Share It With WACTList!

Transcription

1 Share It With WACTList! WACT has a new service to help theatre people in Wisconsin (and beyond) communicate with each other. WACTList is the Wisconsin Association of Community Theatre s new listserv. For those of you who don t know what a listserv is, it s basically a mailing list that you can sign up for at will. Once you ve signed up you can send an to one e- mail address wact. org and wact.o rg it will automatically be distributed to everyone else who s signed up. It s a fast and easy way to get the word out that you need a specific set, prop costume or? You can also let people know that you ve just built a fantastic something, and it s available to rent, borrow, buy, or have. WACTList is also a way to pass on news, concerns or just vent to your peers. The uses are only limited by your imagination. Signing up is easy. Just go the WACTList page on the WACT website ( type in your name (if you want), your address, and a password. You ll then be sent an asking you to confirm your request. (This is to ensure that it s not someone else signing wact.o you up rg without your knowledge and to keep spammers off the list.) Once you ve confirmed your request, you ll be signed up and can send and receive WACTList messages. The one thing that this, or any listserv, needs to be successful is for people to join. WACTList is open to everyone, not just WACT members. So the best thing is for everyone to join, tell all your theatre friends to join and have them tell all their theatre friends to wact. join. If at first the org responses aren t what you d hope for, hang in there. This is a new list and it will take time to build the list to a critical mass. But the more people sign up and the more people use it, the more useful it will become. If you have any question or comments on WACTList, feel free to drop us a note at webmaster@wact.org. WACT News September, Page 1

2 Membership Renewal Another WACT membership year has come to an end. All memberships expired on July 31 st, so if you haven t already done so, now is the time to renew your WACT membership. Or to become a member for the first time. On the back page of this newsletter you will find a WACT membership form. Our membership dues are exceedingly inexpensive. Individual memberships are only $15.00 per year while organizational memberships are $50.00 per year. With your membership you receive discounts to all WACT events, access to our state-wide communications network via the WACT website, invitations to annual festivals and conferences, the quarterly newsletter, and a chance to network with other community theatres around the state. Through your membership you can show your support for the work of community theatres across the state and help everyone to improve and provide the best entertainment ever. Join now! Useful Websites H andy chart of whe n works pass into public domain IRS website with online training for Non-profits Prepare Now for New IRS Requirements Reprinted from Spotlight, July-August 2009 Used by permission of the American Association of Community Theatre ( Bill Muchow is the Past President of AACT, a past AACT Treasurer, and a CPA The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has updated the 990 tax return forms filed by not for profit organizations. As a result your organization may need to update or document internal controls or financial procedures. The 990 and 990 EZ forms are the annual information filings for not for profits with gross receipts (Income before Expenses) over $25,000. Those under the $25,000 mark have a short electronic filing requirement. Unlike Individual tax returns such as the 1040, these documents are available to the public. Anyone can ask your organization for a copy and Guidestar (www2.guidestar.org) publishes them on the web. While there is not a tax due calculation there is summary financial information about your organization together with disclosures concerning your programming, board of directors, and key employees, including compensation. The new 990 includes more questions that indicate what the IRS has concluded are good governance. As these documents are public, others are able to assess if you are in compliance with these IRS positions. The new 990 EZ at this time does not include a section with these questions. If you have the responsibility of preparing your organization s tax returns or are a board member of a not for profit, I suggest that you go to the IRS web site ( and download a copy of the or 990 EZ. Guidestar also includes a summary article about the new forms, which may be helpful to you. The implementation of these new forms includes a by-size phase-in of the requirement to submit the longer 990 (the longer form has more governance questions). WACT News June Page 2 For calendar or fiscal years beginning in 2008, the 990 EZ may be used if the organization s Gross

