April 2009
MOTIONS MONTH
The board agreed to accept the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Compensation Committee as moved last month, with the wording changed from “the proposal’s claimed benefits to The Folk Project” to “the proposals expected costs and benefits to the Folk Project." This motion passed, twelve in favor, two against, two abstentions.
Sandie Reilly moved that Horses Sing None of It be allowed to spend up to $600 for the purchase of pro-grade DVD copying equipment. This motion passed, 15 in favor, none opposed, two abstentions.
Andy Koenig moved that he be authorized to look into the potential for distribution of Horses Sing programs on Netflix. This motion passed, 16 in favor, 16 for, 1 opposed, 1 abstention.
The board agreed to appoint Mark Schaffer as Publicity Chair, replacing George Otto. This motion passed unanimously.
OPENING CEREMONIES
The meeting was called to order at 8:00 PM at the home of Ed and Robin Roffman, by President Mark Schaffer. We did not have a quorum when we began, but enough folks arrived soon.
Roll Call
Present were Lois De Ritter, Scooter Ferguson, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Brad Pryor and Jim West, Mark Schaffer, Evelyn Maurer, Ed Roffman, Rick Thomas, Mike Agranoff, Carl Croce, Lori Falco, Andy Koenig, Elizabeth Lachowicz, George Otto, Sandie Reilly, Pam Robinson, Pat Rolston, Bob Safranek and Jean Scully, and Judy Bubar (Guest).
Absent were Allan Kugel, Connie Crawford, Rivka Willick, Bobbie Rosengarten and Ruth Wolfish.
Secretary’s Report
The minutes of March were accepted without correction.
Treasurer’s Report
Eddie reminds us all that the Festival income should technically have an offsetting liability until the Festival actually happens and there’s no longer a chance that we will have to refund it. Ed reports that Form 1090 (non-profit tax form) will be filed on time.
Key Dates
The New Jersey Folk Festival, in New Brunswick, is coming April 25th. See Elizabeth if you would like to volunteer to staff the Folk Project desk.
BUSINESS ITEMS
Borderline Concert Series
Mark recapped that the Borderline Folk Music Concert Series is out of our area. He proposed to write a letter explaining this and that we cannot help them. It was moved and passed unanimously to do so.
Ad Hoc Committee on Compensation Policy
Rick reviewed the committee’s report and, after a short discussion, Lori withdrew her proposed amendment from last month. The Committee’s report as moved last month was passed (12 for, 2 against, 2 abstaining) with the amendment of changing the words “the proposal’s claimed benefits to the Folk Project” to “the proposal’s expected costs and benefits to the Folk Project.” Scooter was appointed to form the Fellowships Committee. The text of the amended motion as passed is part of the attachments.
ACMA Grant
Pam reported that it’s time again to write the yearly proposal. She has done it for the last several years and would like to pass the task along to someone else. The duties involve writing the grant proposal, filing the year-end report and monitoring funded activities throughout the year. Pam estimates that this totals 5-10 hours of work per year. So far she’s not found any volunteers to take it on.
Bob reviewed the history of our relationship with ACMA over the years. Originally it was a grant to the Special Concerts Committee, but for the last two years, ACMA recommended that we make the request to fund general operations because they felt it was more likely to be funded. We got $1,500 for 2009. Someone pointed out that $1,500 is fairly close to our yearly profit/loss for recent years.
Ed felt it was important to maintain our relationship with ACMA and offered to do the budget part of the work. Jim King pointed out that “times are tough” and grants this year are likely to be smaller than last year. Mike requests that Pam continue looking, and offers to provide her with some names.
Privacy Policy
George reported that, in response to a question from Ralph about whether we had a privacy policy, he had been discussing the question with the Pro Bono partnership folks. Their recommendation is that we should have one. George had prepared a draft, which is included in the attachments. He asked three questions:
Q1) Is this a description of our current practices?
Q2) Is this what we want our policy to be?
Q3) Is this something we should put on the web?
George felt that the salient points were that a privacy policy must describe accurately how we collect data about people, how we use that data, whether we share it with other organizations, and how to opt-out if you want to. According to Steve (of Pro Bono), the big issue is that our privacy policy should not mislead consumers into doing anything they would not otherwise want to do.
Mark said that he had sent for comment a statement from Nancy Eberhardt (of Pro Bono) to Joe D’Andrea (who has offered to succeed George as Webmaster – see below). Lori noted that Pinewoods and Falconridge do not seem to have a privacy policy on their websites. Brad asked “What data do we collect of a privacy nature?” George answered “for example, housing preferences at Festival.” He pointed out that Tronics (our ISP) does not have a published privacy policy. Elizabeth asked if the Performers Directory would fall under a Folk Project privacy policy if we had one? Andy had a series of questions (which he later provided as email. See the attachments.)
