September 2006

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

The board moved to amend the Folk Project Constitution to raise the term limit on the Treasurer's position from two consecutive terms to four consecutive terms, subject to the usual ratification procedure required for changes to the Constitution.

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:06 p.m. on September 5, 2006, at the home of Paul and Melanie Axel-Lute.

Roll Call

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

Secretary's Report

The minutes for June are not recoverable. The minutes for July and August were accepted with the following amendments:

• • July minutes: Delete the information about the ACMA grant application from the Treasurer’s report. It is accurate, but doesn’t belong in the treasurer’s report.

  • August minutes: Jim King was incorrectly listed as present but he did not attend the meeting. Secretary’s note: I noticed long after the meeting that a mysterious “Tommy” with no last name is listed as a guest. That is a cutting and pasting error. Please ignore.

Treasurer's Report

We’re running about $10,000 in the black this year. As of 9/1 we paid our first installment on the new insurance term. Our bank balance as of 8/31 is $18,608.92 and our CD is valued at $10,135.38 as of 8/8. The Ramat account totaled $81,157.46 as of 7/31.

Fall Festival registrations are ~ $2,000 and Special Concert advance sales for Screaming Orphans ~ $200 (these figures include monies in a pending PayPal deposit).

BUSINESS ITEMS

Term Limits of Folk Project Officers

Currently, officers are limited to two one-year terms, but trustees and committee chair positions have no term limits. The treasurer’s job has become very complicated, with a steep learning curve, and there was a feeling that we might want to keep a treasurer longer than the current two-year limit. In addition, Pat’s term will be up this year and she is willing to stay on. To make any changes to the term limits requires an amendment to the constitution.

Chris said that he had checked with our lawyer and that if we fail to amend the constitution before Pat’s term is up we can have an interim appointment or waive term limits for this one year. Andy also checked the law on this matter and learned that we need to have terms, but not term limits. He is not convinced there is a problem that we have to address and said that, legally, we can keep Pat in the office for next year.

There was discussion about extending the term for the treasurer and also about eliminating term limits, for the treasurer alone or for all of the officers. There was also discussion about ways to make the treasurer’s job easier. This included having a financial committee and dividing the work among several people. It was suggested that if the nominating committee can’t come up with anyone and the incumbent wants to stay a two-thirds vote of the Board could retain the incumbent.

Mike moved that the constitution be amended to remove term limits for the treasurer. There was no second. George moved the following: "I move that the Article III, Section B, Paragraph 1 of the Folk Project Constitution be changed as follows: the text "and may serve no more than two consecutive terms in a single office" be changed to "and may serve no more than four consecutive terms in a single office."

This would apply to all officers. The motion was seconded by Mike. Mark moved to amend the motion on the floor, so that it would read as follows: "I move that the Article III, Section B, Paragraph 1 of the Folk Project Constitution be changed as follows: the text "and may serve no more than two consecutive terms in a single office" be followed by ", except for the Treasurer, who may server no more than four consecutive terms in that office."

The motion to amend was seconded and passed. We passed the amended motion, with 12 ayes, 5 nays and 1 abstention. Chris will post a notice about the amendment in the October newsletter and invite the membership to comment. We can vote on it in November and December (it must be voted on at two successive meetings).

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Minstrel Booking

We had an okay month, and made about $380. Average attendance for August was 83.7 for regular shows, 70.3 for all shows. Finest Kind is playing on 10/20 with Andy Dunn opening.

Minstrel Staffing

Under control.

Swingin’ Tern

The contra dance demo at the Madison Community Pool went well. Melanie called nine dances, and for three of them invited pool goers to join in, and we had both children and adults trying it out. Attendance at that evening's dance was quite low -- just 54-- and we had more free passes turned in than usual (because we gave them to the dancers who participated in the pool demo). But the August 19th dance made up for it with 106 in attendance, so we had for the whole month net revenue of $144.

This past Saturday September 2nd, quite rainy, attendance was again on the low side at 70, and we’re $14 short of meeting our newly increased rent amount of $210. The committee met this past Saturday before the dance and started planning decorations and dessert for the Harvest Hoot November 18th.

Horses Sing None of It

Sandie said that we had decided to roll HSNOI into the general expenses, but she doesn’t know when that was because we have no minutes and was looking for some guidance. Chris said this should be at the treasurer’s discretion.

