December 2007

OPENING CEREMONIES (The Annual General Meeting)

The annual general meeting was called to order at 8:01 pm sharp on December 4, 2007, at the Chimney Rock Inn in Gillette.

Roll Call

Present were Lois De Ritter, Bob Isaacs, Andy Koenig, Evelyn Maurer, Barbara Moo, Bobbie Rosengarten, Mark Schaffer and Jim West (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Paul Axel-Lute, Lori Falco, Elizabeth Lachowicz, George Otto, Brad Pryor, Tom Pylant, Sandie Reilly, Chris Riemer, Pam Robinson, Pat Rolston, Bob Safranek, Jean Scully, Rivka Willick and Ken Galipeau (Other Board Members), and Rick Thomas, Cathy Thomas, Michelle Cicchini, Mike Del Vecchio, Melanie Axel-Lute, Connie Crawford, Jim Gartner, Judy Bubar, Bill Cox, Robin Schaffer, Judy Hagan and Ruth Wolfish (Guests).

Absent were Jim King and Larry Flanigan.

President’s Remarks

Barbara presented her views on the triumphs and troubles of 2007, “an interesting year.”

“It’s always good to look back,” she said, “we’re an amazing group.” In 2007 we ran 100 concerts, 28 cable TV shows, 26 dances, 12 monthly parties, 5 festivals (storytelling, winter and summer weekends, and spring and fall), a nearly snowed-out special concert, house concerts and workshops. Each of these required the direct efforts of numerous volunteers including publicity to draw an audience and the sound “crews” to keep the equipment in top shape and produce the shows.

2007 Triumphs (Barbara’s own highly personalized list)

• • Storytelling festival (Rivka)

  • Storytelling house concert

  • Divas Concert

  • Barbara’s own “newsletter” parties

  • QuickBooks online -- “It enabled us to torture Ken for six months”

2007 Troubles

• • Minstrel attendance is a warning sign

  • Festival attendance is a downer

  • 15% in 2005 & 2006 and nearly 30% in 2007

  • Lost $12,000 this year

  • Not financially sustainable

What we’re doing about these challenges

• • Invested in a hot line-up for Spring festival – both featured and FP performers

  • A reenergized marketing effort to attract old and new audience

  • Board elected Lori Falco as festival co-chiar. Her first job: figure out “future of festival” (All Options on the Table: one festival or two? sleep-away or local? camp or real beds? etc.; Need All Hands on Deck: ideas, concerns, diagnoses, and HELP to do the work – see Lori!)

  • Board is recommending a slate of 4 new trustees to obtain a blast of new energy and insights

ANNUAL DIRECTORS REPORTS

Treasurer’s Report

2007 Accomplishments:

Change to Accrual Accounting and the move to QuickBooks On-Line. It gives us:

• • Assured back-up and improved transition between Treasurers

  • More consistency in year-to-year reporting

  • Greatly increased transparency, for those who want it

  • Automated/electronic report distribution

  • A step toward a more modern organization, taking advantage of Web technology

On the down side, it requires an annual license fee, as well as a Windows PC and Internet Explorer

Banking Consolidation - Move from Bank of America to Wachovia, with all accounts now based at the Morristown branch; better customer service for signature card transfers and more convenient location. Transfer of fixed-term CDs to Money Market; somewhat less interest but increased flexibility

Navigating Some Banking Bumps - stolen checks and the importance of shredding

Taking an Active Role with Guidestar - Pulling together a solid foundation document and making it part of our annual turn-over procedure, aligning our insurance audit with our fiscal year.

Bringing in a Pro - The engagement of Michelle Cicchini for annual tax prep and occasional accounting advice

Plans for 2008:

• • Revisiting the Credit Cards

  • Getting a better handle on the Fixed Asset situation

  • Developing a formal Job Description and some on-line support tools

Mike asked if Chris were looking into a plan for the endowment. Chris said that he doesn’t have the interest or knowledge, but feels that someone should do it.

Minstrel Booking

Attendance for the Minstrel in 2007 was down. Mike is not complacent, but not worried. Our use of the terrace room is being scheduled. We only use it occasionally and pay extra for it when we do. We have started a program of giving newcomers a ticket for a free return visit. We give out 2-6 or so each week and 1 or 2 eventually get turned in.

