The meeting came to order at 8:30. Present were Bruce Gezelman (chair), Andrew Pinard, and Scott McCaskill.
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
We reviewed the presentation made by Bruce to the Select Board last month. The recommendations were: to establish a fundraising committee; to designate a person to handle bookings and to oversee volunteers; to hire someone to handle maintenance; to pursue grants to outfit the theater; and to market the availability of the theater to surrounding towns and organizations. The Board’s opinion was that all the recommendations sounded good, and that the Committee should start work on them. They also encouraged us to pursue a FEMA grant for the BACC, which Bruce had spoken about, and to complete the repair of the generator and related equipment.
We decided that Karen would be the best to serve, at the current time, as the point person to handle bookings, and to oversee volunteers at events, with the assistance of other members of the committee when needed.
Andrew is planning to meet with a person who has expressed interest in forming a volunteer group, and we encouraged him to continue this effort. Andrew will head the fundraising effort.
Andrew mentioned that there may be USDA grants available for community centers, and will continue to look into these. It was noted that some grants are for non-profit organizations, and there are questions as to whether a municipality qualifies, although they may be available to a separate non-profit fund-raising group.
Some members of the Select Board were in favor of renting out the downstairs of the BACC, while others held that it should only be used for community-related activities. Andrew suggested having a local realtor look the space over. We will pursue this. However, the space downstairs could use a good cleaning and cleaning-out.
We also discussed fitting out the Education Room upstairs with a large video screen, which would increase the utility of the room as a teaching space.
The meeting adjourned at 9:05.
Minutes by Scott McCaskill