July 2008

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:02 PM on July 1st at the home of Ruth Wolfish by President Mark Schaffer

Roll Call

Present were Lois De Ritter, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Ed Roffman, Bobbie Rosengarten, Mark Schaffer, Jim West and Ruth Wolfish (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Connie Crawford, Lori Falco, Andy Koenig, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Evelyn Maurer, George Otto, Brad Pryor, Tom Pylant, Pat Rolston, Rick Thomas (Other Board Members), and Allan Kugel (Guest).

Absent were Sandie Reilly, Chris Riemer, Pam Robinson, Bob Safranek, Jean Scully, Rivka Willick, Scooter, Ken Galipeau and Jim West.

Secretary’s Report

The June minutes were accepted as corrected by Bobbie to show that the July Evening of Music will happen on the 12th, Saturday, not the 11th, Friday.

Treasurer’s Report

Chris reported that the first half has been about break-even, with profits at Minstrel and Special Concerts offsetting losses in Festival and Swingin' Tern. In support of Horses Sing None of It, he pulled together the paperwork that will establish a real account with the lawyers at the ProBono Partnership. That will make it easier for them to find us specialized volunteer lawyers in the future.

Chris noted that back in the day, we used to generate about $2K in profit each year. That's where our reserve cash came from, pre Agranoff Endowment. In the New World of Folk Project Finance, we have things we didn't have before, including Dividends, Investments, Interest and Grants. If you took those out of the current picture, we would have lost almost $3,000 in the past six months.

So we should understand that these new, non-program income streams are what's keeping the ship afloat. Andy noted that annual gains or losses of a few percent of gross should be viewed as routine and nothing to worry about. Pat pointed out that it is appropriate to note a trend when there is one. Jim King pointed out that Festival will stop losing money, we hope, with the move to the new venue, and this should change the trend line somewhat.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Folk Alliance

Some Board members have gotten a couple of email announcements from Folk Alliance as part of the new relationship. FA has asked Mike for a list of all FP members so they can send their announcements to everyone. Most members of the Board felt that this was a bad idea. Mike will discuss it with them.

Grant Application

John Vadnais reported that the ACMA grant application has been submitted. Andy mentioned that he has some materials regarding grants. The gist of the materials is that any non-profit organization that accepts government grants has special responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Evelyn volunteered to help review them. John should also be brought into the loop.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITEES

Finance

Andy has not sent out copies of the monthly statement from Vanguard because there is no monthly statement yet. He will send it by email to the Board when it arrives.

Membership

Pat reported that the membership rosters have been distributed to the Board members in PDF format.

Newsletter

Tom reported that he’s moving to Florida. He’s sad to be leaving the Folk Project, but he would like to continue to do the Newsletter. There was a round of applause. 422 Newsletters were mailed out last month. Ed reported that the Electronic version will be available in September. This will be announced in the August paper NL. It costs us about $1.00 per Newsletter to print and mail paper. We can save thousands of dollars. It’s cheaper, greener, arrives faster, and it’s easier to find – everybody knows how paper gets easily misplaced, but electrons are indestructible.

As time goes by, there are several enhancements planned for the electronic version that are not possible with paper. For example, Ed is working on a “Good of the Order” column/blog that draws from the whole membership, not just the Board. Going electronic will allow us to cast the publicity nets to way more places at no extra cost.

Following up on the question of publicity in other venues newsletters, Mike noted that Pinewoods does reciprocate with us, but the Princeton group’s newsletter is too small to put much of our stuff into it. Nevertheless, Mike will send them the Minstrel schedule so that they could put it in if they could find the space.

Publicity

George has put up more photos on the Festival web page, and updated some of the photos for the Storytelling page. He needs to get the S’n’T schedules earlier than has been the case recently.

Minstrel

Mike reported that Aztec Two-Step had a full house. He’s working with Amy Livingston on enhanced publicity for the Frank Vignola show on August 15. This show deserves a great house, and Amy is working with Frank's publicist to try to spread the word in the jazz community.

Mike wants to move the November 14th Open Stage so that he can schedule a show with April Verch for that day. This is nominally in conflict with our agreement to sponsor Eisteddfod with Folk Alliance. Mike has talked with FA about this and they agreed that, as long as we advertise Eisteddfod “vigorously”, this would not be a problem for them. Mike feels that this should also not be a problem for us.

There followed an extended discussion of ways to improve the “Minstrel experience” and increase attendance. Many ideas were shared. As President Mark noted, “We will return to this, again.” Ideas brought forth include (in no particular order):

• • Having a “greeter” who would identify first-timers and make sure they felt welcome.

  • The Minstrel used to be a “gathering place” where you could go to get together with your friends and listen to music while you did it. That feeling has been on the wane. We should work on getting it back.

  • Finding a “place to go” after the show – as once upon a time when Minstrel was at the SCEEC we used to go to the Meyersville Inn.

  • Sanctuary is closed for the summer. We should watch and observe if there is an associated uptick in Minstrel attendance. Does it matter that Minstrel is a regular weekly event, while Sanctuary is not?

  • We should not compare ourselves to Sanctuary. Instead we should survey our own customer base and find out what they want.

  • Getting more people involved in the Committee management, including the booking function.

  • Make the Minstrel leadership more collaborative. A person who has stopped participating in Minstrel recently observed that there is too much power concentrated in one person.

