Executive Board Reports

A brief summation of the topics discussed at Executive Board Meetings. If you would like to view the more detailed minutes, please email the Secretaries at info@tsdca.org

For a list of board members – click here, and scroll down past the Mission Statement.

Next Meeting: Week of September 28th

Exec Board Meeting – September 18th, 2020

- - - Concern about Members who can’t afford the membership. New codes released for those facing hardship – see the Member Cheatsheet. Free membership for a year.
    - Audio Drama/Podcast Summit is on track for September 26th-27th.
    - Student Challenge – College Edition will be staffed by volunteers. Details released Sept 22nd. Press Release to come.
    - Collegiate Education Outreach Program is being assembled by the Education Committee.
    - Ongoing concern that Mailchimp newsletters are ending up in people’s spam folders. Lindsay & Jess (Communications co-chairs) putting together a letter to send to members directly from info@tsdca.org with instructions on how to work around this.
    - Desire to pursue grants; will reach out to the membership for help!

Exec Board Meeting – September 2nd, 2020

- - - Link to integrate calendars will be shared with Members via social media and the newsletter. Board and Committee chairs have the ability to post in this TSDCA Public Calendar. Meetings posted when desired – committee/working group decides on a case by case basis.
    - Student Challenge College Edition group meeting with teachers to determine scope and schedule. Will also be open to the Student FB group. Would love to find sponsors with gifts for participants.
    - Podcast/Audio Drama Summit Proposed: planning meeting to be arranged (update, see Sept 16th). Members need help with everything from recording tools to contracts.
    - Discussion of future classes. Will reach out to members for ideas in the next newsletter. Possible ideas include:
      - Jess Paz on MainStage
      - Greg Mackender discussing Midi
      - OSC course?
      - PureData?
      - Directors Roundtable?

Exec Board Meeting – August 19th, 2020

- - - Next Member Feedback meeting scheduled for 8pm EDT on Monday, October 5th, 2020.
    - Report from Outreach Council: New web page detailing resources from other theatrical and sound associations on the website; all are welcome to email info@tsdca.org with additions.
    - Discussion of how to support another Student Challenge requested by teachers.
    - Podcast to be released soon!
    - Wikipedia – working with Kevin McCoy to write an article about TSDCA and add sound to the existing pages on awards such as the Tony & Drama Desk.
    - d&b Class on Line Array Theory being scheduled for early September (update; 3pm EDT Friday September 4th)

Exec Board Meeting – August 4th, 2020

- - - Board voted to grant an additional three months of membership to all members. This is in addition to the earlier three months members received this year. Complete as of August 7th, 2020.
    - Proposal for Student Membership voted down, but concern for supporting students remains, and there is an ongoing discussion.
    - Live Design: first article submitted!!
    - Board voted to spend approximately $2000 to upgrade the framework of the website. This will allow for easier calendar integrations and receiving of zoom information for members.
    - Gameflow (web folks) have provided an offline version of the website for the Communications Committee to experiment with cosmetic and structural changes.
    - Student Creative Prompt is underway – slow but growing student response. Promotion underway by Communications Committee.
    - Board has formally requested that the EDI committee propose a structure for receiving member concerns. Much research has been done by various members but needs to be formalized.
    - Discussion of the name “Masterclass” – in process.
    - Outreach Council will be established, and immediately pursue EDI as proposed in the EDI Town Hall #3.
      - What are the EDI efforts in our greater theatrical and sound community, and how can we amplify the good work of our cohorts and participate in creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace.
        
