As the high school
theatre I 2nd job at is working on hiring a new "Director" I'll chime in as the "Interim Director".
The previous director was full time 40hrs "Salaried". 20hrs was salaried and 20hrs was "technically" hourly, he also got additives for school activities (
Stage Crew, Production Technical Director, Set Designer,
etc)
This position was originally setup as half time
PAC Director, half time
PAC Custodian. In the last few years, so many school day events prevented the Director from cleaning regularly because he was either dealing with event issues or needed the space empty to clean. This helped in preparing for events as he could focus on the event and not cleaning... Now they have removed the Custodian part of the job but haven't found funding to make the position 40hrs...
During normal school weeks he spent 50hrs at the building. During school Tech/Show weeks he spent 70-80hrs at the building. This was ALL for the high school
theatre department.
Any event during the regular business hours/school day was primarily run/supervised by the Director. If extra hands were needed he would contact a staff of Supervisors and Technicians specifically hired for the
Theatre.
Outside renters and school district events after regular business hours are staffed by hourly Supervisors and Technicians that the Director hires.
I try to hire students as Technicians as that gives back to the school more, but I am allowed to hire anybody in the area as long as there is justification/need.
Supervisors are seasoned technicians who I trust to be the person with keys and in any sort of emergency situation they can handle anything until I arrive or Emergency responders arrive.
How much do you expect your space to be used? When my
PAC was built, opened in 2003, the school was asking how to justify a large non classroom expense. My boss said "If you
build it, they will come" and we are now turning down multiple renters from across the country every year as there just isn't enough days in the calendar to fit everything. School day events have dramatically increased in the past 6 years too. Music and
Theatre used to be the only school groups to use the
PAC, now there can be a student council meeting on
stage/
house, on one side of the
lobby is a music breakout session and the other side has art/photography, and the green room has a
theatre seminar. In the spring I have 3 months straight where the building will be used 7 days a week for a minimum of 10hrs a day(some weekends are nearly 20hrs a day).
One question you should ask now is who runs the budget and what happens to the income from rental groups? My annual operating budget is $6000 for lamps, tape, window cleaning, anything not building related(anything
theatre is not building even if it is part of the structure)... $6000 barely covers the basics for me let alone if I need to replace gear the breaks or increase inventory I have to beg.
I also have to schedule
HVAC and exterior door locking/unlocking, this is on a per event basis with over 300 event days a year.
To answer your questions;
Running event: depends on the event if it is a band rehearsal all we do is open doors and clean up after, if it is a meeting with
podium microphone and
powerpoint we sit at the sound board making sure everything keeps working.
Setting up/teardown: also depends on the event, music and
theatre have gotten really good at doing all their own setup/teardown but at the end of the day I still have to double check things are put back nicely or how I like it.
Office paperwork: depends on how much paperwork you give yourself. Also for the small presentation events I will try to do some paperwork while I sit bored at the sound board.
Training of staff and students: All after normal hours, students/my hires are during weekly
stage crew. My boss had issues trying to pay for training and it left a lot of the staff un-trained until they actually worked an event. That will hopefully change with new boss.
If you become salaried try to plan it around at least 50hrs a week, with additives for school activities/clubs you run also.