July 2007

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

• • After much discussion, the board resolved that the Festival is significantly important to the community and that we should invest time and energy and money to recover Festival attendance to roughly 200 through positive promotion, re-energizing the Festival program and workshops, better integration of newcomers and other ideas as they arise over the next two years.

  • The board further resolved to direct the Festival Committee to manage future Festivals in a way that stops financial losses by the end of 2009.

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8 pm on July 3, 2007 at the home of Barbara Moo and Andy Koenig.

Roll Call

Present were Lois DeRitter, Jim King, Andy Koenig, Evelyn Maurer, Barbara Moo, Mark Schaffer and Jim West (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Lori Falco, Larry Flanigan, George Otto, Brad Pryor, Tom Pylant, Chris Riemer, Pat Rolston, Rivka Willick and Ken Galipeau (Other Board Members) and Allan Kugel, Ruth Wolfish, Margaret Crowl and Cecilia Rowedder (Guests)

Absent were Bob Isaacs, Bobbie Rosengarten, Paul Axel-Lute, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Sandie Reilly, Pam Robinson, Bob Safranek and Jean Scully.

Secretary’s Report

The minutes for June were accepted with the following corrections:

• • In the discussion on funding a mini-DV recorder for HSNOI, Chris was quoted as saying that we should cut the $8.00 for a cleaning cassette. This was meant as a joke and should be deleted. Lori is searching eBay to see if she can bid on a new sense of humor. Her old one seems to be broken.

  • The second paragraph of the Merchandising Committee report should read as follows: "Brad asked if we could sell T-shirts on the web. It is possible to do this, and Brad should discuss this with George offline. We would not have to collect sales tax for them because we are in NJ and the state does not charge sales tax for apparel. However, if we sell taxable items on the web we would have to collect tax for them. We are exempted from collecting sales tax at the boutique at Festival because it is considered “occasional sales”. However, if we sell merchandise on the web, we would lose that exemption and have to collect tax at the boutique as well. Before we put merchandise up for sale on the Internet, George and Brad should coordinate with the Treasurer."

  • The reference to Cherish the Ladies should say December 2006, not December 2007.

Treasurer’s Report

The normal reports were distributed via e-mail prior to the meeting.

Key Dates

Tax Return/Form 990 Completed Pat Rolston

File NJ Registration Completed Treasurer

BUSINESS ITEMS

Future of Festival

We spent almost the entire meeting discussing the future of the Festival. Committee reports were sent by e-mail prior to the meeting and we did not discuss them. The summary of the Festival discussion is in two parts below. The first part is a high level summary of the motions we passed as amended, a list of straw polls and results and people who volunteered their services. The second part is a detailed listing of the discussion, including motions as originally stated, each amendment proposed and whether those amendments were accepted.

Prior to the meeting Barbara prepared a handout detailing some of our options with regard to our level of tolerance for allowing the Festival to lose money while it finds a new level of stability. Fairview Lake had been indulgent with us in the past, but they weren’t this time and for the Spring Festival we ended up with a $5,000 deficit, which is not a sustainable plan. This is a complex problem with many roots and many causes.

Summary

Motions passed (as amended)

• • It is the sense of the Board that the Festival is significantly important to the community and that we should invest time and energy and money to recover Festival attendance to roughly 200 through positive promotion, re-energizing the Festival program and workshops, better integration of newcomers and other ideas as they arise over the next two years.

  • The Board resolves to direct the Festival Committee to manage future Festivals in a way that stops financial losses by the end of 2009.

Scholarships

We did not take a formal vote, but the sense of the Board was that we approved of the institution of scholarships to provide a discounted Festival price to those who might not otherwise be able to attend.

Generous people have stepped forward to fund these scholarships. There will be a form for applicants to fill out and the process will be unobtrusive and confidential. They will be offered in two sizes – 25% discount and 50% discount, or $45 and $90 off Festival fee, respectively. They will be decided by lottery and there will be a maximum of two per family. Children will receive the same discount as adults.

Finding a New Festival site

We took a straw poll on the question of whether people were willing to entertain the notion of a new site for the Festival. The result was 10 yes, 8 no.

Volunteers

The following people volunteered to help rejuvenate the Festival:

• • Mark volunteered to help with promotion.

  • Evelyn volunteered to put up flyers in stores and supermarkets.

  • Jim K. volunteered to be an idea person for promotion.

  • Ruth will help with ideas for promoting the Festival as long as she doesn’t have to come.

  • Margaret volunteered to call newbies from the last Festival, get their feedback, and encourage them to come to the next one.

  • Ken volunteered to greet new people at Festival and welcome them.

