June 2010

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

• • The board agreed to become an associated organization for the Eisteddfod Festival in November 2010.

  • The board also agreed to support the Waynestock event planned for late June by providing a sound system and expense reimbursement up to a maximum of $250.

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:05, at the home of Nancy Kelner. The A/C was marginal, but the fans were doing the job.

Roll Call

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

Secretary’s Report

Chris has received neither corrections nor comments on the published minutes. This either means he’s gotten much better at writing them, or that people are less likely to click a link than open an attachment. Mike conceded that was true for him, but several others spoke in favor of the Web-based approach. And even Mike said he usually clicked the link.

Treasurer’s Report

Eddie notes that we had some large expenses last month, so our finances are not quite so flush. However, we’re comfortably in the black for the year.

The checking account balance is $10,608, with another $23,340 in the Money Market. There was some discussion of payables and posting cycles, and Eddie pointed out that the books are only accurate to the degree that people are submitting expenses in a timely manner. He also made some committee-by-committee comments as to profitability, with a shout out to Special Concerts for particularly strong financial performance.

In a somewhat related note, Mark reported that Eddie has just issued the final check for our Haitian Relief CD project, and we will be sending $2,569 to Partners in Health.

KEY DATES

Chris reminded Scooter that it’s really the president’s responsibility to check the calendar for Key Dates (as part of the agenda-writing process).

Since Chris had them fresh in his mind, though, he mentioned that the two in June are related to our Charitable Registration with the State of New Jersey. The Treasurer should check on the filing requirements and confirm that we’re still exempt based on total revenue. If we are not, the registration paperwork needs to be submitted by June 30.

GENERAL BUSINESS ITEMS

Eisteddfod Festival

Mike explained that as in years past, we’ve been invited to become an “associated organization” for this Festival, which means we agree to promote it in our newsletter, appoint a liaison (which would be Mike) and agree not to book a traditional event on the festival weekend. Mike thinks it’s a “no brainer,” and the board moved to make it so.

Sound Equipment Loan

A group of Wayne-area students (represented tonight by Matt Smith and Matt Reilly) is planning an eight-hour benefit event for June 26 (with a rain date of July 10). “Waynestock” will showcase a number of local high-school and college bands, and raise money for Education Through Music, an organization that provides instruments and music instruction for young people. They’ve printed some flyers in various sizes (a sample is attached below), persuaded an Elks lodge to give them a facility rent-free, and also have some local businesses providing goods in exchange for sponsor credit. However, they don’t have a sound system, and they would like to borrow some equipment from the Folk Project. Under our common sense guidelines (see the Minutes of February 2006, under Business Items), this requires a trained engineer (that would be Matt Reilly) and the direct participation of a board member (that would be Sandie Reilly). Hartman will also be in attendance, for good measure.

The Waynestock team would be happy to plug the Folk Project in return, put our name on its flyers and otherwise express eternal gratitude. Matt Smith added that while they’re “only a bunch of teenagers,” his team is very well organized and meets every Thursday for planning and consultation. We can trust them.

A few Directors offered some additional ideas, including Door Prizes to encourage attendance (Scooter), a rain cover for the board (Bob), an email blast to alert our members, since the newsletter deadline has passed (Evelyn) and distributing their flyers via our booth at Wayne Day (Mike). Bobbie also warned that a permit is required for a 50-50 raffle, which Matt Smith had been considering, and Lori said we might check with Jim King to see if our old Festival stage can be borrowed back from the theater group to which we passed it on. Mike felt all our interaction with Waynestock should funnel through a single liaison, and Scooter volunteered to be the point person.

In fact, we just loved this idea, and Rick admitted to once being a teenager himself! With a motion made by Eddie, and amended by Rick, we moved not only to loan them the sound system, but also to underwrite their direct expenses up to a maximum of $250. Send the receipts to Ed Roffman.

Folk Project Apologies

Brad Pryor asked for this spot on the agenda to open a discussion on what he feels is a long-standing operational problem. Given its sensitive nature, he also asked that we convene a committee of the whole. Upon the adjournment of that committee, the board accepted its recommendation, which called for the president to commission a special subcommittee for further consideration of the issues involved.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Publicity

Mark recapped the information sent in an earlier email, noting that because of various other priorities, Joe D’Andrea needs to resign as Web master. That means we’re starting essentially from scratch when it comes to the redevelopment of www.folkproject.org, an unhappy outcome which Mark deeply regrets. He intends to pull together a team to consider our options, seeking advice from Allan Kugel, Liz Pagan, Rick Thomas, Bob Safranek and others. One possibility is a comprehensive non-profit management system developed by a friend of Rick’s, which may deliver everything we need in terms of site management, database management and even back office financial integration. Evelyn and Jim Gartner both thought we should at least consider paying a professional Web master. Mark hopes to make specific recommendations next month, so there was no further discussion at this time.

In non-Web news, Nancy reminded the group that Swingin’ Tern has a new contact number, and said the committee could use some more help with Web calendar posting work.

Membership

We have lots of members, according to Rick, with about 400 memberships comprising about 600 people. Those totals have been remarkably consistent for many years. Carl Croce has his new printer set up, which means Rick can send him labels electronically (reducing the process time by a few days and saving a few bucks in postage).

There’s been a big uptick in lapsed memberships, which Rick attributes to the electronic newsletter. Since it’s not currently personalized, there’s no way to remind folks when their memberships expire. Without a reminder, members lapse, but Rick will try to figure out a way to address this.

