Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2009 - 78

inside
e d i t o r

william J. byrnes

usitt planning: a bridge to the future
By Carl Lefko, USITT President and
Sylvia Hillyard Pannell, Immediate Past President

At nearly fifty years of age, USITT has had a good run. Approaching such a milestone signals a time to take stock of our
organization. However, the past should be a guidepost-not a
hitching post. At its fall 2006 Retreat, the USITT board of directors issued a warning that, if our organization is to continue to
be valuable to the theatre and the entertainment industry, we
must make some deliberate changes.
To quote Andy Warhol, "They say that time changes things,
but you actually have to change them yourself."
The board of directors called for USITT to become better
defined, more current, more visible, and more efficient. With
the understanding that an impartial viewpoint was needed to
obtain a realistic appraisal of USITT and to plan for our future
the firm of McCarthy Arts Consulting was selected to conduct an
assessment of our organization. After working closely with McCarthy Arts Consulting for over a year, the bOd has developed
a strategic plan to guide USITT as we embark on another fifty
years, and beyond.
This plan, known as "The bridge Model," defines USITT
as an organization which is a bridge between the education and
entertainment industries. The purpose of the plan is to guide us
as we strive for growth, improved efficiency, and relevance in
this rapidly changing world. Highlights of the proposed bridge
Model follow:
* Focus on how to create bridges to those segments of the
industry where relationships aren't as strong as others.
* Create a position for a staff member to give executive
direction toward an inclusive approach to the industry
and to provide continuity and the public/external face,
providing a bridge for the organization.
* Consider a strategically composed Board targeting
representatives of all segments of the membership.
* Activate and energize Regional Sections by reinforcing the
bridge to strengthen that connection.
* Target staff in the national office to travel to centers of the
industry and work together with the Institute's volunteer
leadership to become the bridge between education and
the entertainment industry through robust programs with
an increased external focus.

theatre

design

technology

S U M M E R

2009

* Acknowledge the critical role of the volunteers and
consider with great care how any shift in staff/volunteer/
board responsibilities would be executed so as not to
lose this, the Institute's most valuable asset.
* Seek a stronger balance in the membership to reinforce
the bridge to the multiple sectors of the industry it serves,
including diversity in all its forms.
* Programming in the new model will strengthen the bridge
to those outside of the organization such as speakers and
participants.
In June 2008 the USITT board of directors received
the McCarthy Arts Consulting final report which includes
exciting plans for improvement and suggests manageable
goals, strategic initiatives, and action items to pave the way
to a brilliant 50th birthday and lead the organization into a
robust new half-century. (An executive summary of the MAC
report is available here: http://usitt.org/pdf/Executive%20

Summary%20of%20Final%20MAC%20Report.pdf)
To continue moving the process forward, a Transition
Advisory Team (TAT), led by lea Asbell-Swanger was formed
and charged with bringing a comprehensive reorganizational
proposal to the USITT board of directors. At its most recent
meeting in March 2009 the board voted to accept two TAT proposals: 1) to initiate a search for an Executive director and,
2) to begin the gradual shift in our leadership structure to a
Governance model.
A call was issued for volunteers for committees to study
these changes and implement the recently approved governance
initiatives to which many responded (including members of the
Executive Committee, the board of directors, representatives
from the corporate sector, students, and individuals who are
not currently part of our leadership). It is reassuring to know
that volunteers are "alive and well" and willing to devote their
time to improving USITT. This support has allowed us to enlarge the TAT by adding subcommittees as we begin the next
phase of the transformation.
Sylvia Hillyard Pannell, in her role as chair of both the
overall by-laws Committee and the expanded TAT by-laws
subcommittee, has initiated an extensive review of the by-laws

http://www.usitt.org/pdf/Executive%20

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2009