3 income and Assets are lower than the amounts indicated below: Year Gross Receipts Total Assets 2008 $1,000,000 $2,500, $500,000 $1,252, $200,000 $ 500,000 Most of our AACT theatres will be able to file the short form. Starting with the year 2010 more of our members will need additional internal controls and procedures to be able to answer Yes to the good governance questions of the longer 990. State and Local CPA Societies are providing one day continuing education classes on the 990. The questions that I think may require additional policies or documentation include the following (Excerpt of 990, Part VI, Question Number): 2. Did any officer, director, trustee, or key employee have a family relationship or a business relationship with any other officer, director, trustee, or key employee? 5. Did the organization become aware during the year of a material diversion of the organization s assets? 13. Does the organization have a written whistleblower policy? 14. Does the organization have a written document retention and destruction policy? 15. Did the process for determining compensation of the following persons include a review and approval by independent persons, comparability data, and contemporaneous substantiation of the deliberation and decision: (a) The organization s CEO, Executive Director, or top management official? (b) Other officers or key employees of the organization? Where written policies are called for I understand that they should be in place before the end of the tax year. These policies are not particularly difficult to establish. If you need help with them your local CPA Society or Not for Profit Association should be able to help you find a volunteer. Also the AACT Resource Roster Volunteers are available. 8. Did the organization contemporaneously document the meetings held or written actions undertaken during the year? 10. Was a copy of the Form 990 provided to the organization s governing body before it was filed? All organizations must describe in Schedule O the process, if any, the organization uses to review the Form (a) Does the organization have a written conflict of interest policy? (b) Are officers, directors or trustees, and key employees required to disclose annually interests that could give rise to conflicts? (c) Does the organization regularly and consistently monitor and enforce compliance with the policy? WACT News June Page 3 OOPS! In the March issue of WACTNews we noted that Ludmilla Bollow s script In The Restroom At Rosenblooms had first been produced at the Village Playhouse of Wauwatosa s Original One Act Festival. This was incorrect as the play had not been produced by the Village Playhouse. However the Village Playhouse of Wauwatosa did produce the plays Shelter Skelter and The Beach Club, in their One Act Play Festivals. These two plays, will be printed by Samuel French in their new book, Saving America and Other Plays. Our apologies for the mistake. Bravo is where we recognize special achievements or actions by and for community theatre. If you have an item for us, it to newsletter@wact.org and we ll publish them as space permits.

4 National AACTFest Wrap-up The 2009 AACTFest cycle was completed with the national festival in Tacoma, Washington. The twelve shows presented were: Q Region 1 Arlington (MA) Friends of the Drama How I Learned To Drive Q Region 2 M&M Productions Acting Company (Amawalk, NY) Gornisht Q Region 3 South Bend (IN) Civic Theatre Intimate Apparel Q Region 4 Theatre A La Carte (Tallahassee, FL) Nine Q Region 8 Chino (CA) Community Theatre Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World Q Region 9 Driftwood Players (Edmonds, WA) Minnesota Moon Q Region 10 SHAPE Performing Arts Centre (Belgium) Hold Me! The first place production was Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World, presented by the Chino Community Theatre followed by Intimate Apparel by the South Bend (IN) Civic Theatre with the Poteet Theater - St. Luke's production of John and Jen coming in third. Upcoming Events Starkville (MS) Community Theatre Catfish Moon Q Region 5 ARTS, Inc. (Topeka, KS) Lemonade Aberdeen (SD) Community Theatre How to Talk Minnesotan: The Musical September 20, 2009 WACT Board Meeting De Pere, Wisconsin September 25 27, 2009 CTAM Fall Conference Cadillac, Michigan June 22-27, 2010 AACT International Venice, Florida April 20-May1, 2011 Region III AACTFest Columbus, Ohio June 18-27, 2011 National AACTFest Rochester, New York Q Region 6 Poteet Theater - St. Luke's (Oklahoma City, OK) John and Jen Q Region 7 Main Street Players (Littleton, CO) Eleemosynary WACT News is published quarterly by the Wisconsin Association of Community Theatre for its members and is annually distributed to an expanded list of known community theatre organizations and interested individuals. Publication dates are March, June, September (expanded list) and December. Volume 7, Number Wisconsin Association of Community Theatre All Rights Reserved WACT News June Page 4

5 Musical Mayhem How s your knowledge of musical theatre? Below are clues to sixty-five musicals some famous, some fairly obscure. Can you name them all? (Example Greetings Barbie = Hello Dolly! ) Answers will be in the next issue of WACT News. 1. Felines 2. Apply new pigment to your Red Flyer 3. Savage kitty 4. Follicle Laquer 5. A tale of the left border 6. Alas, Bombay! 7. The 46th state 8. A violinist upon the vaulted support structure 9. A pig and a Truman 10. Injure 11. The ghost of Aida 12. Jacob's son and the remarkable, multi-hued, visionary mantle 13. Audible notes 14. Me and my monarch 15. Enormous waterway 16. Tuneful member of the male gender 17. Condemned employees of George Steinbrenner 18. Dr. Denton's contest 19. Pigmented filamentous projections of the scalp 20. Glucose 21. Single file choir 22. Mr. Herman's Daughters 23. Lease payment 24. The oven user s spouse 25. Females of incubus 26. So long, chickadee 27. The lord's pallid wife 28. Our tune is on the radio 29. Times Square Crossroad 30. Cosmopolitan matrons 31. Nautical prison sandbar 32. Bruise 33. Buttocks 34. Amusing female child 35. Paradise s progeny 36. Non-fauna, the vermillion hazard 37. Pucker up, Miss Hepburn 38. Insufficient limbs to become a theological pugilist 39. Candied infants 40. Just a few evening melodies 41. Nomadic Caucasoid person 42. Noisy dancing juvenile 43. Isaiah's prophesied celebrity 44. Nonstop cosmic illumination 45. Performance water vehicle 46. Being well-mannered 47. Two seats away from Stephen 48. Complete Mr. Python 49. Lofty inn 50. Seraphim metropolis 51. Last day of the week at the playground with Mr. Bush 52. Maidens on the ocean 53. M.D. with few tasks 54. Infinitesimal atrocity boutique 55. Nightclub 56. During 12 hours of sunlight without interference of pollution, you may gaze as far for as long as you wish 57. Nyet, Nyet, Ms. Fabray 58. A young kangaroo for a chum 59. The scholarly heir to the throne 60. That lady has an admiration for yours truly 61. About you I warble 62. Kodak slide tray 63. The White House 64. Possessing solitary dedication 65. Dulcet philanthropy WACT News June Page 5

