Sycamore Rouge
2010
As a four-year-old small professional theater company, Sycamore Rouge has much to be lauded for. This young, enterprising organization pulls off 200 events annually, including show stopping jazz performances, Parisian-style cabaret, live theater, classic films and recently, an ambitious outdoor, off-site production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
To an outside eye, this little regional theater may look like the ultimate cultural success story. But behind doors, there’s another story. . .
“The production staff has had the tightest budget it’s seen since the very first play hit the stage more than two years ago,” said kbsaine, producing artistic director. “I think the board and staff would agree that for the first couple of years, Sycamore Rouge focused more on bringing quality productions to the stage than on developing internal processes to become self sustaining and efficiently managed.” Recognizing this organizational capacity shortfall and not possessing the in-house expertise to remedy it, Sycamore Rouge turned to The Cameron Foundation for technical assistance (TA) funding.
“We identified three major areas that we needed to improve upon,” said kbsaine, “board development, human resources, and fundraising.” With the help of a Cameron foundation grant that included TA funding, Sycamore Rouge contracted with multiple consultants to reach its current organizational development goals.
In order to help create a more efficient board, the theater company contracted with a board development consultant who immediately identified the need for a formal board book that would clearly define board expectations in relation to bringing on new board members, hiring new staff, working with existing staff, fundraising, and more. The consultant met multiple times with staff and board members to get their input, then drafted the guide, walked the staff and board through the draft, collected their feedback, and revised the document where necessary.
“While a formal board book may not appear to have influenced major organizational change, the ramifications of the manual’s completion have been great,” said kbsaine. “With a common guide, current board members can now feel comfortable with discussing the invitation of new board members, and as the theater transitions into new executive management, having clearly defined board expectations poise the board for a successful working relationship with the new executive director.”
In terms of human resource management, outside consultation was critical, said kbsaine. To begin with, consultants worked with the executive committee to develop appropriate staff evaluation forms and to guide both the staff and the executive committee through the staff evaluation process. Then the consultant facilitated a national search and interview process to fill the void of the theater’s executive director position, successfully resulting in the addition of a strong, experienced new leader who has earned the full respect and support of the board and staff.
An additional consultant helped the organization over a four-month period re-evaluate its current approaches to fundraising and to develop a workable fund development plan. The first draft was given to the board to review, and suggestions and feedback were gathered. After a series of re-writes, a final draft was submitted to the board and approved, and a meeting was held between the consultant and the board to engage them in implementation strategies and light fundraising training.
Three key organizational changes resulted from the fund development plan, kbsaine noted. First, the board established a fundraising committee, which had been discussed for many months but had not come to fruition until the plan helped the committee members to recognize what their roles would be. Second, the budget line for fundraising was analyzed and increased. And last, the nature of the boardroom conversation began to shift to focus on governance and implementation of the new fund development plan.
“Until we had an agreed-upon fund development plan in place, most of our board members lacked a basic understanding of their responsibilities for fundraising,” said kbsaine. “As the process began, it became clear that not all of our board members had an interest in fundraising, which ultimately hampered the consultant’s and staff’s ability to engage the entire board in the plan’s development.” She added, “As a result, we’ve had an 80 percent board turnover rate since December 2009, but that change has positioned us in a more fiscally sound situation.”
Additionally, as part of their work with outside technical assistance consultants, Sycamore Rouge was able to develop a much needed daily financial management procedures manual, which includes recommendations for cash reconciliations for tracking box office and food and beverage receipts. The organization also received assistance in creating an accounting procedures manual for its executive managers.
“As part of this financial evaluation,” said kbsaine, “several factors came to light that resulted in positive change, including the fact that because the theater’s kitchen operation was not operating profitably, we would be wise to discontinue investing valuable resources in its on-going operation.”
As a result of being financially able to hire outside consultants to evaluate current organizational practices and recommend and implement changes where needed, the young theater company is much better positioned to achieve its mission to promote and contribute to an environment that fosters creativity through theater, music, and cabaret.
“Our work with our TA consultants has allowed us to see that this is not a one-time, finite project,” said kbsaine. “Like learning, it’s an ongoing process that needs to be refined as your organization continues to grow and factors that affect it continue to change.” She added, “As strategic planning continues, I’m sure additional technical assistance needs will be recognized, and we will once again pursue seeking outside assistance to meet those needs.”