November 2006

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

The board agreed to endorse the use of The Folk Project's name on a MySpace page, with the hope of attracting a younger audience.

The board agreed to ratify the recommendations of the Nominations Committee.

The board agreed to allocate up to $1,500 for improvement of the Swingin' Tern sound system.

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:04 p.m. on November 7, 2006, at the home of Liz Pagan and Dave Kleiner.

Roll Call

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

Secretary’s Report

The minutes for this meeting were taken by Andy Koenig and edited by Lori Falco. Please send all accolades and compliments to Andy, all complaints and brickbats to Lori. The October minutes were accepted by acclamation with the following amendments:

• • The Minstrel booking report said we were $254 in the black. That should be for the month of September, not the year.

  • Regarding the Folk Alliance: Pat Rolston had not yet received a renewal reminder and that is what initiated the conversation.

  • The statement about “Dodge Grant” should be “ACMA Dodge Partnership Grant.”

Treasurer's Report

Pat Rolston summarized the financials: September's apparent net balance has been absorbed and YTD numbers are still looking good.

The checking account balance as of 10/31 = $17,895.45. Our CD was valued at $10,203.76 the last time interest was credited on 10/8. The insurance audit was submitted and received by St. Paul 10/19. Note huge expenses for October from the festival, which compensate for huge income in September. We have a YTD balance of income over expenses of about $9,200.

The insurance audit is not quite complete. There will probably be an additional premium due, which would be nice to get processed this year. If there is enough of a difference, they may want an additional endorsement on this year’s policy.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Term Limits

Chris Riemer: The voting is closed. We had two member votes in favor of term limits and six opposed, which means that there will not be a constitutional amendment.

Reaching the Next Generation

Mike Agranoff: At the festival, we booked specifically two acts to try to attract younger audiences. That effort failed miserably. Rick Thomas: Yes, but they were well received. Agranoff. Indeed. Katie Graybeal and I opined that the place to troll for new people to attend is Myspace. I thought about who would be a likely person to set that up, and did some polling. I found two younger members willing to work on that project; Chris Jacoby (Swingin’ Tern regular, now in college in Bethlehem) and Brian Chase (Connie Crawford’s son, now in high school). They agreed to set up a page and look for links. I spoke to George Otto, who agreed to supervise that effort.

Liz Pagan: Why do we need board approval for this? Agranoff: I think we don’t, but we should inform the board; so I’m doing that. Thomas: It does speak for the Folk Project, so the Board needs to be aware of it. Agranoff: Now that I think of it, the Folk Project name needs board approval, so I am moving to allow the name to be used for that purpose. Pagan: Seconded. Gwen Orel: Be aware that there is a great deal of spamming, so someone needs to keep an eye on it. Who gets to post to it? Agranoff: Chris and Brian. Otto: We’ll see what that becomes. Orel: Committee chairs should be able to post to it.

Lois DeRitter: When the Kennedys and We’re About Nine played the Minstrel, did it attract a lot of people? Agranoff: Yes. Allan Kugel: Maybe people come to folk music later in life. Agranoff: Other festivals have a much younger audience. DeRitter: My impression is that it is a whole lot cheaper to go to Falcon Ridge. Agranoff: We’re not looking for quantity. Orel: Young people will spend $70 to see U2 and the Minstrel is $7.

Motion to allow the Myspace page to use the Folk Project name passed by acclamation.

Nominations committee

Agranoff: Most of you got the latest report from the nominations committee.

Of the new trustees, you may not know Bob Isaacs. He is a very active dancer, and we are looking for more representation from the dance community. The main other recommendations: Barbara Moo for president, Larry Flanigan for VP, Chris Riemer for treasurer and Lori Falco continuing as secretary.

There is a fair amount of turnover this year, but I think we have found good people for all the positions. Starting this year, the nominations committee, rather than automatically renew the terms of expiring trustees, will try to find at least one new trustee each year. Mark Schaffer has expressed the desire to start a “house concert” committee, which is likely to become part of the board as well.

