Project Description

Type

System Analysis & Design

Duration

Jan. 2017 – May. 2017

Teammates

Meagan Eller
Yolanda Valdivia

1.0 Executive Summary

Monroe County Civic Theater (MCCT) is a non-profit theater organization serving the Bloomington community for the past 30 years. MCCT is an all-volunteer amateur theater organization currently managed by a 9-person board of directors. Each board member is elected to a two-year term and has the option of having their name submitted for re-election after their term is completed. However, there is turn over of board members from year-to-year. The organization has no home base location, thus meeting are conducted at various locations: either the library or a board member’s house. Most internal communication is conducted via email and all paper documents are kept at a designated individuals house.

In the 30 years of operation, Monroe County Civic Theater (MCCT) has been managed by many people without a clear process or method of transmitting organizational information from one party to the next. Currently, specific people hold certain aspects of the organization’s knowledge; however there is no continuity plan in place, should one of those people leave. Important organizational documents may stay with past board members or production teams, and never transition back to the organization. As a result, board members have had to re­invent forms that existed at one point, or search out past board members to retrieve lost information. This missing information creates challenges for board members to manage the organization, stay in compliance with the law, or facilitate theater productions. Thus, it is more difficult for MCCT to achieve its mission: to provide opportunities for individuals, regardless of their experience or background, to know the many challenges and rewards in creating live theater.

Currently there are three Google Drive accounts which are used to store some of the organization’s documents. In addition, two plastic totes contain physical documents and several members of the organization have MCCT documents on their personal computers. The organization of the documents is scattered and without order. Many documents have disappeared over the years due to the lack of a clear policy for handling documents and turnover within the organization.

In looking for a solution our requirements were that it be inexpensive, easy to learn and provided MCCT with a viable method of retaining documents while creating a process for bringing production documentation back into the organization. In addition, our solution must be portable since MCCT does not have a permanent physical headquarters.

Bearing in mind the budget and technical constraints, we propose a four- step plan:

  1. Better utilization of the existing Google Drives to collect and organize MCCT’s documents.
    • “Treasurer” Drive will mainly be accessed by the treasurer for the purpose of producing and maintaining financial documents.
    • “Info” Drive will become the main repository for organizational documents. Any documents related to the business of MCCT, including those required to be maintained by the organization will be stored in this Drive.
    • “Shared” Drive will be used specifically for documents that can be shared. Documents relating to productions will be stored in this Drive.
  2. Responsibilities
    • Board members will be assigned the responsibility of maintaining the drives.
  3. Standardization of forms
    • Standardized templates will be created, thus reducing the need to constantly recreate documents.
  4. Production Process
    • Through the use of the drives, there will be a way to make sure that production documents make it back into the organization.

There is no cost to using Google Drive if you stay within the allotted storage limits. In addition, the majority of the board members are already familiar with Google Drive so there would be a faster learning curve.

In order to maintain the Drives, a board member will need to be assigned responsibility for the maintenance of each. This additional responsibility may increase the amount of time those board members spend on MCCT business; however, the benefits to the organization and to the board members­­easier access to needed documents, a healthier organization­­outweigh that slight effort increase, and may actually result in an overall decrease.

The business of MCCT is to produce community theater. Creating standardized forms and a production process will make it easier to fulfill that mission. Having a structure and process will let potential directors, producers, and actors know what kind of support to expect from MCCT.

We have allotted a little over a month for the complete implementation of the new system. Digital files of primary standardized forms will be delivered immediately. The MCCT secretary can then add a show proposal webpage to the website, including a downloadable PDF of our Show Proposal form. We anticipate responsibility for each Drive will be determined at the May 8th board meeting.

The longest part of the implementation will be the organization of the Drives. Certain aspects of the reorganization, such as creating the Production folder, can be done quickly so MCCT can start using the new system immediately. We anticipate that moving documents will take some time, thus we have established a completion date of June 4th by which date implementation will be complete.

For MCCT to keep its non­profit status the organization is required by law to maintain certain records like meeting minutes. The organization’s lack of documentation means that they are currently out of compliance, and if they lose their non­profit status the organization will fold.

Having a structure and process will let potential directors, producers, and actors know what kind of support to expect from MCCT. Hopefully, this will bring new people into the organization, increasing their donation base. The future of the organization lies in having an organizational structure in place. This will sustain MCCT into the future and allow them to keep their mission statement alive.

