August 2010

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:03 at the home of Chris Riemer, with the air conditioning set as high as environmentally defensible.

Roll Call

Present were Lois DeRitter, Scooter Ferguson, Nancy Kelner, Jim King, Jim Gartner, Evelyn Maurer, Brad Pryor and Ruth Wolfish (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Pat Brangs, Carl Croce, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Chris Riemer, Pam Robinson, Bobbie Rosengarten, Bob Safranek, Jean Scully and Rick Thomas (Other Board Members) and Joanne Cronin (Guest). Absent were Connie Crawford, Lori Falco, Alan Kugel, Sandie Reilly, Ed Roffman, Mark Schaffer and Rivka Willick.

Secretary’s Report

Chris had several minor corrections last month. He neglected to report Connie as present, neglected to report Brad as absent and identified Connie’s daughter as Cody Crawford, rather than Cody Chase. The New York City dance venue mentioned by Connie is CDNY, not the Country Dance & Song Society. Chris also expanded on a point made in Swingin’ Tern’s outreach report, at Connie’s request. (All changes are indicated by the red and grey text in the minutes themselves.)

Chris did not make a change suggested by Bobbie, because it was contrary to his understanding of her role as Merchandising representative. Bobbie felt the minutes should reflect that Margaret Crowl is really responsible for reporting, and Bobbie is only a conduit. However, the board agreed that if no report comes in from Margaret on its own, Bobbie should go after it. She will remember this in the future.

The minutes were accepted as amended.

Treasurer’s Report

Scooter briefly reviewed the numbers in the email report sent by Ed Roffman before his departure for Ireland.

BUSINESS ITEMS

Folk Project Apologies Redux

Speaking in her role as co-chair of a special presidential commission created last June, Evelyn Maurer asked the board to convene a committee of the whole. Upon adjournment of that committee, the board agreed that further fact-finding was appropriate and set the October meeting as the deadline for the commission to submit its final recommendations.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Publicity/Web

On the non-Web front, Nancy reported that everything was “percolating” along. She’s learned that some outlets, such as New Jersey Skylands, would like some quid-pro-quo. That is, if they’re including us in their calendar pages, they’d like an outbound link from folkproject.org. No one had an objection to that, since it seemed fair. Chris recalled that the site’s outbound links were generally left up to George Otto’s judgment. At least once he declined such a request, because it was a commercial enterprise.

On the Web front, Scooter suggested that people review the email report Mark sent last week, from somewhere in the Emerald Isle.

Membership

Rick took a few minutes to review his current procedure for generating mailing labels. Since he now transmits the label images to Carl electronically, he’s saving a few days of transit time. That means he can make a second pass through the database mid-month, so any new or newly-renewed members can be added to a second batch of electronic labels. That way, they’ll get their first newsletter as soon as possible.

Newsletter

Carl Croce apologized for getting things into the post a bit late this month, and thanked Joanne Cronin for her help with the task of collating. He then recapped the key points from his email report, submitted earlier.

Carl also had a box of Free Pass cards for the Minstrel, and per an earlier discussion, Scooter asked all the Directors to take a few to hand out to potentially interested parties. Pam suggested that when doing so, people endorse them with their name, BOD (for Board of Directors) and the date issued.

Minstrel Booking

Mike summarized the information included in his email report. Average attendance of 85.3 for regular shows was a little low, but no disaster. Average over the past 12 months was 90.6, and there was an uexpectedly good turnout for Straight Drive. He added that some repairs have been completed on the sound equipment and the Minstrel has also gotten a replacement set of headphones. Upcoming shows of note include Cliff Eberhardt, Red Hand Hen and The Geezer and the Kid (which is actually Mike himself with Connor Dugan).

Mike was disappointed in the 2010 Birthday Show, citing a decline in both the quality and the quantity of the performers, as well as the size of the audience. Fewer groups, and a fall-off in the participation of our “top tier” performers. He’s not sure what to do about it, but it’s been happening slowly for some time. However, he also thinks asking the audience to help strike the food was a great idea (Thanks Sandie!), with many hands making much lighter work for the kitchen crew. Jim King, Rick Thomas and Bob Safranek also strongly endorsed this process change. Bob said his first real entrée as a volunteer was stacking the chairs after the show. Chris and Jean Scully had the same experience.

