December 2009

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:04 PM on December at the Chimney Rock Inn by President Mark Schaffer.

Roll Call

Present were Lois De Ritter, Scooter Ferguson, Jim Gartner, Allan Kugel and Brad Pryor (Trustees), Evelyn Maurer, Ed Roffman, Rick Thomas, Mike Agranoff, Lori Falco, Andy Koenig, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Sandie Reilly, Pam Robinson, Pat Rolston, Bobbie Rosengarten and Bob Safranek (Other Board Members) and Judy Bubar, Margaret Crowl, Bill Henderson, Mark Lavanda, Alison Mazie, Barbara Moo, Greg More, George Otto and Cathy Thomas (Guests).

Absent were Jim King, Jim West, Ruth Wolfish, Connie Crawford, Carl Croce, Jean Scully and Rivka Willick.

Presidential Address

Mark welcomed the assembled multitudes. He reminded us that we run almost 100 events a year and have more-or-less covered our expenses each year for over 30 years – a pretty impressive management record for an all-volunteer organization! The backbone of the Folk Project is our Committee Chairs. Thanks to all of you! And Thanks! to everyone for tolerating him as our President for two years.

Secretary’s Report

The minutes of November were accepted by acclamation.

Treasurer’s Report

Eddie reported that we are about $8,000 ahead for the year. In this recessed economy, that’s fantastic! “Keep on doin’ what you do!” The money is just the smallest trace of the effort that it represents. Thanks! to everyone.

Andy felt that, after a year of experience with the job, there was not enough work for the Finance Committee to justify its continued existence as a separate Board Committee. He requested that the duties of the Finance Committee be folded into the Treasurer’s Office. There was general agreement, and applause for Andy for a job well done! (This recommendation is already reflected in the Nomination Committee’s report.)

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Web & Publicity

Mark is learning to do some of the technical stuff. He’s got expert help from Cathy Thomas, Barb Moo, and others. The target date for cutover to the new web site is still December 31, 2009, but it’s running late.

George Otto was presented with the “Folkie” award of a bottle of single-malt in commemoration of his retirement from the Board after 15 years volunteering as our Publicity and Web-site Chair.

Pam handed out some of the newly reprinted Folk Project business cards that list our various activities and the Website.

Newsletter

Carl reports that he was able to negotiate a deal with the printer that will result in a significant savings in the monthly cost of printing the Newsletter.

Minstrel

Mike reports that our attendance is holding steady and we are still managing to show a small profit, even though we have seen a rise in our rent this year. No admission price increase is planned for the foreseeable future.

Relations with the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship remain excellent. Good evidence of that was that MUF agreed to change the date of their tag sale, which would have preempted one of our shows, to coincide with our Festival when we are already closed.

Minstrel Volunteers

Sandie says that Amy’s help this year has been invaluable! She still needs volunteers. They have a new plan to make it easier to volunteer and easier for the Head Staff people to run the shows.

Finance

Andy handed out copies of the year-end report from the Vanguard account. He reminds us that markets are volatile and may change. Mark thanked him for doing a job that few others could have done as well.

Pam noted that the ACMA grant requires one or more person from the Folk Project to attend an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) sensitivity training session. She and Alison will attend.

Special Concerts

Pam reported that, since it was re-formed under her leadership in 2007, the Special Concerts committee has managed to continue to break even financially.

Upcoming in 2010: Tern Swings! on January 30; Michael Manring on February 4.

The committee is working on setting up a new workshop series for the spring and has plans for some other great events as well.

Membership

Pat gave a brief Membership update. The number of current member households (383) and individual members (about 520) are similar to the figures reported at the Annual Meetings of the last two years, although new members continue to lag behind expirations. We have 33 complimentary memberships, and this year we added our first corporate member.

It should be noted that a number of non-renewals are temporary and folks rejoin at a future date. The Minstrel and Festival play an increasingly important role in attracting new members. Supporting memberships have increased somewhat, an encouraging sign in these difficult times. Nearly 35% of member households now receive their newsletters electronically.

Pat pointed out that when people sign up for the e-newsletter on the membership forms, they are not told how to make that actually happen. We need a procedure to close that loop. Perhaps we should send an email to people who have marked the “e-newsletter” box to remind them that they need to sign up online, and tell them how to do that.

Scooter suggested that everyone should carry a few Folk Project business cards (see Pam if you need some) to hand out to people who might be interested in participating in what we do.

