July 2006

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

The board agreed to accept Jean Scully's resignation and appointed Lori Falco to serve the remainder of her term as Secretary.

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:02 p.m., at the home of Barbara Moo and Andy Koenig. The meeting was called to order without a quorum, although we did reach a quorum later in the evening when Jim West arrived.

Roll Call

Present were Larry Flanigan, Jim West, Jim King, Chris Riemer, Lois DeRitter and Mark Schaffer (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Paul Axel-Lute, Andy Koenig, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Barbara Moo, George Otto, Sandie Reilly, Bob Safranek and Lori Falco (Other Board Members), and Rick Thomas, Pam Robinson and Tommy Mahoney (Guests). Absent were Brad Pryor, Evelyn Maurer, Bobbie Rosengarten, Mike Del Vecchio, Gwen Orel, Liz Pagan, Julie Pasqual, Pat Rolston and Jean Scully.

Secretary's Report

Review and approval of the minutes for April, May and June is still pending. Since Jean was absent, Mark graciously agreed to keep the minutes until the appointment of a new secretary

Treasurer's Report

Pat was unfortunately laid up with a nasty case of poison ivy, so Chris gave the report in absentia. The taxes have been filed, and the ACMA grant application went in on time. Pam Robinson noted that the paperwork for both the ACMA Local Arts and Dodge Partnership grants had been filed on 6/12, in plenty of time for the deadline.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Changing of the Guard

Chris noted that since Jean has been swamped with other responsibilities, Lori Falco has agreed to take on the position of secretary through the end of the year. Evelyn gave him a proxy vote in favor of this proposal. Mike made a motion that the Board accept Lori taking over the position, with Jean’s consent. Bob seconded. Jim K. asked if Jean’s resignation was necessary first. Mark said that Jean understood that her resignation would be accepted at this meeting. Mike withdrew his motion and Jim K moved that we accept Jean’s resignation. Mike seconded. The motion carried unanimously. Mike made his original motion a second time, and the motion carried unanimously.

Lori proceeded to take over the task of keeping minutes for the remainder of the meeting.

Sexfold Reconsidered

Mark reported that he had looked into printing a tri-fold and the cost would be about $.90 or less per piece for color on one side. We discussed how many to print and decided that we could probably print about 500 and not run out before the next price increase. Mark said we could get a good price from Liz. Mark feels that we need some kind of print piece, that the old brochure is obsolete (and looks “seedy”) and it’s time to go ahead.

Chris raised the issue of which committee should take responsibility for the brochure. He said he didn’t feel comfortable having it be a volunteer and wanted a committee to take ownership. Mike confirmed that the Minstrel wants the flyer and feels Membership should own it. He thanked Mark for doing the research. There was some discussion of whether the Board had already approved printing the brochure. Chris knows that it had been discussed last January, but the minutes don’t indicate it was actually approved, only that Mark would look into the matter. Barb noted that she would be happy to own it and that about one-third of our new members join through the flyer.

We agreed that Barb will take ownership of printing a new membership brochure and will determine the budget. We asked her to return to the Board for guidance if the cost is going to be more than $750 or if she has questions. She will work with the publicity committee, and Mark will also help out with the project. Paul requested that the text for the various venues be run past the committee chairs prior to printing.

Chris: “I was sure someone’s spam filter would block ‘sexfold’”. Mark: “Make it bi-fold. It’s even more interesting."

Technology Enhancements

Chris would like to take ownership of this sadly neglected area. He said, “I can do that, but not as President. But come 2007 …” Mike responded, “I’ll make it a motion when the time comes.” This topic will be removed from the agenda until then.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Minstrel Booking

June was a moderately slow month but it picked up toward the end. There was 73.5 average attendance without Open Stage; 65 with O.S. For the past 12 months we averaged 98 people per month; 86 including O.S. The financials will show a net loss this month of $1,100 because we paid the rent twice. Not including the rent, July shows a $300 loss. The summer will be slow and things should pick up in the fall.

Mike recommends Claire Reynolds and Joel Glassman, booked for 12/15. He said, “Claire is a piece of work. As soon as she opens her mouth you just go, ‘Holy Smoke!’”. He noted that, “Schaffer is lobbying for himself as opening act.”

Minstrel Staffing

“We have a healthy volunteer crew,” said Sandie. She needs some help filling in the next couple of weeks especially since many people will be away at Falcon Ridge. Everything is online for people who would like to volunteer.

Swingin’ Tern

We continue to have sufficient attendance to have net revenue. June 3: 94 dancers, net $136. June 17: 79 dancers, net $125. July 1: 76 dancers, net $65.

The revenue margin will be decreasing in August when we increase the amount we pay band members, and again in September when our rent will increase. But if attendance holds at the levels of this spring, we will still be in the black.

The annual picnic will be held before the dance on Saturday (7/15) on the lawn in front of the church at 5:30 pm.

Horses Sing None of It

They will be taping a show tomorrow with multi-instrumentalist Ema, and will have Modern Man in September. Sandie will be directing tomorrow night and Tommy will run sound. On Friday night, Mike will be the MC and also playing in California, since the show will be aired by Adelphia Cable. “So you can be in two places at once,” Sandie informed us.

Special Concerts

Mark gave the report in Gwen’s absence. We completed the application for the ACMA/Dodge grant. One of the things we said we’d use the grant for was to enlarge the Celtic music to include Afro-Celt— we think we could reach a more diverse audience, but groups like Baka Beyond, which are WONDERFUL, aren’t as known to the Irish community and are more of a risk. Also groups like Llan de Cubel (Mike just saw them), or Susan McKeown when she plays with the Klezmatics. So the grant would help us feel more secure in expanding. We would also use the grant to add two educational workshops.

