March 2010
OPENING CEREMONIES
The meeting was called to order at 8:05 on March 2nd, at the home of Pam Robinson and Bob Safranek.
Roll Call
Present were Lois DeRitter, Jim Gartner, Scooter Ferguson, Nancy Kelner, Jim King, Allan Kugel, Evelyn Maurer, Brad Pryor and Ruth Wolfish (Trustees); Chris Riemer and Ed Roffman (Officers); Mike Agranoff, Pat Brangs, Connie Crawford, Lori Falco, Pam Robinson, Bobbie Rosengarten, Bob Safranek, Mark Schaffer, Jean Scully and Rick Thomas (Other Board Members).
Absent were Elizabeth Lachowicz, Carl Croce, Sandie Reilly and Rivka Willick.
The minutes of the February meeting were accepted as corrected (amending the spelling of Amy Livingston’s last name).
Treasurer’s Report
Ed puts our checking account balance at about $13,000 and the Money Market at about $23,000. “We’re on a good track” and profitable for 2010 so far.
Key Dates
Scooter has a Key-Date task this month entitled “Update Guidestar objectives.” However, he has no idea what this means.
Chris explained that Guidestar is an on-line directory of non-profits, within which you can find a profile document for The Folk Project. That document includes sections on accomplishments for the previous year, as well as objectives for the year ahead. When we first set it up, we decided the President should be the one to update the records, to the degree necessary, after a month or two in office. Chris will check on his old ID and password to see if they still work, and forward Scooter the appropriate information.
BUSINESS ITEMS
The Folk Project Back Office
Chris reviewed the current state of the Folk Project’s new “Back Office” website, a wiki that’s being hosted at Google Sites. Basically, a wiki is a website that can be edited by any authorized person, working through a Web browser (wiki is Hawaiian for “fast”)
Right now, the Back Office includes a few miscellaneous documents in a Library section, as well as board meeting minutes from 2007 to date. The more recent minutes have been enhanced with internal and external hyperlinks, but that’s probably not practical for the older records. In the future, Directors will get their minutes as a link, rather than an attachment. In the wiki, minutes are searchable, and you can also subscribe to be notified of updates.
Chris has electronic minutes dating back to 1996, and his plan is to add them a little at a time over the coming months. It’s probably not worth adding the old paper minutes (assuming we could find them), but we’ll worry about that later. However, Chris does have the hand-written minutes of the very first Folk Project meeting. He may scan those in and post them out of historical interest.
Chris thinks the wiki holds a lot of potential for us. The calendar would be a natural way to capture our Key Dates information. It would also be a good place to publish job descriptions and process guidelines, something he thinks is a weak link in our organization. There could be departmental pages to store committee assets, owned and managed by the committee chairs. It could even capture much of what we now do via email, if we started using it that way. Finally, it could be a tool for recruiting new board members: look how together we are! There was a fair amount of discussion here, with two primary themes:
One was the issue of confidentiality. Scooter was uncomfortable with letting the whole world know our business, but Chris pointed out that we’ve been relatively casual about this in the past. We let former Board Members remain in the "fullboard" mail group, for example. It does mean we can’t use the wiki for everything, but in Chris’s experience, moving down this path involves a real culture change. Even little things that get in the way can be deal breakers. He’d like to at least try it for a few months without extra security, and see how the board feels.
The other issue had to do with workload requirements. Mike felt we might ultimately need a wikimaster (in addition to a webmaster) to manage this new asset. He was somewhat skeptical on the issue of content organization, too, since there's not much point if you can’t find what you need. Connie felt we might need to appoint a moderator for discussion forums, if we started them.
Ruth would like to see a Lessons Learned section, to help us remember what’s worked (and not worked) in different areas. She also thinks we’ll need our own User Guide, although Chris felt Google's built-in Help function would be enough. Lori wondered if subscriptions could be directed to an RSS reader (they can) and Jim was concerned about the ability to maintain an audit trail so pages can’t be altered inappropriately. As long as Edit Access is held to a relatively small group, he’s comfortable with the idea. Bob Safranek (and others) wondered about back-up. Is there some way to archive the whole site locally, in case we need to rebuild it?