The bottom line on all of this is that it’s not just numbers – it’s participation and how active our members are. We have some people who do a lot and a lot of people who do some.

Merchandise

Margaret reported that this year we got new T-shirts, which made their debut at the Spring Festival. We still have a good number in stock although we are out of some sizes. We also got new mugs, also a hot seller. We also still have Folk Project bumper stickers. We are sold out of "Rise Up Singing" so she will order another case.

Elizabeth suggested that we should organize a committee of “lug nuts” to help lug our merchandise inventory around to our various venues.

Internal Affairs

Mark reports for the absent Jean that we had fun this year; we'll have fun next year. We need a January evening of music. Valentine's Day made lots of money.

Festival

Lori reports that we held two festivals in 2009. Both were well attended, with attendance over 190 in both cases. Financially, the spring festival turned a profit and the fall festival broke even. The festival is now well established at the Star Lake camp, where we moved in 2008, and appears to be financially secure.

Our main goal for 2010 is to attract more dancers to the festival. We hope to accomplish this by creating a special dance ticket that will allow dancers to come to the festival on Saturday to participate in an afternoon dance, dinner, the concert and an evening dance. We are currently working with the Swingin’ Tern committee to iron out the specifics.

In 2009 we made great strides in adding programming for children and families and we will continue to enhance this program in 2010.

Community Affairs

Elizabeth reports that we will not have a table at the next NJ Folk Festival at Rutgers. It’s just not worth the effort it takes for the minimal amount of interest it generates.

Swingin’ Tern

Connie reports by email that the Harvest Hoot was a great dance - many thanks to Mark and the FP musicians. We had an enthusiastic contingent of dancers through to the end of the dance at midnight. The November 7 dance had low attendance due to competition from the World Series. (Who knew dancers like baseball?)

Upcoming events are the New Years Eve dance, the January 2 Anniversary dance and Tern Swings on January 30. The NYE dance has a wonderful caller from New Hampshire, Nils Fredland. The church agreed that the NYE decorations can go up on December 30 and stay up for the Anniversary dance.

Sound

Bob reports that the sound equipment survived the move of S’n’T to East Hanover. The sound environment there is much better than in Chatham. This year all of the FP microphone stands were refurbished. We also acquired a Speaker Processor for use at Festival. It has made for a noticeable improvement in the sound quality in the concert hall.

In 2010, Bob will be spending some money on maintenance items such as new microphones and some cable repairs. There will be a sound workshop on January 24th from 2-5 PM.

Fellowships

Scooter reports that Jim Gartner will take the place of Jim West who will be retiring from the Board, and hence from the Committee.

HSNOI

Ralph reports that Comcast Cablevision of NWNJ will no longer carry the show unless we can find a non-profit in the cablecast region to "sponsor" it. Apparently, Comcast bought the company some time ago and they are now enforcing their policy of charging out-of-region non-profits (as well as individuals & businesses) for airtime. This is the same policy that cut in half the number of towns getting the cablecast through Comcast (Somerville, NJ).

On the upside, Al Podber (Furry Bros.) has enthusiastically agreed to submit HSNOI for public access cablecast on Brooklyn Community Access Television (BCAT), possibly starting in early 2010.

Storytelling

Rivka would like to step down as Storytelling Committee Chair; she is looking for someone to take over. Carol Titus is helping her in the search. Ed reported that Grounds For Sculpture is happy with their relationship with the Storytelling Festival and has sent us a $2,000 check. This will be distributed to the tellers/performers who made it happen.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Nominations Committee Report & Elections

Jim West is retiring from the Board -- he was a founding member of the Folk Project. His place as Trustee will be taken by Alison Mazie, who brings knowledge of grants and publicity. Farewell, Jim! Hello, Alison!

The Nominations Committee’s slate of Trustees was elected by acclamation of all members present. The Committee’s proposed slate of Officers for 2010 was elected by acclamation of the new trustees. Two changes to Committee Chairships were then approved by a vote of the new Board.

GOOD OF THE ORDER

Good of the Order is reported in the newsletter. Talk to Eddie if you’ve had or know about someone who’s had a significant event in their lives recently.

ADJOURNMENT

Mark said “I’ve been so proud to be President for the last two years!” then passed the gavel to Scooter for the…

The meeting adjourned at 9:40 PM. The January meeting will on January 5th at Ruth’s house in Bedminster.

– Rick