Cherish the Ladies accepted our offer! So that is moving forward, for a concert Dec. 3. This concert will not be held at MUF.

The Screaming Orphans is going forward September 15. This is a Friday, so the concert will take the place of the coffeehouse that night. This concert will be held at MUF. Gwen has sent materials to George and Liz and would like an update. She especially needs reassurance that there will be an ad and a paragraph in the next newsletter. She will be creating a press release and PSA and will send to Alice this week. Gwen saw The Screaming Orphans recently and she is “very, very excited about this group!”

Mark noted that the committee could use some new members, since they’re down to two. Anyone interested is welcome to join. We discussed publicity for the upcoming concerts and Mark agreed to relay to Gwen that the committee is responsible for getting the materials to Liz and George on time.

Festival

Cranking out the machine to prepare for fall; the list of workshops is pretty well settled. For fall, on Saturday night the locations of the Round Robin and the dance will be switched. A lot of people had requested this, particularly dancers. Pam reminded Mike that this should be in the flyer. Mike told her that the deadline is short, so this may not happen.

Storytelling

Chris relayed Julie’s report since she was absent. The 14th Annual Storytelling Festival went well, despite grey skies. “We moved all of their sites indoors and had the plan in place early enough so that we could print out revised schedules (thanks to the Grounds staff!!) Attendance grew all day, and while we are waiting for final numbers, we had well over 100 people for our afternoon ‘Lightning Round’ (very appropriate this year) that is sort of the closing gathering of the daytime portion of the Festival."

"The workshop had 11 attendees - all of which were WONDERFUL, and two of which told their first stories and stayed all day to hear more tales. The book sale was a big success this year (probably helped that I hawked several of the books in my workshop!!) and while we won't have the total of money made until we send the unsold books back to the publisher, we're SURE we beat last year. We had some performers who were new to us do GREAT work, and once again the Grounds served up wonderful food for our performers in a nice box lunch. We had a brief discussion about next year's date, and I expressed the concerns I heard at the last board meeting about how this weekend is bad for a lot of FP folks, we still have to go by the Grounds Schedule (since they are letting us use it for free and all!!!) but I have a feeling we might be able to move it. Well, that's it, all in all the crummy weather did not defeat us and the tales were told!!!”

Jim K, who attended the festival, commended the committee for a job well done.

Membership

Barb reported that we have 426 active memberships; 596 members; 34 complimentary memberships. Pam is collecting information on whether members play or sing. Twenty-nine play or sing professionally or semi-professionally; 26 play or sing for fun. Barb has a list of people who have let their membership expire and plans to contact them. Chris mentioned that members’ e-mail addresses should not be added to the Folk Project list unless we have their permission.

Newsletter

No report.

Publicity

Everything under control.

Webmaster

Last month we had 45 hits/day for the Minstrel page and Horses is getting 18 hits/day – almost 4 more than the daily average. George is considering adding an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) capability to the website so that other organizations can access our information more easily. He will try some experiments and report on his progress next month. George does a link check every three months, but if you notice a dead link on the website please let him know.

Merchandising

No report. Chris mentioned if anyone has ideas for merchandising, please e-mail Mike.

Internal Affairs

Mark reported for Jean. July 4 was really nice, with 70-80 people in attendance. Next Evening of Music will be at Margaret Crowl’s.

Community Affairs

No report.

Sound Reinforcement

Everything under control.

Archive Management

Bobbie reported via e-mail that the records will be indexed. Pam mentioned she has forms for document retention and thanked Paul for his help. We discussed using a wiki for records management. George mentioned that TechSoup makes technology available to non-profit organizations for a reasonable price. He offered to investigate and make a recommendation as to whether we should join this group. Barb suggested he defer it until next year when Chris is actively working on technology enhancements.

Nominating Committee

Mike noted that he plans to re-propose a constitutional amendment to extend the term limit for Treasurer. It’s a complex job and it’s hard to find people to do it, so he’d like to be able to keep them around if they’re willing.

GOOD OF THE ORDER

Elizabeth happily noted that Thomas will be coming home for good in less than two weeks. She recently attended a Cajun Zydeco dance-a-thon in Warren, NJ that was “a blast.” George taped a performance by Ken Galipeau for St. Joseph’s Hospital that has been broadcast globally, on satellite and Internet, for four weeks in a row, making him the World’s Most Famous performer in George’s “Giggles Theater.” Jim West and Judy Bubar will visit Ireland in mid-August where Judy will perform in a fleadh. Rick and Cathy Thomas recently visited a friend’s “spectacularly beautiful” farm in Washington state. Cathy is now touring Alaska. Mark’s step-daughter, Chelsea, just graduated HS and will attend U. Conn. in the fall. His daughter, Rebecca, just got her first job working on a Help Desk. Robin Schaffer is going to Bangkok in August. Barbara went with Bobbie and Ruth to see Yolanda Fundora’s exhibit at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum – it was excellent. In June, Andy and Barb’s cat Rocky died. They also celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary. Sandie will be spending 40 days at a lake watching the kids. Gwen Orel has an article coming out in the NY Times and two in Back Stage. She went to Canada for a theatre critics conference, saw ten plays in a week and became a convert to Canadian wine. She and her mom are taking golf lessons.

ADJOURNMENT

We adjourned at 9:30 pm. Next meeting is August 1, once again at the home of Barb and Andy.

Respectfully submitted,

Lori Falco

Secretary