2.0 Description of current system

Monroe County Civic Theater (MCCT), currently has three Google Drive accounts which are used to store some of the organization’s documents. In addition, two plastic totes contain physical documents and several members of the organization have MCCT documents on their personal computers. Many documents have disappeared over the years due to the lack of a clear policy for handling documents and turnover within the organization. MCCT has no central physical location.

A nine­member board of directors, comprised of volunteers elected by the membership, guides the organization. The board conducts the business of the organization, including managing financial records and fundraising. The board is also responsible for approving, supporting, and facilitating production of plays in the local community. Documentation related to those productions­­ audition forms, cast and crew information, programs, etc.­­ account for a large portion of the organization’s documents.

2.1 Flow Diagram

The flow diagram for MCCT is complex and can be divided into two parts with the Show Director as the hub. The left side shows the communication within a production while the right side is communication within the board of directors. There are many places where breakdowns can occur within the flow, but the scope of this project is centered on the right side of the flow diagram.

The director of each show serves as the point of contact between the Board of Directors and the production. Productions generate many documents, but there is no clear method of returning those documents to the organization or storing them. The particular areas we focused on are the final production documents returning to the organization, important documents being retained, and the show proposal.

2.2 Rich Picture

There are several groups of people related to MCCT’s working process: cast, crew, production director, board of directors, sponsors, members, as well as donors. Basically, there is no clear process or method of transmitting organizational information. Also communication and interaction between groups is not always clear, which causes gaps in the document inventory.The rich picture represents the organization: shows take center stage, the most visible aspect of MCCT, with the board of directors supporting production. Also supporting the mission of the organization are sponsors, donors, and members. A sometimes forgotten part of that is the documents which help MCCT function and some of which are necessary for legal purposes.

The rich picture represents the organization: shows take center stage, the most visible aspect of MCCT, with the board of directors supporting production. Also supporting the mission of the organization are sponsors, donors, and members. A sometimes forgotten part of that is the documents which help MCCT function and some of which are necessary for legal purposes.

2.3 Forms Usability

The issue of forms and a production timeline was brought up at the board meeting we observed. This was a recurring theme throughout our research: each new director was reinventing the production process, including creating forms from scratch. Many of the templates and forms that did exist were not used either because no one remembered them or because they did not serve their purpose well.

Budget form

One of the first documents we examined was a budget form for a past show. Even though the template for this form is available, it has not been used in some time because of the difficulty using it. Some problems with the form include ambiguity about who should complete the form and the need for calculating some values.

Audition form

 

 

A second document we examined was the audition form. We looked at three examples of audition forms, each containing different information, in very different formats.

As this version of the audition form shows, some critical information is easy to miss. Each sample audition form had different strengths and weaknesses, but the most notable factor was that so many different versions were being used.

2.4 Document Inventory

The document inventory for MCCT is messy and unorganized, with some documents based on paper, some stored in the Google Drive. Some documents are not useful anymore, but are still stored in a plastic tote. It is not necessary to keep all of those paper documents.

Due to the unorganized document retention system, some documents have been lost in the past. Additionally people are unaware about what organizational documents exist. There are paper documents that are kept in a tote and not being looked at; moreover, there are shared Google Drives that are under­used. A lot of informal communication records and documents (such as handwritten notes, see right side image) exist that are not organized and are just kept in a random folder.

Due to the unclear responsibility of each role in MCCT, many documents are not getting organized. Show directors have created their own forms (like Audition sheets), and kept them on their personal computer. Production team members keep all the documents they create in someone’s drive. Board agendas and meeting minutes are sent to board members via emails but not uploaded to Drive most of the time. Moreover, there are also some important documents missing or that need to be created, such as a contact information spreadsheet about actors. No production manual for directors exists. One should be created to help directors know what they need to do. Finally, procedures are not being followed. For example, Production Budget forms are not being done or approved by the board, when it is supposed to be done.

 

3.0 Recommendations for Improvement

Bearing in mind the budget and technical constraints, we propose better utilizing the existing Google Drives to collect and organize MCCT’s documents. Each Google account (including Drive, Gmail and Google Photos) comes with 15GB of free storage; more is available for a fee. Google documents don’t count against that 15GB limit. Google Drive provides the most frequently used document types (word processing document, spreadsheet) while also furnishing a location to upload and store many other document types, including PDFs. There are currently three Drives being used: “Shared”, the main Drive; “Treasurer”, used for financial documents; and “Info”, which contains only two documents.

