April 2010

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:00 PM on April 6^th, at the home of Mark Schaffer

Roll Call

Present were Lois DeRitter, Jim Gartner, Scooter Ferguson, Nancy Kelner, Jim King, Allan Kugel, Evelyn Maurer and Brad Pryor (Trustees); Chris Riemer and Ed Roffman (Officers); Mike Agranoff, Pat Brangs, Carl Croce, Sandie Reilly, Pam Robinson, Bobbie Rosengarten, Bob Safranek, Mark Schaffer and Rick Thomas (Other Board Members).

Absent were Connie Crawford, Lori Falco, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Jean Scully, Rivka Willick and Ruth Wolfish.

Secretary’s Report

The minutes of the March meeting were accepted as amended. Nancy Kelner wanted to clarify the language around expectations for publicity offered by the Morris County Tourism Bureau, and Mike asked that the Minstrel’s attendance figures be included in the minutes proper, rather than just mentioned in an attachment.

Chris noted that this month the wiki has been enhanced by the transfer of our “Key Dates” information -- from a document that’s been passed president-to-president to the Folk Project operations calendar. In the process, he's recognized the need for some revisions, and wanted to discuss same with the board. Of the four recommended deletions, the board wanted to keep one: a reminder related to the annual insurance audit. Chris will make it so.

(Later in the evening, Evelyn asked if there was a way to print the wiki pages in a more condensed form. Chris said that to some degree this is dependent on local printer settings, but he can offer some tech support at a later date.)

Treasurer’s Report

Ed Roffman summarized the state of our finances at the end of Q1, with the news that all major activities are running in the black. We have about $24,000 in the checking account, although about $10,000 of that represents advance payments for the Festival with another $2,300 reserved for our planned donation to Haitian relief. There's another $23,000 in the Money Market account.

The Vanguard account has made a great comeback, and has now risen to over $74,600, which is more than our initial deposit. Tip of the hat to former Finance Chair Andy Koenig for leading us on the path to this investment decision.

Alan wondered if we should improve the accuracy of our monthly Profit & Loss reports by posting the advance payments in a liability account. If we had to cancel the Festival, we’d need to refund the money. Shouldn’t the books make that clear? Eddie didn’t feel it was necessary, given the size of our operation. It’s easier and simpler for him to include this as a footnote to his reports. Speaking as a former Treasurer, Chris agreed. We tried an approach like that many years ago, but it only served to create more work for the Treasurer. It didn’t make us any smarter about the money, and didn’t change the way we made financial decisions.

Finally, Pam asked if Ed could be more consistent in the class names he’s created for Special Concerts – either use the event name or the performer’s name but not a mix of both. He certainly can in the future, and will see if he can change those created in the past.

Key Dates

There are no key dates this period.

BUSINESS ITEMS

ASCAP

Scooter reviewed the situation that's already been reported via email. Basically, ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) has notified the Folk Project that it should be paying royalties for the use of ASCAP material. Having run the numbers, we feel it’s a cost we can absorb. We have no choice, really, but it should come out to less than $500 per year. Pam wondered if we should expect BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) to come knocking on the door as well, and Scooter felt the answer to that was yes.

Pam suggested that Scooter run the ASCAP contract by our friends at the Pro-Bono Partnership before he signs it. She was supported by Bob on this, who felt there was some “squirrely” language that he didn’t fully understand. Scooter believed all venues work with the same standard contract, but Mike said he knew of at least a few that had cut special deals. Scooter will take both recommendations under advisement. He also mentioned that our royalty payments will begin when we sign the contract. They're not retroactive.

Answering Jim King, Scooter explained that we’re not estimating our royalties based on total revenue, but on “ticket” revenue. That’s straightforward for the Minstrel and Special Concerts, which provide the lion’s share of this income. It’s less clear for Swingin’ Tern and Festival, and probably doesn’t apply at all for Storytelling or for workshops that are educational in nature.

In closing, Mike said he’d already adjusted his database to make the necessary calculations. He’s also going to approach Minstrel performers about providing set lists. By submitting them to ASCAP, the performers could earn credits for the public performance of their own tunes.

