May 2008

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

The board agreed to an amended motion clarifying the calculation by which the Agranoff Endowment would provide a regular subsidy to the Festival. The motion passed 13 for, 3 opposed, 1 abstention.

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:05 PM on May 13^th at the home of Rick and Cathy Thomas, by President Mark Schaffer

Roll Call

Present were Lois De Ritter, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Ed Roffman, Mark Schaffer, Ruth Wolfis (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Connie Crawford, Lori Falco, Andy Koenig, Evelyn Maurer, George Otto, Tom Pylant, Sandie Reilly, Chris Riemer, Pam Robinson, Bob Safranek and Rick Thomas (Other Board Members and Allan Kugel and Leslie Brown (Guests)

Absent were Scooter Ferguson, Bobbie Rosengarten, Jim West, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Brad Pryor, Pat Rolston, Jean Scully, Rivka Willick and Ken Galipeau

President’s Remarks

Mark noted that by breaking three decades of precedent in its performers budget and advertising, the Festival Committee attracted many first timers to our Festival. Other venues may want to examine which of their long-held tenets are holding back progress. He suggested that next year, when setting the schedule for Board meetings, we reconsider the issue of whether or not to move meetings away from the traditional first Tuesday dates. This year, we decided to move the meeting dates to avoid conflicts with Election Day and Festival. This has turned out to be sub-optimal in a number of ways.

Treasurer’s Report

Chris may file for an extension but will have the taxes in by next month, for sure. The new Vanguard account has been opened. Not all the Festival data are in yet, but it looks like they may break even (or better) this time.

BUSINESS ITEMS

MUUF Pete Seeger Movie Event

The MUUF (our landlord for the Minstrel) invited us to co-sponsor a political organizing event featuring a film about the life of Pete Seeger. We replied that we have a long-standing tradition of not getting involved as an organization in political activities, but as individuals many of our members would be happy to help out. In accordance with the existing agreement with the MUUF, we will permit them to use our sound equipment. Mike will be on hand to run the soundboard.

Pinewoods

They have invited us to co-sponsor their event. Mike is looking into it.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Finance Committee

Andy presented a long technical motion (copies of which are on file with the Secretary) the intent of which was to clarify the calculation of the amount of the subsidy given to Festival from the endowment fund. A friendly amendment was proposed and accepted to change the words “target loss” to “its addition to the Festival Performer budget. An alternative that was discussed, but not voted on, was to allocate a fixed amount that could be adjusted as needed by future Boards.

One member objected to the concept that the endowment fund was “owned” by the Festival Committee. He felt that it should be available for the good of the Folk Project generally. Another member asked how we could leverage this to grow the Folk Project.

By this time, the discussion had far exceeded the amount of time originally allocated to it in the President’s Agenda, but it was allowed to continue because, as one member put it, there was sentiment to revisit last month’s decision regarding how to use the endowment — bigger issues were being touched on that should be discussed, including the possibility of having a more formal budgeting process.

The amended motion passed (13 for, 3 opposed, 1 abstention).

Minstrel Booking

The Birthday show will be on July 25th, coincidentally, the actual date of the Minstrel’s birth. Ruth suggested that we invite the young folks who participated in the “Under 21” event at Festival to participate in the Birthday show, with an eye to encouraging them to continue participating in the Folk Project. Note to anyone involved in event publicity: The Red Molly show greatly benefited from a front-page article abut it in the free newspaper, Morristown Green.

Swingin’ Tern

They have some new volunteers. The church is raising their rent. Chris reminds us all that he, as Treasurer, should be informed of the relevant details (amounts and dates) whenever rents or fees change.

HSNOI

Sandie did a great job hosting on 4/29. (Ralph wasn't feeling well.) On Tues eve 5/6 Ralph went to the Cablevision studio and edited to correct a technical glitch in Show #434 (Ilusha Tsinadze) and a copyright problem with Show #435 (Audrey Auld Mezera). Both edits were successful. Eddie noted that he watches their show every week. It’s always a fantastic show.

Special Concerts

Lots of great stuff coming up. Keep your eye on the newsletter and the website for details. Mark noted that the Quinn workshop was great. He noted remarkable improvements in a very short time in the singing of many of the participants.

Festival

It was a great festival, and a great “good-by” to Fairview. It may even have made a bit of money! Thanks to Jim King and Bill Cox for a superb publicity effort. The Open Stage for performers under 21 was a great idea. Cheryl Wheeler had to cancel, but we were able to get Christine Lavin to take her place. Christine was great!

Newsletter

Tom and Eddie have an electronic version of the FP Newsletter just about ready to go. Chris has experience with electronic newsletter distribution and offered to help. Tom noted the need to “close the loop” with other organization’s newsletters, so that we get our announcements published in theirs, just as we publish theirs. Volunteers are needed to help with this. If interested, you should contact Tom.

Publicity

If you took photos at the Festival, please send them to George. The video that Bill Henderson took of Christine Lavin’s song dedicated to Elizabeth Edwards will be posted to Youtube. When he moves the Spring 2008 Festival web page to the archives, George will modify it to give more credit to Christine Lavin as the substitute headliner.

The Morristown Green free newspaper is a great publicity outlet. George noted that there are two levels of publicity outreach. The first is our traditional flyer distributions. These are handled well by the volunteers who do that, but they are only the beginning of the process. The second (this includes such things as the front-page article we got in the Morristown Green for the Minstrel’s Red Molly show) includes things like contacting and providing material to the news media. George feels that this should be done by the individual venue committees, but he asks that they keep him in the loop so that he can provide follow-up as necessary.

Sound

Bob has purchased new monitors for S’n’T. He used them at Festival. They need to get a new gig-bag for the piano. The dance band at Festival told Pam that they liked the new monitors.

GOOD OF THE ORDER

George has a new job doing modern web design, so now is a good time to make suggestions about the FP website. The TrapRock Brewery has named a beer after him, “Dr Otto’s Rye.” Alan is going to Kyoto. Sandie completed her “century” (100-mile bike ride) and feels great about it! Lori thanks us for our condolences on the death of her father. Lois recommends visiting “Grounds for Sculpture” (home of the NJ Storytelling Festival). It’s a “peaceful, beautiful, beautiful place!” Instead of attending Festival, Andy and Barb went to Longwood Gardens. They liked it a lot. Mark, Robin, Ray & Ruth Schaffer went to Florida for Aunt Leah's 100th birthday party. Robin's daughter Skylar sang on Mother's Day at Carnegie Hall. And, yes, she did practice.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 10:15 PM.

Next meeting will be at the home of Bobbie Rosengarten, in Maplewood.

– Rick