The vote to ratify the recommendations was unanimous.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Minstrel Booking

Agranoff: A so-so month. Attendence 75½ , 55.7 if you count open stage. Interesting acts coming, but nothing firm yet. Great show the day after Thanksgiving, 11/24, with Small Potatoes and WSAG.

We had a short-notice cancellation by Kate Cambell, and Aideen O’Donnell has taken her place. Pam Robinson: I asked Paul Ferris to send out a note to his Irish-speaking friends about the concert.

Minstrel Staffing

Bob Safranek for Sandie Reilly: Everything is going fine and Sandie needs sound people for Friday. Agranoff: Do you have her list of who is currently volunteering? Safranek: She said everything was good except sound. Thomas: Contact Sandie to be sure.

Swingin’ Tern

Attendance at our one October dance was low--just 67, and we ran a deficit for the month. For the year to date we still have substantial net income, and we have high hopes for our special upcoming event, the Harvest Hoot on November 18th.

Bobbie Rosengarten: Was the person notified that he was no longer welcome? Axel-Lute: Yes, and he has acknowledged the notification.

Horses Sing None of It

Safranek: Sandie told me to have Chris give the email report that Ralph sent. Riemer: I don’t have the report.

Special Concerts

Orel: We have Cherish the Ladies coming up very soon. If there’s anything you need to contact the Irish community, let me know as I have the list of people who have attended our Celtic events. I have brought some of the posters we got from Cherish the Ladies after two months of begging, pleading, and threatening. Ticket sales are a little lighter than we would like. I’m going to be at Aideen’s concert this Friday because I want to announce it—it’s that first Sunday in December, which is a funny time. We’ve sold 11 tickets through the Minstrel and 70 through the Bickford. We will sell out, but let’s not get too relaxed because it’s the highest guarantee we’ve done.

The Screaming Orphans concert was phenomenally and unexpectedly successful. They were really tremendous. A photographer came from the Star-Ledger and took pictures but I haven’t seen them.

We did get money for the ACMA-Dodge grant. My concern is that the narrative I wrote for the application was quite specific about Celtic music, so we need to keep an eye on that.

Agranoff: Pam, you were looking for information on the grant. Have you gotten that? Robinson: I’m told it’s in my inbox. Orel: Be aware that Cherish the Ladies will be a Christmas concert. The Bickford is under construction, so things will be a little bit strange. On the other hand, they’ve donated the space.

Festival

Agranoff: Festival had only 151 attendees, and lost about $2,000—about the biggest loss I can remember. We have done better in the past and hope we can do better in the future. Otto: Ken floated an idea of doing something different to make fall festival less expensive. Agranoff: The committee has not decided on anything; it’s Ken’s personal idea. So we should wait for Ken to propose it.

Riemer: No one responded to the festival survey saying that cost is an issue. We had more than 200 responses. DeRitter: I know of several people who didn’t do the survey and said that cost was a big factor. I thought the survey was only for people who don’t go to festival much. Evelyn Maurer: I think the festival is too expensive. People who own a computer have more money than people who don’t, so doing an Internet questionnaire rules out some people. Riemer: Ken has a point of view, but the committee hasn’t decided. Agranoff: We haven’t even discussed it. Jim King: We don’t need to discuss this issue until Ken comes to us and wants to discuss it.

Brad Pryor: There is a big downturn in attendance at bluegrass festivals in the northeast. Elizabeth Lachowicz: How did people feel about having the dance in the program lodge and the round-robin in the dining hall? Agranoff: Dancers were greatly in favor of the switch; we’re likely to try it again.

Storytelling

Julie’s report, via e-mail The future Storytelling projectile, Rivka Wilick will be attending the meeting this Tuesday instead of me (pampering of the birthday husband). So, my report is: Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce one of our 3 co-chairs of Storytelling Festival 2007, Rivka!! She is full of great ideas, and we storytellers are glad to have her on board, and I think you're going to LOVE her!!! Here's Rivka!!! Thanks, and I'll see you next month.

