CYT Vancouver/Portland

From the desk of Justin Parks, Executive Artistic Director

2010-09-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

From the desk of Justin Parks, Executive Artistic Director…

I’m approached almost daily with the same essential question: “How are things going to be different this year vs. last year/past years?” It’s a great question and I’m happy to answer it. After spending an hour with a dozen individuals I finally figured out I should go public with my answers so we can all be on the same page.

Here are the areas of change I see coming this season:

1) We all want scholarships for kids and families that don’t have the means to afford CYT but its not a funded endeavor yet and my sense is that we can improve in our communication about the availability of financial aide. We will be making big strides toward both areas. The goal is for over 100 students in need to finding financial aide at CYT this ’10-11 season. And long-term we will be dialoguing with strong CYT supporters about the creation of a separate endowment for scholarships and other student/program needs.

2) Our classes are taught by excellent instructors. To continue to retain them and attract more high-quality instructors we are raising our teacher pay scale. They have not received a starting wage increase for 8 years. In addition, each class we offer offer now has specific benchmarks for achievement during each 10 week session. Check out our catalogue online and note those benchmarks for the classes you are signed up for. We want our classes to be fun AND skill-building.

3) Production values. By cutting back and eliminating some other unnecessary line items such as overpaying for theater space and for royalties, we will be able to achieve better-looking shows onstage by raising costume and scenery budgets without more overall revenue required. This will also assist our best lead volunteers who are often using their own funds to cover unrealistic budgets given them.

4) Technical sound/lighting equipment and ongoing training. We owe a debt of gratitude to all of the volunteers that have toiled in the past to run tech on a shoe-string budget. I will be diligently working to add 20 more mics to our inventory by the end of 2010. We have been asking our directors/technicians to mic whole productions with sometimes as little as just 8 mics which is unrealistic and makes the kids look bad. We’re asking for 20 families/supporters of CYT to give $1000 each by the end of September to purchase a brand new state of the art system that can be used for most of our 12 CYT shows this season as well as CCT this summer for adults and kids alike.

In addition to our mic campaign, we have secured Fedora AV to be our additional sound and lighting rental needs at a deep discount and to be our chief consultants that volunteers can turn to in their times of need during production weeks.

5) Which brings me to CCT. Christian Community Theater! Next summer of 2011 we will be staging a full-scale musical for all ages to participate in. Moms, dads, teachers, directors, grandparents, alumni/students and all will be invited to audition or participate behind-the-scenes. This will be high-quality, top-notch production that will also be a summer fundraiser for the lean summer months that CYT goes through each summer financially. Get your audition songs ready all you adults chomping at the bit to be in a show!

6) As you may have noticed our website look and program has changed (I know…again ☺) However, I believe this change will stick. Beth Maxwell has reported about our new website system (called iStar) after one month of use that all reports are automatically generated saving time, managing customer info is much easier and the balancing of financial reporting has been an upgrade. We also now have control of our own website content and it will save CYT more than $5,000 per year for years to come.

7) Can I tell you about how impressed I am with the directors/artistic teams for CYT Vanport so far. They are just awesome. Your students are going to be in really good hands with our teams. My overall goal on the directing side is to amp up our level of choreography for our productions by bringing in some studio quality instructors (to go along with our already stellar group of choreographers!) Students will be challenged in their abilities more this year than any other year especially in the area of dance. Serious about becoming a professional someday? Sign up for Project Dance in Vancouver if you want to work with our Internationally known choreographer, Julio Fuentes. His work consistently gets 1st place trophies for Musical Theater at National and Intl competitions each year. Don’t miss out on auditions Sept 14.

8) Beaverton. I have learned that one of the chief ways to be blessed as a ministry is to make CYT as open to as many kids and communities as possible. By faith, we are moving forward with the Beaverton/Hillsboro program even though maybe outsiders might see it as risky. CYT expanding to more kids/families is an integral part of staying true to our mission statement. As of this writing 30 students are already signed up to audition for Schoolhouse Rock at the Venetian Theater this fall. Come support this movement and let’s see what God does.

9) The last thing you may notice as different this season is that we are refocusing as a ministry on how to make CYT even more participation- friendly. In the past there have been some requirements and practices that we are re-examining and in many cases overturning. Yes, parent volunteer work is still vital but instead of requiring 40 hour minimum we are reducing that number to 25+ hrs which is more in line with the CYT national standard. Our core people can still give more, but think how intimidating that number is to a new family? Our cast sizes will be larger (and this will help ease parent hour loads as more parent pitch in), we are selecting shows that allow for more participation in general and that have affordable royalty costs and are also school day/curriculum-friendly. Some of shows might have the stigma of being “little kid” shows but the reality is there are more roles for all ages for most of 12 shows we have selected this season. In addition, students that are not cast in a show that is maxed out will be given opportunities to join the chorus of another CYT area’s production if that cast is not at least 75-80 students. Younger students will also have the chance to buddy up with our older students, so your Safety Buddy at the theater will now be assigned the first week of rehearsal, older student to younger student mentoring will be a bigger focus this season. This is a great year to be a first time auditioner for CYT !

