifting points to friends.  I do the points now and I have found the Board structure distributes ownership/power within the troupe much more evenly. It's worked for us.

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Amy Learn
Ballwin MO
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Thanks for your response!  How many board members do you have and what is the size of your group overall?

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Elana Kepner
Theatre Instructor
The Oakwood School
Greenville NC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-07-2019 15:02
From: Amy Learn
Subject: Alternatives to Thespian Officers?

We have a Board of Officers.  We meet monthly to plan meetings and events and each officer is expected to participate.  They rotate hosting, publicity, activities and such for each meeting and chair various committees and events.  I moved to this structure many years ago as the traditional set up leaned more towards the President doing everything (sometimes because they were domineering and sometimes because no one else stepped up) and we had a few instances of the secretary gifting points to friends.  I do the points now and I have found the Board structure distributes ownership/power within the troupe much more evenly. It's worked for us.

------------------------------
Amy Learn
Ballwin MO
------------------------------

We have a program of around 60 kiddos and currently I have 7 officers.  I try to be sure to get a mix of grade levels and a good mix of cast/crew/tech folks.  Also, our officers apply and sign a commitment contract,  then are selected by the adult sponsorship team and someone from outside the team so there is no issue or accusation of playing favorites.

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Amy Learn
Ballwin MO
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 11-07-2019 15:13
From: Elana Kepner
Subject: Alternatives to Thespian Officers?

Thanks for your response!  How many board members do you have and what is the size of your group overall?

------------------------------
Elana Kepner
Theatre Instructor
The Oakwood School
Greenville NC
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 11-07-2019 15:02
From: Amy Learn
Subject: Alternatives to Thespian Officers?

We have a Board of Officers.  We meet monthly to plan meetings and events and each officer is expected to participate.  They rotate hosting, publicity, activities and such for each meeting and chair various committees and events.  I moved to this structure many years ago as the traditional set up leaned more towards the President doing everything (sometimes because they were domineering and sometimes because no one else stepped up) and we had a few instances of the secretary gifting points to friends.  I do the points now and I have found the Board structure distributes ownership/power within the troupe much more evenly. It's worked for us.

------------------------------
Amy Learn
Ballwin MO

Do you have a copy of this commitment contract?  For two years running we've had one Thespian officer (a different one each year) who has decided to not participate, but still expects to remain an officer.  This is a new phenomenon for us so I've not really had a good strategy for handling it.  Thanks!

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Holly Striska
Theater Teacher
Berwyn IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-07-2019 15:49
From: Amy Learn
Subject: Alternatives to Thespian Officers?

We have a program of around 60 kiddos and currently I have 7 officers.  I try to be sure to get a mix of grade levels and a good mix of cast/crew/tech folks.  Also, our officers apply and sign a commitment contract,  then are selected by the adult sponsorship team and someone from outside the team so there is no issue or accusation of playing favorites.

------------------------------
Amy Learn
Ballwin MO
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 11-07-2019 15:13
From: Elana Kepner
Subject: Alternatives to Thespian Officers?

Thanks for your response!  How many board members do you have and what is the size of your group overall?

------------------------------
Elana Kepner
Theatre Instructor
The Oakwood School
Greenville NC


Original Message:
Sent: 11-07-2019 15:02
From: Amy Learn
Subject: Alternatives to Thespian Officers?

We have a Board of Officers.  We meet monthly to plan meetings and events and each officer is expected to participate.  They rotate hosting, publicity, activities and such for each meeting and chair various committees and events.  I moved to this structure many years ago as the traditional set up leaned more towards the President doing everything (sometimes because they were domineering and sometimes because no one else stepped up) and we had a few instances of the secretary gifting points to friends.  I do the points now and I have found the Board structure distributes ownership/power within the troupe much more evenly. It's worked for us.

------------------------------
Amy Learn
Ballwin MO

We have President,VP, Treasurer, and Secretary, but we also have a Social Advisor he does our social events like bowling and arranging going to see other theatre events.

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Amanda Gwin
Carmel IN
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I instituted producers several years ago after three years of the popular students got the officer position and ended up not following through on their duties!  Students who would like to be considered bto be producers fill out a form which includes an essay which asks them to tell why they would be a good producer and what they bring to the group. Students can nominate other students. The forms have a definite due date. When all are handed in my tech director, my assistant and I read the applications and make the final decision. We usually have six producers. This year we have eight because we needed to balance the number of seniors with number of underclassmen. The producers work as a team. One of the producers is the student tech director. When we host a festival each producer leads a committee. This works much better than officers and no one gets all the power or it gets to good off.

