Okay, here we go.

I'm calling this meeting to order on November 19th.

I'm sorry, Steph, are we ready?

Sorry.

Yes, we are.

Sorry, sorry.

I just wanted to, yeah.

November 19th, 2025, Spanish or Chinese interpretation via Zoom

and translations of the material are available at no cost upon request.

Please contact the city by 5 p.m. at least two business days prior to the day of the scheduled meeting

by phone at 650-903-6608 or by email at MEP at MountainView.gov.

This meeting is being conducted with a virtual component.

Anyone wishing to address the committee virtually may join the meeting online

at mountainview.zoom.us

slash j

slash 82884578889

or by dialing

669-900-9128

and entering webinar ID

828-8457-8889.

When the chair announces

the item on which

you wish to speak,

click the raised hand feature

in Zoom or dial star 9

on your phone.

When the chair calls your name

to provide public comment,

if you are participating

via phone,

please press star 6

to unmute yourself. Roll call. We are all present. Okay. We need the advice. Okay, great.

Minutes approval of whatever the special meeting that we had last.

I have read the minutes. They looked accurate for what we covered, so I moved to approve.

I second that we'll do that.

Any discussion?

No discussion?

All in favor?

Aye.

Pass the unanimously.

On to item 4, oral communication from the public.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the committee on any matter not on the agenda.

Speakers are limited to three minutes.

State law prohibits the committee from acting on non-agenda items.

At this time, do we have anyone on?

Nobody here.

Okay, great.

So that's item four.

Item five, unfinished business, none.

Item six, new business.

6.1, a resident company will be upstage theater.

Staff, do you have a memo?

I do.

With two of the arts manager, Teresa Yvonne out,

Nathan Truitt, our business and operations supervisor, will be taken over.

Nathan, do you want to switch yourself up?

Sure. Nathan Truitt, performing arts supervisor.

And I'll be happy to read this memo on Teresa's behalf.

Date November 19th, 2025.

Attention to Performing Arts Committee from Teresa Yvonne, Performing Arts Manager.

Subject, fiscal year 2024-25, annual review for resident company, Upstage Theatre.

Background. Founded in 2015, Upstage Theatre is a Bay Area theatre company wholly run by and for teenage theatre artists from all backgrounds, created to give professional level experiences across every aspect of theatrical production.

They have made a dedication to creating safe spaces to examine what it means to be a teenager

through play material written by or about teens that they would typically be unable to participate in

in a school or community theater environment.

Upstage Theater became the first resident company for Second Stage in 2017.

In the 2024-25 season, Upstage produced four performances on the second stage with a total of 11 performance days and 10 rehearsal days for a total of 21 days.

For fiscal year 2024-25, Upstage Theater's program revenue was $15,019 and $9,436 in donations for a total of $24,455 in total income.

Expenses totaled $25,774, resulting in a net negative of $1,319.

For fiscal year 2025-26, projected program revenues are $15,725, and donations are projected to be $10,050 for a total of $25,775.

Expenses are projected to be $25,878 with a net negative of $103.

Analysis.

The annual review provides an overview of expenses, usage days, performance days, and gross ticket sales for Upstage Theater, as well as the total revenue received by the city for their use of the facility.

Upstage Theater will present its efforts for the 2024-25 season.

Thank you.

Real quick, if everybody just want to look at the numbers real quick as well before we have Upstage Theater.

Thank you.

page.

Any questions regarding the visit this one?

Yeah.

I think we're ready for you guys.

I'll see.

Yeah.

I'll review the numbers again.

The floor is yours.

Wherever you are.

You can stand up here if you'd like.

Okay.

Hi guys.

My name is Jax Isakaden.

I am the

Okay. Hi guys. My name is Jax Isakaden. I am the artistic director of Upstage Theatre for the 2025-2026 season.

And hi guys. I'm Nikki Lakhani and I'm the associate artistic director of Upstage for the 25-26 season.

Upstage Theatre, as you may know, is a completely teen-run theatre company that allows teenagers to participate in not only acting,

but also direction, stage management, creative team skills, and theatrical management itself,

which allows teenagers to hone their skills in aspects of theater that they would likely not

be able to in a high school theater setting. And it is also completely free of cost to participate

in, which provides it to all backgrounds of teenagers across the Bay Area.

Here are some of our key features. So number one, as Jax mentioned, we do not charge a fee for any

of our actors, members, or staff members participating, which makes theater accessible

to anyone who wants to participate. Number two, we typically do shows that aren't seen

in other high schools doing them or other theater companies, which gives people a really exciting

opportunity to challenge their skills in ways they might not be able to otherwise.

And last of all, our season consists of three shows per season, one play, one musical, and then one play.

Last season, we had a total of two musicals and one play.

We had Alice by Heart, a musical in October 2024,

Sonia Flew, a play in March 2025, and Fun Home, a musical in May 2025.

Here's some of our overall school demographics. So as you can see in Alice by Heart, we had about

22 people participating and we reached a total of 10 schools. In Sonia Flew, our play of the season,

we had 13 people participating in high schools, and in Fun Home, our final musical of the season,

We had 23 people participating and we reached nine schools.

The 10th school reached the 12th.

Firstly, Alice by Heart. This was a musical and we had a total of 22 participants across 10 schools.

The top three schools from that show were in high school, Boston High School and Mountain View.

And we sold a total of 390 tickets over three performances, which was around 90%

And then we had our play, Friving Blue.

The top schools we reached were Homestead High School, Los Altos High School, Foothill

Middle College, and Fremont High School.

And we sold a total of 201 tickets.

And our final show of the season was Fun Home, another musical.

This included 23 people, which was the most number of people for any show that season,

partially because this show included a student band,

which we don't always do,

across nine schools,

most of the population being

High School, Humpstead, and Fremont.

And this show sold a total of 278.

Now we're gonna take a look at this year's season.

So we had a play performing in October called Witch,

directed by me, Nikki Ligani.

Yay!

And then we have a musical performing this March called Ride the Cyclone, directed by Aila Nan.

And then finally in May, we have another musical performing called Little Woman, directed by Kalia Taylor.

Our main form of marketing comes through social media, mostly Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

And that's where we post most of our announcements, meet the cast, which are like cast and crew headshots and bios,

shows and show related jokes and trends, like social media trends to increase interest in

our activities and how it works.