General applause. Rivka: I’m the new kid, and I’m sort of obnoxious and stir up trouble. We are going to open the storytelling festival with the New Jersey teen champ. We have a national competition and there’s a New Jersey winner. We’re also going to look in high schools for other tellers. We’re also going to have a “living history” booth where we’re going to teach people how to tell the anecdotes that everyone has but loses. We’ll have 5-minute recordings for those who are interested. We really want a presence of musical tellers—people doing ballads—at least one or two performers as wandering minstrels.

The festival is September 30, 2007. George Otto: Please send me information about the festival for the website. All of these ideas should be on there.

Membership

Barbara Moo: We have one new member (Rivka) – laughter. Nothing new beyond that.

Newsletter

Liz Pagan: No report except please get your stories in by the 15th, along with the annual meeting information.

Publicity

Pam Robinson: Hi!

Webmaster

George Otto: We’re going to start a new initiative to try to reach new people via myspace. I’ll have more to say next meeting.

There was an odd thing that came up through the back door: Last year and this year I was informed that the Folk Project was one of the sponsors of Eisteddfod New York, and why weren’t we mentioning them on our website? That opened another series of questions: We really don’t have a way of pointing people at festivals we think are good, which led to the following. Since the “store” page has been inactive, I removed it from the navigation bar. Then I created a new item called “Nearby,” where people can look for nearby dances, venues, festivals, and so on. I am handing out copies of what’s on these pages, and would like suggestions for information we might add to those pages. I will eventually need to talk to Brad Pryor about what to put on the merchandising page.

We got some email from Nancy Kellner wondered why on our calendar page we mention the Evening of Music, which is for members only. I will be labeling it as such.

It might be good to have a single forwarding address for the whole Folk Project board, which went down in flames. It didn’t work, I kept getting people’s email addresses wrong, and I am going to leave that problem to the membership chair.

Most of the venues have fewer web hits this month than in the past, partly because of publicity from Jean Rohe. Minstrel is getting about 37 hits/day. On the other hand, the RSS page is getting 62 hits/day.

How do people find us with search engines? How can we become more visible? At the top of each page are hidden keywords, and we should find terms that we can apply to our pages. Maurer: How about “singles” for the dances, because you don’t need a partner? Riemer: If you did a search for “acoustic concerts New Jersey” we don’t show up at all and Sanctuary Concerts tops the list.

I have agreed to take on the publicity job, but only by way of coordinating things and keeping them in line; I don’t have the time to take on a lot of extra work.

The motion passed some six years ago about email to membership was that each venue chair can use the Folk Project membership list for common-sense purposes appropriate to that venue. Each such message should be identified and come with instructions for getting off the list if you don’t like it. Moo: As a benefit to the incoming membership chair, we’d like to keep such messages to a minimum, as it is a nuisance to arrange for such email.

Pryor: I should not see the name of the person at whose house the evening of music is being held. Otto: We discussed this before. We won’t show the street address, but we do show the name. Pryor: I don’t even put out newsletters at the Minstrel until after the Evening of Music has passed. Riemer: We should not discuss this unless Jean Scully is here to consider the effect on Internal Affairs.

Rolston: When we link to other organizations, do we ask them to link to us? Otto: It may be time to do that now; we didn’t do so when we did it at first.

Merchandising

Brad Pryor: We sold two T-shirts.

Internal Affairs

Liz Pagan: We need to discuss the holiday party. Moo: We heard it was at Judy Hagen’s. DeRitter: I thought of asking Jean to reinstate the grab-bag at the party but haven’t heard from her. Moo: The Evening of Music is at our house this Saturday, and the directions are wrong in the newsletter. Agranoff: Send email to the membership. Moo: I don’t think it’s worth it. Kugel: A new member had trouble finding Sandy Jackson’s house last month. Thomas: Sandy gets lost going home herself.