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Cathy Archer
Rutland VT
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-08-2019 08:12
From: Amanda Gwin
Subject: Alternatives to Thespian Officers?

We have President,VP, Treasurer, and Secretary, but we also have a Social Advisor he does our social events like bowling and arranging going to see other theatre events.

------------------------------
Amanda Gwin
Carmel IN
------------------------------

We have a President and VP, but then we form a Leadership Team with a representative from each grade level and a representative at large.  Each Leadership Team Member chooses an area to specialize-- IE: props, costumes, etc.  Then, they serve as the committee chairperson for that technical area.  This year we appointed a "Director of Wow" from our Leadership Team-- their job is to encourage us in new and different ways-- like eating pomegranate as a snack at rehearsal or putting together a line read over coffee for those who can attend at the local coffee shop.  That sort of thing.  I think it really adds a sense of fun and surprise and helps build morale.

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Michael Johnson
Trinity NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-09-2019 15:51
From: Cathy Archer
Subject: Alternatives to Thespian Officers?

I instituted producers several years ago after three years of the popular students got the officer position and ended up not following through on their duties!  Students who would like to be considered bto be producers fill out a form which includes an essay which asks them to tell why they would be a good producer and what they bring to the group. Students can nominate other students. The forms have a definite due date. When all are handed in my tech director, my assistant and I read the applications and make the final decision. We usually have six producers. This year we have eight because we needed to balance the number of seniors with number of underclassmen. The producers work as a team. One of the producers is the student tech director. When we host a festival each producer leads a committee. This works much better than officers and no one gets all the power or it gets to good off.

------------------------------
Cathy Archer
Rutland VT
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: 11-08-2019 08:12
From: Amanda Gwin
Subject: Alternatives to Thespian Officers?

We have President,VP, Treasurer, and Secretary, but we also have a Social Advisor he does our social events like bowling and arranging going to see other theatre events.

------------------------------
Amanda Gwin
Carmel IN

------Original Message------

We have President,VP, Treasurer, and Secretary, but we also have a Social Advisor he does our social events like bowling and arranging going to see other theatre events.

------------------------------
Amanda Gwin
Carmel IN
------------------------------

We chose to have a Thespian Council to distribute the workload equally. I handle the points and finances, but they handle planning/events/induction ceremony. I tell them at the beginning of the year that the troupe can be as dynamic or as dull as they want--it's their responsibility to be the driving force. Some years are better than others, but I think it's important not to make the title "in name only." The members vote on the Council each spring for the following year. While it tends to go toward the "popular" kids who end up being mostly seniors, 90% of the time, they are the hardest working kids anyway.

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Maralie Medlin
Director of Fine Arts
Gaston Christian School
Gastonia, NC
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We had
President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Historian, Booster Liaison, State Thespian Liaison. The Booster Liaison attended all Parent Booster meetings and the State Thespian Liaison was responsible for attending all State Thespian Board meetings.

Side note - We also had a provision in our Thespian Constitution that allowed for a recall of any Thespian officer not fulfilling their duty. This was added to our constitution after a particularly bad crop of officers and we did not have that problem again.

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Robert Smith
VA Co-Chapter Director
Retired
Centreville VA
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Just as an update for anyone who is curious:  I decided to go with a Board of Officers/ Advisory Board made up of three students.  Six students have self- nominated, submitted a statement of interest and during our meeting today the troupe will vote on up three folks from the list.  I have told them that they  can get 3 points for serving as an officer, but only if they earn the hours.  Obviously they can earn many more points based on their activities, but I am not just giving out points or a title because they were elected.  Ours is a small (13 inducted member) troupe at a small school, and we haven't had a very active or motivated group up to this point, so my hope is giving these three folks equal responsiblity will give them some ownership over activites and some leadership duties. 



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Elana Kepner
Theatre Instructor
The Oakwood School
Greenville NC
------------------------------

We’re a Junior Troupe that has Class Rep. for Grades 4-8 & a Troupe Historian position in addition to the usual 4 positions. All are not voting members until Induction (Gr.7-8) so we call them “Acting” members until then: “Acting Treasurer”.

Maria Stadtmueller
Kendall Park, NJ

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------Original Message------

I'd love to hear from some folks who have a school chapter governed by something outside the traditional President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer. Do you have a student advisory board? Committees?  Reps from each grade? 
Thanks!

------------------------------
Elana Kepner
Theatre Instructor
The Oakwood School
Greenville NC
------------------------------