If you have ideas, questions, concerns or would like to pitch in to any of the causes I’ve mentioned, please email me at j.parks@cytvanport.org I’d love to hear from you!

Bethany Shares Her Thoughts

2010-06-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

Dear CYT Friends and Families,

I can’t tell you how excited I am about our incoming Executive Artistic Director, Justin Parks. Justin was the CYT National Expansion Director when our family moved from Spokane to Vancouver in 2001. He was my coach as I laid the groundwork for CYT Vancouver. He came to Vancouver to help lead our Interest Meeting in the Spring of 2002 and came back again in the summer to help run our first week of summer camps.

Since then, Justin has been a source of encouragement and wisdom to me. He is faithful to check in with me two or three times a year to see how things were going and offer advice.

As we prepare for Justin and his family to arrive (August 1^st) we have some things we need for them:

· An economical car for Justin to use

· A 4 bedroom home

· Furnishings for their home

We also need a volunteer to step up and coordinate the gathering of furnishings for their home. If you can help with any of these things, please email me (B.Larson@cytvanport.org). Please check with people you know, or your church, about any house that might be available.

Justin will be coming to Vancouver for a few days this month. We’d like to invite all of you to a “State of CYT Meeting” on Tuesday, June 22^nd, 7 p.m. at First Church of God in Vancouver(park in the north/back parking lot). You’ll get to hear Justin’s vision for CYT Vancouver/Portland and will also hear an update from our board regarding our finances.

God has really taken care of our company over this last season, providing some amazing volunteers to help us stay viable! Thank you for your continued support of this program and for being a part of the CYT family.

Exciting Announcement: Executive Artistic Director News!!

2010-06-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Dear CYT VanPort Family,

We have an exciting announcement: The Executive Artistic Director for CYT Chicago, Justin Parks, through the blessing and support of his Board of Directors and the Expansion leadership in San Diego, has agreed to be the Executive Artistic Director for CYT VanPort for one year. He will be part-time for us from June 1-July 31 (from Chicago) and then full-time on site in Vancouver from August 1 through June 2011.

Justin comes with a wealth of knowledge in the area of CYT. First as a CYT student from age 12-18, then as a director with the CYT San Diego program from '93-97. In 1997 he co-founded the CYT Chicago program which has grown to over 7000 enrollments per year and audiences totaling] over 100, 000 per year. In 2000, Mr. Parks also co-founded CYT Kansas City and served as the National Expansion Director in 2001-02 during which he helped launch new CYT’s in Denver, Richmond and in Vancouver!
We believe he will be able to do for us what he did for CYT Kansas City in one year: create a strong foundation for a long-term, viable CYT ministry that can serve the VanPort area even better than before. Some of his tasks will include but not be limited to: increasing overall sales, eliminating all unnecessary expenditures, expanding Board participation, expanding programming where needed, evaluating and, in general, fine tuning all aspects of the CYT VanPort. Finally he will be the chief advisor to our Board in the hiring of a long-term Business Manager in the immediate future and an Artistic Director to take over when he leaves.

Justin will be traveling to Portland for a visit around June 20-23 with his wife, Rachel. At this time, a review of the 2010-2011 budget will take place with the Board and changes will be considered for the upcoming season. Justin will meet with current staff to go over thoughts about the transition. Also Justin will participate in a Parent meeting to share his vision with parents. Justin and Rachel are also hoping to view housing options. They have four children ages 1-7 and because of a significant pay-reduction they are taking hope to secure free or reduced cost housing during their stay in our area. If you have any housing leads please email or call Bethany Larson.

As you know, Bethany Larson has been the interim Executive Director and Anne Dunlop the interim Artistic Director while the board considered options for the future. They will be assisting Justin during the transition over the next few months as Justin comes on board.

We are thankful that Lord has provided this opportunity to bring Justin to CYT VanPort. We are also thankful that the CYT Board in Chicago has generously offered allow Justin to take a leave of absence to come assist CYT VanPort as well as contribute financially towards this venture. It is all truly an answer to prayer and we look forward to how things will develop in the coming weeks and months.

Sincerely,

Board of Directors

CYT Vancouver/Portland

Bringing Home The Bacon

2010-03-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

CYT needs your input and ideas!!

