The Brainstorming Session

We spent an hour or so after the January meeting in a brainstorming session. Barbara said, “We’re strong and healthy, let’s look down the road.” She said that we seem to be concerned about getting the right butts in the seat, not just more butts in the seat. Also, we’re a little short on volunteers when new ventures come up. We should consider: “What is the FP about?” We are both a social community and an opportunity for musicians. We have lots of money. Are there things we could be doing with it? We should make decisions consciously rather than by default.

Following is my attempt to capture everyone’s contribution to the discussion. I chose this format because it was the most efficient way for me to transcribe my notes. These are not exact quotes, but my attempt to paraphrase what people said. I know that if I mis-stated anything or left anything out you will not be shy about letting me know.

Chris: There is nothing we do that doesn’t start as the idea of a champion. We always try to backfill positions when the champions go away. Can we accomplish initiatives by Board directive if we don’t have champions?

Tom: I’ve noticed a groundswell of interest in the performers resource list since I put the notice in the newsletter that I got from Elizabeth.

Barbara: We can help members get gigs.

Lois: Good idea to think about this now. We are an undiscovered gem. We could put mp3 files, testimonials on our web site. The workshops at the Festival are great and should be emphasized.

Bob S: How do we turn a person into an active member? How do we encourage that? The group is so big you almost have to go out of your way to be active.

Mike: You get people active through one on one proselytizing. If you see someone who looks like they’re having a good time, suggest they volunteer. Have Festival flyers in your pocket to give to people. It’s on all of our heads to sell this organization.

Jim W: I’ve heard all this before – we’ve got money, we need to do something. But I’m interested in our survival and growth. For instance, what happens if we lose our site? I’m conservative when it comes to my pocket book. I like the MySpace page and Lois’ ideas about mp3 files.

Rick: The issue is rejuvenation. Now might be a good time to address it, since we have money in the bank. Pam has some interesting ideas about Special Concerts. She’s trying to build a strong committee so we won’t keep facing the burnout issue. Festival is also run that way.

George: This touches on publicity, which I’ve been thinking about for 4 years. Special Concerts bring in new people who hadn’t known we existed. Why isn’t word getting out to people who might like us? Special Concerts give us a diversity of performers. Performer’s List – perhaps they’ll talk about us when they’re playing. We might suggest this to them. College outreach. Cable access shows are looking for interviews. We might offer our colorful people to be interviewed. Ads don’t seem to be that effective. Why don’t we write articles ourselves and see if we can place them in newspapers? Tell our own story. We could teach folk music to people, at MUF, for example.

Mark: We’re doing that this Saturday. [with the workshop at the Eve of Music].

George: Inviting people to events who might enjoy it – we should all do that.

Barbara: There’s a tension between getting new members and getting the current members to be more active.

Andy: This environment is hostile to new ideas and champions. There’s an attitude that everything we’re doing is fine the way it is. We have become very conservative and hostile to people who champion change.

Tom: It’s hard to know when you’re having a knee-jerk reaction. Are we afraid of change?

Andy: I’ve seen ideas for doing things differently and they’re rejected. Things haven’t changed in the 20 years I’ve been here – except for the Minstrel trying one long opening act instead of two short ones.

Tom: We have video of the Birthday party. Can we put it on our website?

George: I have to look into the bandwidth issues. There are also copyright issues.

Lois: I can remember some examples of what Andy is saying, but it wasn’t that extreme. We’ve had this conversation before, but we have new technologies now.

Allan: I’ve tried to champion two things. One was workshops at the Eve of Music. Others went ahead and did that. I’ve invited non-members to the Eve. of Music. The website doesn’t really show people what our organization is about.

Mark: I sometimes volunteer for things I don’t want to do because there’s not as much energy in the group as we would like. Ads might be good. College newspapers. After a champion leaves, we sometimes need someone else – like for the newsletter. Andy has a point. I’d love a program to get more volunteers.

Pam: We don’t need to spend energy worrying as much about making money, we can spend energy on other things. The idea is not: we have all this money, let’s spend it. We should try to talk to new people – at least one new one a night.

Barbara: Are there new things we could be looking at doing? Publicity? Outreach?

Rivka: I’ve been very blown away with how organized and stable we are. My husband felt very warmly welcomed at the Eve. of Music.

Barbara: ‘Cause we’re really wonderful.

Rivka: The Storytelling group had burnout. They made a rule that you can’t be a chair for more than 3 years.

Mike: Things are neither bad nor good because they’re new. If we add a program, that’s one more person at the Board meeting. If it’s new, is this something we’re interested in?

Bob I: Is there a procedure in place for evaluating new programs?

Chris: We have a form to fill out.

Jim W: If a champion leaves and no one wants to do the task, then we shouldn’t be doing it. Doing what we do has gotten us to the enviable position we’re in.

Rick: I used to send copies of the schedule to other folk venues. I don’t do that anymore and nobody picked it up.

Barbara: We started this with the notion that this is the kind of thing the Board should address. Strategic things we could be addressing. The graying of the project. Should we be doing that?

Pat: We should remind ourselves that we’re brainstorming. It’s not as useful to take one idea and run it down. We took a straw poll and people felt it was appropriate for us to be having these kinds of discussions.

Chris: The Folk Project should do this, maybe not the full board.

Barbara: Maybe some sub-group should be coming up with ideas.

Larry: People could take their ideas to the relevant committee.

Lori: That hasn’t worked in the past. The sub-group is a good idea.

Barbara: Three specific items seemed to gel during the discussion:

1. There seems to be agreement that the "graying" of the FP is an issue which we should address.

2. There also seemed to be agreement that aside from the volunteer communities of Minstrel, Tern, etc., we don't do as well as we might at turning members into active members. Particularly, we aren't doing well at getting folks to do things at the board/project level such as special concerts.

3. There's some concern, but not yet consensus, that we have become too wary of trying new things.

Barbara said she would send summary e-mail to all and ask for volunteers to talk about this.