Newsletter

Carl summarized the information sent via email, and apologized for the slightly delayed distribution this month. They made it into the mail on Saturday, so most people should still have their newsletters in hand on June 1. He also noted that as a Staples Premium customer, we have qualified for a free video camera (an $89 value!). He plans to bring it to Wayne Day.

Minstrel Booking

Mike summarized the information sent via email. Attendance was down a bit, with an average of 76.3 in May compared to an average of 93.1 one for the last 12 months. He thinks we may be in the “doldrums” during the summer, but he has some very strong acts booked for September and October.

He also notes that a “patron” (later identified as Ed Roffman) wants to sponsor a danc/concert event next year, booking a big name band to play the Minstrel and Swingin’ Tern on a single weekend. Mike was thinking Wild Asparagus at first, but is now in negotiations with Elixer. The dates in question are April 29 and 30, 2011. Stay tuned.

Minstrel Staffing

Sandie is proud to report that we have tons of fantastic volunteers, and even more potentially fantastic volunteers. Could always use more though.

Horses Sing

Sandie briefly re-capped Ralph’s report, and asked that people read the email copy rather than listening to her read it here.

Chris added that his business partner, Pam Coulter Enright, has agreed to design packaging for the Horses Sing None of It Blues DVD Compilation. She is now in touch with Ralph and brother Don Riemer.

Swingin' Tern

Scooter opted not to read aloud from Connie's previously submitted email report. We thought she would have wanted it that way...

Special Concerts

Referring to her email report, Pam noted that there were 12 paid attendees at the Mandolin workshop, mostly non-members. The pot luck was not that well attended, but the Evening of Music was very nice. She expects 13 folks at the songwriting workshop, and plans to cap it at 20. We have 270 fans on our Facebook page, and the metrics look pretty good.

Festival

Lori summarized the information in her earlier email. The expenses aren’t all in, but it looks like the Spring Festival lost about $300 (which in Mike’s view, means it made $700 considering the Agranoff Endowment!) There were some parking issues related to the number of commuter tickets sold, so we may need to take another look at that for the Fall.

Lori stressed, though, that after Fall 2010 the Festival is “a big question mark.” If it's going to continue, we need to find a new chair.

Alan noted that while he thought it was a great Festival, we only drew 136 people for the whole weekend. In fact, the Festival dance had a smaller turnout than a typical Swingin’ Tern, which suggests we may actually be underserving the dance community by cancelling S&T in favor of the Festival event. He feels some philosophical questions may need to be revisited. Maybe we should go to one Festival a year? Maybe we could have twin committees, with one for Spring and another for Fall? Maybe we should have co-chairs or even tri-chairs? “We need to think about this,” said Alan.

Carl asked if Lori’s telephone outreach work led to any conclusions about attendance. Not really, although several people cited the economy. Others had scheduling conflicts. The Fall 2009 Festival had a really hot line up, and Lori thinks Spring 2010 might not have been as big a draw. She strongly supports the idea of a single event, as a way to cope with burn out, but it’s really up to the new chair, whomever that may be.

Rick asked if there was anyone present who felt so strongly committed to Festival that they’d be willing to take over in order to keep it alive. There were no takers, but there were some tentative hands raised if the event were redefined a tad (co-chairmanships or once a year instead of twice). Scooter conceded there might be no Festival next Spring, but felt all we could do was continue to work the issues.

Merchandising

Margaret (making a rare personal appearance) reported that we’d sold out of mugs, and passed around potential samples for the next order. If you have comments on same, please let her know. She also wants to return to her earlier idea for a Folk Project cookbook, and thinks it would be a good seller.

Chris reminded the room that we have three ways to earn an exemption from collecting NJ sales and use tax. We can sell things that are inherently tax free (like apparel), sell things that are in line with our core mission (like the Horses Blues DVD) or sell things on an occasional basis (only at Festival). Anything else, and we’ll need to work the collection and payment of sales taxes into our business model. He’s not saying we should be afraid of doing it, just that we need to make it part of the plan.

Internal Affairs

No report from the absent Jean Scully, but Pam will be having the Evening of Music this month (preceeded by the Craig Bickhardt songwriting workshop at 3:00 and a pot-luck dinner at 6:30). Ed Roffman added that his fourth Saturday EOM is working out nicely.

Community Affairs

Pat recapped from her earlier email report, and gave some highlights for the upcoming Wayne Day. Carl’s daughter has finished the Folk Project banner, and he’ll be sure it gets there on the day itself. We’ll improvise the hanging of it this time, but Carl has ideas for a dedicated stand, and would be willing to fabricate same, and also store it when it wasn’t in use. The total cost of the banner is coming in at around $425, more than the $350 estimate, due to higher than expected materials costs.

Mike had very kind words to say about Pat, whom he felt was sort of “thrown into the deep end of the pool” with this event. Rather than complaining about it, she simply focused on solving the problems one at a time, treading water with grace and determination. (A hearty round of applause for Pat.)

Sound Reinforcement

Bob has made a few repairs and has some spare parts on hand, so everything is now working properly after a small glitch at a recent Minstrel.

Fellowship

Scooter had nothing to report.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 9:56. Next month’s meeting is at Connie Crawford’s, in Highland Park Berkeley Heights.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Riemer

Secretary