As any thriving business, CYT needs to increase sales. We would like to attract more patrons, more students, advertisers, refreshment buyers, and renters of our props/costumes.

In the organization, we have 7 areas that provide revenue and sales. The revenues gathered are then spent on items such as venues, shows, equipment, and salaries. The seven profit centers with CYT are as follows:

Class Tuition
Box Office Revenue (Tickets Sales)
Souvenirs
Refreshments
50-50 Raffle
Rentals of our sets and costumes
Program Advertisement

Starting with the Spring Shows, we are going to ask each of these centers to increase revenue. Without looking at price increase, we want to to increase the quantity of items sold. We want more volume by having more kids taking classes, more patrons coming to the show, more souvenirs, more refreshments, raffles, rentals, and advertisements.

We would like input from all our families and interested parties to come up with new and creative ways to produce more sales.

An example of such an idea would be to have a young student, dressed in show clothing selling water in the theater during intermission. Another idea would be to have our improv-students involved in helping sell raffle tickets by attracting attention to the raffle prior to the show and during intermission.

We would like as many crazy, zany, practical, impractical ideas that you can come up with. If you’ll send them to me (Garen Thatcher (send them to ggthatcher at comcast.net)), or comment here on the blog, we will organize and put as many as possible into place during the next set of shows.

No matter what the idea, you should submit it. We can often take several crazy ideas ideas, squash them together and come up with a new brilliant, practical idea.

Also, in order to have some fun with a normally boring topic, there is a contest in place for your ideas.

1. The craziest idea that could actually work.

2. The best idea that generates the most money when implemented.

3. The idea that gets the most votes from the Board of Directors.

4. The idea that gets the most votes in a voting contest that we'll hold.

5. The most glaringly obvious idea that makes us wonder why no one had ever thought of it.

There will be fun and worthwhile prizes given to the winners. Good luck!

(The title of this post was my wife's idea. That would be Carrie Thatcher. If the title is lame, blame her. If you really like the title, just remember that I had the good sense to marry her.)

CYT Board Member John Villani

2010-03-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

Good Morning! Yes, you’ll hear me say that no matter the time. I love the morning. It’s fresh, exciting and begins God’s wonderful gift of another day. I love God and Jesus as well, they are my buddies. We discuss all aspects of my life as I believe they are far wiser than I.

I have been married to my best friend, Kristi, for almost 15 years. We have three very wonderful, but very different children. Ian, 19, served a year on mission, most of it in Mexico and is now attending Mt. Hood. He is recently engaged, planning to marry in May 2011. Anthony, 17, is beginning the steps to become a veterinary assistant as he loves animals. Alyssa, 12, is homeschooled our CYT kid. She absolutely loves CYT and the relationships she has developed.

I am currently employed with a large communication and entertainment company as a sales manager. Except for intermittent times in the restaurant industry, I have been in sales since age 10. Kristi and I also own a property management company and have a web based travel business. As best friends, we like working and traveling together.

I have a variety of interests, many call me a “thrill-seeker”. Auto racing, no, not NASCAR, is my favorite spectator sport. I like American LeMans and Formula 1, cars that do not just go in a circle. Activities I enjoy are Snow & Water skiing (I really want to take up both wake and snowboarding this year), bicycling and photography.

Kristi & I have worked with youth in the church for 9 years. CYT has become a new blessing for us as we get to work with youth and have a great way to do outreach. After all, doesn’t everyone want to get in to “show business”? I believe CYT is a magnificent place for youth to be. It’s fun, safe and helps them to learn and practice Christ like values. I am excited about serving you on the board.

John Villani

Bulk Buying for CYT Products

2010-02-25T23:10:00.000-08:00

Hi,

One area that we are going to be implementing for CYT is a low-effort, but high-impact method to cut our costs. It involves the concept of buying in bulk, or arranging for purchasing agreement with vendors.

Many of the items we buy, can be bought from vendors where if they know we are going to be buying from them over a long period of time, we can arrange for good deals. It is also possible that we might be able to buy in large quantities in order to secure deals.

A key person to getting some of these deals setup will be Justin Riley. Justin served the Board for several months in 2009 as our President and will now be helping with purchasing arrangements for supplies, consumables, souvenirs, refreshments, etc..

I had an opportunity to discuss this with Justin recently. Here is what I learned.

Garen> Please explain the concept behind doing bulk purchasing.

Justin>>>Bulk purchasing is a practice that most large businesses use in order to cut/limit costs. When you can identify products that are similar and group them, and determine the quantities you will need for any period of time – you can create a known quantity of business that you can provide vendors. This guaranteed business is in many ways preferable to businesses than walk-in business because they can depend and plan in it.