Then we do physical posters and other physical forms of advertisement.

These go up around schools, coffee shops, libraries, around local cities where participants

live and where your friends might be hanging out.

And then we do a lot of word of mouth.

This is where most of our audience comes from, just from actors and crew members inviting

their friends and family.

um we're gonna take a little look at our instagram so a couple things about our

instagram over the past season we increased about 200 followers and we reached over 100,000 views

of our instagram so we post in the top

top left corner uh we have some shows we get photographers to come in and they take photos

and we post them on instagram um at the bottom left we have a take on if you're familiar with

the Spotify wrapped where at the end of the year Spotify kind of does a recap over a year

a recap of our season called Upstage Theater Wrapped we have show announcements such as the

center stage cabaret announcements so people can stay in the know about what's happening

in the bottom you can see we make collages as well of our pictures with messages like

opening night tonight or sold out last night stuff like that and then there's an example of

the cast that Jax was talking about where we put in headshots and bios so people can kind of see

who they're going to come watch.

Partially because of social media marketing,

our main demographic is teenagers.

Also because the audiences are majority

the family and friends of the Kassie crew,

as well as people who have previously participated

in other shows.

Also, not all shows are appropriate for children

or younger audiences.

So those combined makes our audiences a mostly teen demographic.

And also we sold a total of 169 tickets last season, not including the cover.

Funding.

So since we charge no fee to participate, we get most of our money through ticket sales.

And then besides that, we get a lot of money through donations as well.

We have actors at the end of every show come around with baskets.

So we get cash donations through that, and then we also have a Venmo and GoFundMe that's

up on our website and our social media.

And we do the one night only cabaret updates where we're also based on it.

This is the cabaret that we did this past summer.

It was called Center Stage, 10 Years of Upstage Theatre because it was celebrating the 10

year anniversary of the company.

And it was the third annual cabaret.

So we've always started doing this recently.

This was the third one.

During the cabarets, actors perform songs of their choice

from any musical they want.

Usually solos or duos, there are some cool songs too.

And this past year specifically, we also did,

we also showed a video celebrating all the shows

in Upstage's history.

It's actually 28 now, but at the time it was 27.

And that's also where we do the season announcement.

So we announce the shows that'll come up

in the next season and the directors of those shows

will come up and talk about the show

why people should audition.

Thanks for listening.

Great job.

Questions?

I do have a question.

Where are you guys based?

Like our different backgrounds?

Well, I mean, like, what high schools?

It seems like you have a lot of gun representation.

Are you guys Palo Alto students?

I go to Gunn. Nikki doesn't.

I go to Homestead.

Okay.

Yeah, and so we get a lot of our reach from us at the schools.

Yeah, yeah, of course.

Yeah, we don't have like a home specifically.

Like we do all performances here in Mountain View,

but rehearsals take place usually at directors' houses,

so we don't have to rent a space for rehearsals.

And so each show can have a very different demographic

in terms of like where people are from.

so because it depends a lot on the people who audition depends a lot on like who they know

who's already doing it and so students tend to sway more in one direction but we don't have like a

hall face so let's say so how does it work when you guys graduate from high school and you need like

new artistic directors like what's that yeah so there are applications every year

so um i'm graduating this year and then um artistic director and associate director

when we do.

Yeah, and we do applications

for all of our staff.

So we get a new social media manager yearly.

We get stuff like that.

That's when we get our director applications as well.

And so we just kind of switch out each season

through the applications.

And I saw that you're doing like some

Venmo fundraising and stuff.

So are you guys not a nonprofit then?

We are a nonprofit.

You are.

But you're stable to Venmo?

Yes.

Okay.

I didn't know that.

we'll send acknowledgement letters um so when people make donations that way we can send an

acknowledgement letter saying you know thank you for your contribution um we also raise money

directly through the mvcpa um it's an option as you check out you can include like a donation

we also do send confirmation letters for those even though they get one also from mvcpa

um and if you go through to go fund me you also get a donation letter from them but we also follow

up with one on our own even go fund me because i thought that like doesn't end up being a 501c3

they have a 501c3 charity arm um as part of it so it's it's not the go fund me that like if

somebody had a car accident yes right it's a different one it's you have to register as a

nonprofit. And then you can, you collect donations under their nonprofit umbrella.

And then we also are a registered nonprofit so that people who make a donation and have a match

through their corporate, through where they're employed, we're in that database as well.

And a qualified charity through that 501c3 so that they can do matching. We don't get a lot

of matching but but when we do it's great and are you affiliated officially with the organization

so i'm the adult in the room i yeah right because somebody has to like sign the tax forms and

do all the filings with the state and that kind of stuff and so i'm bonnie folk my daughter um

juliana garber was the original founder um and then she went to college and we said well i mean

if the kids still want to we'll do it as long as they want to do it okay and every year there's

interest so awesome so we've continued to support it in mostly an administrative

way so we're in the building whenever they're in the building right um but obviously you can

see they're very capable and um you know they do all the the casting the selection of they even

pick the next um the next group of directors and shows and we have a board of previous artistic

directors who actually select the incoming artistic director so i don't do that that's done

there's absolutely it's because it's a 501c3 okay um and so the board is made up of three

three or four previous artistic directors who've come through the program so um and they interview

and select the um artistic director and associate artistic director and that's an annual basis

annual yeah because darn it they graduate they go on to uh you know um onto college and so yeah so

So it's a yearly process.

But then, as they were saying, the artistic director and associate artistic director are

responsible for selecting the season, directors, all of the artistic staff, so lighting, sound,

stage manager, associate assistant stage manager, all of those roles, they're responsible for

interviewing staffing for each of the three shows.

I have a question. I noticed

one of your shows that happened to have most students from Mountain View in it

was the one that sold almost 90%. I don't know if you've seen any, I know you guys change their

role every year, but any historical connections, if you've got any teens involved from

Mountain View High if you see more people coming because maybe it's local theater or

I guess maybe why did that one show get like 90 almost 90% sellout versus the other ones?