Ed Roffman pointed out that new ideas like this tend to have a life of their own. “We need to use it, though, if it’s going to grow.” Evelyn wondered if the Good of the Order content was being preserved digitally somewhere, now that it’s not part of the minutes. It's in the old newsletters, but only there.
Jim took the last word by citing The Caine Mutiny: “The Navy was designed by geniuses to be run by idiots.” He thinks we should shut up and let Chris do it.
Whither Membership?
In Rick’s view, previous membership chairs have done a yeoman’s job, making the best of a poorly structured environment. He’d like to see more automation, and more input from more people. There’s a range of possibilities here.
Is membership’s mandate only to print address labels and send renewal reminders? Or is it something more? He has a friend who’s built a real CRM system for non-profits, which is the platform of choice for the Folklore Society of Greater Washington (among others). It’s much more than a members’ database, since it includes accounting modules and on-line sales features and such. He’s calling for interested parties to help him explore our requirements and come up with recommendations.
Rick has also been warned by his ISP that he’s in danger of being flagged as a spammer because of a recent email blast sent for Special Concerts. He is therefore out of the bulk email business, effective immediately. Until we work out a permanent solution on that, Mike is willing to be the sender for bulk mailings.
Email Etiquette
Lois wanted to say a few words on the use of email, since she’s recently been asked to moderate some inter-personal disputes that were triggered by poorly conceived (or misinterpreted) email messages. She believes email has a strange multiplier effect, and conflicts can escalate unexpectedly. If you have something sensitive to say, say it on the phone, or (even better) in person.
Many people had tips to offer here. Don’t fill in the address field until you’ve read the whole note twice. Read it aloud, too. Save it as a draft, and send the next day. Brad recommends putting the word “Confidential” right on the Subject Line, and hopes people understand that confidential means CONFIDENTIAL!
First Aid Updates
Former president Rick Ilowite may be able to get us a discount on defibrillators, and may also be interested in coming back to active membership.
There was some discussion on the defibrillator idea (first raised in connection with Festival), and the pros of being able to save a life versus the cons of liability for inadequate training. Jean has a personal contact at the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Foundation who’s a real expert here. She will investigate and report back next month.
Future Meeting Locations
At the end of the night, Bob pointed out that we'd never settled on the annual meeting calendar. Rather than negotiate dates and locations at such a late hour, Scooter agreed to take this on off-line.
He has not yet followed up on the idea of a permanent (non household) location, although Margaret Crowl has agreed in principle to support our use of her new church, in East Hanover.
REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES
Storytelling
No report from the absent Rivka Willick. Scooter still intends to contact her to discuss Storytelling’s representation on the board and continued participation in the larger Folk Project organization.
Membership
No report necessary, considering the earlier discussion.
Newsletter
Scooter read an email report from the absent Carl Croce. He also repeated last month’s suggestion that everyone take full advantage of the Project’s Staples discount cards.
Publicity
Mark thinks we’re about 90% done on the design of the new website. Joe D’Andrea is brilliant, in Mark’s view, and Mark wants to be clear that he is not. He’s only the Web Commander. Joe is the real Master.
Nancy didn’t make it to ACMA’s Wine and Cheese reception, since it was cancelled because of bad weather and rescheduled for tonight. We’re now a member of the Morris County Tourism Bureau. and Nancy believes they’ll be featuring us in an upcoming newsletter We'll be listed in their next printed brochure, and may be mentioned now and then in their email blasts. Joanne Herb has joined the committee as an auxiliary calendar poster. Lois asked if we might run an ad in the Acoustic Line newsletter, and Nancy will look into it.
In answer to Pam, we are not currently listing in Musi-Cal (although we can explore that idea). Pam would also like to see more press releases to supplement what Jim King is doing now. There was some discussion of the postage cost if we went beyond five sheets in our monthly mailing, but Jim and Eddie both felt it would be well worth the investment.