Garen>What is the advantage of doing it this way?

Justin>>Businesses are typically willing to cut deals with buyers that are able and willing to deliver known quantities of business, which would lead into reductions of operational costs.

Garen>How much money could we end up saving a year by doing it this way?

Justin>>>As of now this is unclear, but we will continue to look into how much money we can save via these methods.

Garen>What sort of items can we buy in bulk that would benefit CYT?

Justin>>>Right now we’re looking into packaging our print items: programs, posters, show cards, etc. After we begin the process for this, we can look at what else we are able to package and send out for bids.

Garen>You sound really knowledgeable. Do you have special skills that will assist us?

Justin>>>I work in the purchasing department of a large manufacturer, and it is part of my job to put quote packages together and source parts in specific commodities.

I think it will be great to hear how this unfolds over the next month or two. If you have ideas, please comment here, or send an e-mail to Justin or my e-mail to get in touch.

See you at the show!

Introduction to Board Member--Bruce Head

2010-02-17T18:42:00.000-08:00

Hello, I am Bruce Head, husband, father and business owner. I have been married to Kelly Head for 24 years.

Kelly and I moved to Washington State directly after getting married and all of our children were born in Vancouver. I have a college degree in Agricultural Business Management through California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo California. It was while I was attending Cal Poly that I met Kelly in the dorms.

After college I worked in California in both the fields of Agriculture Sales and Computers sales prior to moving to Washington. After moving to Washington, I had a sales route where I called on dairy farmers throughout Oregon and Washington. I sold frozen bull semen to these dairymen who bred cows via artificial insemination. Over the past 9 years, along with a business partner, we have developed a pest control business, Pioneer Pest Management into a stable and growing company. The numerous pests we deal with include ants, spiders, bees, wasp hornets, roaches, bedbugs, rodents, squirrels opossums, raccoons, skunks and more. Our family is attending New Heights Church. I accepted Christ during a youth group meeting when I was in high school in Salinas California. Our family is attending New Heights Church. All of our kids have participated in CYT.

We have four children: Catherine, 23, who gradated from WSU Pullman last spring with a Degree in Fine Arts. She also has an AA degree from Clark College. Katie now is set designer for CYT during for Alice this session. Katie is currently engaged to Myles Lawrence. Myles is currently assisting with teaching advanced acting and performance this session. Katie performed in numerous shows when she was of age from age 16 through 18. Tim 21 will be graduating this spring from Belmont University in Nashville with a Religion in the Arts Degree. Tim also performed in many CYT shows starting with the role of Charlie Brown in the first CYT show in Vancouver. Tim will be getting married this summer in Nashville to Alyssa Stell who he met while at Belmont. Robert 16 has been active in CYT Vancouver’s since inception participating in all sessions in one form or another. Mary,14, is home schooled like the rest of our kids were and has been very involved in CYT since she was old enough to do so. Her first two years were in Our Gang.

Most of my “free time” is spent with the family. CYT consumes most of the family’s available time. I do enjoy taking our dogs down to the river for a swim. Since the pest business tends to be seasonal, we are extremely busy with the business starting in early spring through October. During the off season I like to hunt waterfowl. Last year my business partner and I drove to Alberta Canada and did some freelance waterfowl hunting. It was a great experience.

I am committed to CYT because of the huge positive impact it has had on our family. The friendships that we have developed through our association with CYT are amazing. Our family’s growth in Christ has been greatly influenced by our involvement in CYT. I look forward to using my background in business to assist me in the decisions that need to be made as member of the board of directors of CYT.

A video tour of the new CYT warehouse

2010-02-13T17:35:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

I know that many folks may have not made it over to see the CYT office and warehouse. This center of activity is so important to our success. It is here that virtually all the inner-workings, administrative, training, storing, and organizing takes place. It has been a hive of activity since we took possession in early December 2009.

Please watch the following.

Musings on the last few weeks.

2010-02-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

Lots has been happening and I'll try and update you on as many things as I can. Probably take a few posts to catch everything up.

Couple of additions to the board. It is great to have both Bruce Head, as well as John Villani join the board. Both of these gentlemen are currently writing up an introduction and I'll post here as soon as they get them to me. I'll be hounding them and will have within a week. Hold me to the promise.

The largest activity facing the Board of Directors right now is understanding the myriad of Oregon, Washington, and Federal rules that govern an organization such as ours. We not only have to worry about keeping our taxes consistent and up to date, there are different rules for each state we do business in as well as the IRS.

Then, we have Articles of Incorporation in two states, Charities Filings, Gambling Commission filings, Sales Taxes, B&O Taxes, Department of Justice filings.