Yeah that's a good question. I haven't actually noticed I mean I haven't reached a track of

the school so I haven't noticed a pattern with Mountain View sales but that's interesting I'll

keep an eye out. Another reason that that show we think gained some popularity is because I don't

know if it was a familiar with the school awards that happened for theater that performed in New

York and the winner or the finalist of that of those awards happened to do a performance from

our musical from Alice by Heart our show just the show in general and so it gained a lot of

popularity after that and Arsha just happened to be kind of right after that happened and so there

was a lot of interest in the show in general not so we got a lot of people um that we may not

actually get who weren't just friends and family and who actually had heard of the show itself and

were like hey I kind of want to see a production of the show and this place is doing it so um

that kind of helped a little word of mouth okay yeah yeah that was Alice by heart yeah yes

yeah it's the same composer spring awakening um and so we were actually fortunate enough to

have him um come on zoom and speak to the cast um after the production which was um which is a

really um exciting experience but it's one of those shows that he actually uh jules my daughter

worked for him um and it's a show that he had available exclusively um for a specific age range

of performers so if you were um theater works for example this is not a show that would be

available to you um it was limited to that demographic and so that also helped i think

in terms of promoting the show because you know this was a place where you could come see that

Oh, and my other question about your cabaret, is that also hosted here in the second stage?

Yes.

Over there.

Yes, it's also in second stage.

It's different in that there are no tech rehearsals.

We come in for that one day and then we're not.

And it's a ticketed event?

Yes.

Okay.

But you didn't include the number of tickets sold for that when you shared that.

Oh, it is the staff report.

OK, yeah, it's the it's not the one we did most recently.

It's the one the numbers you have are from.

Oh, it's Superstar Spotlight, right?

Yeah. Whereas the one we did this August, which is in like the next year, the next year, had a higher attendance.

I think it was 97 attendees.

And you briefly mentioned the play rights or the rights to the plays.

I'm curious, like, I'm just wondering overall structure, like how much percent of like your budget goes into getting the rights, securing the rights of plays versus like, you know, costumes.

And I mean, I understand like and of course, you know, space.

I don't know if you have a snapshot of something like that.

So it's very different between a play and a musical.

A play will run somewhere from $300 to maybe $800

if you were doing like Curious Incident Dog and the Night,

something famous, right?

So if you're doing a musical,

you're looking at probably $2,400.

So there's a big difference.

and that's for a second stage space yes right I mean I mean for us totally for us when if you're

performing we usually have three or four performances for each show that we do um and

of course what you pay for those rights depends on how big your theater is and

um and how long you're going um and whether you're professional or not um so for us that's about

kind of where those things sit. Whereas I think I would guess we end up paying somewhere between

$3,000 and $4,000 for the space and the staff. And we don't have any overhead. We don't have

a facility. We don't have any staff. It's all volunteer based. So that means all of our

costs are really production associated.

So

then we have, you know, we have costumes,

we have sets, we have props,

you know, those kinds of things.

And they

run

$1,000 a show

in the program.

And then

when you have a musical, you

have Mike Rental, which is

more expensive, that's about $1,000

per performance, per show.

Not

for the course of the week.

Per run, thank you.

I love per run.

And you also have

you have to acquire the music somehow.

A recorded score or

you know,

a couple of times we've done live music

with an orchestra.

Was that volunteer based for musicians?

Yes and no.

It's such a specialized thing

that sometimes we had to bring in both that we paid a stipend.

Okay. Yeah.

To, that's why ideally we'd like to keep it recorded music

so that we can kind of keep it really teen-based.

But our musical director was a teen and a volunteer.

And in terms of location,

do you guys have a space where costumes and sets are housed

or is it just your garage, their garage?

it's my garage it's all in my garage okay yeah yeah so we you know generally i mean it's second

stage so we're not doing sets like you'll you'll see at theater works we don't put down a marley

floor we don't right um i went and saw driving beat and wow my husband who helps with the sets

was like dang um so it is you know we're focused on the black box theater experience um and so

we try to pull as much as we can into that experience. This most recent show, Nikki had

this great design for our set design. Do you want to explain what you did with the moving set pieces

and everything? We had two flats located upstage which were kind of like these these walls on

wheels and they're split into three parts and to change sets to save space instead of having

multiple set pieces we had completely different designs on each side of the wall and so when we

transitioned from we had like a banquet hall to like a small cottage we would just cast members

would flip around um the flats and it would just and it was really efficient because it saved space

and we didn't have to keep anything else backstage and stuff like that i have another question i kind

kind of heard something um are your or any of your positions like paid site i heard like there

was a musicians but like um do you all receive stipends for your work as a director associate

director or is it just for the love of the art yeah we don't receive love it's all we love the

game um we also try um to have volunteer bands when possible like the band we had this last

season was volunteer. We came out doing one for our next show, which will also be volunteer.

It was just a couple of times that it wasn't possible.

To fill in a musician or a specific instrument or something.

Yeah. Yeah. There were no like, even florals to say.

Okay. And John and I don't, we're all volunteers.

All volunteers.

We're all volunteers.

And then I did notice on some of your cast lists, you have some graduates. So I guess

the requirement is that you're a teen, right? That's so if you've graduated high school,

you can and you're going to De Anza College you could they'll come in yeah 19 is the limit

19 to 19. I usually get high school but there's some above

fantastic it's all my questions who knows what's

I don't know either um you guys are so fluent at social media too which is lovely to see

one of you guys

I don't have any questions

I've been there from the beginning

I know

were you here when Jules did her first presentation

I saw her presentation

I was just blown away

and somebody asked her

what year in college she was

one question

kind of structurally there's been some changes just for good governance and in in line with what

was happening with our other um companies but with changes to the center how has that been

impact wise either on expenses or whatnot and kind of um what can we be doing on our end for

for you guys i mean it's a wonderful program it's community-based it's grassroots it's diverse it

hits um the entire area in many ways so very emblematic of what the center is possible of doing

so uh but in what ways can we help or what challenges do you see any challenges moving

forward or are we looking at growth kind of so what's what can we do as a center and as a committee

and then kind of future wise where are you guys looking at a little bit big question sorry

do you want to do two ends to it yeah future wise i don't know that there's

yeah i don't know what you're thinking um i don't know if we have like any specific

things that we're wanting that we don't have currently at the center

from the venue itself.

I don't think we've been quite as impacted

on the financial side.

You know, like, it's little things like, you know,

the hourly rate of the rehearsal studio going up.

we have to think about how are we going to, you know,

is that something that we can absorb or, you know,

will we go to another location that we've been using before?

Okay.

