Community Update – April 2023

This month is full of major announcements for Highwire Improv! Read on to learn more about what’s coming up for us!

Community Meeting Video Recordings

If you’d like to watch the community meeting, check out the full video or highlights below:

• Classes Announcement Highlight (10 minutes)
• Board Expansion Highlight (5 minutes)
• Full Video (1 hour 20 minutes)

Our Next Community Meeting

If you didn’t get a chance to join us for the April community meeting (in-person and online) – mark your calendar for the next one! This one will be Tuesday May 30th, from 5:30-6:30pm EDT, and will be online-only. Zoom details are below:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84773020234?pwd=OFdENVVjVi85T3JBOEk4UTd0WTZqdz09

Meeting ID: 847 7302 0234
Passcode: 587429

Major Announcement #1 – Classes Are Live!

It’s true! After 2.5 years of hard work, our teachers are trained, our education program is devised, and our curriculum is written (at least for the first classes), and we are launching multi-week classes at Highwire Improv! This is such a crucial step for us, as it will open Highwire to a new group of yet-to-become improvisers and bring new energy to our community.

Classes are live on Eventbrite now! Our first round of classes will start in mid-May and include:

• Fundamentals of Improv Level 1 (in-person, Mondays at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore)
• Fundamentals of Improv Level 1 (online, date TBD)
• Dramatic Scenework Advanced Class (in-person, Thursdays at Homewood Friends Meeting)

As with every program at Highwire Improv, we’ve tried to take a fresh approach to improv classes through the lens of our core values.  A few things we’re really excited about:

• Offering in-person and online classes consistently.
• Using co-teachers for fundamentals / introductory classes.
• Building inclusion and anti-oppression training into our instructor development program.
• Hosting classes all over the Baltimore region to promote easier access.
• No-application scholarships for all classes.
• Open-source curriculum, along with direct feedback loops for the material.
• Anonymous issue reporting through Suggestion Ox.

Major Announcement #2 – We’re Expanding Our Board!

After 2.5 years, the time has come to expand the Highwire Improv Board of Directors.   Today, we’re announcing that we are launching a board member search, with the goal of adding three board members, bringing us to a total of 7. We aim to finalize the new board members by September 1st, 2023.

We are specifically seeking board members with some combination of the following experiences and skills:

• We particularly encourage Black, Indigenous, People of Color, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, and/or disabled people to apply.
• Experience within the Baltimore arts scene, outside of improv
• Experience within non-Baltimore improv communities
• Experience with grants, donation development, accounting, and/or legal.

As with our education plans, we are thinking about the board differently.  In general, we want to limit how the board uses formal power and instead focus on building a group of operational stewards.  As such:

• Board members will not have any direct or indirect donation expectations.
• Formal board meetings will be infrequent, but board members will be expected to contribute to and attend open community meetings.
• Board members will uphold Highwire Improv’s high level of transparency.
• Board members will be expected to contribute operationally to the organization in some way.

To apply (or to share with someone else who you think should apply), check out our application form: https://forms.gle/ztfMnxVKhFRnTyVN6

COVID and Show Status

As of April 7th, Baltimore City remains in low status according to the CDC Community Risk levels, with a significantly lower case load compared to January 2023. At this time, in-person events remain ON, and are recommended for vaccinated individuals only. Two key resources for anyone attending an event:

• Our regularly updated in-person event status, including local and national COVID data.
• Our venue guide, which includes information about the the location, physical space, and policies of our in-person venues.

We have stopped tracking Monkeypox/Orthopoxvirus case rates as of December 2022.

Finances and Growth

Month	Income	Expenses	Net Income	Bank Balance
January 2023	$1,654.33	$2,580.74	-$926.41	$3,610.56
February 2023	$2,003.42	$767.13	$1,236.29	$4,751.63
March 2023	$5,400.67	$4,225.35	$1,175.32	$5,582.17

Growth Metrics

	September 2022	December 2022	March 2023
Facebook Followers	1,058	1,083	1,149
Instagram Follows	947	1,009	1,084
YouTube views	38,022	40,427	45,776
Unique YouTube viewers	2,200	1,000	1,600
YouTube subscriptions	641	662	686
Workshops scheduled	65	70	77

As we often say – the numbers are going up and to the right, with no major surprise.