  • Mike volunteered to write and article for the newsletter explaining that Festival is not just for musicians.

  • Lori volunteered to research alternative Festival sites.

Details of Discussion

The following is intended to paraphrase the discussion; in many cases quotes are not exact.

Barbara began with a summary of the situation. Why is attendance down? The excitement factor is waning; people have other commitments; the nature of the accommodations. A large number of long-time attendees used to put it on their calendar first thing, but now, if the performer is not exciting, if something else comes up, people decide not to go. This is very troubling.

George had done an analysis which indicated that Festival costs have kept in line with the cost of living, but price is still an issue for some people. This is not an area that we can cut, but we can offer a scholarship program.

Newcomers don’t feel at home and don’t come back.

What’s our tolerance for financial loss, what kind of performers do we want? Should we cancel Festival? No one seems to want that. At the 6/18 meeting to discuss Festival, we voted 12-4 against sharing the camp. There was a sense that this would drive more people away. Moving to a smaller venue, we may lose people as we move and go below critical mass again. The Board needs to set financial constraints.

This is largely for ’08 and beyond, although there are some things we can do to help with fall ’07. Barbara doesn’t see the Board as coming up with the details. In the old days we had money problems and we rallied, we had the energy and fixed it. Do we have the energy to bring the Festival back to 200 in attendance? We have money in the bank, but do we have the energy and desire? And if we invest money, how do we fund it?

For fall ’07 we could share the camp, but it’s up to the committee how to handle it if we decide they should not lose any more money.

Barbara’s suggestion is that we ask that the Festival become self-sustaining in two years and get back to 200 attendance. That’s what the camp is requiring and people felt comfortable at that level. If we set the time constraints too tight, there will be no chance to experiment. Then our options would be to share camp, move to another location, or go to one a year.

Mid options let us experiment. Enhance the dance, for example, with additional bands. Relax the rule that the performers must stay for the entire weekend. The Festival committee is amenable to that idea.

We need to help the Festival committee with promotional activities, bringing flyers to gigs. The current committee members are not able to do this.

Other ideas include working with the Sierra club – we would need a liaison. We can do something different with workshops. There is no point trying to change the program if we don’t have anyone to promote it.

Chris said that the changes have to be things we can communicate in a brochure.

Barbara continued by noting that each Festival only one new person becomes a regular (although she’s not sure if that’s true).

We could decide to lose $20,000 (she expects it’s an upper bound). We could use the $27,000 that we have in the bank to fund a fall ’07 shortfall and get the rest from the Agranoff Endowment.

Festival is a core part of this community and it seems important to a lot of our people. It is worthwhile investing in it.

(Barbara then opened up the floor to general discussion. Larry took a swig to prepare.)

Chris -- Festival is important to the Folk Project, but it’s a certain insider group. Only 150 out of 600 members attend. We’ve said it’s a party we throw for ourselves. If our mission is to support the arts, this only does it narrowly. To spend our surplus to do that makes sense – what else would we do with the money?

Tom -- What level of interest does the Board and FP have in Festival? That must guide us. We must assess the interest level of the membership.

Jim K -- We have 600 members, but only 100-150 people at any single event. 100-150 is a good house. We’ll never see 600 people at one thing.

Mark -- Festival is the one place the active members show up. It’s a core part of our community.

Allan -- Is there a lack of excitement at other events, for instance Evenings of Music? We shouldn’t fund the Festival if other venues haven’t generated excitement either.

Barbara -- Reasons for a drop in attendance include that we’re getting older, people move away, princess in pea, people are busier, not as compelling as it used to be.

George -- We should not necessarily focus Festival on just members.

Lois -- It helps build sense of community for people who make this organization go and it’s important to have some sense of community. If that part of its function, it’s important.

Chris -- Festival may not be broken, the room may be too big. It’s well run, cost effective and works great. Why not just design it for 150 people?

Barbara -- I’m not sure 150 is sustainable. Will the decline stop there? With less people, the performers get harder to afford.

Mark -- View it as pouring money to make it a better Festival. Make it more exciting, bigger performers. If we take the money, we will get a return.

Barbara -- “Fix it” means fix the financial problem. We have to see continued progress. If not, we’ll have to have this meeting again, and I do not want that.

Brad -- We had people at Festival from VT, MI, etc. I wouldn’t want to shut people out.

Evelyn -- Ever since we came to Fairview we’ve lost the cozy, shmoozy intimacy. Get the price under $150 and you’ll get more people coming.

Barbara -- We talked earlier about cost – it has been kept at inflation level. We will be offering scholarships as early as fall to address this.