For example, you know, you can see we run a super tight budget.

We don't have a lot.

We don't have a lot of money to spare.

We're not paying people.

We don't have any overhead.

And so if that financial equation were to change dramatically, we would have to think about, you know, how we would manage through that.

Because really, we don't have a lot of flexibility on our ticket pricing.

You know, we'd really have to do more fundraising in order to expand the program.

And I think right now the feeling is like, I think we feel pretty good about doing the three productions that we do.

they fit into kind of the academic calendar we added this um cabaret which everybody really

seems to like and it works for us um i think if we were to add anything programmatically it would

be something smaller like that like doing a coffee shop in the winter or something like a

you know a one day cabaret in the winter or something like that i don't think we're looking

to expand programmatically um yeah yeah have you guys considered ever doing like stage reads or like

one act plays with from high school students i mean that's a that's an idea as well i'm kind of

wondering because in the black box you already have the situation and set up to have students

up there reading the script you know and that doesn't take extra rehearsal nor any set building

etc yeah i think that's something we've done in the past yeah we did we in fact participated in

the one acts when when it was here we were more like um helping to provide connections

to people who might want to do one acts or you know those kinds of things um and so i think

part of the challenge is right now are when we get back from the holidays we immediately go into

auditions for the musical right the cyclone right the cyclone has now been pushed our schedule got

pushed closer together because of other scheduling things that were happening here and so we'll

actually have to overlap those two productions um so there's no bandwidth right in that calendar

to add anything um i think you know we could look at if we wanted to do something in november

or december but i know december's you guys are off during the summer yes so we do the we do the

cabaret we've done it in july we've done it in august um but we tend not to do a big show in the

summer um there's a lot of places that do shows in this byt does a bunch of that there's there's

lots of groups that do shows in the summer um i think for us it would be hard to do a show in

the summer partially because that's when our entire board and everyone are changing over

so i don't even know who would be cool because we put we put our apps out just so you know like

we advertise them in our last show of the season in May.

And we say, you know, come put in your application.

And we probably get 30 different applications that have to be reviewed.

People have to be interviewed.

Shows have to be selected.

And we use June and July to do that because obviously we have to have the season announcement

ready to go for the cabaret like the first week in August.

so that's kind of our planning

I had another question

sorry

you had mentioned

how much you have to pay to license

a play or a musical

and that's based on

the size of the theater

or how much

something

we had kind of

bouncing around in my head too

I know a lot of theaters

there's different fees for

like 99 seats and under are you being impacted by the size of the theater the way it's configured

but from your licensing fees or anything like that you would say no i don't think so i mean

you could look at like we tend to license from mti and conquered okay i mean it's like really

you can just go in and like fake apply for some like you don't really apply for it but you can

see what the royalty rates are and i don't think because i played around a little bit with they

ask you what your audience size is and it doesn't matter whether I put in like 50 per performance

or 150 per performance it's the same rate okay so I don't think that's impacting I don't think

that's impacting us I'm just so impressed with you thank you I'm very impressed so so happy to

see this organization the way it's completely run by teens with the one supportive adults

but this is fantastic keep it up thank you thank you

i agree the 35th anniversary of the century is coming up so

we were there at 25 okay well crazy well there's going to be planning in the coming year for some

other big celebration like they did last like this happened last night and yeah we performed

at the 25th what did you do um we just had like a group of people we came up and did um

uh they did a group number um and then they had a couple of solo numbers and

i mean it was just kind of yeah what they could pull together because it was in the summer

so there were three different acts happening simultaneously all day yeah so i didn't see

whatever yeah we were just because i was probably looking at shakespeare or something right

yeah it was kind of like you know a little mini cabaret there was there was one group number to

start there were two solo numbers and then there was a group number at the end i think

we're so fluent at social media the 35th that's a lot of excitement young people who might not

who know the center exists i'm just saying i said it all yes i will say this is one time

like the social media thing is so beyond like what i can i advise them on everything you see

is like what they have done totally on their own it's amazing they do you might have a moment

That's all I'm saying.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you guys so much.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Nice.

Thank you.

I'm doing media production for political campaigns.

So she's, she just, she's working for the whole goal for governor campaign in New York.

Yeah, so she was working on a Senate campaign in Texas, doing multimedia production for that

campaign.

It's fabulous.

Yeah.

And she's also

I should say

she's also

directing

and

really working

film.

Sophie has

a short

that she's

currently

producing

and directing

and

she's

directing

the first

right here.

Yeah.

I know.

I know.

I know.

So yeah.

Yeah.

So she's

doing great.

Great.

One of our

performers

is on the

West End

in Hamilton.

Oh wow.

Roxy?

I don't know that.

I don't think they gave a trip plan.

She was in Heather's.

Wow.

Oh, Upstage.

She was the swingin' sticks in West End and now she's the swing for the...

Oh, cool.

A bunch of area of office accommodations.

Oh, so many.

So vote for Upstage.

Yes, in the robbery world.

When's it closed?

Do you know when it ends?

Or is voting open now?

Yeah, follow your support.

Excellent.

Thanks so much for your support.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay, we are on to 6.2 Performing Arts Committee, 2026.

We need to leave action on this.

I think we're 6.2.

So behind the upstage, you'll see the memorandum.

Shall I read the brief memo? Yes, please. Okay. Memorandum dated November 19, 2025.

To the Performing Arts Committee from Teresa Yvonne, Performing Arts Manager. Subject,

2026 Performing Arts Committee. Recommendation, approve the 2026 Performing Arts Committee meeting

dates as listed below.

Which is our typical schedule, right?

Yep, every third one, please.

Yep, third one, thank you.

No July, no December.

That's great.

Okie dokie.

We need a motion.

Is there a motion?

Valerie, I move.

Is there a second?

I'm in the wrong line, sorry.

Oh, okay.

November.

What?

After the second is.

Okay.

Okay.

November.

What?

After the, um, well, I'll second this.

Great.

Any discussion regarding the supposed dates?

The date on June 1st, February 18th, March 18th, April 15th.

Is February 18th falling during the President's Game Week?

not

yes it is that might be a challenge is it possible to request that

is that what we're doing right now it says we're all here sure i i think i think we can't

I withdraw my notion since there's discussion.

Do you have a proposal for...?

I'm proposing the 25th of February.

Before Wednesday at that point.

