Paperless World

[MatthewShiner]

To answer the bigger question, you and your company might be on the edge of needing to hire a specific IT person (maybe not full time) to set up a system and network that will fit your needs and growth possibilities. 

[grasshoppr84]

That idea is one that has been tossed around this past month as we are prepping for the upcoming season and exploring options. Though, I don't think it is within our means to hire someone for this task at this point. Something that I can operate and maintain would be ideal for the time being.

There's a lot of transitions (for the better) that we are mapping out. It's exciting, but daunting none the less. This project is one of the big ones, but I think the resources and support is there to make it successful (even if by continual trial and error in the next season)

Thanks for all the responses, there is a great deal of information and valid points that I can use for our endeavors.

[MatthewShiner]

Just be careful that these new additional duties and maintaining this new technology doesn't get in the way of your stage management duties . . . I found even maintaining a simple wiki site was problematic . . . for example, when i left my theatre, it took months to get it transferred and taken over.  Also, you don't want to be the only person who can solve document problems when you are in the middle of tech.

[SamanthaF.SM]

You might check out using newbielink:https://www.dropbox.com/ [nonactive]  (or newbielink:https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTMyMzAzMTQ5 [nonactive] as a referral link from me) for your "file server." Dropbox automatically syncs files between multiple computers. I'm not sure how well it would scale with many people involved.

I'm currently the Assistant Production Manager for my university's summer theatre season, and we're test running Dropbox. It seems to be working really well; we've gotten a lot of positive feedback from the cast and crew. To give you an idea of how we're using it, we're producing three shows in 10 weeks. There's a lot of crossover casting and the production staff is the same, except for a few designers and the directors. There is still a paper callboard in the rehearsal space, but we wanted to be able to efficiently distribute information to people who are not on campus or may not have convenient access to the paper callboard. (Rehearsals take place on the other end of campus from the main theatre, so most of the production staff is only there for production meetings.) Stage Managers are also still emailing daily rehearsal calls and rehearsal reports.

General feedback has been that the production staff loves the easy access to rehearsal reports and tech schedules, especially since many of them have phones with internet. Dropbox was especially helpful for making updates to documents. The shared folder meant that I could make changes on my computer at the theatre, and the stage managers would automatically have access to it in rehearsals. Not all of the actors liked Dropbox, but those in multiple shows have said it is really helpful having all of the information they need for the different shows in one place.

[sgoldsbo]

At the end of the day it's about evaluating the needs of the company and choosing the right tool for the job.

Hear, hear!