There was then an extended discussion of what Jean called the “cool kids problem.” It’s not just an issue for the Birthday Party, it’s also a problem for Evenings of Music. Jean has observed a troubling segregation effect, in which the best players go off to the basement for their own circle, and leave the newbies behind. Mike admitted that he no longer goes to every Evening of Music, because they’re just not as much fun as they used to be. If the talent level is low, and he has to wait 45 minutes to hear “something that pleases,” he’d rather spend the evening elsewhere. Carl and Lois DeRitter said they miss Mike at the EOMs, and hope he'll find a way to come back. Evelyn was also happy to hear this issue discussed, since she and Lois raised it as a concern several years ago.

Jim King mentioned that at the Fourth of July Picnic, he heard some of the more experienced musicians complain about the traditional Birthday Party draw. They felt the Birthday concert was being taken over by rank amateurs who “came out of the woodwork” for this once-a-year shot at the stage. Chris recalled that in the first few years, Mike selected the players who would go in the hat, just like he’d book any other show. It wasn’t open to everyone. Mike confirmed that, but felt a return to such a policy might solve one problem only to create another.

Rick suggested that the Open Stage might have a role to play. Perhaps we could solicit some of our upper-tier performers to serve as a kind of floating back-up band at open stages. That would spread the Birthday Party experience of playing-with-others-on-stage around the year a bit. Bob added that Falcon Ridge does something like that, and thought it was an interesting idea.

There was no conclusion to this discussion, but there was a general agreement that it’s something we need to work on. The best performers need to appreciate that they have an organizational role to play in nurturing new talent. But we can only expect their cooperation up to a point.

Minstrel Staffing

No report from the absent Sandie Reilly.

Horses Sing

No report given the absence of Sandie, but Ralph’s email report was circulated earlier. Chris also asked Rick to pass around his copy of the Best of the Blues DVD, so that everyone could appreciate the cool packaging designed by his business partner, Pam Coulter Enright. (“Why that looks just like one o’ them fancy store-bought DVDs!” said Scooter.)

Swingin’ Tern

In an email report submitted earlier, Connie reported that she had nothing to report.

Special Concerts

In an email report submitted earlier, Pam said “hi.” She expanded on that to note that the Folk Project’s Facebook page now has 285 fans, and had 601 visits in the most recent reporting week. Somewhat ruefully, Mike conceded that he might have to join the damn thing himself.

Festival

No report from the absent Lori Falco.

Merchandising

Bobbie reported that having seen something on the Web site about the Best of the Blues DVD, Margaret wanted the board to understand that she has no intention of taking on any kind of merchandising activity that would require her to pack and ship the goods. Mike wondered if she might feel differently if someone else handled the fulfillment. Bobbie will inquire.

Internal Affairs

We had a “lovely” Evening of Music last month at Pamela Dabah’s, in Morristown, and Jean thanked Sandie Reilly for making the referral. August will be at Margaret Crowl’s and September is set for Pagan-Kleiner World Headquarters. November and December have not yet been booked. Also note that contrary to the report in the newsletter, there’s no pool at Margaret’s new digs.

Jean admitted to buying too much food for the Fourth of July party, and was unable to use it up at the EOM (as is sometimes possible) because Ms. Dabah keeps kosher and wanted nothing to do with leftover cheeseburgers. She’ll try to do better next year. However, she also saved a lot of money on refreshments at the Birthday Party. So you win some, you lose some.

Community Affairs

Pat summarized the information included in her earlier email.

Sound Reinforcement

No report from the present Bob Safranek, since Mike already mentioned the sound equipment repairs at the Minstrel.

Fellowship

No report from the present Scooter Ferguson.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:50. Next month’s meeting is at the home of Cecilia Zeimetz-Rowedder and Allan Kugel.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Riemer

Secretary