But wait....it doesn't stop there. We have employment issue between the states. We have different rules for raffle income and charities reporting we have to do.

THE GOOD NEWS!!! We've been blessed to be utilizing the services of Kent Shorthill. Kent worked in finance for the City of Vancouver and for the past 10 years has been involved in 2 different non-profits. We have the services of his wealth of wisdom to advise us and help us wade though the complexities.

THE GREAT NEWS!!! We are getting it figured out.

More to come.

Thank You!

2010-01-10T00:46:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people that made the move to our new location happen!

It was a pleasure working with you all, and I think we can be proud that we moved almost everything in under 12 hours. Starting before 8 in the morning and closing up shop after 8 in the evening was quite an undertaking.

From our brothers and sisters at Crossroads who took time out of their weekends to help us, to the CYT parents and students (Robes, Daniels, Valaers, Thatchers, Larsons, Maxwells, Grazians, and many more that I'm sure I'm forgetting...) - it was a great showing, and something I was proud to be a part of.

Good luck to all of our families involved in auditions this weekend - it should be a great season!

God Bless,
Justin Riley

Insight into the Casting and Auditions Process

2010-01-05T10:40:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

The Board recently talked at length about more transparency into how the audition and casting process works. Anne Dunlop agreed to write up some details about how this works. She is also interested in hearing, as are all members of the Board, your input and questions. Here is the summary that Anne put together.

Can you believe that auditions for our next session start this week? It seems like we just finished our last 3 shows. In our last board meeting we had a discussion on what artistic teams do behind the scenes at auditions, and what the guidelines are for providing feedback to students afterwards.

I thought this would be the perfect week to give you, our families, some insight into the “closed doors” and maybe prepare you a bit more for the auditions ahead.

Over the past several years, we have worked with our artistic teams, setting up “safe guards” so to speak, to squelch any appearance of favoritism. This will always be a concern, and it is one we are always striving to make sure does not happen, while still giving our artistic teams

the reigns to cast the right kids for the right parts.

The first thing we always want to remind everyone of is that we are an Artistic TEAM. Everyone on the team makes decisions in the casting of a show. This is such a wonderful thing as sometimes a choreographer will want to cast someone that the dir. had not thought of for that role, but after discussion, sees that they would be perfect. This also means that no one person can “dictate” or precast the show.

One new change you will see this session is on the audition form. Students may no longer state that they will only accept certain roles. We feel strongly that this change will help stop any feelings of elitism that happens. We always say there are no small parts and we are a team, but by letting kids say that they will only take certain parts we are going against that statement, and allowing them to dictate to the artistic teams how they should be cast.

For some of you, this will be hard, as in Vancouver you are auditioning for 2 shows in essence. Students and families are going to have to really think about what show they want, and commit to it. The one thing that you can say is “If I do not get a featured role in “A”, then I would rather take anything in “B”.

In several casting sessions that I have been a part of, when there is debate between artistic team members about who will fit the part the best, the team will stop and pray about it. Prayer is a big part of these deliberations. We know that we are dealing with a very emotional issue and feel strongly that God be in control, and in our midst.

We also require that if an artistic team member or area coordinators own children audition, they must step out of the room when it comes to the casting discussion of their child, to avoid conflicts of interest. We also ask that if an artistic members voice or instrument student is up for a part, that team member not give an opinion, and let the rest of the team lead the discussion.

On the first day of auditions, each Artistic team member scores each student, on stage presence, diction, and pitch. Each artistic team member gives a score of 1-5 or something that they understand. For me, I use a plus, check, minus system. Usually we will write down something that will help us remember something about their audition, or what they look like. If we think that they will be good for a part, we might write that down to remind us. We also mark down if we want to call them back.

For those kids that do not sing well, we may still mark them down for a callback, if their stage presence hints that they may be a good actor or dancer, and we have parts that don’t always have to sing.

At callbacks, each artistic team member keeps notes on everything they see. The director will watch everyone dance, and then have the kids read for different parts. Sometimes a kid will read a lot of different parts, if it seems they would be good for several, and sometimes we are narrowing down who we want, but need to see them play against other kids to see who would be paired together well. For example, when casting “Anne of Green Gables”, we had to cast our Anne first, because if we went with an older Anne, we needed an older Gilbert. But if we went with a younger Anne, we needed a younger Gilbert. Deliberations for the artistic team after callbacks takes hours trying to fit all the pieces together.

Every student has the opportunity to ask for feedback on how they did on their audition so they can improve for the next audition. These requests need to happen in the first week after auditions. The student just needs to email the Director, who will talk to the rest of the Artistic team and provide feedback. This is not an “explanation” of why you did not get a part, rather a chance to get some specific feedback on your audition and how you can improve. They may find that they get great positive feedback, even though they did not get a lead or the role they wanted. Many things go into casting a show, maybe the student just did not look right for the part, or did not fit with the other parts they would play with etc.