Ken -- We would need 250 people to show up to get the price under $150.

Evelyn -- The cozy feeling made it special. We’re talking about adding more people and maybe that won’t address the problem. Maybe we need to make it smaller, 150-180 like at Linwood. Fairview Lake has a sterile feeling. We’ve lost the ambience we used to have.

Barbara -- We moved to Fairview in the mid 90’s and had attendance of 250 at that time, so that’s not how we lost people.

At this point, we discussed the new scholarship program and determined that we were in favor of implementing it. Details were explained above.

Lois -- How about do a small Festival as an experiment?

Barbara -- The committee can decide to do that. We want to give high level guidance.

George -- There are too many possible ideas, it’s up to Festival committee to decide.

Barbara -- How much money are we willing to lose?

Jim K -- We should evaluate after two Festivals – and then re-evaluate. The goal eventually is to break even, and we should make progress each Festival.

Barbara -- My suggestion is a significant investment – we should monitor.

Chris -- Fall ’09 goal for break even is good sense. If what we try fails, we lose $20,000 but the improvements should help a little. We can change if it’s not working.

Andy -- I would argue against Jim K’s suggestion we pick a date now to evaluate progress. The Board can’t really bind itself to take a formal action. Any member can put it on the agenda. If we don’t want to shut it down, the only thing that will work is if people step up to help. We might want to have a Festival strategy committee – reporting to the Board.

Barbara -- If we vote to invest, we must decide to monitor.

George -- Point of parliamentary procedure – a Board can bind a future Board to a specific date, i.e. “postpone to a definite date”

Tom -- On the continuum of interest on Barbara’s handout are we buying “MORE”? If we did nothing but spend $4500 on promotion we would accomplish amazing things.

Lori – “MORE” doesn’t preclude ending the investment ahead of time.

Barbara -- The date is just a “scientific wildass guess”.

Andy -- If I moved that we direct the Festival committee to manage future Festivals so that financial losses stop by Fall ’09 and we want them to do that by increasing attendance, how would the Board feel?

Chris -- This is “What”, not “How” and the motion is more “How”.

Mike (facetiously) -- This is getting too political. More peace and love in the world.

Mike -- I don’t have a lot to contribute – I have one foot on the Board, one foot on the committee. I don’t want to direct myself.

Mark -- The timeframe seems arbitrary – we want it to turn around now. We should just tell the committee what kind of losses we can tolerate rather than setting a time limit of ’09 or ’08. We should tie it to issue #4 - how will we fund this?

Ken -- Do we think as a group that we could spend money and turn Festival around or not? Do we believe enough in this to extend ourselves?

Barbara -- We’re putting the stake in ground, saying we’re willing to lose a maximum of $20,000 and we want the Festival to break even by fall ’09.

Chris -- We want to see the trend turn and we want to invest and see how we do

Jim W -- We all seem to want to go to “MORE”. Let’s make a motion and go.

Andy -- We’re proposing a time schedule and not a budget because we can control time but not budget. I don’t want the Spring ’08 Festival to lose $2,000 instead of $5,000, so we decide we can take 5 years to become profitable. We need to hold the committee’s feet to fire and come up with something now, not in the future.

George -- When people ask to join us, we ask for a business plan – this is kind of backwards. We usually hear solutions before voting on money.

Mike -- I disagree with Andy. If the trend looks good, we don’t need to hold their feet to the fire if they haven’t met an arbitrary goal.

Pat -- We’re assuming other activities will continue to be profitable.

Mike -- Some of these changes may take a few Festivals to become effective. There won’t be an instant response.

Barbara -- Festival is important. If things change at Festival or other activities, we’ll re-evaluate. We seem to be willing to give Festival money and time to grow. But we also need energy, champions and a program. How do we do energy? I thought the financial side was easier.

Mike -- We need one on one promotion, foisting flyers on people proactively, each becoming a salesperson.

Margaret -- “Each one, reach one.”

Celia -- Bring a friend, tell a friend.

Barbara -- The promotion person should have notice in newsletter that people should bring a friend.

Celia -- We should promote outside and reward people who bring a friend, with partial scholarship or something.

Barbara -- How do we find these people, like the promotion person? We need money and people. Time and money. Those are the wide parameters.

Chris -- We’re fighting a receding tide. It’s getting smaller because it is. It’s worth investing, but won’t succeed. We have defined it the way we like it …

Mike -- Chris is overly pessimistic.

Lois -- I’m always optimistic and talk it up. It’s very hard – people find one reason or another not to go.

Barbara -- We must realize this is risky, but it’s a question of whether we think we should try.