I think it's the...

the...

joint...

Oh, the gallery reception?

Yes, the 17th.

The 17th. Okay. Yeah.

Oh, that's also during the week of...

February 17th? Yeah, but it's pretty much

the only day we have... Yeah, yeah, so

but I was thinking, I mean,

we don't need to meet before. I mean,

we can give a... That would already be

after. Yeah, so

just wanted to name that that was something that

kind of is happening in February for us as well.

The 25th?

That's, well, we can just discuss it.

Staff, I think that that would work for me.

That would work for me.

Same time, 6.15?

Yeah.

I'm sorry, do you want to make the motion?

If all the other dates are okay, then you can go ahead and make some motion.

I'm just like, look at all of them, not that I have anything on my calendar.

update. But yeah, so I make the motion to change the date to February 25th and then leave and

leave the rest. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye.

Okay, well then we are all set on that. The proposed meeting schedule is

There with the adjustments to February 25th.

Okie dokie.

Moving right along.

Okay, 6.3 Mountain View Center for Performing Arts

35th Anniversary Ad Hoc.

Recommendation,

form an ad hoc committee to support the Mountain View Center

for the Performing Arts 35th Anniversary

event.

There's no memo, right?

It's just that. If you all recall,

the 35th anniversary is coming up, and so just

creating whoever would like

to...

I forgot about ADOCT.

We have to vote when people volunteer

and then we vote to approve it.

Okay.

And that's a maximum of two people, right?

Two people.

So people interested in community engagement aspect as well

and then formulating some of the aspects of the event.

So there would be programmatic features,

whoever is interested.

It'll all come back to the committee anyways

before anything moved along.

So just consider.

I'm also interested,

but also if our other committee members are also interested.

I'm interested.

I am interested to see what the rest of the committee comes up with.

That sounds good.

um

uh maybe um

if you could staff give us a little idea of like what the ad hoc committee is going to be expected

to do i believe for the most part teresa talked about kind of like outreach and just helping with

general support of

programming ideas

but I think the

main goal of it will be the outreach

and coming day of to help

What is the date of the

35th anniversary? It's sometime in

the summer. We don't have

a complete date yet

because we're still

kind of puzzling

the next upcoming season which will

kind of land this

the anniversary event so but I believe sometime in the summer maybe August into September

hopefully we can confirm that and we can and we'll all we're all capable of volunteering on the day

or like if we choose to but yeah you can come day of but the ad hoc is more of like a formal like

I would say they would have more of a say kind of in the programming and

spearheading the

outreach.

I mean, the other committee members can help.

So say, for example,

you two are part of the ad hoc committee.

Is there still an opportunity

for me to suggest

people at every

monthly meeting?

So the ad hoc committee will bring their updates,

update the rest of the committee,

and then the committee wants to

afford some feedback.

And then we can always divide, like the committee can do labor

anyways for the 35th like we don't it doesn't have to be for in like the ad hoc people do not

have to be the only people doing outreach we're all capable of doing outreach for the 35th

which was i was going to say um depending on how we do it i'm um i'd love to kind of like connect

with youth for the 35th anniversary but um in various ways i think that would be and seeing

what what's possible um is kind of my vision in thinking about some outreach so whether that's

at the high schools whether that's through upstage um that's one of my main vision and then just kind

of seeing the on foot aspect of how we can bring in new people into the center is a little bit of

my idea for um for that but that need not need be on the ad hoc if you two have a vision in regards

to that as well so just kind of that's my thought i mean i think you would probably be more effective

in the ad hoc committee than me just because i'm kind of trying to figure out what's going on here

and I'm happy to give them whatever thoughts I have on the side.

But for me, I think I would probably just gear towards bringing in the South Asian community

because that's what I'm most connected to.

So that would be where I'd be in my focus, and I don't have to necessarily be on the ad hoc.

Well, what I recall from the last one, I did not work on that,

But there was a member of PAC who recently retired.

He stayed on PAC, but he volunteered at the center.

They gave him an office or a cube or something.

And he helped them contact.

They contacted all the previous companies.

They had performed at the center over 25 years and asked them if they would come and donate a performance.

So there was a lot of outreach.

and just, I mean, that's a huge extra job

that you would probably be hard for you to do alone

in addition to everything else you do.

So I think that the planning

and the coordination of making the event happen

sounded to me like, you know, a pretty big job.

I want to see what Teresa already has in mind as well.

well i'm sure i mean she's the one yeah no i know but um

see we're putting down all the chips no but i just so that's that so i'm not i'm still not 100%

sure i mean this is the moment where it would have been nice to have her here today but it's

okay but um yeah that's it so up to you guys how after that do you want to i think also being on

an ad hoc committee is great like exposure to if you're interested in exploring the different

aspects um i don't know now i'm getting nervous oh why why it's like a big responsibility

well it's as big as you make it as small as you make it it's volunteer

um i mean it sounds exciting to me so

Yeah.

I've got one year to go with

PAC and then I'm like gone.

For goodness.

I thought

that I would enjoy doing this, you know,

during my last year.

Just put me to use.

That's all I say.

Good.

We could do the opposite where you

No, I actually think that

No, I think this is better

That way I don't have to have a thought

You just tell me what to do and I'll do it

Okay, yay

Okay, great, we did it

So, motion to have

Or I motion

Am I motioning to put that?

Okay, I motion to have

Committee member Donahue and

Bardwaj

Bardwaj, thanks, sorry

Okay, so committee member

Bardwaj and Donahue

as the ad hoc committee for the 35th anniversary i second that motion any discussion all in favor

right

i don't know any way to do that but we did it okay 6.4 arts and culture and create um creativity

month in california recommendation approved to replace the national arts and humanities month

proclamation with the arts and culture creativity month in california in april and present the

proclamation to the city council on behalf of the performing arts committee there's a memo and then

an attachment which is behind everything okay i will read the memo dated november 19th 2025 to

the performing arts committee from theresa yvonne performing arts manager subject arts cultural and

creativity month proclamation before mentioned recommendation approved to replace the national

Arts and Humanities Month proclamation with Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month in California.