Every artistic team member is required to keep all their notes and score sheets from auditions. That way, even if a year later, you need to look up why you chose someone, or there is a reason to review a student, you still have all your notes.

I know this is a hot button issue, but we always want the communication lines to be open. Please help us foster a spirit of encouragement and unity among out students, artistic teams and families, by not commenting on casting decisions among one another, but cheer on the kids who got cast, and encourage those who are disappointed to be the best at the part they received. Learning to handle disappointment is a great lesson, and so is learning to be humble when you do get the role everyone wanted. Each situation is a great character lesson for these kids.

If you ever have any concerns, please feel free to contact me. My contact info is on the website. I am always happy to listen and hear from you!

Blessings,

Anne Dunlop

Interim Artistic Director

Some great events.

2010-01-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

It has been a busy week for the CYT families. I know of several different events that have occurred.

It would be great to have others provide comments if you were at one of the events as I wasn't at each event or for all the time, but I'll try to quickly cover the major events.

1. There was a CYT party for ticket sales. I've heard great things about the turnout and the fun, but will need someone to tell a bit more about it.

2. There was meant to be a cast party for the Advanced Acting Class for "You Can't Take it With You", but that had to be called off because of the snow. Looking forward to round 2 of that.

3. There was a fantastic painting party at the new
offices this past Wednesday. Loads of people showed up to help and get painted. Some paint actually ended up being placed on the walls. I was amazed at how different things looked by the end of the day.

4. Then on New Years Eve, there was a great party put on in the new warehouse. A bunch of folks got together and transformed an ugly plain warehouse into a pretty cool dance hall. The music was great (It was all 80's music) and the kids thought it was all really new stuff while us oldies knew that it was from the real decade of music.

More soon. Garen

Christmas Update on our New Home

2009-12-26T20:11:00.000-08:00

I trust at this time that everyone has had a fantastic Christmas Day. I'm looking forward to the start of a new decade next week. I honestly can't keep time in track as we move into 2010.

Couple of updates on our move to our new home. We have had a couple of minor setbacks, but I'm confident that things will move quickly forward. Before telling more about construction items, I wanted to high-light some more of our fantastic helpers.

During the costume move from our old warehouse to the new, we had several people who lent a hand to make it go so smooth. We were packed up and moved over quickly having the help of Beth and Hanna Maxwell. More on the immense amount of work that Beth has put in with the move as well as the flood. That story for another day.

The Merrell Family including Shelly, Mikayla, and Kaden helped all over the warehouse. We also had Emily Greisz loading everything she could find. Way to go Emily! Hannah, Heather, and Paige Wilson helped everyone else load over 100 tubs of costumes. In addition, we had Nancy's mother, Larayne Anderson helping to get everything to the new office.

In total these great people moved over 120 feet of costume racks.

We do have a city permit issue that we are dealing with. In addition to getting a permit created and approved for our new costume room, we also are making the restroom more accessible by removing a stub-wall and a urinal. The city also now has strict energy conservation rules for use of lighting. We are installing energy efficient lights but also increasing the lighting in the offices.

More to come on Monday. Look forward to the update and I'd love to hear/read your comments.

Garen Thatcher

A New Home for CYT Offices and Warehouse

2009-12-17T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hi all,
We have been very busy the past few days and I wanted to quickly update you on some things that are happening. November was very busy trying to get us a new place for our offices and warehouse. We were able to find a great location, a fantastic price, but in need of some modification. This is a small history and an update as to what we are doing.

1st. Finding the location... Wow... That was tough. But we ended up just a couple of blocks south of where we have been. Just across from K-Mart on Andreson and behind Hertz. I'll post some pictures later of what the place looks like from outside.

However, nothing is perfect and in this case, it needs more interior room for costumes and things like that.

Many thanks to Dwane Carver for doing helping on a bunch of the major work and doing everything people tell him to do.

Here is what it looks like with just a couple of our new walls in place.

Jen Daniels and Nancy Robe have been great to advise us on the needs. YEAH for them! Thanks!!

Yesterday on Wednesday, Dec 16 we were also joined by Nils, Nathan, and Travis Robe. These guys were great. You should have seen Nathan and Travis rip apart one of the older walls and turn it into a pile of sheetrock and old 2X4's.
We also had Beth Evanson there for most of the day as an amazing amount of costume stuff was moved over and placed in the corners.

More to come. Have to get over to start working for the day. Dwane is probably wondering where I'm at. Bye everyone!! More pics later.

Announcing Family Days!