        Goals:
        
        Gather EDI activities of other associations
        
        Promote to TSDCA membership – or adapt as needed
        
        Share TSDCA EDI efforts with the greater community

Exec Board Meeting – July 23rd, 2020

- - - Report from 10 of 12s/Humane Techs Working Group. Gathering information from all, but with special attention to matters that affect BIPOC. For example, 10 of 12s make having a family difficult. For Indigenous designers, this becomes not just about personal preference but about the survival of their ethnic group.
    - Greg & Kat presented a survey to be sent to Professional members of the Central region.
    - Game Night will be Wednesday, August 5th!
    - Wednesday Salons will now encourage composers on the Ableton platform.
    - Calendar
      - Board and committee co-chairs now share a google calendar for meeting info.
      - Working to create .ics files for membership for them to receive once they’ve registered for a webinar/meeting
      - Possible upgrade to framework of website will accomplish this.
    - Check out the Video page on the website – you can now search by keywords!
    - Monday December 7th – tentative date for “Live Design Masterclasses” – 3 webinars.
    - Partnering with Maestra to create additional female, female-identifying or non-binary led classes.

Exec Board Meeting – July 6th, 2020

- - - Welcome to new board members Greg Mackender (Central Rep) and Elisabeth Weidner (c0 Vice Chair)!
    - Consideration of Annual Meeting Survey Results.
      - Next time: vary times a bit more, develop Moderator guidelines, investigate more efficient way to distribute Zoom links.
    - Revised Community Agreements – scheduling meeting to consider and further revise vis a vis length.
    - Next Member Feedback Session scheduled for Monday, October 5th
    - Confirmed Supporting members can be on Committees
    - New project: Developing Sound award with Live Design
    - Maestra: Session this week with Jess Paz; interest in developing other sessions with them. According to Maestra’s mission, presenters must be women+.
    - Creative Prompt v2 -interest in developing this for the Student Facebook group! Suggested schedule: sign ups begin August 1st.
    - Ongoing conversation vis a vis adding a Student Membership

Exec Board Meeting – June 18th, 2020

- - - Details confirmed for Annual Meeting – timing, how to handle large zoom calls, etc.
    - Annual meeting Speaker Fees and EDI session are totaling approximately $6000
    - Discussion of what it would mean to have a Student Membership. Even if no membership, hoping to develop student page on the website to help them navigate to what is already available – public videos, lists of MFA programs, link to Student Facebook page.

Exec Board Meeting – June 11th, 2020

- - - Press Release for the Annual Meeting going out this coming Monday or Tuesday, June 15 or 16
    - Jenn Jackson session for Full Membership scheduled for Wednesday, June 17th at 5pm Eastern Topic: How can we (TSDCA) be more inclusive? Help us receive information and talk through ideas.
    - Josh Samuels podcast: mic is to be donated by Shure, we are devoting TSDCA resources to shipping mic to interviewees
    - 8 Pat Mackay applicants this year. Winner to be announced at or by the annual meeting.
    - LDI June Zoom – first one a great success – approx 90 in attendance. LDI is interested in a future column for TSDCA writers.
    - Newsletter: switching over the mailchimp version as soon as we can get the details ironed out. Jess Paz has already done a template – approved by Board. Same cost as FlashIssue but more flexible.
    - Further discussion of member comments as gathered by Jess:
      - Adding “copyright ” to our list of initiatives
      - Add Mentorship page and form to the website – needs to be easy to post and find on website
      - Much discussion of possible Student Memberships – pros and cons. Currently students join as Supporting members, have access to the website and the newsletter.

Exec Board Meeting – June 4th, 2020

- - - At a special meeting on Monday June 1st the Board met with EDI co-chairs Karin Graybash and Florian Staab and developed a Black Lives Matter statement .
      - In response to the recent murders of Tony McDade, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others: The Black community has endured centuries of pain, fear, and suffering at the hands of state-sanctioned violence. Racism and white supremacy are supported consciously and unconsciously throughout our society. To those experiencing anguish and fear during this uncertain time – we support you. We will not be silent. We are dedicating resources to combat racism in our communities and will continue to do so.
- - The statement and resources are here – please email info@tsdca.org if you have resources to add
  - TSDCA has donated $1000 to the NAACP Legal Fund, and if you have the resources to join us, please do so here.

In Thursday’s board meeting topics included:

- - Annual Meeting check-in
  - Bylaws revision final check
  - June Zooms with LDI start next week.

