Questions for those of you in higher ed who are staff not faculty in a PAC

[Lextech]

So the powers that be are asking me to find out what my peers in other universities do and what their titles are. They call me a Assistant Director but my duties include TD, ME, Sound, rigging, video, show control and being tech support for three departments. Responses can be posted here, messaged or we could talk on the phone. If you are faculty and do all these things that are listed here, feel free to jump in to. So in no particular order...

How large a venue or venues?
Are you purely academic, a road house, rental to community groups, all of the above or something else?
What is your staff, do you have staff, do you bring in outside labor, all students or what is staff besides me?
What size University?
What do they call you? (What is your official title)
Do you manage renovations of your facility?
How much say do you have in upgrades?
Do you have any budget responsibilities?
What kind of degree do you have?
Anything else you care to share?

Thanks,

John

 

[TheaterEd]

I've only ever worked high schools, but at my last job I was in charge of two auditoriums doing basically what you do plus scheduling. Job Title was Performing Arts Center Manager. Now I work for a school with one auditorium where I also teach one class and they call me the Technical Facility Manager. All my staff are students and we are almost purely academic. At both jobs I have been the first person to manage brand new spaces, so haven't had to deal with any renovations yet. As far as upgrades go, I just keep a running list of things I want and bring them up strategically when I know the district has a little extra money. My degree is a Theater BA with a k-12 theater education license.

I liked the title Performing Arts Center Manager better because it is more obvious what I do. Nowadays I just say I am The Technical Facility Manager in charge of the Auditorium. I'm trying to add a black box space so I can change my title back to Performing Arts Center Manager.

 

[SteveB]

How large a venue or venues? - 2400 seat, plus 150 seat black box plus adjacent building renovating to a 2nd proscenium with 220 seats as well as 2- 60 seat rehearsal/performance rooms.

Are you purely academic, a road house, rental to community groups, all of the above or something else? - All of the above. There's an in-house non-profit run essentially with college support that produces 30 ? a year. The Dept. of Theater has it's own technical staff consisting of 2 (TD/ATD) carpenters, 1 Sound and Lighting Supervisor, 2 Costumers. The DoT as well uses the road house for 2 events yearly (until the renovation is complete). Road house has 100 events yearly, road house staff rarely staff's other spaces.

What is your staff, do you have staff, do you bring in outside labor, all students or what is staff besides me? - Production Manager, Lighting Director/ME, Head Audio and SM as full time staff, lots of over-hire, typically 2 for every event up to 50 at a time. Over-hire is IATSE Local One as are the Head Audio and SM. The PM and LD positions are legacy full time college positions. The LD position goes to Local One when I retire. The PM is a non-tenured administrative position.

What size University? - 16,000 students, 1000 college staff, not sure if that includes faculty

What do they call you? (What is your official title) - Lighting Director with official title as Chief College Laboratory Technician - tenured. Note that as a college in the City of NY University, the technical laboratory staff is tenured. No idea how that came about and it may well be the only college/university in the US that does this., from what I've seen.

Do you manage renovations of your facility? - Yes

How much say do you have in upgrades? - Much, as it's my research and recommendations, as well I'm responsible for use and maintenance.

Do you have any budget responsibilities? - No

What kind of degree do you have? - Associates

 

[TorrieS]

How large a venue or venues?
470 seat proscenium

Are you purely academic, a road house, rental to community groups, all of the above or something else?
a little of all of the above, the PA dept does 3 major productions a year, we have several companies (orchestras, dance companies and a theater company) who call our theater "home" and put on their seasons in our space. Anything left is up for rental by community groups.

What is your staff, do you have staff, do you bring in outside labor, all students or what is staff besides me?
Me (full time), my part time assistant, a collection of technicians who I call in for events, two work-studies and other random students.

What size University?
Community College of about 14,000

What do they call you? (What is your official title)
Theater Manager (also, adjunct faculty member as I teach the tech theater courses)

Do you manage renovations of your facility?
It was built in 2003 so no renovations yet.

How much say do you have in upgrades?
Lots, I let the powers that be know what we need and they find money to pay for it!

Do you have any budget responsibilities?
Yep, i'm in charge of the budget for the Auditorium itself and the budget for the Performing Arts Department.

What kind of degree do you have?
MFA Theater Production

Anything else you care to share?
Set and costume design for our main stage productions are also part of my job.

 

[Lextech]

Torrie, can I ask what school?

 

[Lextech]

Post Holiday Bump. Any information would help.