Job Descriptions

Chris made a brief pitch for the operational advantages offered by real job descriptions, and a show of hands indicated about half the room had taken the time to look at the sample announced via email last week. Despite this apparent lack of interest, there was a reasonably loud “Yes!” to answer the question of whether we should move forward.

Chris will keep working on them. He’ll start with the other jobs he’s done himself (Secretary, President and Trustee) and then begin working with the Committee Chairs to help build out the rest of the structure. No hurry, since we’ve gotten along without them for over 30 years.

The Meeting Calendar

Later in the evening, we again discussed our options for monthly hosting responsibilities. Scooter has not done any additional research on this point, and Rick re-stated his earlier recommendation to try renting the Quaker Meeting Hall in Chatham. He will re-investigate it’s availability, and Carl wondered about the Bethel space in Mount Tabor.

Pam pointed out that while a central facility might be nice, it raises the question of who will show up early to prepare and stay late to clean up. Jim Gartner volunteered to do it at least once. And given that there were no other volunteer hosts for next month, Pam and Bob agreed to have the meeting at their place again in May.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Minstrel

Mike summarized some of the points made in his email report. Our average attendance for regular shows for March was 129, or 100 if you include Open Stage. Over the past 12 months it was 95.3. We had a net profit of $415 for the month and $1,816 YTD.

Craig Bickert Bickhardt had such a nice time playing for us that he kicked back some of his income as a donation (which we converted to a two-year membership). And this will be the first year in some time that the Birthday Party won’t be in conflict with Falcon Ridge.

Ed has noticed that the Open Stage numbers seem to be trending upward. Any ideas on that? Mike thinks they go up and down and isn’t sure there’s an overall upward trend. As Open Stage MC, Scooter isn’t sure either, but he’s having a lot of fun.

(Later in the evening, Mark mentioned that the Minstrel is now offering second-time free passes in exchange for an email address. It has dramatically increased the address collection activity, so it’s worked out very well. These addresses are now “owned” by the Minstrel-Gram mailing only, but he thinks they will ultimately benefit the entire organization.)

Membership

As explained in Rick's email report, Cathy Thomas has finished the redesign of the Membership database screens, and routine input is now much more efficient. It’s more of a “turnkey” solution now, and transitioning to a new chair should be easier.

Rick would still like to move away from MS Access in favor of a Web-based approach, but understands that some kind of database may be part of the general infrastructure overhaul that’s currently focused on a new and improved version of folkproject.org.

Newsletter

Carl summarized the numbers from his email report. Rick asked if Carl had ever looked into having addresses printed directly on the newsletters to eliminate the need for labels. He has not, in the interest of cost, but he will.

Alternatively, has he considered buying an inexpensive laser printer so that Rick could send him address labels in electronic format? The answer there is also no, but the board generally agreed that such an improvement would be worth a few hundred dollars.

Publicity

Mark and Webmaster Joe D’Andrea are now meeting every other week to work on the site, and are making real progress. This weekend, they set up content management forms and a background database that should make it easier for content owners to get their information onto the pages. It’s not cosmetically where it should be, but the machinery is working. Pam asked that Mark include some of the “more savvy” members of the board in a beta testing phase, with both Mac and PC machines, as well as multiple browsers; he confirmed this is already part of the plan.

On the non-Web front, the other committee members are sending out flyers and updating Web calendars and so forth. Mark was particularly complimentary of the hard work done by all concerned, but especially by Nancy Kelner.

There was some extended discussion about the retention of old newspapers discovered in a trunk at the Minstrel by Pam Robinson. They contain articles about the Folk Project, but it’s not clear what we should (or could) do with them. They’re not records of the Folk Project, so Rutgers wouldn’t want them in our archive. We have no physical location in which to store or display them. Chris recalled the days when Margy Capecelatro kept scrapbooks at the Minstrel, which caused a similar problem – fun to look at but hard to store. The papers seemed destined for recycling, until Evelyn Maurer offered to give them a home for the time being.

Closing out this section, Pam updated the group on the status of our Facebook page and the interesting demographics of our current Fan base. Jim King suggested that Pam write a Facebook article for the newsletter.

Merchandising

Bobbie confirmed that we will have T-shirts at the Festival: a new batch of the old design. A new design is in the works hasn't heard from Margaret, and has no information on T-shirt status.