3.1 Reorganized Drives

We recommend changing the way the Drives are used:

  • The “Treasurer” Drive is mainly accessed by the treasurer for the purpose of producing and maintaining financial documents. In the new organizational system, this Drive will retain that purpose.The “Info” Drive will become the main repository for organizational documents. Any documents related to the business of MCCT, including those required to be maintained by the organization will be stored in this Drive. Several documents, including treasurer reports, will be shared from the “Treasurer” Drive.
  • The “Shared” Drive will be used specifically for documents that can be shared. Documents relating to productions will be stored in this Drive. Two folders in particular will have specific purposes:
    • “Pre­Production” will contain blank forms and templates. These will help standardize production documents and can be updated as needed.
    • “Production” will contain documents related to every show. Inside “Production” will be a folder for each year; each year folder will contain folders for the shows produced that year.
      • The show folders are intended to be shared with the director of that show so all documents related to a specific show go in that show’s folder.
      • Blank forms from “Pre­Production” will be copied into the folder to be used for that show.

See image below for our organization of the Drives:

In addition to reorganizing the existing Google Drives, MCCT may want to consider:

  • Purchasing thumb drives to backup documents stored on the Drives
  • Applying for Google for Nonprofits

 

3.2 Responsibilities

Once the Drives are organized, they will require ongoing attention. As new documents are produced, they will need to be maintained: new documents and/or folders will need to be appropriately labeled and organized.

  • The treasurer will continue to have responsibility for the “Treasurer” Drive.
  • Maintenance of organizational documents is the main function of “Info”. Since many of these documents are critical to the functioning of MCCT, one board member must be assigned responsibility for the documents and information stored in this Drive. Three possibilities:
    • Secretary: According to the By­laws, the secretary functions as archivist for the organization.
      • Pros: The secretary handles the website, newsletter, and minutes.
      • Cons: Adding more time intensive archivist responsibilities might be too much.
    • President: As chief executive officer, the president has responsibility for all documents maintained by the organization.
      • Pros: The president already deals with several of the documents.
      • Cons: As with the secretary, adding responsibilities might be too much.
    • Archivist: Assign another board member the role of archivist with the responsibility of maintaining documents.
      • Pros: One person would have a clear responsibility, and another board member could have a more active role.
      • Cons: By­laws would need to be amended.
    • Since “Shared” will be used to maintain and share documents related to shows, we suggest assigning responsibility to the vice­president as head of the Production Committee. Other possibilities would be the secretary, president or an archivist, as outlined above. Basic responsibilities for this Drive will include creating a new folder for each year, and each production within that year. Each production folder will be shared with the director of that production. Copies of relevant documents from the pre­production folder will be placed in each production’s folder.

3.3 Redesign of Forms and Documents

There are currently few standardized production forms, and the few that have been developed are not used. Because of this, the director of each production is tasked with creating new forms, which may or may not gather all the information that would be beneficial for MCCT to collect. We recommend designing standard forms, which will be housed in “Shared”>”Pre­Production” and which can then be shared with the director of each show. Toward this end, we have redesigned a few forms, as below.

  • Audition Form: We redesigned the Audition Form to make it easier to use, and make every item clearer to show the purpose. Several Audition Forms were previously used, with each director creating a new form. In our new redesigned form, we pay more attention to the useful information and also redesigned the format to make it more user­friendly. After usability testing of the redesigned form, we also added a second page, Cast Information Sheet.
  • Production Proposal Form: First, we propose creating a page on the website where interested parties can download the form to complete and submit to the organization. The production form has information on how to fill out the form, how to submit, information about the director, show, and proposed budget. This form would be presented to the board for show approval.
  • Budget Show Reconciliation Form: This will be a spreadsheet document that the Treasurer can use to reconcile productions once they are completed. The sections in the budget sheet correspond to the budget section in the production proposal form. That way there is a clear correlation between both forms, and a clear tracking of production expenses.