2009-12-15T19:40:00.001-08:00

Hey all,

Just a quick update on what we’re doing: After a lot of feedback and a lot of discussion we decided to act on a few of the suggestions given, and starting in the coming session we will be starting Family Days – Saturday shows will have discounted tickets, $8 a piece. We’re also looking into the plausibility of season tickets/a season pass with our current systems, and hope to know more on that in the near future.

Thanks for all your feedback, prayers and support!
Justin Riley

New Board Member: Garen Thatcher

2009-12-02T23:30:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone.

Just wanted to put a post here and let you get to know me. I'm hoping we can meet face to face. Please feel free to approach me and say Hi. I'm always interested in learning more about your thoughts on the program, and how it can better work for you.

I've been involved as a dad for a few years with the program. My wife is Carrie Thatcher and she has served on a few different committees. She's currently on the Production Team with Publicity.

I have 3 kids and all of them have been involved with CYT. The oldest is off to college now, but my younger 2 are having a blast.

Professionally I'm full time employed by Hewlett Packard. My role is to develop strategies for providing product support using social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Yes... It's my job to spend a good portion of my day Tweeting and hanging around on Facebook. I'm one of the admins over at HP's consumer forum and I try to maintain order there.

In my spare time, I do lots of investing and have had my hands around several small business ventures over the years. Currently I'm doing some work with rentals and investments in real estate. In addition, I'm getting a energy conservation company off the ground to assist home-owners with going green. Very cool stuff.

As you can imagine, I'm big on communication and being open. I have an engineering back-ground so I tend to be a bit anal and my project management skills focus my energies on action items, lists, and progress reports.

Spiritually, I'm on a constant journey as I strive to develop a closer relationship with Christ. I'm constantly learning more about me, my family, other people, and how everyone lives within a spiritual comfort zone. To tell you the full story of my life with God would take a day, and as a journey, it has turns, hills, dips and speed-bumps that catch me by surprise. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

I'm teaching Mitch how to play golf (while still working the slice out of my own swing). I snowboard and ski as much as I can, which isn't that much anymore. I enjoy most water sports and am actually thinking about trying surfing. For summer transportation, I can be found riding around on a Yamaha Vino (think Vespa). I've ridden all sorts of motor bikes over the years, but this suits my speed for now......until Carrie lets me get a Harley.

Please feel free to ask me anything about CYT. I'm still learning and am focused on the business side of how things work. We are striving to put some process controls into place and make the program workable for many years to come.

Look forward to meeting you!

Garen

Role and Responsibility of the CYT Nominating Committee

2009-12-01T00:24:00.000-08:00

The following is the document passed at the Board Meeting on November 10, 2009 outlining the role and responsibilities of the CYT Nominating Committe:
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The Nominating Committee shall consist of two to three (3) board members.
They shall be the body responsible for nominating potential members to the CYT Vancouver/Portland Board of Directors. It shall be the responsibility of this Committee to help the Board reach and maintain a membership of 13 (by July 31, 2010) and to allow it to drop below that number for a period of no longer than four (4) months.

The committee will meet to discuss potential board members.
1. Once a person has been identified, he/she will be asked to consider a position on the board by letter and to attend a board meeting to see how we operate.

2. If the person shows an interest after attending a board meeting, he will be sent an information packet to look over including an application form, the current budget and the Bylaws. Once the application form is returned, it will be decided if they will be invited for an interview.

3. The potential member will be invited to an interview by a member of the committee – a questionnaire will be provided for each candidate so that all things are even.

4. After the interview, the Nominating Committee will decide who to present to the Board as a viable member. A vote will be held by the Board to elect or not, and the candidate’s information will be sent via email to the Production Team members for their consideration.

5. A letter will be sent to the candidate within one week of the vote, to inform them of their election or non-election. If elected – a manual will be provided as soon as possible.

Board Meeting Protocol

2009-11-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

While meetings are open to the public, they are not public meetings. We therefore ask guests attending to respects the rules of decorum and allow the Board to conduct its business. If decorum is not kept, the public may be asked to leave.

There are to sessions of each Board Meeting - a public session and an executive session. After the public session is complete, there will be a short break and then the public will be asked to leave so that the Board may move forward with the executive session.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns - there will be a short break between the public and executive sessions during which you may approach and talk to the Board Members. If you would like to be added to the agenda for a future Board meeting - please contact the President of the Board in writing and they will respond to you within one week's time.

Questions and Answers from Nov. 2nd Family Meeting

2009-11-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

Below is a compilation of the questions that were submitted, via email, prior to our November 2^nd Meeting; followed by a summary of the answers.