Exec Board Meeting – May 28th, 2020

- - Annual Meeting:
    - Creative Prompt in progress! Draft presented.
    - International presenter sessions and Build Your Team for a Musical scheduled. Trying to schedule the rest this coming week.
    - Decision not to use Whova this year for the Annual meeting as we will be online and not in person
  - Bylaws revision approved by the board – to be sent to membership for vote shortly. Goal of revisions is to increase the efficacy of committees, working groups and councils within the Executive Board.
  - We will be reaching out to Members to find volunteers to help with the newsletter, weekly zooms, and support during the annual meeting. Decision to try and keep the newsletters weekly due to member feedback.
  - Member Sound Effect sharing post approved for next week’s newsletter
  - New Presentations/Meetups being planned include:
    - Regional sound supervisors, production audio – planned by Ken Goodwin, Lindsay Jones, with LDI. details tba.
    - A1 conversation with Alex Neumann and Liz Coleman

Exec Board Meeting – May 21st, 2020

- - Annual Meeting: in progress. Creative Prompt and general structure to be discussed in public meetings the week of May 25th.
  - New Presentations/Meetups being planned include:
    - Composer Salon starting in early June – led by Michael Roth
    - Moving forward with podcast idea presented by Josh Samuels
    - Game Night developed by Aaron Harris Woodstein!
  - Website
    - Board approved funds for easing navigation from link to sign-in to page desired, video table of contents and anchor navigation
    - in progress: addition of Member Cheatsheet, Videos from Student Facebook LIVE presentations.
    - Next Communications Committee Meeting to discuss additional pages including Guidelines
  - Discussion of TSDCA structure – formulated the following. This will be part of an amendment to the bylaws which will be up for vote this year.
    - A committee has co-chairs. Any member can join.
    - Working group: Task oriented group formed by either a committee or the Exec Board. No co-chairs. Under the umbrella of a committee. Working group’s members do not need to be members of the parent committee.
    - Executive Board has councils for various functions. Members outside the Exec Board can be on the councils. Councils include but are not limited to the following: Bylaws; Nominating; Finance – led by Treasurer; Development; and Outreach.

Exec Board Meeting – May 15th, 2020

- - JessPaz presented some amazing pie charts with the results of her member survey; her data analysis demonstrated we are successful developing community, organizing meetups and opportunities. We need to work on our EDI efforts (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion), regional presence and we definitely hear members’ concerns about contract negotiations. Much food for thought; thanks to all who participated.
  - Much discussions about committee structure. Many thanks to the Committee Review Working Group, including members of the board Rob Milburn, Shannon O’Neill, Jane Shaw and Katharine Horowitz, as well as David Budries and Becca Stoll. Recommendations included:
    - Smaller focussed working groups seem more effective than large unwieldy committees.
    - Search out leadership in the membership with help from the Nominating committee & incoming applications for membership
    - Allow committees to choose that the Exec Board appoint chairs with advice from the committees. This will be brought to the membership for a vote as it is a change to the TSDCA Bylaws.
  - Two member initiatives presented.
    - Microloans to members. Rejected on the grounds we do not have the structure or funds to support these.
    - Podcast/creative project working with theaters…and a desire to see designers working in teams. Accepted in part….still need to determine structure. Next step: Creative prompt for annual meeting discussion. Jane Shaw will doodle membership in newsletter.
  - Accepted Proposal from Membership for June 2020 Membership drive. One free year upon person accepting offer. Collecting names by May 31st.
  - Note: Bylaws are now available for both the public and TSDCA members here; scroll to the bottom.

Exec Board Meeting – May 8th, 2020

- - Decided: Online Annual Meeting this year via Zoom
  - Presenters at the Annual meeting will be paid as they have been in past years ($200)
  - Exploring possibility of Abe Jacob presenting with Nevin Steinberg on the ‘teams for musicals’ panel
  - Presentation of TSDCA Membership choices for panels – leaders were system design and Guerrilla audio.
  - Discussion of need for a creative fun prompt.
  - Discussion of need for community unstructured gathering; decided each seminar would be preceded by a 30minute ‘coffee’ break.

Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association

Executive Board Reports