In April, direct staff to present the proclamation to the City Council on behalf of the Performing

Arts Committee. Purpose, Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month, also known as ACCM,

celebrated each April, is a statewide initiative led by California for the Arts to elevate the

role of the arts in public life. Established through a California Senate resolution in 2019,

ACCM features a month-long series of free events, advocacy campaigns, and community engagement

opportunities designed to raise awareness of the arts as a vital force in civic well-being,

economic development, and cultural equity. The 2025 theme, Health, Healing, Hope, underscores

the transformative power of creative expression in fostering resilience and connection across

diverse communities. The proclamation would serve several key purposes. One, celebrate local talent,

acknowledge the contributions of our performing artists, cultural organizations, and creative

professionals. Two, promote equity and inclusion, emphasize the importance of accessible arts

programming that reflects the diverse voices of our community. Three, encourage civic engagement,

Inspire residents to participate in cultural events and support local arts initiatives.

Four, strengthen economic vitality.

Highlight the arts as a driver of small business growth and job creation.

Given the alignment of Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month with California's statewide advocacy efforts and its emphasis on community engagement,

staff is recommending replacing the traditional National Arts and Humanities Month proclamation

in October with the more locally resonant proclamation in April. This shift would allow

for the amplification of regional participation and position the city as a proactive supporter

of statewide cultural initiatives. It also offers a timely opportunity to spotlight local artists

and organizations during a period of heightened public awareness and celebration.

Next steps.

Staff will begin a draft of the proclamation to present on behalf of the Performing Arts Committee to the City Council at a future meeting.

If approved by City Council, the proclamation will be presented in April 2026.

And there's a press release as an attachment.

Thank you.

that press release yeah i read it earlier i have but i do have a question since it this the memo

mentions that normally we would have done this in october did we also have a proclamation in october

and council going to be like didn't we just proclaim we we did not okay that kind of that

was kind of like the reasoning for this because we had it kind of just slipped from our minds so

I think Teresa was hoping that maybe something new could you know kind of keep it on our plate

so to speak and I think generally these months are pretty busy for pack and for staff so something

in April I think is you know isn't too packed for us at that time and so I think she was just

hoping for something different, something new.

And this is California specific.

Right. And this is a much more specific

rather than national.

So

I think this is why she

spearheads

national

arts, whatever.

I believe it's American for the Arts.

American for the Arts.

It is. Yeah.

And they have, Americans for the Arts

has every year a poster contest

where you can

have you know have a contest for a particular theme it's very detailed it's they've got this

huge toolbox every year and in the past for the past two years i think it is we had a proclamation

in october and the city put together a video center right yeah um presented before council

and I think this is a real nice recovery since it didn't happen.

We would still slide a proclamation in this year.

October, and I think it's even better that this is California specific

and it's happening earlier in the year because next year is an election year.

I don't think in October people are going to be too concerned about Arts and Humanities Month, right?

so yeah i believe this is much more regional focused um a little more local um and again

something new something fresh for the committee so i believe that's why theresa wanted to put this

fourth committee yeah i wasn't aware that uh california i believe it's fairly new i think

i mean they passed 19 yeah so it's it's fairly new oh yeah but um lock up the pandemic over it

Yeah. Oh, what a great time to launch something.

I'm not really familiar with what all is involved in a proclamation.

So aside from saying that it's the creativity month, what else does?

Generally, staff would draft a proclamation.

So city council already has kind of like a template, so to speak, with proclamations.

So technically, the performing arts committee doesn't have to write it, so to speak.

it's staff who would do it so you present it on behalf of the committee to city council um so

i think it's it's a agendized or something and right exactly it's on good yes you know and it's

one of those with a lot of whereas yes exactly and it focuses on the economic contributions

that the arts make to mountain view and other places i guess i don't know yeah i'm guessing

because what we unpack for like month or whatever we like the chair and co-chair would maybe go to

council to receive correct yeah yeah so it's fairly low-key so to speak staff would do would

present it it would be presented at city council and then it would be read um it's kind of up to

city council how they want to present it um so there's no like public celebration or

not associated with like not necessarily live creative activities no because generally it's

more of like a sometimes there's a couple of proclamations in the month from different

committees or you know there can be a three-in-one city council meeting that they're doing so

So it's mostly just read in title.

Maybe an opportunity to highlight some of the activities or programs that City of Mountain View,

specifically Center for Performing Arts, are doing or already doing that would fall within the Sumfella

and would support this proclamation.

So it's an opportunity potentially for some promotion or public awareness around some of the things we're already doing.

I'm trying to pull up the one that we did last October so you can kind of see the contents of it.

Well, it could say, whereas this is the 35th anniversary year of the center.

Essentially.

Yeah.

And is there some kind of research or study of, like, how having a proclamation impacts a city or its arts scene or its arts businesses?

Is there any kind of correlation?

What are we getting out of this aside from just saying?

It just highlights typically the work that the committee is doing and the city is doing.

I would say regarding impact.

I'm sorry, I didn't want to.

Regarding impact.

Oh, here's the one from and then I'll say my thing.

One of these facts were from the American for the Arts because they do a study every year

nationally so we kind of dropped some facts in there but

they are they tend to be read in council meetings and so anyone attending a council meeting will

with raises awareness okay well you could as individuals go then celebrate

yeah um i would say that it's also it's a more government internal facing aspect for the for

government but because it's being read uh it's right at the council meeting or they're being

somewhere else um for us specifically it's at the council meeting but i know for some they do

read it out loud on like a big event yeah so like i think there was one for the um lgbtqi or our

pride event this year i believe the mayor read out that proclamation but for us specifically i don't

think we have a history of that it's usually just read at a city council meeting so technically the

city council meetings right it's for that it's towards the public but in like the modern sense

right of an active impact then it's internal facing rather than public facing um but there's

always a possibility to subsequent years to plot the agenda some aspect to supplement into a public

facing aspect um but this year the recommendation is just for the which which is what we did last

year as well and so um but that i think also is a thought that would probably be in the public's

mind as well as stewards of public thought that would be something that we would we might want

to consider it would tie in nice with the anniversary event so by then it would be kind

of like official by the city. So it would be a nice thing. I've seen different proclamations

read at council and sometimes it's to honor an individual for years of community service

or it can be some not-for-profit that's doing good work. And so part of it is these people are

you know reaching out in building a relationship with city council too

relationship with city council is another thing that does raise awareness when we raise awareness

about the california arts and cultural creativity month that would also raise awareness to

council which we have been increasingly raising awareness with council over the course of these

couple of or within theresa's tenure in the change in staff and presence in the center so that's

another aspect so you know raising awareness among council is not a bad thing at all ever

but nonetheless I also am hearing the call for a proclamation or something of the sort to honor

the 35th anniversary possibly and I think that's something that we could be able to consider

or discuss in a future meeting perhaps highlighting the importance of the center

as a public facing institution as an internal facing governance body and municipal facility

and then possibly as well the economic vitality of the city so those are three core areas that

we could emphasize in a proclamation towards the 35th, which can speak to the kind of the

urgency or not urgency, but thought and, and quality of impact that we're having.

