September 2009

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:07 PM on September 1 at the home of Rick and Cathy Thomas, by President Mark Schaffer.

Roll Call

Present were Lois De Ritter, Scooter Ferguson, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Allan Kugel, Brad Pryor, Jim West and Ruth Wolfish (Trustees), Mark Schaffer, Evelyn Maurer, Ed Roffman, Rick Thomas, Mike Agranoff, Connie Crawford, Lori Falco, Andy Koenig, Sandie Reilly, Pam Robinson, Pat Rolston, Bobbie Rosengarten, Bob Safranek and Jean Scully, and Judy Bubar, Matt Reilly and Cathy Thomas (Guests)

Absent were Carl Croce, Elizabeth Lachowicz and Rivka Willick.

Presidential Remarks

Thanks! to everyone who came out for the Breast Cancer fundraiser on Sunday! We are a family and we all love each other, even though we may have disagreements. That’s the normal process when people get close. In the end we have a very strong organization.

Secretary’s Report

The minutes of August were accepted with a correction to clarify Mike’s comments on Workers Comp Insurance. The full corrected minutes are available, as always, from the Secretary.

Treasurer’s Report

Eddie says that all departments are in good financial shape. There have been some amazing turn-arounds this year. It’s a wonderful time for the Folk Project. When you look at the reports, remember that Festival registration receipts have not been balanced by Festival expenses. That happens later – after Festival is over and the bills are paid.

Key Dates

Nominations Committee and scheduling the Annual Meeting location will happen in October. Remember that the next meeting will be on October 13th, not the 6th.

BUSINESS ITEM

Worker’s Comp

Mark has not yet constructed the letter to the lawyers asking about this. The issue was tabled without further discussion until next month.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Fellowships Committee

Scooter reports that there have been no requests for Folk Project Fellowships yet. He expects to have more to report next month.

Swingin’ Tern

Connie reports that the issue with the town has not yet been settled. The Church is handling it. There is a hearing set for September 3rd. Representatives of the Church including Folk Project member, Margaret Crowl, will attend the hearing. Mark says that our strategy will be to sit in the back and observe, as this is a Church zoning issue, not a Folk Project issue. We will be there to answer factual questions if any come up.

The issue is whether the Church needs a zoning variance and other permits, including a fire permit, to cover our use of the hall. The Church’s position is that our use is not different from any other use of the hall, such as weddings or Boy Scouts meetings, so no special permits should be required.

Scooter asks if any of the town council folks have taken us up on our invitation to come to the dance? Connie says not as far as she knows.

Connie reports that Gloria Friedman has arranged a Facebook page for people to request rides to the dance if they come by train out from New York City. Someone asked if the new hall had air-conditioning. The answer is no, but there are fans.

Membership

Pat gave a brief Membership update. The number of current member households and individual members is similar to the figures reported at the Annual Meetings of the last two years, although new members continue to lag behind expirations. 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. Our family memberships are mostly two people. We are not getting many new families with children. We are reaching out to people whose memberships have expired – often with personal notes from Pat.

Ruth asked if we could offer a discount for membership if the newsletter was delivered electronically. Mark said that would be a topic for discussion after the web site revision was completed.

Web & Publicity

Mark reports that the website reconstruction is happening “as we speak”. It will not be necessary to bring it down for construction, so it’s safe to recommend that people go to www.folkproject.org for information on the organization. Andy asked to be included in discussions of membership, web stuff and the e-newsletter.

If you are familiar with “WordPress” (a tool for designing web sites), please contact Mark. Evelyn asks if we could hire someone to help? Mark says that this is a lot more expensive than it would seem, so that is not an option. Additionally, we are an all-volunteer activity and we want to keep it that way. Hiring someone for this would be a bad precedent.

Mark has been in touch with Alice, Nancy, and Deb about publicity distribution. Jim King will be writing a press release for one Minstrel act per month that will be sent out to news venues in hopes of raising their level of consciousness about us. Mike asks to see the press releases for his own information.