Some of the best nights were Dugan’s Hooligans, Phil Ochs Songs night, Mike’s CD party and the Wiyos.

Robin asked why Mike’s chart shows 15 people on Oct. 5 when we were closed for festival. Mike said that that was the Open Stage figure.

Minstrel Staffing

Our volunteers are gathered mostly online, also by phone and at the coffeehouse. Sandie suggested we all make a commitment to volunteer once a month next year. We need 12 people per show. Robin said that Sandie’s e-mails are very entertaining. Mike A. suggested we look at the schedule and volunteer for shows that we’re interested in. There was a round of applause for Sandie, to which she responded, “Thanks, but I am nothing without you.”

Swingin’ Tern

This report covers the twelve months December 2006 through November 2007. During that time we held 25 dances, which had average paid attendance of 60 and average total attendance of 78. The latter figure is the lowest of the past five years. This year we had 165 first-time dancers, and somewhat under a third of them came back at least for a second time.

Special events held this year, besides our traditional New Year's Eve Dance, included two special dances that each included an hour of a different dance form: the Rock 'n' Reel in April, and the second annual Harvest Hoot with swing dancing in November; both of those dances had Folk Project musicians under the leadership of Mark Schaffer. We also held a new caller's workshop, led by Melanie Axel-Lute.

We are in the midst of a leadership transition, with Connie Crawford coming in as Chair, and Bob Isaacs to be taking over booking. We have been notified of another rent increase, going up by $25 to $270 per dance, to take effect in March 2008. That means an extra $625 expense over a twelve-month period. Our net profit year-to-date, counting in the Dec.1st dance, is $325. This year we made a voluntary contribution of $750 toward the cost of refinishing the floor; so long as we don't do that every year, we still have a good chance of breaking even or better at the new rental rate.

HSNOI

We have taped 26 shows so far in 2007 with 2 more planned in December (which Ralph thinks is a new record for the number of shows recorded in a calender year), despite being a bit hampered by the recent strict enforcement - last 5 to 7 months - of an old Cablevision rule: No more than 4 studio taping dates reserved at any time.

The quality of the guest artists & diversity of musical genres presented remained high, if Sandie and I do say so ourselves (Sandie continues to be active in booking talent). And the quality, dedication & enthusiasm of the volunteer staff has been better than ever, thanks largely to Sandie's recruiting efforts and general esprit' de corps'

Sandie added that the programs are webcast every Thursday at www.mnn.org. Horses has a following in Australia and the UK and is on the air in Fargo and LA County. She suggested that if it is not on the air in your area that you contact your cable provider to request it.

Special Concerts

The Special Concerts Committee re-formed in January 2007 with the following committee members: Jim King, Sandie Reilly, Mark Schaffer and Pam Robinson. The Committee had three advisors: Rick Thomas, Roger Dietz and Bob Safranek. In March, Rivka Willick joined the committee and in November Scooter Ferguson. The committee successfully produced three events in 2007:

• • The Tommy Sands Concert on March 16th - We had over 80 pre-sales, however due to extreme weather only 37 paid attendees plus 13 volunteers attended the event, which was an artistic success. We made a small profit. As we did not have a cancellation policy in effect, the concert went on, as Tommy was willing to perform. Since many of our pre-paid ticket holders were unable to attend, the Committee, after much deliberation, decided to make a good will offer to exchange unused Tommy Sands tickets for tickets to other FP events. This offer was well received by ticket holders. Many took advantage of this offer and a full third decided not to turn in their tickets at all and told Pam to consider their monies a donation to the FP.

  • The Jack Williams Guitar Workshop on May 16 (at the home of Mark and Robin Schaffer) - This workshop was also held on an evening when poor weather was expected, but never materialized. There were 14 FP members in attendance, who were able to spend over 2 – 1/2 hours working on guitar techniques and receiving critiques of their style with Jack. Many felt that they had learned a great amount and Jack had much fun as well.

  • Dark Spirits and Haunting Tales featuring Stories and Ballads by Dan Keding on October 27th (at the home of Mark and Robin Schaffer) - This event (under clear skies), attended by 38 individuals (including the volunteers), was incredible. Dan’s stories were haunting but not scary. The event was designed for adults and fit the season beautifully. The performance was followed by a music jam that was just plain fun.