1. What is the current CYT budget?

The budget for 2009 has changed significantly, due to our current financial situation. The budget for the remainder of the year our budget will be fairly fluid. We are working on prioritizing our expenses right now so that we make sure we can put on our productions and pay down some of the debt that has been incurred.

2. What layers of accountability are in place at our CYT to prevent future mishandling of funds?

We will return to using Quickbooks in the manner that is was created; over the past year, our bills have not been entered into this system. CYT National has given guidance on how to use this system correctly. We, along with CYT National, are creating stronger system of checks and balances.

3. What is the purpose of the Financial Advisory Committee? Who are its members? What is its authority?

Members: Roger Castro, Derrek Chinn, Garren Thatcher and David Valear.

The Financial Advisory Committee has been formed is there to help us and advise us on financial issues. They have been asked to conduct an audit of our books and Roger Castro is working on that. They will also offer advice on the financial business practices of CYT so that moving forward, the operations of CYT are more business-like and better tracked.

(Note since Monday – in order for our audit to be independent, Roger will not be a member of the committee; as he is conducting the audit.)

4. What does CYT National do for our local organization and how are they supporting us in this?

CYT National gives its affiliates manuals for each key staff position, along with guidelines for our Board of Directors. They are available to advise our Board; and they have helped other CYT Areas through similar situations.

5. What is our accountability to CYT National?

At the end of each session, we send financial reports to the National Office. They also hold us to the “CYT Model”, Vision, Mission and Values.

6. What outstanding debts are there right now, and how are they or will they be paid?

Total owed is $50,000. Nearly half of that debt is owed to our teen camp venue, The Evangelical Center. We are working to set-up a payment plan with them, along with the rest of the businesses we owe money to. The Financial Advisory Committee is helping our Board prioritize the order in which we pay our outstanding bills.

7. Who is or will be making hiring decisions?

The Board will hire an Executive Artistic Director when we have the money to do so. Our Interim Executive Director will hire other staff as needed.

8. What has been the history of each of our area's balance sheets for each show?

Due to venue prices and ticket sales, Vancouver and Vancouver-East have done fairly well, covering their own expenses with a little left over; while Portland Eastside has faired poorly. We have set new area budgets on recent ticket sales in each area.

9. Besides choosing shows w/ lower loyalty fees, limiting the committee's budgets, having the Gala what have been the other ideas for increasing the profit of each show?

We have been working on many ideas to help us raise our income. We will be raising our Production Fee, to be more in line with CYTs nation-wide. We will also be requiring that each cast family sell a minimum number of tickets. Ticket sales are the best way to increase our show profit. Increasing class enrollment in each area is the best way to boost our tuition income. We are also looking for more affordable space for our office and warehouse.

10. How do our staffing and salaries compare to other CYT groups w/ similar memberships?

CYT National gives us guidelines to follow. Each area bases their pay on their local economy, fees and their staffing needs. Our pay scale is low in comparison to CYTs across the nation.

11. Are board minutes available for CYT families to review? If so, how can we view them?

Board minutes are available in the CYT office if anyone wishes to view them. Check our website for office hours. Along with that, Board Meetings are open, except for when issues must be discussed in Executive Session (which include personnel issues).

12. What is the chain of command at CYT? Will it change in the future?

Currently we have the same operational set-up with our Area Coordinators being responsible for their individual areas, the only difference is that instead of answering to an Executive Artistic Director, they will be answering to our Interim Executive Director Bethany Larson, who reports to our Board. Bethany will be stepping aside as a Show Coordinator to take on the duties of running the day-to-day operations of CYT for the time being. We hope to one day in the near future – a year or so – be able to hire a permanent Executive Artistic Director again. When we look to fill that role, the Board will focus on finding an individual who is much more suited to handling business and financial affairs than we have in the past.

13. Why are we continuing to expand? Is it being thought through?

It is the understanding of the Board that new areas should be self-supporting within two years of being started up. Based on the fact that Area Coordinators have not been unaware of the costs that go into making their area a success, we have put together strict guidelines that our Area Coordinators will follow to make sure their area is not loosing money. If expenditures in an area cannot meet the requirements laid out, cuts will have to be made in that area – or alternative sources of funding will need to be found.

14. What can I do to help be part of the solution?

Talk to us – let us know if you have questions, we’ll answer them as best we can.

Continue to be involved – we’re a family and we’ll pull through as long as we work together. And sell tickets! This isn’t only a great way to help us organizationally, but it’s a great way to help yourself too by earning CYT bucks which can help pay your kids’ tuition and production fees.

15. How can this situation help us teach character to our kids?

This situation can help us teach character to our kids as we model to them that tough experiences can bring about good results. We have seen other CYTs go through similar experiences and come out stronger on the other side.