August 2008

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:04 PM on August 5^th at the home of President Mark Schaffer.

Roll Call

Present were Lois De Ritter, Jim Gartner, Ed Roffman, Mark Schaffer, Jim West and Ruth Wolfish (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Connie Crawford, Lori Falco, Andy Koenig, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Evelyn Maurer, George Otto, Liz Pagan, Brad Pryor, Chris Riemer, Pam Robinson, Pat Rolston, Bob Safranek, Rick Thomas and Rivka Willick (Other Board Members) and Allan Kugel and Judy Bubar (Guests)

Absent were Jim King, Tom Pylant, Sandie Reilly, Bobbie Rosengarten, Jean Scully, Scooter and Ken Galipeau.

Secretary’s Report

The July minutes were accepted as corrected to show that Jim West was not present at the July meeting.

Treasurer’s Report

We discussed the difference between “budgeting” and “book-keeping” as it applies to whether the recent Festivals have been “making money” or “losing money”. The issue is whether the distribution from the Endowment should be included in the Festival’s bottom line. Chris pointed out that this is easy to do in a spreadsheet based budget document, but more difficult to do in an accounting program such as QuickBooks. We decided to say that the Festival Committee had “met its financial objectives”. Though without a formal budget, it’s hard to decide exactly what that means.

All agreed that the Festival Committee (past and present) had been doing its job responsibly, regardless of whether it “made money” or not. Some members requested that the Festival start making a formal budget for future Festivals. Lori noted that formal budgets have been added to the Festival planning process, starting with Testival.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Poster Easels

Money, not to exceed $150 was allocated for the purchase of three poster easels (one of which has already been purchased with permission from President Mark) to help with advertising future events at the Minstrel and S’n’T.

Minstrel Advisory Group

There will be one more open meeting to discuss ways to improve the “Minstrel Experience.” After that, the issue will be referred to Committee for resolution. No date has yet been set for this meeting.

Good of the Order Changes

Soon, the Good of the Order part of these minutes will be replaced by a column in our monthly newsletter. Please call or email Eddie all your news about things that you’ve done, plan to do, experienced, loved or hated, during the month, to share with your fellow Folk Projectiles in this monthly column. Eddie Roffman, eroffman@optonline.net.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Newsletter

Liz Pagan has agreed to handle the electronic part of collecting information and doing layout for the Newsletter. She plans to stick to a 4-page layout most of the time, occasionally adding a 5th page for things like Festival or Special Concerts. Elizabeth volunteered to handle the physical part (labeling, mailing, stamping, etc) for the August Newsletter.

We still need a permanent volunteer or group of volunteers to handle this for future Newsletters. If you are interested, talk to Mark. Eddie reported that the procedures are in place for doing electronic Newsletter delivery. If you want to sign up for e-delivery, talk to Eddie. It saves the Project money, reduces our carbon footprint, and with the Newsletter safely on your hard disk, you can’t lose it the way you can with a paper copy. There are no plans to discontinue the paper Newsletter at this time.

Andy pointed out that, in any case, state law requires us to inform all members of the locations and dates of Board meetings via US Mail, so at least one paper mailing to all members per year will be necessary. Chris and Ed noted that we have a large number of redundant databases for Membership and other purposes. Some sort of consolidation should be possible.

Publicity

Please send George your material in electronic form if possible to make it easier for him to put it on the website. His schedule is to work on new stuff from the 1st thru 15th of the month, then work on updating existing web pages based on Newsletter information until the end of the month. Andy took the new picture of Tanglefoot, now headlining the Minstrel page, during their recent gig here. George expects soon to have the capability to take electronic sign-ups for the E-Newsletter.

Community Affairs

Elizabeth reports no requests for performers. She doesn’t know why. She has been busy this month sending out sympathy cards to Lori Falco, Tom Pylant, and Carol Nerenberg.

