WACO THEATER CENTER

"Policies and procedures we sorely needed"

Founded in 2017, WACO (Where Art Can Occur) Theater Center is located in the burgeoning North Hollywood Arts District of Los Angeles and is one of the few cultural institutions in the country providing contemporary performing and visual arts of the African Diaspora. The Center presents, commissions and develops artistic works to provide artists and young people a platform and voice to showcase their creativity. The Center’s programming is grounded in maintaining the vibrancy and continuity of artistic creation with a commitment to artist development and audience engagement.

Shay Wafer, Executive Director, needed to bring in an outside financial consultant when WACO’s revenue streams and reporting requirements became more complex than the one-person finance department could handle effectively. Meanwhile, Wafer had concerns about the quality and integrity of the numbers she was seeing.

YPTC Associate Andrea Divine was brought in. “What I was hoping for was that YPTC would be able to clean up our financial statements, put some policies and procedures in place for us, and that having an outside eye would either confirm or negate my suspicions,” she recalls. “Within 30 days she confirmed my suspicions.”

WACO hired a part-time person for accounts payable and receivable and began assigning more of a workload to YPTC. The relationship has continued to blossom. “She’s smart, she’s fast, she’s good at what she does, she’s a great collaborator, and she’s a great listener,” Wafer explains.

“I have loved working with YPTC,” Wafer says. “We meet once a week over Zoom, we’ve completed two years’ audits and we’re just finishing up our third year which will bring us up-to-date. Andrea’s put into place policies and procedures we sorely needed and given us recommendations of how to streamline our financial situation. She’s made me aware of changes that could save us money or provide us better service.

“It’s been a pleasure working with the company,” she exclaims. “It’s been amazing. I’m so glad I found them. I have no plans to stop any time soon.”