6 Wisconsin Association of Community Theatre Board of Directors Region III AACTFest 2009 Productions Allen Ebert-- President 4606 Hamlet Pl Madison, WI Mark Holten Vice President 200 Prairie Heights Drive # 107 Verona, WI MHolten@wact..org Greg Parmenter Secretary 118 Fifth Avenue N. La Crosse, WI GParmenter@wact.org Dee Baldock -- Treasurer 6394 Grandview Road Verona, WI DBaldock@wact.org Wisconsin Kettle Moraine Players Lovers: Winners--Losers Wisconsin Beaver Dam Area Community theatre The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (abridged) Bob Kafka Member at Large 2418 North 111 th Street #2 Wauwatosa, WI BKafka@wact.org Jeannie Pitsch Member at Large 1605 Heide Lane Marshfield, WI JPitsch@wact.org Randall Read Member at Large 315 Cameron Rd Rice Lake, WI RRead@wact.org Brad Toberman Member at Large 105 9th Street Prairie du Sac, WI BTobberman@wact..org Darrell Wagner Member at Large P.O. Box Green Bay, WI Michigan Monroe Community Theatre On The Heath Illinois Highland Park Players Alice In Wonderland Michigan Master Arts Theatre Smoke On The Mountain Indiana South Bend Civic Theatre Intimate Apparel Fred Wahls -- Member at Large Hwy M Tomah, WI FWahls@wact.org Carla Woebbeking Member at Large P.O. Box 507 Fox Lake, WI CWoebbeking@wact.org Indiana Ohio Elkhart Civic Theatre Curtain Players Once On This Island The Guys More festival photos are available on the Region III website at WACT News June Page 6

7 Help! WACT is attempting to obtain photos from various past festivals for our archieves. If you have photos that you would be willing to let us have or let us duplicate, please send a note to webmaster@wact.org. Upcoming WACT Member Productions Is your show not listed here??? All organizations who are WACT members can have their show listed on the WACT website and in WACT News. Just send your schedule to webmaster@wact.org September 11-27, 2009 Hotbed Hotel Racine Theatre Guild October 2-3, 2009 Sideways Stories From Wayside School Eau Claire Children's Theatre October 2-11, 2009 To Kill A Mockingbird Modjeska Youth Theatre October 9-17, 2009 Steve Martin's The Underpants Village Playhouse of Wauwatosa October 23-31, 2009 Stand By Your Man WACT News June Page 7 Plymouth Arts Center Theatre Company October 23 - November 7, 2009 Antigone Lakeside Players October 30 November 7, 2009 Something s Afoot Verona Area Community Theatre November 5 8, Wausau Community Theatre November 12 22, 2009 Tribute Green Bay Community Theatre November 14-21, 2009 Neil Simon's Plaza Suite Kettle Moraine Players December 4-13, 2009 Disney's The Jungle Book Kids Modjeska Youth Theatre December 4-19, 2009 All Through The Night Lakeside Players December 11 13, 2009 A Christmas Carol Wausau Community Theatre February 11 21, 2010 The Melville Boys Green Bay Community Theatre March 11 14, 2010 Fiddler on the Roof Wausau Community Theatre April 8 18, 2010 Return Engagements Green Bay Community Theatre

8 WACT Membership Form Return form to: WACT c/o LCCT PO Box 1852 La Crosse, WI Name Contact Name (Organizational Members) Address Mailing Address City Telephone Web Site (Organizational Members) State Zip Code Individual $15.00 Organizational $50.00 Additional Donation to WACT (Donations to WACT are tax deductible) TOTAL Please make checks payable to WACT -- All memberships run from August 1 to July 31 Wisconsin Association of Community Theatre PO Box 1852 La Crosse, WI 54602