Newsletter

Carl says that he appreciates the hard work, co-operation and teamwork that we have all put forth for the good of our Folk Project. With very special appreciation for Liz for all her hard work and dedication. We mailed out 299 newsletters this month, 6 more than last month, but still 11 less than the previous month. Hopefully this is due to an increase in E-Newsletter participation and not due to a decrease in overall membership.

Patsy feels that it is not helpful to look as membership numbers and Newsletter subscriptions on a month-to-month basis, because the random variation will obscure any long-term trends.

Merchandise

Brad asks whether some T-shirts could be stored at Minstrel so we could have them for display and sale on a regular basis.

Sound

Bob reports that we’re getting a “speaker processor” to solve the muddy sound problem at Festival. This may help with the equalization problems at Minstrel as well.

Community Affairs

Elizabeth reports lots of sad news this month – several of our members have experienced losses recently: John Vadnais' sister died recently in a motorcycle crash. Jan Viehman's sister died. Yolanda's mom passed away. Hartman's aunt passed away. Ann Bies' mom passed away.

Finance

Andy reminds us that the recent good showing will not continue forever.

Minstrel

Mike reports a month with two poorly attended shows and one well attended one left us with a small profit for the month. We continue to be in the black YTD. He’s expecting a better month in September with the Kennedys scheduled for the 18th and Tracy Grammer for the 25th.

Staffing

Sandie reports that Amy is a huge help in handling the email part of volunteer scheduling. Alice Weimer is training to be a new Head Staff person. Sandie is planning to retire as Volunteer Coordinator at the end of 2009. Nobody has stepped up to take her place just yet. Mike says that Amy is willing to continue to help out as currently, but does not want to take over the Coordinator’s job.

HSNOI

Sandie would like to continue as co-chair of Horses. Ralph reports that the Cablevision studio was not switched over to digital tape for August as we were led to believe it would be, but we were prepared with both tape formats on hand. We taped one great show on SVHS with Clarence Bucaro in August. Alice ranked it in her "top 5". A question was raised about getting HSNOI on the Internet. Sandie replied that some artists have put clips of their HSNOI shows on Youtube.

Andy noted that Netflix has a one-hour minimum for anything they distribute, so we would have to edit a “Best of Horses Sing None of It!” series with several episodes on one DVD to qualify. Mark says that he and Ralph are planning on doing just that. He would like to use these as premiums with memberships to encourage donations.

Internal Affairs

Jean reports that the September EoM will be at Marie Trontell’s house. There will be no EoM in October (See y’all at Festival!) and she’s starting to book next year, so give her a call if you want to have a party!

Special Concerts

Pam reports that things are moving ahead for the John McCutcheon concert on Sat., Nov. 7th. Tickets are now available and on sale both at The Minstrel and online or via check. Progress is being made in connection with Tern Swings! scheduled for Sat., Jan 30, 2010. Publicity is in the works both internally at the Folk Project and via the New Jersey Jazz Society.

Andy is exploring doing something (what kind of something is not yet decided. It could be a house-concert; it could be something else) with bassist and composer, Michael Manring. His web site is “manthing.com”. Jim King suggest that if you listen to his Youtube video, be sure that you have time to listen to it all the way thru. He says that it grows on you as you listen.

Festival

Lori notes that sales for Fall are going briskly. Ruth Wolfish is in the process of purchasing First Aid kits for us, since there is no First Aid equipment available at the camp. We have booked the third weekend in May for the Spring 2010 Festival. This is in conflict with the regularly scheduled Swingin' Tern Dance. Unfortunately, Swingin' Tern had booked the Dead Sea Squirrels as the band for the May 15, 2010 dance.

As of the Board meeting, Swingin' Tern had agreed to cancel their dance and the Festival Committee is planning to book the Dead Sea Squirrels for the Festival instead. Jim King noted that Festival needs the S’n’T sound system for their dances, so if S’n’T were to schedule a dance at the same time as Festival, we would be in a bind.

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

The meeting adjourned at 9:44 PM. The next meeting will be on October 13th, (not the 6th) at Ruth Wolfish’s house in Bedminster.

– Rick