Internal Affairs

Scooter read an email report from the absent Jean Scully. He also recommended that since a plug for the new 4^th Saturday Evening of Music was inadvertently omitted from the newsletter, we send an email blast to the current list. He’ll write the copy and Mike will send the message.

Pam suggested that we move the Evening of Music location announcement from its traditional position on the front page of the newsletter. Her thought was that it would encourage more people to open the newsletter, but this idea found no support.

Community Affairs

Pat apologized for mistakenly sending a note without using a BCC field, and admitted that she’d gotten some complaints. It won’t happen again. Condolences this month went to Kris Lamb (for the death of her father) and Henr3y Nerenberg (for the death of his mother).

Otherwise Community Affairs has been busy, as described in her email report. In her role as “matchmaker” she’s fielded requests and gotten gigs for a half dozen or so performers, at a YMCA YMHA in Union and at an Audubon Society event in Bernardsville. There was some talk of a banner to help identify our literature table, and Evelyn offered a few tips from her many years running our table at the New Jersey Folk Festival. Carl’s daughter is working on a banner design for Wayne Day, so we may have a real banner shortly. By way of general procedure, Mike suggest that if Community Affairs anticipates a need for extra flyers, Pat should let the board know at least a month in advance.

Speaking of Wayne Day, we’re planning to take a double booth, and Pat has eight performers lined up. They’re volunteers right now, but understand there may be some remuneration. There was further discussion here, about the possibilities of an Open Stage that would try to draw performers from the local middle and high schools, a round robin in the booth, a storytelling slot and even a dance demo. The latter will probably not go forward. “Don’t bite off more than you can chew,” said Eddie. “Save it for next year,” said Bob. Evelyn added that if the booth is a place where you want to meet, greet and pitch the organization, you don’t want too many distractions or too much noise. It might be better to keep the performers on the stage.

Sound Reinforcement

“We have sound,” said Bob.

Minstrel Staffing

Sandie is introducing the idea of “flextime” for Minstrel volunteers. She appreciates that some people can’t give her the whole evening, but might be willing to help out for an hour at the beginning or end of the night. She’ll accept these smaller bits of help, but they will not qualify for a free admission.

Pam Robinson repeated an earlier request for “cheat sheets” for the Minstrel volunteers. She’s not willing to work in the kitchen until something is available explaining where things are stored, what gets plugged into what and when and how everything is put away. In fact, she’s learned that at the last show, our coffee pots were left on the counter, where they were used all week by the AA group that meets there each morning.

Horses Sing

Sandie summarized an email report from Ralph. We’re now on the air in Brooklyn, and are also streamed twice a week on the Web by BRIC Arts Media. Jim King would like to see that information added to the website, the Facebook page and featured in the newsletter.

Swingin’ Tern

Pam read a telephone report submitted earlier in the evening by Connie Crawford, who’s up in New Hampshire visiting colleges. Attendance was down slightly in March, for reasons that are unclear, but which might have been weather-related. The Rock & Reel event also had a lower-than-expected attendance, although it was great fun. Thanks to Mark Schaffer and all the Folk Project folks who made it work.

Mark agreed that the Rock & Reel was artistically very successful, even if the attendance was low. Special thanks to Donna Hunt for helping match dances to tunes and advising the band on making adjustments based on the crowd.

Special Concerts

Pam briefly summarized her email report. Before we moved on, Jim King wanted to make special note of what may be an unprecedented bit of Folk Project history. In a period of six calendar weeks, Pam produced not one, not two, but four events, two of which occurred within a window of only 48 hours. Every one of these events was a success, and he felt the board should recognize such an impressive performance. (Much applause ensued.)

Festival

In Lori’s absence, Scooter read from her email report. Things are going well enough, but Lori has let us know that after October 2010, she intends to step down as chair. Scooter feels that the committee is now working very well, with very good chemistry, and thinks we need to start looking for a replacement immediately. Ideally, we’d have someone on board by summer, to serve a kind of apprentice period while Lori is still at the helm.

Fellowship

No report.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:38. Next month’s meeting will be at Pam Robinson and Bob Safranek’s, in New Providence.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Riemer

Secretary