Thanks

 

[NickVon]

How large a venue or venues?
1 venue, 300 seats
Are you purely academic, a road house, rental to community groups, all of the above or something else?
We are attached to a College, but have no peforming arst deparment. We primarly serve school functions (ceremonys, club and student organization events), and Community Theater/Dance/Church shows/Recitals from outside of the college.
What is your staff, do you have staff, do you bring in outside labor, all students or what is staff besides me?
My direct supervisor (Theater Manager), and 2-3 workstudy students per semester.
What size University?
2300
What do they call you? (What is your official title)
Theater Technical Director
Do you manage renovations of your facility?
Yes, things like New LX/Sound Consoles, replacment drapes, etc
How much say do you have in upgrades?
Alot, Though largely in what I feel we require and less so in the financial backing of major upgrades. Minor things, repairs, small invenetory updates and and anything sub 3000$ yearly expense i have carte blanche on.
Do you have any budget responsibilities?
We used to have a dedicated budget assigned to the arts center, now it's pooled with our VP's Office of Adancement.
What kind of degree do you have?
BA in Technical Theater
Anything else you care to share?

I am not faculty aside from mentoring and teaching of my couple of student workers. I'd say a more appropriate title for your theater responsibility with be "Theater Technical Director, or Theater facilities Manager, or Technical Director of Theater Operations" Unless there is some one who is in charge of all the stuff you do, and you assit them, some days or weekend you shouldn't be the assistant . If you are in charge of bookings and managing/contracting with events then a "Manager" title is more appropriate, otherwise Technical/Facilities, should be.

 

[Colin]

How large a venue or venues?
We have a 356 seat proscenium fly theater and a 130 seat black box.

Are you purely academic, a road house, rental to community groups, all of the above or something else?
Nearly all academic (theatre, dance, music) with one community theatre rental each year, a summer camp rental in July and August, and very occasional other rentals. We also have an endowment for visiting artists, which results in 15-20 events each year in the theaters.

What is your staff, do you have staff, do you bring in outside labor, all students or what is staff besides me?
I'm responsible for technical direction and lighting/sound/projection design and tech. I also teach a half course load (1 in the fall, 2 in the spring) but mine is an "Instructor" position rather than a tenure track. My shop staff is student work study employees and Stagecraft class. Work study funding is about 1/3 of what it should be, so there goes my facilities budget. There is a non-student technician, hired as a contractor rather than a college employee, responsible for non-theatre/dance events, although I typically need to be pretty hands-on with those shows too since his skill set and desire to learn are both very limited... The other half of the design/tech department, who is tenured, is responsible for scene design and costume design/build along with a 3/2 course load.

What size University?
It's a 1600 student private college.

What do they call you? (What is your official title)
Technical Director and Instructor

Do you manage renovations of your facility?
I would if there were any.

How much say do you have in upgrades?
I am pretty much the only one who has say, but that doesn't mean I have the money. I returned to my position after some time away at a road house because it is a great place to work in terms of how people trust my expertise and generally leave me alone. Funding is extremely prohibitive, though.

Do you have any budget responsibilities?
I have sole reign over a small equipment/maintenance budget, and am mostly responsible for our larger departmental/production budget.

What kind of degree do you have?
MFA in painting

Anything else you care to share?
Maybe your "powers that be" are more benevolent than this, but unfortunately when someone like you is asked to do this kind of research it often means that their bosses are trying to squeeze more blood from the stone, which stinks for you, but if you're careful with how you present your findings you may just come out on top. I've actually had a surprising amount of success in these conversations. You're obviously not an "assistant" and so should be looking for comparables with titles like Technical Director or Arts Facility Manager. Salary info is important (I'm happy to provide mine if you message me) along with true hours/week. It's also important to use this assignment as an opportunity to bring up any safety and technology deficiencies in your facilities. Life safety liability and poor student recruitment due to outdated equipment or understaffed academic departments can quickly turn the conversation in a positive direction if you're talking to decent people with any funds to spare (and really, any college/university has funds to spare if the need is great enough). Make sure you offer them some proactive analysis rather than just giving them raw data to interpret however they want. Good luck!

 

[Calc]

How large a venue or venues?
500 seat Theatre, 275 seat Recital Hall, 10+ conference spaces. Occasional use of 4000 seat arena.

Are you purely academic, a road house, rental to community groups, all of the above or something else?
All the above. The theatre department puts on their own shows, but we handle all of the other events in the space.
At only 500 seats we aren't big enough to bring in too many road shows, but we do get them here-and-there as university-sponsored events.

What is your staff, do you have staff, do you bring in outside labor, all students or what is staff besides me?
One other full-time staff, and around 6 students we schedule on an as-needed basis. We handle all of the tech/AV.

What size University?
10,000

What do they call you? (What is your official title)
Theatre and Event Technology Specialist

Do you manage renovations of your facility? How much say do you have in upgrades?
Partially. The facilities department on campus takes care of building infrastructure upkeep and upgrades. I handle all equipment purchases. For larger upgrades (ie. replaced speakers and processing) we work together, but I'm the one who generally meets with the consultants and such.