  • A “Minstrel Committee” is all well and good, but there needs to be a concrete proposal for what the Committee members would do – what functions need to be filled?

  • Expand the pool of people we appeal to. We need to figure out how to reach a greater number of people. There are lots of people who don’t know we’re there.

  • As we get older, some of us want to go home to bed at 11:00. If we want youthful energy, we need to attract youthful folkies. Morris County has lots of colleges close by, with lots of young people we could try to attract. We might offer student discounts.

  • If we want to change our population we need to change our music.

  • Increase the price to allow booking bigger acts. On the other hand, Minstrel has deliberately concentrated on being a “midlevel” venue – keeping costs down and providing exposure for emerging artists. We’ve been successful in that niche for many years.

  • Three quarters of all the admission proceeds after the first 100 admissions go to the performer. This limits our potential profits for big acts. That limits the subsidies we can afford to make for emerging artists who do not have as big a draw.

  • Mike commented that he would be “more than happy to accept help on outreach stuff.”

  • One member commented that he didn’t like the MUUF venue – though he couldn’t explain why. Another member commented that she found the MUUF “a little bit sterile.” Another said we should work on making it a more welcoming place for Minstrel attendees.

  • Many of the volunteers don’t get to see the show at the MUUF, due to the way it’s laid out. This was not the case in previous venues.

  • MUUF air conditioning is too cold.

Swingin' Tern

Connie reports that in the 12 dances thus far this year, ST has had an average paid attendance of 61 and a net loss of $309. This includes the June 7 dance with record low paid attendance of 27 and a loss of $295, with a temperature near 100 degrees. The May 17 dance had only 39 people and lost $256, believed due to a festival conflict. We don't think we are seeing a negative trend, just a couple bad data points. Otherwise the dance is healthy.

Horses Sing None of It

Ralph notes, regarding licensing of the John Jackson video that Chris Riemer put him in touch with Nancy Eberhardt, Esq., Exec, Dir. of Pro Bono Partnership's NJ program, so that they can identify an attorney willing to review: (1) the HSNOI Talent Release Form signed by John Jackson with regard to our Copyright rights and (2) Stefan Grossman's 2-page agreement proposal (offering $1000 advance to FP toward 5% of wholesale proceeds of the John Jackson DVD to license our video) to determine if FP has any liabilities (e.g., to John Jackson's Estate beyond the compensation under the Estate's agreement with Stefan).

Nancy requested a number of FP documents (including tax-exempt certificate, list of Trustees, etc.) to complete FP's application to Pro Bono. Chris promptly supplied them. Nancy emailed that it may take a week or more to find a lawyer with experience in this field. Stefan said that there is no rush from his end.

On Friday 6/27, Ralph received at PO Box 41 a Pro Bono Engagement letter for FP (available from the Secretary or from Ralph) which he and Chris will sign as representatives for the Folk Project.

A member suggested that the Howard Emerson HSNOI tape be featured on local Cable outlets in advance of the Special Concert in August.

Internal Affairs

Jean reports that the August EoM will be at Margaret Crowl’s. July will be at Nancy Haslam’s house (see the July Newsletter for details).

Special Concerts

Pam reported that the June 14 percussion workshop with Cheryl Praskher was great! They had 19 attendees for an income of $270 to cover performer pay of $185 (including a donation) with a net profit of $73.52. When G&A is added in the series had a net loss of $6.21. Way to go Sandie!

Special Concerts is presenting a House Concert on Saturday August 23rd at 8pm featuring finger-stylist Howard Emerson. Tickets are available on line and at the Minstrel. Advance tickets are $15 -- at the door $20.

In October we are presenting our 2nd annual Halloween Storytelling Event at the home of Mark and Robin Schaffer. The Storyteller this year is Buck Creacy from Kentucky. Tickets will be $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

We are in contract talks with Jean Ritchie and Tao Rodriguez Seeger for an October event. More info next month.

Festival

Lori distributed a status report handout giving the details of current plans for the “Testival” at Star lake Camp (available from the Secretary or from Lori.) They are expecting 60-90 attendees. The breakeven point will be at 35 attendees. It should be great fun! Eddie said, “Lori is doing a great job with Testival planning!” There was a round of applause.

GOOD OF THE ORDER

Andy and Barb celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary at Lunaparc, which Andy describes as “postmodern art wacko”. Lots of fun. Jim King has had a poem called “Icons” accepted for publication in the Delaware Valley Poets upcoming anthology. It’s their fifth anthology; he’s had work published in every one. Brad has a Christine De Leon T-shirt based on a picture taken by Ken G. She wants Brad to make more of them. Jim Gartner attended Old Songs and bought a guitar. Connie went to a conference in the Netherlands and took her 18-year-old son with her. The drinking age is lower there, so his German cousin took him out on the town and taught him how to barhop. Allan will be attending a conference in Bologna, Italy, and will visit Florence while he’s there. Elizabeth and Thomas visited relatives in Chicago. Thomas is at Summer Camp in Indiana. She passed out postcards for us to write him letters as an antidote for loneliness. Mark thinks the Todd Martin concert and bar-B-Q was a success.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjoutned at 10:18 PM

Next meeting will be at Mark Schaffer’s house on August 5th.

– Rick