That's just a thought.

But nonetheless, our recommendation is to approve the proclamation for specifically

the arts and culture creativity month in California.

So could I make a motion?

I think we're there.

I would like to move to approve the replacement of National Arts and Humanities Month, a proclamation within arts, culture and creativity month in California, with a request to mention and tie this into the center's 35th anniversary.

I'll second that motion.

Any discussion?

Okay.

All in favor?

Aye.

Passes unanimously.

okay so that takes us to the end of 6.4 um and now we're on item seven committee

and slash staff announcements updates requests and committee reports um i do think just on a note

i think bringing back the idea of a proclamation for the 35th would actually be a idea so just

something to just to think about but specifically for the 35th what in july whatever that's

happening is something that I think we could put back on the agenda when it's time.

Just a thought there.

Committee reports.

Just wanted to mention that we are, it frees us out right now, but once then, I think we're

ready with the ad hoc stuff for second stage vitality program, which again, just, sorry,

do you have anything to add to that real quick?

Do we have to meet with her first?

Because when you and I met, you typed a lot of notes in.

No, I don't think, so I was going to meet with, or wanted to set up a meeting, but I

I haven't emailed her my notes, but because by the time we met and then I emailed her, she was gone.

I don't know why I didn't realize.

Why is she gone?

Until the 25th, I believe.

26th.

So I didn't realize that for some reason.

And so that's also kind of what stalled that for this meeting.

Yeah, you're confused.

I will.

So it's basically ready was the thing.

So it's basically ready, but we just need to confirm it with Teresa.

And then I think then it has to go through.

It has to come here in January.

Here in January.

okay well there was someone here to look at okay so yeah you would have like something written up

for us or something yeah we'll have the program full the full outline which will go out so

hopefully in january which has been uh looked over and reviewed many times by many city staff

and committee members and and um john because john was on the ad hoc for it oh my it's been

it's been here for a while i'm so ready to be honest with it i'm same so it'll come in january

so we'll have if you have more questions it can also happen in january but uh it's a it's nice i

think it's a good program yeah some of these things take a while sometimes i have a question for staff

any update on pointing somebody for this oh yes so uh city council had their committee

review a couple weeks ago, I think back in

late October, they did recommend to point somebody

to the committee and they will have their confirmation in December

I believe, so we won't be seeing them until January.

Okay. Yeah. If we want to know who that someone is

we have to go look at the city council minutes. Yes, I believe they're up.

You know what, I don't say the name because I forgot it.

But yeah, if you go to just the Legistar and there's specific city council committee review.

Council appointment committee or something.

Yes, yes.

It should be their October.

Yes.

If you look at the appointments committee for October, there's a video that shows the interview.

did you watch it

I think she's going to be good I can't remember her name either

but her appointment is for a one year term it expires at the end of

week yeah yeah right and so what happens is at the end of next year

that term will expire my term will expire I'm expiring

You will be eligible to reapply.

In the, after January.

I will not.

I didn't think I was eligible to reapply last time.

Here I am.

And I'm glad because it's been an interesting,

this term has been really interesting

and I think we got a lot done.

Yeah, it's been quite nice.

So, but anyway, the time comes.

Yeah, so also next meeting,

we will also be doing elections for chair and vice chair.

Right.

Yes, typically vice chair moves up the chair

and then we let the new vice chair.

We're voting?

Next meeting, January.

January.

The first thing of business in January on the agenda

is to elect chair.

So does that, what is that going to be?

we just usually the yeah but vice chair usually the vice chair but yeah but you said you're

leaving next year for all next year i'll be here all next year okay i'm leaving but not so

oh i don't know i could be leaving talking about this

you know i would like to be chair if people vote for me for my final year uh because

the 35th anniversary my final year and uh there'll be a lot more going on next year that i want to be

actively involved but we will oh sorry then i mean then i'm not going to haunt you like i've seen

other people get off of a committee but anyway this has been you know a big part of my life i

for quite a long time. So anyway, those are my themes.

But we would have the election in January when we have the number sworn in and seated.

Right. Yes. And can the person who runs for this, they have to be a part of the committee or can a rando come and say, I want to know.

No, they have to be part of the committee. Oh, so it's just us.

Yes. You have to go through the interview process with the council and all that.

that. Yeah, but after, but we as a committee will elect a chair and a vice chair from amongst

ourselves, but we don't do it till January when we have all black lives. But if we're working on a

project and we want to volunteer to help, that person who volunteers on a PAC project doesn't

need to be on PAC. Right. So for instance, the

Yeah.

The 35th anniversary thing.

What happens if no one runs for a position?

You don't really.

I mean, suppose like, okay, so you show an interest in being chair.

What if there's no one who says I want to be guys chair?

What happens then?

then the rest of the people kind of encourage someone.

I've never seen that.

I've never seen that.

Really?

No, I've never seen where they didn't find a vice chair.

It's usually.

Well, right.

The vice chair's basic role is to lead the meeting in the absence of the chair.

And so if you were interested in being vice chair next year, then that would be the time when you would pay close attention to the agenda and all this and prepare to be chair.

On deck.

I mean, vice chair is not a big responsibility.

It's a chill role.

And I have seen on committees where, for example, the vice chair maybe moved out of the area and then when it comes time to get the chair, then it's everyone.

Yeah.

That's a January problem.

Yeah, that's a January.

And how many years is the role?

Just one.

Just one.

For chair or vice chair.

Right.

Okay.

We elect every January.

and if the vice chair doesn't want to be chair the next year say so and yeah the vice unit doesn't

have to it's not you can they're torturing him yeah yeah so is there some kind of like

you let people know now if you're gonna no it's january and you have to do that but yeah

someone may have but it would be in january when they i mean it's yeah and the person the person

that's appointed.