Andy -- There are 5 million people in striking distance of the Festival who don’t know it exists. We have to find people to help us reach a larger share of them.

Jim K -- It’s our Festival. The idea that we’re the “in” group is a fallacy. One third of the Board doesn’t go. Two-thirds of FP members don’t go. We need to promote it, get people to go, make it more attractive.

Barbara -- Who do we find to do that?

Mark -- I’ll be one of those people.

Evelyn -- We could get a nice flyers to post in grocery stores and community bulletin boards, advertising that it’s fun for singles and families. Make it colorful, bright. I’ll help post them.

Margaret -- I’ll call newbies from last Festival, get feedback, and encourage them to come.

Ken -- I’ll greet new people at fest, welcome them.

Jim K -- I will volunteer to be an idea person for promotion, but I won’t volunteer to do all the scut work. I have radical suggestions requiring arguing with people like Agranoff.

Larry -- I’ve never been because I need someone to run the store. Is the help going to augment Festival committee or be separate?

Barbara-- I do think we want people to work with the committee, right?

Ken -- It also could be an outsider.

Larry -- Make the Festival clothing optional and all will come.

Rivka -- Desperation never begets more money – it loses people. Being positive is more likely to work.

Barabara -- We have specific ideas contributed by Jim K, Evelyn and Margaret.

Chris -- It takes time. For example, people don’t come based on the workshops, but if they’re good, people may come back

Ken -- We have some new ideas for workshops, such as spend an intense time and learn to play guitar – that’s the kind of thing we’re talking about.

Mike -- About 1/3 of the people who attend are musicians, 2/3 are not. People feel they can’t come if they’re not musicians. Let it be known it’s not just for musicians. Mike will write an article for the newsletter emphasizing that it’s not just for musicians.

Ruth -- You have to change it, promote it, promote, “The benefit to you is”. You must be positive. I will help with ideas as long as I don’t have to come.

Barbara: It is the sense of the Board that the Festival is critically important to the community and that we should invest time and energy and money to recover Festival attendance to roughly 200 through positive promotion, re-energizing the Festival program and workshops, better integration of newcomers and other ideas as they arise over the next two years.

As President, Barbara cannot make a motion, so Mike moved this question.. Jim K. seconded.

Chris suggested an amendment to change the word “critical” to “significant”. Mike accepted the amendment.

Motion carried 14-2.

Andy then made the following motion: The Board directs the Festival committee to manage future Festivals in a way that stops financial losses by the end of 2009. To the extent possible, they should do this by raising attendance. Pat seconded. George suggested an amendment to withdraw the section about doing this by raising attendance. Andy said he doesn’t want the committee to scale back to what they can afford. Chris -- The problem is that we’re losing money. How we stop losing money should not be there.

Barbara -- We voted that that is the sense of the Board – to raise attendance. The amendment was approved, 7 to 5, so the clause about raising attendance was stricken from the motion.

Andy -- This gives the committee clear instructions. If they don’t get people, we can’t comply so we’re stopping Festival. If the committee despairs of returning to profitability by the end of 2009, the Festival will end. It tests the Board’s willingness to take action with teeth.

Mike -- I’m voting against this. It’s too draconian, a sword of Damocles.

Larry -- It does give a significant date.

Ken suggested an amendment that replaces the term “Festival committee” with the Board as a whole. It died for lack of second.

George -- There’s plenty of time if the Board wants to change its mind. I do support Andy’s goal – it’s a clean and specific request of the committee. Two years is a fine amount of time. Andy -- I want it stated sharply. I don’t want to have this discussion again if the next few Festivals lose money. If we’re making progress, we don’t need to change the strategy. Mike -- Festival planning runs nine months in advance. We have to know about pulling the plug by spring 2009. Pat -- You’ll see the trends. Andy -- And then we can re-evaluate. Motion carried 10-2 with 4 abstentions.

Barbara -- Regarding the issue of finding a new location, there are similar camps within 60 miles of the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship. There are also places like the camp Pinewoods uses and Frost Valley, but they are further away. My immediate sense is that we have to stay within 50 – 90 minutes of MUF. Should we look at places further than that?

We took a straw vote -- 10 yes, 8 no.

Allan -- It’s not just distance, it’s time, traffic.

Mike -- We need volunteers to look at alternate sites.

Lori -- I will volunteer.

Mike -- The committee needs list of their requirements.

Lori -- Why do people feel we shouldn’t go further away?

Mark -- We’ll lose people - it’s a radical change.

Barbara -- Other weekends are more expensive. Dancers pay $350 for their weekends, for example.