Minstrel

President Schaffer convened a gathering of general advisors on July 20 to sit down with the Minstrel Committee and brainstorm ideas about what's wrong with the Coffeehouse and what should be done to make it better. Rick took notes on what was said, and the Secretary will make it available for anyone interested. No decisions were made at this meeting. (Another meeting has subsequently been scheduled for September 7th). If you have any suggestions, please contact Mark.

Swingin' Tern

Connie reports a continued hot-weather lull in attendance.

Special Concerts

We are presenting a house concert on Saturday August 23rd featuring fingerstyle guitarist, Howard Emerson. We will have a house concert on Saturday September 6th featuring bluegrass and jazz fiddle player Barbara Lamb. Unfortunately our upcoming big concert event, with Jean Ritchie and Tao Rodriguez, has been canceled.

Our Halloween Storytelling house concert is shaping up nicely and will be on October 25th 2008 at 8pm. The storyteller is Buck P Creacy and the event title is Tales for a Waning Moon. This event will feature tales of the season from American and Native American cultures. Please note that this is not a children's concert. (Well-behaved children are, of course, welcome). Tickets will be available shortly.

Horses Sing None of It

Ralph met with Pro Bono Partnership's Steve Gordon regarding the plan for Stefan Grossman to use some of the HSNOI videos with John Jackson. Steve made a few suggestions, which Ralph will be following, for precautions to protect FP.

Festival

Lori reports that they already have 10 people signed up for Testival. She encourages people who want to go to the S’n’T dance on Saturday, to sign up for Sunday at Testival and come for the Sunday Dance, for a double-dance whammy! George reported that we will need to spend about $150-$200 on things for lighting. Permission was moved and passed. Bob reported that we will need some new sound equipment to be able to handle the arrangements at Star Lake. He had some possibilities in mind that would also improve the sound situation at Minstrel. A motion was made and passed to spend up to $1500 for a sound system upgrade before Testival if Bob deems it necessary. Jim West offered to loan some of the sound equipment that he and Eddie own jointly.

GOOD OF THE ORDER

Pam and Bob survived a severe hailstorm, flood and maybe a mini-tornado at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Elizabeth and Thomas Lachowicz are regretting that Elizabeth’s sister has moved back to Chicago. Brad just returned from his third 4-day Bluegrass festival of the summer. Jim West recorded a ‘Horses Sing None of It’ show last month with Frank Sole. Watch for it on your local cable channel. Jim and Judy went to visit the historic Morven mansion in Princeton. While walking around the extensive gardens behind the mansion, Judy realized that she has more plants in her back yard than Morven, but she doesn’t have a staff of gardeners. Lois went to Champlain Valley Folk Festival and the Shelburne Museum nearby. Evelyn, Lois and Margaret: went together to see Kathy Mattea at the Community Theatre. This was part of Kathy’s ‘Moving Mountains Tour,’ a tribute to coal miners of West Virginia. George will be helping staff the Philadelphia Folk Festival again. He recently got a new iPhone 3G. Connie just returned from her 6th year at dance camp with her family. Alan got a chance to visit with a cousin and his wife, as they passed through the Delaware Water Gap, on a hiking trip walking the full length of the Appalachian Trail. Mike will be performing at the ‘clothing optional’ Avalon Music and Arts Festival in Paw Paw, West Virginia. Mark: just returned from a trip with wife Robin, attending a family wedding that was held in a beautiful compound at the University of Rhode Island. Mark’s parents, who are also FP members, just returned from a trip to Baltimore via Greyhound Bus Lines, visiting Mark’s sister. Mark is finishing his final performance as a backup musician for a group of singers who have been raising money in performances for the Ashley Fund. They have raised a substantial amount of money for this charity. Mark says that it feels great to be playing music for a good cause. Tom Pylant is on his feet and healing following his heart attack and bypass surgery. He will be starting a rehabilitation program soon. He still plans to move to Florida. Joel Remde got married!

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 10:11 PM.

The next meeting will be at Pam and Bob’s house on September 2nd.

– Rick