We have an opportunity to

fully participate in that process.

Right now they're not here, so we can't

really...

We can't have the election.

It's also not on the agenda.

It's also not here.

It's just questions.

It's just questions about procedures.

It brings up the other point, too,

that since three

seats will be open,

that it would probably be a good idea

to spend the next year

exercising other people to apply.

You apply.

My plan is to apply, but my term is done.

Then there'll be two openings.

Well, basically sort of

one, because the new person may reapply.

I think we're very nice to them.

Yeah, I mean

usually people do.

But then, I mean, we're always short a

person. I don't know why.

Historically,

it's always worked out that way.

It has, because I think people move.

yeah so like sorry i have so many questions around this is it like possible like you guys

could just switch and like you become vice chair or like are you not allowed to become chair again

after you've done it once like how does it work i actually don't think we have written terms uh

i think it's just if you have the votes yeah but it's not i think it's by tradition

it rotates through. So the last committee I was on for eight years, I was chair twice.

Okay, so you can be multiple. Yes. If not, they were really far apart.

But there's technically no written term. But again, best practice circulates that.

Member in our city charter. Generally, it just rotates. It just naturally kind of is like

our mayor in the city of mountain view it tends to city mountain view tends to make the mayor like

whoever was vice mayor right yeah vice mayor is usually whoever's newest on the council

it kind of naturally rotates that way i don't know where you look but yeah so it's just yeah

common practice to rotate it carol what were you saying about three positions

i term out he terms out and the new person terms out he's going to reapply i turn out

January is the other thing. You turn out in January.

Yeah. Or I don't turn out, excuse me. My turn ends.

December. December. December?

Of this month. Of the next month.

Of next year. But I have to

I think

it must happen in February though because

26 or 27? What are we doing?

26. 26. Okay. And so

in two months, right? Who would run the next

meeting?

You would in January, right? So you would start

the meeting in January. It was posted on the

city's website. I know, but

But then I...

So you'll be here January, right?

Yes.

And then...

Your term has not yet expired.

Correct.

And then...

And the new chair would run it from February.

Correct.

But it's more so...

Oh, during the January.

We would start the meeting, then we switch.

Right.

Right.

There's the ceremonial passing of the gavel.

There is one.

Oh, yeah.

Which we do have.

So I think I'm here in...

I think this is the up-to-date...

Oh, perfect.

Here we go. Term expires.

Okay, so...

28?

Oh, wait.

It's a four-year term.

It's a four-year term.

But we were...

What, it was a two-year term?

It doesn't matter where you...

Wait.

I started in 25.

I was from the city website.

That's right. We started in 2025, but we are completing someone else's terms.

Right.

Both of us were replacements.

I don't know.

I don't, I'm not done until.

You may contact one-to-one.

I don't know.

So.

Both of you are here for another whole year then.

Yeah, they're here.

So, but.

I thought I was done.

And then you're going to run for chair.

No, this is coming.

January.

Well, we don't know.

We don't, who's to say.

Oh, okay.

So January, 2026,

we elected in chair and vice chair by tradition.

And David would not, David, I'm sorry,

would not be traditionally would not be chair again for another year and would be a one-year

term that's correct um and it tends to go to vice chair right so but because we were myself and you

were placing someone else we that's why our term is not four years it's three years because we're

finishing someone else's somewhere else's term but you still have your two years to do

and it tends to because the way they do it it's your you don't term out like on your anniversary

when you join the terms and on the end of the 31st that makes sense and what carol's saying is

if you look at term expires there's three terms expiring so the new person coming in is taking

over yow yows

leading yow yows

last year

the care firm will expire

I see, okay

the needs will expire and Carol's will expire

Carol, she's been on the committee

for, this point will be

11 years

and we have an 8 year limit

somehow

there was an exception made on that

what happened was

um i people encourage john encouraged me to apply for a third term and i said i don't think so i

think they probably want some new people so i did not apply two people were selected and then after

they were selected it was uh discovered that they had conflicts of interest being on a board or

something with some of the companies here and things like that so they were not voted on by

city council they opened up applications again so i thought okay it's a sign i'll try again

and then i believe at that meeting too what happened was they were because they couldn't

fill the committee right so they were extenuating circumstance and as well as your tenure was also

used in um in the creation of the motion is what i recalled so council what they don't ask me why

i remember this but council i think um created the motion or the selection committee created

emotion with the idea to um to make an exception in that flexion i don't know why i remember that

but that's what happened so that's also how you have that's also how that happened i also didn't

realize that my term was a whole nother year so never mind i'll be with you guys for all nothing

not going anywhere good to know and then confused and typically you can serve traditionally there's

something in the that book i think over there that you get to serve up to two consecutive terms

and then there's like a cooling off or something and then you could come back after the committee

or you can go to another committee same with city council where people have done eight years on city

council and they go do something like performing arts committee and then they go back to city

council what john didn't one of us took john's seat somebody else that left so at what point

of next year would we start looking for the three people to cover the three new spots?

Council will put this, Wanda will put out a call for all the committees. Many, many committees will

have terms expiring. They're all, they all expire December, December 31st. They interview in October

and November.

They

I think it's sometime in September

that the application

process closes.

They will

post it at the library where they've

got all the agendas and stuff.

You know what the openings are.

Do you

subscribe to the

Mountain View

update thing like the

council updates?

What's it called?

I got an email about this.

And it comes in the newspaper.

We'll come back to Mount You Voice.

Love You Voice.

All that, yeah.

But it'll be open for all the committees

that have a seat open.

Just like the last person,

whoever's going to be sitting in the seat in January,

they were also interviewing people

for downtown committee

and a whole bunch of other people.

Just like at our interview,

council does it all kind of like at once.

Well, I think a lot of people apply for any of these positions because they have been encouraged to do so, not because they see a flyer someplace, right?

Because if you just see a flyer, like, well, I wonder what that is.

Are they going to bother investigating it?

Probably not.

You know, it just kind of depends.

Encourage your friends to apply.

Excellent.

Any other staff announcements, updates, requests for committee reports?

No? Okay, then the next Performing Arts Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 21st, 2026 at 6.15 p.m. in the Atrium Conference Room, 500 Castro Street. This meeting is adjourned.

Ryan, that's going to be our fastest meeting.

Yeah.