The Committee hopes to produce 3 or 4 events in 2008. Pam noted that on our Department P&L report the “Other Income” listed for Swingin’ Tern and Minstrel represent tickets from the Tommy Sands concert being exchanged.

Festival

“Come to the Spring festival,” said Ken. We had two great festivals in 2007, artistically. Unfortunately, there were not enough attendees and we lost $12,000. The option of sharing the camp was voted down. Ken is resigning after the Spring festival, his 20th.

Ken gave Barbara the “pain in the butt” award, and showed us a figurine holding a fishing pole with the hook firmly planted in its rear. Then he said that it had been a pleasure working with Barbara. He also said that Lori has the daunting task of deciding what to do with festival.

Membership

We have 393 active memberships, representing 570 members. This is down 15% from last year. 108 have expired, marginally up from last year, and 35 are complimentary. There was a large influx of new members in 2004. Pat will contact people who did not renew this year and try to find out why.

Under 20% of the memberships are supporting and she believes that’s a decline. A majority of the memberships come through the mail, but some are coming through Pay Pal and our venues. Almost 1/3 of new members use Pay Pal, and about 14% of the memberships come through the Minstrel. 85% of our members live in NJ, 99% on the east coast.

The venues bring in more new members than members who are renewing. We had 28 come through festival in 2007, which is down from the past. This number can be found in dues under the Festival column on the P&L report. It was suggested that we add a checkmark on the membership form asking, “What inspired you to join?”

Newsletter

Tom thanked everyone for the help while he was away. He also told us it would be better to get stuff before 11:59 pm on the 15th of each month. And he asked us to continue to send him our comments.

Webmaster

RSS hits are way up; that may be substituting for going to a web page.

2007 Accomplishments:

• • With Elizabeth, got the Performers Resource Directory up and have photos of almost everybody. George thanked Elizabeth for working very hard and thanked people for sending photos.

  • Swingin’ Tern worked hard to get photos of the performers.

  • Our MySpace page has 246 friends. George needs to update it.

  • Festival – George created a new page, with a rush to get it done. We now have a dynamic gallery of pictures including 14 from the photo contest.

  • Festival Photo Contest – George has whittled the entries down to 185 photos which are being judged by professionals.

Alice Weimer is retiring, and George needs help with the monthly mailings.

Storytelling

The Storytelling festival went really well, with statewide appeal. We were expecting about 700-800 people to attend, but drew a crowd of about 1,400. Most of the people who came to Grounds for Sculpture that day came for the festival. The site ran out of parking spaces and may rent another parking lot next year.

Plans for next year include paying the tellers and possibly holding a second festival. We had great press and are still getting calls from newspapers. “New Jersey storytelling is growing,” said Rivka.

Merchandising

We found 100 Folk Project bumperstickers. T-shirt sales are going great. Brad ordered a lot of them in small sizes and they’re selling well. In the future, we’ll consider colors other than black. Pam asked about mugs for festival. Brad said that T-shirts aren’t selling out and he wonders if mugs will sell. Barbara suggested that we put this topic on the January agenda.

Internal Affairs

We had a nice series of Evenings of Music in 2007 and there were two first-time hosts – Leslie Brown and Diane Semmling. If you would like to host a party, get in touch with Jean.

The Valentine's show was highly successful and made about $440. On the Operational report, the column for Internal Affairs shows the Divas and Valentine shows and the 4th of July party. Patty Parmalee, our host for Winter Weekend had a terrible accident earlier this year and has fought her way back. This February, she will host us again for Winter Weekend. Jean said that Liz does all the work for the weekend and Jean is nominally in charge.

For the Valentine’s show, the musicians do a lot of the work. We would like to reward them by making a red shirt, like a golf shirt, that they can wear that night. We would give that to the musicians for Valentine’s Day, and if other people like them, we could sell them at cost. The cost is $15 per shirt. The Divas concert did well financially and the Divas got paid. The concert was well attended and Jean is proud of the way it turned out.