We talked briefly about #4 on Barbara’s sheet – how to fund this investment. Chris said (and there was general agreement) that we didn’t really have to talk about it as we have the money to cover a $20,000 loss right now.

Barbara thanked all present for managing to have a “pretty productive meeting for a pretty tough topic.” She said that she appreciated everyone making it work.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

For this meeting, we did not have committee reports. Some of the committee chairs submitted reports prior to the meeting via e-mail; those are summarized listed below.

Minstrel Booking

(Note: The email that was presumably sent was not included with the original minutes created at the time. It has therefore been lost to the ages.)

Swingin’ Tern

Attendance at the June 2nd dance, at 62, was lower than average, while the June 16th dance was higher than average, at 93. Net result for the month: we were just $2 short of breaking even.

HSNOI

Many thanks to Don Riemer, George Otto and all the members of the Board for their advice, assistance and approval of our request. Pursuant to the Board's decision, we have purchased 50 Panasonic PQ Mini DV minute Tapes & 1 Storage Rack from Edgewise Media (our current tape media supplier; also had best price I could find on the web) for $170.00 plus shipping and a Sony GVD-1000 Mini DV Walkman recording deck from B&H for $974.95 + $14.20 shipping = $989.15. It was the only mini-DV recording deck I could find on the web for under $1000 and it got good reviews. I read the relevant parts of the instruction manual, plugged it into our duplication system, copied a show (lost in the mail) from DVD simultaneously to SVHS and the new mini-DV tape media, and it worked just fine.

I also thought it would be prudent to purchase an extended warranty service plan. (The Sony GVD-1000 comes with 90 days on labor and one year on parts.) The service plan must be purchased within 10 days of the purchase of the unit covered by the plan. I decided on a 5-year RepairMaster Service Plan from J&R for $99.99 plus $6.95 shipping = $106.94. I realize this puts HSNOI about $70 over the budget allotted by the Board, but I'm willing to kick in the extra $70 if the Board deems it necessary.

Ralph's note also mentioned the recent and upcoming tapings.

Special Concerts

Special Concerts is presenting a FREE concert at the home of Robin and Mark Schaffer on Saturday August 25th (time TBA) featuring NJ performer Todd Martin Reservations are a must. This event will only be advertised in the FP Newsletter, on the FP web-site and via Todd's Web-site and email list. Todd has been performing at various clubs from Boston to NY and Robin (and her girls) really like his music.

Newsletter

Thanks for re-running the volunteer ad for me.

Sound Reinforcement

Under control.

GOOD OF THE ORDER

Pam Robinson reported via email that while the Board was meeting she and husband Bob Safranek were “enjoying good friends, good food and hopefully good weather in picturesque Hico, WV. She also wrote that after 6 weeks in their basement, the little mouse that joined us for the May Board meeting came out and was released to the great outdoors. Brad Pryor’s son has returned from Iraq and is staying with him. Tom Pylant is celebrating his 55th birthday on July 4. Mike Agranoff has something to tell us but doesn’t want to jinx it, so he’ll wait (and continue to tease us). Last week Jim King had a cardioversion procedure which involves applying electric current to the heart. It is very painful, but fortunately, the patient doesn’t remember the pain. In Jim’s case it successfully corrected a fibrillation. Two Sundays ago, Andy Koenig went to a jazz jam at a coffee shop in Highland Park, where he sat in for Tom Pylant on bass. That night, he played with Dave Sherman at a blues jam at a bar in Stirling. Margaret Crowl has no news on her job search, but she’s fine. Allan Kugel’s uncle was killed in an auto accident recently. Although it was a sad occasion, the funeral gave him a chance to see some relatives that he hadn’t seen in a long time. Mark Schaffer announced that the Friday after Thanksgiving the Minstrel will present an evening of Four Folk Project divas featuring Christine DeLeon, Jean Rohe, Liz Pagan, and Jean Scully. The divas will be backed up by a jazz trio and a big band. “It should be a great show,” he said. Lois DeRitter is moving her office after almost 20 years in Middlesex and is relocating to an office in Somerville. Ken Galipeau had a wonderful time participating at the Breast Cancer benefit concert at the Schaffer’s. “It was wonderful,” he said. Mark reported that the concert raised $3,000, the most money they have ever raised. Cecilia Rowedder said that this was her first time attending a Board meeting, adding “It’s pretty fascinating. I can’t always come, but it’s great to be here.” Barbara Moo reported that Sandie Reilly will be taking some vacation time during July and August and needs extra help from Minstrel volunteers during those months.

ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned at 10:15 pm.

The next meeting will be held on August 7 at the home of Mark Schaffer.

Respectfully submitted,

Lori Falco

Secretary