News From
Around the Institute
Richard Durst Retires
We offer congratulations to Richard Durst who retired as president of Baldwin-Wallace College at the end of the school year. Mr. Durst, a former president of both USITT and OISTAT and co-designer of the United States entry in the Prague Quadrennial in 1999, was the eighth president of Baldwin-Wallace.
During his six years as president of the college in Berea, Ohio he led an extremely successful campaign, raising $97 million, and oversaw the opening of the Thomas Family Center for Science and Innovation, and the expansion and renovation of the Conservatory of Music. The college, soon to be Baldwin-Wallace University, also added nine new programs including the first Ohio major in sustainability and a leadership in higher education graduate degree.
Procopio Named Stage Expo Manager & Special Events Coordinator
Ron Procopio has joined the USITT staff as Stage Expo Manager & Special Events Coordinator. After July 1, he will be USITT’s main contact person for Stage Expo sales and logistics, as well as USITT’s Costume Symposium, Elite Training, and trade show appearances.
Ron, who has eight years of experience in conventions and trade shows, may be familiar to members from his work for EH Publishing where he managed the Worship Facilities Conference & Expo for several years. He has also worked in the concert industry doing stage production and touring in New England. He will be profiled in a coming issue of Sightlines.
Ron may be reached at ron@usitt.org or by calling 800-938-7488, ext 107.
Changing E-mails
There has been a change to all e-mail addresses within the USITT office and the professional staff. Technical changes have allowed us to drop the "office" portion of our e-mail addresses, so instead of sending correspondence to sightlines@office.usitt.org you can now use the easier and shorter sigthlines@usitt.org.
Please adjust your spam filters and other protective services so that you continue to receive communication from the office and the staff.
Education Commission Appreciates Electronic Submission, Voting Process Use
We received the following note from Jonothan Allender-Zivic and wanted to share. "The Education Commission would like to thank everyone who participated in its new electronic session submission and voting process. While it is still a work in progress, lots of good feedback has helped make the process more streamlined and easy to use. In the future, the Commission hopes it will be even easier to submit, review, and vote on session submissions.
"Please take a few moments and check out the new Education Commission website. Lots of interesting things, like the creative teaching and syllabus archives, are in progress so check back frequently to keep up with these new tools that will be online in the near future.
"If you are interested in keeping up with the Commission's most current information as well as a forum to contact your fellow educators and professionals, please join the Commission's Google group to keep up with the latest projects, events, and news that is circulating through the Commission's members."
Riders Seek Donations for Organizations
It's that time of year again. The Long Reach Long Riders ninth annual charity ride begins on August 3 in Seattle, Washington. What started out as a one time event in 2004 has been transformed into an annual ride that to date has raised over $300,000.
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and The ESTA Foundation's Behind the Scenes program benefit from the annual fundraiser. Go to lrlr.org to donate or for more information.
League Names Stein Executive Director
After a thorough national search, the Board of Directors for the League of Historic American Theatres has named Ken Stein as the organization's executive director. Mr. Stein, former executive director of the Austin Theatre Alliance and more recently vice president at the AT&T Center in Dallas, started April 23.
Many League members may be familiar with Mr. Stein from his presentations at the Annual League Conferences in Cleveland and San Antonio. He has worked with several non-profits over the past 20 years. He began his career in the for-profit sector with Humana Inc. where he spent five years as director of marketing and public relations. Since entering the non-profit arena, he has raised over $100 million for local, regional, and national non-profit organizations.
His accomplishments with special events and online fundraising have been featured in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The NonProfit Times, InternetWeek.com, Business Week Online and Direct Marketing News. In 2008, Stein was recognized for his use of social media platforms by Fast Company Magazine which listed him as one of the most influential people on the internet during the 2008 elections. His writing has been positively reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, and Atlantic Monthly Magazine.
Feel free to welcome him personally at kstein@LHAT.org.