Mike asked: (1) What is privacy information? (2) What are the consequences of not having a privacy policy? (3) What would happen if our privacy policy was “We will, in good conscience, try to keep your private data private, but we can’t guarantee.”? Scooter asked: How many times in the last 15 years that we’ve had a web site have we had a problem that having a privacy policy would have helped? George replied that it’s not really just a question of being sued or not; do we want to come across as being careful and caring of people’s privacy? There was a general expression of hope that we could keep it simple, whatever we did.
In spite of all this discussion, no motions were made. In the end we agreed to discuss it some more via email, and come back to the question next month.
REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES
Sound
Bob reports that moving S’n’T to their new venue will require spending between $200 and $400 to improve the storage space at the new location.
Finance
Andy is waiting til the weekend of Festival to use the market value of the endowment fund on that day for his determination of the amount to apply to Festival’s budget. His email report is part of the attachments.
Festival
Lori notes that the Spring Festival will probably make a profit this time around and the endowment transfer may actually not be necessary. If that is the case, she requests that the money be applied to Fall Festival’s budget instead. She also notes that Star Lake has asked us not to allow camping, and they have raised their rates. Lori’s full report is in the attachments.
Minstrel
Mike reports that attendance was disappointing, but not out-of-line. We should be able to continue the $7 door price. We have purchased an inexpensive computer and Rick will be writing a program for it to help make filling out the tally sheet and keeping track of attendance statistics easier. Mike’s full report is in the attachments.
Staffing
Sandie has a few new volunteers. Even so, a couple of nights recently she’s come close to not having a full staff at show time. She asks that everyone volunteer to help out when they can. Hartmann has taken over the Head Staff duties and is doing well. Mark reports that November 27th, the Friday after Thanksgiving, will be Folk Project Family Day, to celebrate all the great musicians in our extended family.
HSNOI
Ralph reports that the March tapings had to be cancelled due to lousy weather, but the April tapings with Marc Ribler and Danielle Miraglia went well, and lots of great stuff is coming up. In response to a letter from our Fargo outlet that VHS tape would no longer be accepted, Sandie moved and it was passed (15 for, 0 opposed, 2 abstentions) that up to $600 be allocated for the purchase of pro-grade DVD copying equipment. Andy asked for a motion which was passed (16 for, 1 against, 1 abstention) authorizing him to look into making HSNOI shows available on Netflix. Ralph’s full report, including a list of planned future tapings, is in the attachments.
Swingin’ Tern
Connie reports by email (see the attachments) that we have a signed agreement with First Hanover Church of East Hanover to relocate the dance there starting in June (thanks to Margaret Crowl and many others for their support in this effort). Ogden has been notified that we will be moving in June. We have agreed to pay them half the cost to refinish the floor when we leave, $700. At Hanover, we will also do a major campaign to win new dancers, including providing free passes to the church congregation and the Jazzercise classes that take place there during the day.
Special Concerts
The Tommy Sands Family concert on March 11th was a wonderful event. Attendance was not as high as we had hoped, so we lost about $600 on the show. The Spring Workshop series got underway with the Randall Williams guitar workshop. The series looks to break even, more-or-less. Thanks! to Rick & Cathy for hosting the next one with Siobhan Quinn on April 11th. The last workshop will be at Bobbie’s house on May 9th, with Andy Goessling instructing on how to be a better accompanist. We are moving ahead to get John McCutcheon for November 7th. Pam’s full report is in the attachments.
Newsletter
Carl says that they have found a way to use staples at the fold to hold the pages together while still keeping the Post Office happy.
Membership
We send out about 115 electronic newsletters and about 400 of the print version. A few people (about 50) have expressed a clear preference for print.
Web & Publicity
George will be passing the publicity baton off to Mark Schaffer soon. George has done it for 15 years and it’s time for someone else to step up.
Joe D’Andrea will be taking over the technical post of web guru as part of the Publicity Committee. It was moved and passed unanimously that the Board thanks and appreciates George Otto for his 15 years of service and dedication. It was moved and passed unanimously that Mark be appointed Publicity Chair and Webmaster designate to take over those offices at a time to be determined by Mark and George.
Merchandise
The new T-shirts will be here for Festival. We will be selling them at cost. We have ordered a case of the large-print edition of Rise up Singing songbooks, and they will also be available at Festival. They will also be sold at cost. Margaret’s full report is in the attachments.
Internal Affairs
Jean reports that the April Evening of Music will be at Rick & Cathy Thomas’ house following the Quinn workshop. The May EoM will be at Bobbie’s following the Andy Goessling workshop.
Community Affairs
Elizabeth reports that Mark Wolkoff had a heart attack, but is feeling better. He appreciates calls. The NJ Folk Festival at Rutgers is Saturday, April 25th. Volunteers are needed to staff the FP booth.
GOOD OF THE ORDER
The Good of the Order is reported in the May newsletter. Talk to Eddie if you’ve had or know about someone who’s had a significant event in their lives recently.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 10:35 PM.
The next meeting will be on may 5th at Bobbie Rosengarten’s house in Maplewood.
– Rick