See appendices below for our redesigned forms:

Audition Form

Cast Information Sheet

Production Proposal Form

Budget Worksheet

In addition to these redesigned forms, we recommend standardizing:

  • Cashbox Report Template
  • Production Checklist & Timeline
  • Reimbursement Form

3.4 Production Process

No process is currently in place to return production documents to the organization. Individual directors and other show personnel keep documentation on their personal computers. Large portions of MCCT’s rich history are missing, with MCCT unable to access information about past shows. Implementation of the Shared Drive will allow MCCT to retain access to production documents while also giving directors the production forms and templates necessary to smoothly produce a play. Figure 5 below shows how a folder will be created and used for each show within the Shared Drive. In this process, the responsible board member would create the show’s folder, place copies of the documents in the folder, and then share the folder with the director of the show. The director can then use those documents and add any additional documents, such as a cast list or program and poster files. Once a show has finished its run, the treasurer can then access show budget documents to reconcile the show budget.

The image below shows how a folder will be created and used for each show within the Shared Drive. In this process, the responsible board member would create the show’s folder, place copies of the documents in the folder, and then share the folder with the director of the show. The director can then use those documents and add any additional documents, such as a cast list or program and poster files. Once a show has finished its run, the treasurer can then access show budget documents to reconcile the show budget

 

 

 

Activity diagram of the process to create and use a show folder within the production folder.

4.0 Justification of the recommended solutions

In looking for a solution our requirements were that it be inexpensive, easy to learn and provided MCCT with a viable method of retaining documents while creating a process for bringing production documentation back into the organization.

The figure below depicts our force­field analysis of the forces for and against change. One of the forces for change is that our solution provides the organization with a cost effective way of meeting their needs. There is no cost to using Google Drive if you stay within the allotted storage limits. Furthermore, Google Drive is a system that the organization has in place and which a majority of the board members are familiar with in one way or another. The organization is currently underutilizing the system because of a lack of structure when it was initially set up. Reorganizing the drives creates an order and a plan for retaining documentation. The need for document retention outweighs the forces against. Force Field Analysis

The maintenance required to maintain the drives will be a responsibility that will fall upon a board member, and they might push back initially because of the time requirement. However, for MCCT to keep its non­profit status they are required by law to maintain certain records like meeting minutes. The organization’s lack of documentation means that they are currently out of compliance, and if they lose their non­profit status the organization will fold.

Creating standardized forms and a production process will streamline the organization. The roles between MCCT and the production team will be clearer. Having a structure and process will let potential directors, producers, and actors know what kind of support to expect.

5.0 Implementation schedule for new system

There are four steps for a successful implementation of our solution.

  1. We will deliver digital files of our standardized forms to the organization.
  2. The secretary will add a web page for Show Proposals on the MCCT website.
  3. An assigned representative will rearrange the drives and the documents within them.
  4. An assigned representative within the board will take responsibility for the maintenance of the drives and their content.

We have allotted a little over a month for the complete implementation of the new system. As the figure shows below, digital files of the forms will be delivered immediately. The MCCT secretary can then add a show proposal webpage to the website, including a downloadable PDF of our Show Proposal form. Adding a page to the website can be done in a short amount of time, but we have allowed two weeks for completion due to the secretary’s already busy schedule.

6.0 Conclusion

MCCT is a small organization with limited monetary resources. Most of the organization’s income is donation based. However, the primary allocation of those funds is for production cost, and organizational maintenance, i.e., storage, post office box rental, and insurance. Furthermore, the organization’s board of directors has a history of being transient in nature, and with varied technological skills.

The current document problems can be solved by committing to our document retention system. Our Drive structure is designed to help MCCT keep documents organized and accessible in an easy to learn system. Additionally, creating a process for returning production documents to the organization will make the organization stronger because they will be provided an active role in the creation of theater and be able to facilitate future productions.

Having a structure and process will let potential directors, producers, and actors know what kind of support to expect from MCCT. Hopefully, this will bring new people into the organization, increasing their donation base. The future of the organization lies in having an organizational structure in place. This will sustain MCCT into the future and allow them to keep their mission statement alive.

Process

  • Defined system problems
  • Made Information gathering plan
  • Integrated work models
  • Interviewed 5 different roles at MCCT
  • Did environment observation
  • Redesigned system
  • Did usability testing on the board meeting
  • Gathered clients’ feedback and reported

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