After 5: Little Theatre connects to younger crowd with associate board

Faced with a need to reach a younger segment of the market, Springfield Little Theatre brought an associate board of energetic and influential 25-to-35-year-old dynamos to the rescue.

The proposal for an associate board sprang from former SLT performer, Jennifer Johnson, a Chicago Realtor and daughter of board member Jeff Johnson. She's seen the associate-board model work well for various organizations in Chicago.

Reaching adults in their mid-20s to early 30s has been an objective for the SLT Board of Directors, who last year nominated 16 multitalented individuals to serve as associate members.

"We were basically looking for ways to get more of that demographic involved in the theater," says SLT Marketing Director Katie Keller, "and one of the ways to do that would be to bring in a board who is in that demographic."

Beth Doman, SLT's artistic director, and Cary Cummings, first vice president of the board, were proponents of the associate board idea, and upon full board approval, they ran with the idea.

Cummings serves as liaison between the two boards, and as chairwoman of the fundraising party the past three years.

The appointed members came together in August 2008 to begin their debut assignment: the Springfield Little Theatre annual fundraiser called the Big Party.

The event was held last month and turned out to be a rousing success. Led by Associate Board President Jennifer Grace-Duran, co-owner of Metropolitan Grill, the fourth annual Big Party, celebrated Jan. 23 at the Springfield Cardinals' indoor training facility, raised 250 percent more than the 2008 shindig.

"They did everything," Doman says of the new group. "They took the ball and ran with it."

"I just sat in their meetings and ... gave them my input," adds Cummings, about the preplanning efforts. "Most of the things that came out of the party came from them."

With a Margaritaville theme, Metropolitan Grill and Touch took center stage at the event with an impressive "Jimmy's Buffet Menu" loaded with items such as jerk chicken satays, balsamic glazed filet tips with roasted pineapple, and bacon-wrapped strawberries and grapes.

"It's something we'd done for a couple of years," Doman says. "It had been moderately successful, and they blew the doors out with it."

The Big Party is now the associate board's central duty. Members also can join a committee and progress to the board of directors bringing with them their experience from the associate board. The plan is to mentor new associate members in a cycle that keeps membership fresh and young.

"Their enthusiasm really came through on the end product," says Cummings. "Their goals were a lot bigger than ours, and they achieved them."