Community Affairs

Elizabeth Lachowicz: Jean Scully had surgery last month and is doing well. We lost our good friend George Miller last month; cards were sent to Margaret and to George’s family. There was a memorial this past Saturday which was exactly what a memorial was supposed to do. Margaret sent a nice card, which Elizabeth read to the group.

Sound Reinforcement

Bob Safranek: Everything is going well; I want to ask permission to spend some money. Next week is harvest Hoot Hoot, to raise money to upgrade the Swingin’ Tern Sound system. I want authorization to spend up to $1,500 on the upgrade. If I don’t ask for authorization now, I will have to wait for January. It would be nice to have it for the New Year’s dance. Agranoff: So moved.

Jim King: If Harvest Hoot didn’t make a penny, can we afford it? Rolston: Income over expense is $9,000 this year, including a $2,000 loss for the festival. King: So it doesn’t depend on Harvest Hoot. Rolston: No. Moreover, it’s a long-term capital expenditure. Axel-Lute: We have net revenue of more than $1,100 this year. Riemer: Nevertheless, capital expenditures are paid out of general funds.

Passed by acclaimation, one abstension.

Archive Management

Bobbie Rosengarten: No change.

Key Date Index

Pam Robinson: No change.

THE IN BOX

Mike Agranoff: I would like to offer to the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship to sell tickets to their annual SCAN (?) concert at the Minstrel. Riemer: It’s up to the committee.

Otto: I was asked at the last meeting how we dispose of motions. If there is a motion, you can vote it up or down, or amend it. The person proposing it can modify it or withdraw it. You can also postpone it to a particular time (i.e. the next meeting). Related to that is to postpone a motion indefinitely. This is useful because a motion may come up and we may not want to vote it up or down at all; we just want to throw it out. To do that, you just postpone it indefinitely. This is not the same as tabling. If a motion is tabled, at some future meeting when a smaller group of people might want to bring it up, they can bring it up and pass or defeat it. There is one other way of dealing with a motion: Even after it has been passed or defeated, it can be reconsidered—but only at the same meeting.Lachowitz: Is there no simple way for the proposer to withdraw a motion? Otto: Yes, the proposer can withdraw it. Moo: How about sending this around to the board?

GOOD OF THE ORDER

Ken Galipeau’s daughter Aimee got married at Linwood-McDonald. Brad Pryor has a little kitten named Dusty and is getting his knees replaced. Debbie Arntzen (formerly Debbie Cohen) has a new son, Aaron, born on September 30. November 4 was the three-year anniversary of Evelyn’s new knees. Elizabeth Lachowicz’s son, Thomas, is in mainstream classes for the first time in several years, and exceeding all expectations. Rick Thomas spent several days volunteering for Linda Stender, democratic candidate for Congress. He enjoyed it very much and recommends working for the candidate of your choice. Melanie Axel-Lute has a book of her dances out. Gwen Orel was an American delegate to the International Association of Theatre Critics congress. She will deliver a plenary session paper to the American Society of Theatre Research conference. Jim West bought a new violin. The CBS news report about the charity that George Otto works for can be viewed at www.mmissions.org. Chris Riemer mentioned that the TV show Home Team was working across the street from the Nerenbergs, and Hen3ry wrote and performed a song for the occasion. Former board member Ken Brodie got married. Pam Robinson’s mom is doing slowly better after surgery for four vertebrae with compression fractures. Larry Flanigan’s daughter and son-in-law just bought a house, so he is “evicting” them. Rivka Wilick spent an hour telling stories to a woman who was in labor, helping her to get through the experience without medication. Several people did Ashokan Farewell at George Miller’s memorial and it was quite moving. George’s relatives were very pleased.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 9:35. The next meeting will be the annual meeting at J. W. Ginty’s; the meeting after that will be at the home of Pam Robinson and Bob Safranek in New Providence on January 2.

Respecfully submitted,

Lori Falco