Ralph reports that tapings went smoothly in August with expert sound engineering by Sandie for the 4-piece Uncle Buckle (who were great: a Ralphie recommendation) with amps & drums.

Special Concerts (via e-mail):

Gwen notes that it will be difficult to make the meetings from now on because she teaches on Wednesdays and needs the time to prep.

Cherish the Ladies: proceeding smoothly. Waiting for materials from Rounder records. The Bickford is doing tickets and they are available there now (25 advance, 30 door, limited number of 15 for seniors and students); we will pick some up on consignment to sell at Minstrel, Gintys, etc. Deb Roederer-Shaw is helping Gwen produce this event after Mark stepped down. Please welcome her.

Gwen is stepping down after Cherish the Ladies as Special Concert chair. Please as much as possible keep this to board members only until someone new is appointed as Gwen doesn’t want it to worry the Bickford or any of our press outlets, nor the Arts Council since when she applied for the grant she was listed as an officer. Thanks!

Festival

Registration is down from a year ago. Offers have been made for the Spring Festival to Roberts and Barrand and Joe Crookston. Local performers are Ellen Musikant, Christine DeLeon and Carla Ulbrich.

Storytelling

The committee will set the date for next year’s festival to try not to conflict with other folk music festivals. It will be in September, probably the last Sunday. They will be meeting with Grounds for Sculpture on 9/22 to determine the date. They plan to raise the workshop fee and eliminate the book sale. Julie is planning to resign as committee chair and will probably have a name for a replacement next month.

Membership

There is a rough draft of the new brochure and Mark and Barb are looking for suggestions for improvements. A soft copy will be circulated to the board. Mark wants to reduce the printing costs.

Newsletter (in absentia):

Liz has met with the candidate to replace her and he is still interested. He will be taking over after December.

Publicity

Everything under control.

Webmaster

The number of hits is down this month. George has an experimental feed up on the website to provide RSS. It will be possible to receive it via cellphone.

Merchandising

Under control.

Internal Affairs

No report.

Community Affairs

No report.

Sound

Everything under control.

Archive Management

Bobbie spoke with Duane. He is concentrating on the skit recordings now. He also has house concerts and the like going back to Project 21. Chris said that we should probably stay away from recordings if we don’t have the rights to them; he will check with the lawyers. Bobbie noted that Rutgers won’t take e-mail but will take CD or DVD and she promised to double-check on that. She also needs a translator and Chris will talk to her about that. Bobbie said that Duane has been incurring some out-of-pocket expenses for this and asked if we could reimburse him. He hadn’t asked her about this, but she thought she would bring it up. Some discussion ensued and we decided to revisit this topic at another meeting. Pam thanked everyone who has sent her documents.

GOOD OF THE ORDER

Rick’s daughter Susannah has now successfully obtained political asylum for two out of two clients. He and Cathy saw The Rivals and enjoyed the reference to English country dancing as “one of the most lascivious things you can do with your clothes on”. Sandie is participating in the MS 100 Bike Tour for Multiple Sclerosis and is looking for sponsors. It’s quite a challenge - two days of 50 miles each. Pat, who resides in Mt. Tabor, mentioned that their annual House Tour will be held on 9/30, featuring the beautiful old Victorian homes that distinguish the town. They hope to get a good crowd this year because Lori wrote an article about the tour for the Star-Ledger, published on 9/14. Pat’s husband, Ken, has a new job. Julie had a recent brush with celebrity, managing to meet Paul Newman and Hillary Clinton in a short span of time. Andy had the violin he played as a child repaired, got a good mention for his work in C++ on the artima.com website, and has been offered a position as a paid blogger for Dr. Dobb’s journal. Pam and Bob saw Walmartopia, a futuristic musical set 30 years from now in a world where Walmart has taken over. Lois had a good time at the Champlain Valley Festival. It was three years ago this month that Chris started his business, Knowledge Street LLC, and he’s pleased to report that it’s a going concern. Knowledge Street publishes a monthly electronic newsletter filled with interesting tid-bits – if you’re interested, you can subscribe at www.knowledgestreet.com. Gwen is teaching history as an adjunct at Brooklyn College – CUNY and got her first assignment from Time Out (NY).

ADJOURNMENT

We adjourned at 10:04 pm. Next meeting is on October 3, at the home of George Otto.

Respectfully submitted,

Lori Falco

Secretary