Finally, Mike recalled that George Otto had an automated approach for loading our information to other Web calendars, and asked Mark to put it on the list as a possible future infrastructure enhancement, when the time comes.
In closing, Ed stressed that what the Publicity Committee does takes a lot of time and effort. Let’s appreciate them. (Huzzzah!!)
Merchandising
No report. Pam and Bob are storing the inventory at the moment.
Internal Affairs
Jean reports that it’s becoming progressively harder to book our Evenings of Music, and she doesn’t know what to do. She has lost at least three of the long-time stalwarts, and feels she can only ask people so many times. She’s also hurt by the idea that people feel she’s not doing her job, and is frankly tired of the criticism. So she encouraged all those with “party-friendly” houses to step up and volunteer.
Despite that, she has booked most of 2010: April at the Thomas’s, May at the Schaffer’s, June at Pam and Bob’s, July at Roffman’s, August at Margaret Crowl’s and September at Pagan/Kleiner World Headquarters. October through December are open.
She also recapped Ed Roffman’s plan for a second EOM each month that would not be restricted to Folk Project members, the possible publication of hosting guidelines, and the general challenge of managing expectations for EOM guests and hosts alike. Scooter hopes everyone will pass their ideas to Jean outside of the meeting.
In other news, the Valentine’s Day show was a great success, generating some $2,000 in profit. The Haitian Earthquake relief CD will continue to generate income, too, and we’ve opted to send the funds to Partners in Health. (Huzzzah!!)
Community Affairs
The good news is that there’s no bad news this month. Pat has had four performer requests, and Wayne Day is coming along. She would like to see some enhancements in the on-line Performer’s List, but will wait until the new version goes live.
Sound Reinforcement
Bob says “Hi.”
Minstrel Booking
Mike summarized the comments in his email report. Average attendance for regular shows in February was 74.0, and the average for regular shows over the past 12 months was 91.5. Profit for the month came to $170, for a YTD profit of $1,402. We were all disappointed to learn that Anthony Da Costa has cancelled his opener for Red Molly, but excited to learn that we might be getting John Gorka.
Minstrel Staffing
See email report from the absent Sandie Reilly.
Horses Sing
See email report from Ralph Litwin.
Swingin’ Tern
The bad weather hurt attendance in February, but the dance is hanging in. Bob Isaacs intends to step down at the end of the year as Swingin’ Tern’s booking agent, and the committee wants to reach out to local “up and coming” callers to find a replacement. The pitch is that booking bands for a regular dance is a very good networking, career-path sort of opportunity for callers.
Pam asked Connie to please pull the Tern Swings posters from the walls at the church. She’s still getting calls, even though the event is now history.
Special Concerts
Pam summarized her email report, and said the Michael Manring concert was “phenomenal.” This concert was an “interesting idea” championed by Andy Koenig, so if anyone has any equally interesting concepts, please bring them forward.
Festival
Lori summarized her email report and thanked all her committee members for their hard work. Particular gratitude to Barb Moo, Jim King and Bill Cox.
There’s a new flyer designed to attract more dancers to the Festival (see attachment below), and Mike thinks it’s both a great idea and very well executed. Lori thanked Connie for Swingin’ Tern’s support on that. Pat Brangs recalled a past festival that included the participation of the Morris Country Dancing Society. Bob thinks it was Fall 1996 (his first festival), and Lori will put a follow-up on her list.
Lori mentioned Jim’s idea to use the Festival mailing list to find singers for the Minstrels of Love chorus at the Valentine’s Day show. It attracted 22 people! (“Cross pollination, baby, I love it!” said Scooter.)
In other discussion, Lori reported that tent camping at Festival is a dead issue (Star Lake’s very concerned about bears). However, we seem to have resolved the issues we had related to parking arrangements. (Huzzzah!!)
Fellowship
No report.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 10:12. Next month’s meeting will be at Mark Schaffer’s, in Rockaway.
Respectfully submitted,
Chris Riemer
Secretary