Do you have any budget responsibilities?
Somewhat? Our administration tends not to give me a set budget. I maintain a running list of upcoming costs and needed upgrades, and they pick and choose from that on what gets done. I pick the priority, but they determine the overall budget.

What kind of degree do you have?
BA Theatre, from the same university. We weren't quite big enough (at the time) to have a separate tech program, so I got the same degree as the actors.

Anything else you care to share?
The way we are organized here, I work for the university's conference center. So I staff AV for all of the other meetings and such, and oversee AV upgrades in those spaces as well. Sadly, most of my time is spent there rather than the theatre or hall.

 

[kastevenson]

How large a venue or venues?
10,000 seat arena, 700 seat concert/event space, 640 seat theater, various smaller auditorium & classroom settings plus outdoor event locations.

Are you purely academic, a road house, rental to community groups, all of the above or something else?
We are basically an in-house production company servicing the university. My department is responsible for all A/V/L for any event on campus (outside of the theatre) including concerts, convocation services, sporting events , and other university events big and small.

What is your staff, do you have staff, do you bring in outside labor, all students or what is staff besides me?
Our staff is comprised of 15 full timers (including management) and 12 or so student workers (federal work study) during the school year.

What size University?
14,000+ on campus 100,000+ online.

What do they call you? (What is your official title)
Our department is called Event Production. I am one of two production managers. I was hired on last year as there were too many events for one PM to manage. There's only so many hours in a week

Do you manage renovations of your facility?
Our facilities are fairly new but when it comes to replacing gear, yes, we work with the IT department on the procurement of new gear for the facilities.

How much say do you have in upgrades?
We have a pretty large stock of production gear for a portable use and up until recently, most events we supported were serviced with this gear. Newer facilities that are coming online are mostly outfitted with room-specific gear. We still have the ability to bring in say a lighting package if the event/space calls for it.

Do you have any budget responsibilities?
Yes, we have our own budget that gets goes through our parent department.

What kind of degree do you have?
I graduated with a BS in Management of Information Systems.

Anything else you care to share?
By title all of our full time staff, outside of management, are either Apprentice, Tier 1 Technician, or Tier 2 Technicians. Each of our technicians have a specialty (Audio, Lighting, Video/Broadcast) but are competent/familiar in all aspects of production. Our theatre is ran by the theater department except for when there are outside events using the space.

We are by no means a perfect child and are constantly learning new methods to be more efficient with our resources and personnel. Like Colin said, we have found that "higher ups" want data and usage reports to see what we do and why we ask for "more" when we do. We found that usage data and event support data from year to year shows any necessary growth that needs to take place to continue effectively serving the university.

-Kristian

Edit: I noticed you are in VA as well, let me know if you'd like to talk more or stop by for a visit. Would love to show you around.

 

[SVSO]

How large a venue or venues?
260 seat Proscenium, 178 seat Music Auditorium, 134 seat Roundhouse, Blackbox seating up to 60 & an outdoor Amphitheatre. 10+ Dance/Movement studios, 5 Ensemble rehearsal studios, recording studios, Midi Labs, CAD lab, Scenery & Props Workshop with some purview in Lecture theatres around campus.

Are you purely academic, a road house, rental to community groups, all of the above or something else?
Primarily Academic (depending on who you ask), but also a production house, used by community groups, the rest of the university etc.

What is your staff, do you have staff, do you bring in outside labor, all students or what is staff besides me?
Me, 2 venue supervisors, Loans Store, 10 Casual staff with various LX, AX, MX skills. We also have workshop (scenery & props), lighting, sound & design departments that provide students to inhouse productions. We provide staff for external hirers or University events as needed.

What size University?
25000, but our school has ~1000

What do they call you? (What is your official title)
Senior Venue Services Officer. But I'm starting to refer to the position as Venue Manager, as this covers the role and extra duties that I've been lumped with.

Do you manage renovations of your facility?
Some, but not all. The University handles major renovations, depending on whether they class it as a shared teaching space or specialist area.

How much say do you have in upgrades?
Depending on the upgrade, a lot or a little. Sometimes as a consultant, advising on the best material for the job, then dealing with which ever half-arsed contractor gets the job. But if I've spec'd the job, I try to go with people we've used before and who know our venues, or have done work in other venues, so know how theatres operate and the (occasionally) stringent requirements we have.

Do you have any budget responsibilities?
Yes, Equipment purchasing, repairs and maintenance, some building and facilities maintenance, software and additional computer needs. Also salary and entitlements for staff.

What kind of degree do you have?
None, plenty of Licences and Certificates though.

Anything else you care to share?
Most of our issues stem from lack of finance, but I often utilise the other staff to assist in fixing or moving forward projects and convincing the University that we need to invest the money into worthwhile improvements.