Community Affairs

Sending cards to people in our community is Elizabeth’s job and it’s an honor. She always signs the cards from “your Folk Project family and friends.” There have been lots of happy and sad events this year. Please continue to keep Elizabeth informed when things come up.

The Performers Resource directory is splendid and George did a tremendous job. Fewer people have been asking for performers than last year. Some people have not yet registered, and Elizabeth reminded us that you can still put your stuff up there even if you’re not in a band.

Elizabeth thanked the folks who helped her with the NJ Folk Festival. For the coming year, there is a possibility of our performers playing in other venues, reaching beyond Morris County.

Sound Reinforcement

We upgraded the Swingin’ Tern sound system this year. On January 5th there will be a sound tech workshop at Swingin’ Tern.

ELECTION OF TRUSTEES

The nominating committee was chaired by Evelyn Maurer and staffed by Jean Scully and Brad Pryor, and joined unofficially by Barbara Moo.

Barbara Moo, Bob Isaacs and Andy Koenig have decided to resign their trusteeships. The committee made the following recommendations: Evelyn Maurer will resign her trusteeship and take the position of Vice President. The open trustee slots will be filled by Ed Roffman, Jim Gartner, Scooter Ferguson and Ruth Wolfish. This slate of trustees was elected by acclamation.

The trustees then elected the officers and committee chairs for 2007, following the recommendations of the committee. See attachments for a complete slate of board members for the coming year.

ADJOURNMENT #1

The annual meeting was adjourned at 9:24 pm.

OPENING CEREMONIES (The December General Business Meeting)

The minutes for November were accepted with no amendments.

MONTHLY DIRECTORS REPORTS

Treasurer’s Report

Chris said he would close the books on 2007 by the end of January. Please get stuff to him by then. Barbara will update Guidestar and Chris will renew the ACMA memberhip.

HSNOI

Via email, Ralph summarized current and scheduled tapings.

GOOD OF THE ORDER

Jean’s daughter, Siobhan, is in a marching band that played at Giants Stadium twice recently, once for the All State Band Competition where they placed 4th and once for the football team. Siobhan has also started fencing. A year ago this month, Brad had knee replacement surgery. Two weeks later he walked into the Minstrel and everyone applauded. He thanked all the FP members who went to see him in the hospital. Judy Bubar placed 4th in a fleadh and got a lot of nice compliments. Elizabeth is pleased with the progress her son, Thomas, is making in school. He just missed the Honor Roll by one point. She has had some promising job interviews recently. Lois’ godmother passed away recently. Having received a lot of FP encouragement for her singing, Lois felt confident enough to sing at the service. Her godmother loved the DVDs of the FP member concerts and watched them in their entirety, not just Lois’ portion. Lois said, “We bring joy to people we don’t even know.” Sandie’s daughter, Shannon, has become an equestrian. Her son, Matthew, played at the half time show for the Wayne vs. Wayne football game, featuring two competing schools in Wayne. Evelyn lost her sister last month and thanked everyone for their phone calls, hugs and cards. Bill Cox had a great business trip to China, came back and he’s awake. Robin Schaffer is pleased that she has had no business trips. Connie had a business trip the morning of the meeting 200 feet under Manhattan, observing the boring of a tunnel. Ken’s daughter, Chelsea, turned 17 in December and in one month she will get her license. Ken warned everyone to stay out of Morris County, particularly Parsippany. Ken will have a CD release party in February for his two new CDs. Judy Hagan’s oldest son, Kyle, is graduating college in two weeks. Andy is playing with the Early Music Players, plus a chorus and harpsichordist, in a concert at the Presbyterian church on the Morristown green on Sunday afternoon, December 16, Beethoven's Birthday. Accordingly, the concert has nothing to do with Beethoven, but instead is Christmas music of the German composer Michael Prætorius (1571-1621). This was Barbara’s last meeting as president. Evelyn gave her a bouquet of flowers on behalf of the Board and Barbara received a standing ovation. Barbara thanked everyone for the opportunity to have served, adding, “I’m still around – you can’t get rid of me that easily.” She thanked everyone for a wonderful year.

ADJOURNMENT #2

We adjourned at 9:42 pm. Next meeting is on January 8, at the home Pam Robinson and Bob Safranek.

Respectfully submitted,

Lori Falco

Secretary