October 2010

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

• • The board authorized the expenditure of $525 for a Folk Project ad in The Hometown Quarterly, with the details to be handled by Nancy Kelner of the Publicity committee.

  • The board accepted the 2011 slate of directors developed by the Nominations Committee.

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:00 PM on October 11, at the home of Bobbie Rosengarten. The leaves were beginning to turn, and many post-Festival hugs were exchanged.

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

Secretary’s Report

Chris made some minor wording tweaks in last month's Publicity report, at the request of Nancy Kelner. Otherwise no changes have been requested. The minutes were approved as amended.

Treasurer’s Report

Eddie summarized the current financial situation, which he characterized as "running on eight cylinders." He expects us to finish the year in the black, even if we're not making a killing. As of September 30, we had about $27,000 in the checking account, although roughly $18,000 of that is reserved for Festival. The Money Market stands at $23,000 and the Agranoff Endowment at $75,000. (Remember that those who would like to review the details can always access the Project's QuickBooks Online account. If you don't have a login, ask Eddie.)

Later in the evening, Allan wondered if we should consider how changes in our recurring cost base (like the additional $20 for custodial work for each evening at MUF) affect the big picture. He thinks it's important that we keep the organization on a sound financial footing. Speaking as a former Treasurer, Chris felt the board should only look at the financial performance of the committees, and let them decide how to manage their own proft-and-loss profiles.

KEY DATES

The key dates this month include the renewal of The Folk Alliance membership and the need to get an invitation to the annual meeting into the November newsletter. Mike hasn't received any paperwork on the former, and Scooter will handle the latter, understanding that the newsletter deadline is now only days away. (Secretary's note: According to the key date record, the invitation to the annual meeting is actually supposed to be in the December newsletter. Some present felt that the newsletters aren't being delivered by the first of the month anymore, so we need the extra month of lead time.)

BUSINESS ITEMS

Advertising in the Hometown Quarterly

As described in an earlier email, Nancy Kelner has suggested that we place an ad in The Hometown Quarterly, which is distributed free to about 90,000 single family homes in our area. It will cost us $525 for 1/6 of a page, which is less than one cent something like two cents per household. Lori brought a copy of this periodical to be passed around, and in Nancy's absence, Jim King made this motion. Much discussion ensued.

Scooter felt it was important to have a way of tracking the results, and suggested the ad include a buy-one/get-one-free coupon good for any Folk Project activity (except Festival). That way, we can see how many new people the ad actually brings in the door. Elizabeth strongly urged that we see if they'd run an article about the Folk Project too (something Mark later offered to write, if there were no other volunteers). Elizabeth felt the combination of an article and an ad would be much more powerful.

Mike was skeptical as far as the "efficacy" of such publications, believing most of them go unread into the recycling bin. Jim King conceded that point, but felt that even 100 new patrons would pay for the cost. (Later, Bob would tell us that 1.3% is a typical statistical return for this kind of marketing, which suggests we might actually reach 1,200 people.)

Beyond the cost, Jim also wants to support Nancy, who's been doing such an incredibly bang-up job on the publicity front. Mark agrees with the principle of supporting our gifted volunteers, but also feels this is a worthy experiment in its own right. As Publicity chair, he's opted not to place ads in folk festival programs (as we've done in the past), because he doesn't think they've delivered much value. So we can afford to try something like this.

The only truly controversial point had to do with scheduling. No one was clear about the actual deadline (or the publication drop dates), but felt the pressure of the word "immediately" in Nancy's email. Some worried that trying to do this quickly would make us deliver an ad that wasn't as slick as it should be, while others noted that the winter months have traditionally brought us our largest audiences. In the end, we agreed to approve Jim's motion as originally stated, and let Nancy sort out the details. This motion passed with none opposed and two abstentions.

Nominations Committee

Speaking as the chair of the Nominations Committee, Scooter presented its recommendations (which are shown in the attachment at the end of these minutes). He pointed out that Jim King has decided to surrender his Trustee seat, since at 71, he no longer feels obligated to come to meetings. Jim King has decided that at the age of 71, it's the appropriate time for him to surrender his long-held Trustee position even if he continues to attend meetings. Evelyn will be moving to the Jersey shore next month, and that will make her participation logistically challenging. Both would like to remain as "friends of the board," though, and their email addresses will remain in the fullboard@folkproject.org contact list.

Bob observed that this slate of Directors includes two people who are sitting in two chairs, serving both as a Trustee and in some other capacity. He wondered if we shouldn't take advantage of those potentially "free" Trustee slots to recruit some new blood. The Trustee position has generally been seen as the least burdensome, so it works well as a kind of apprenticeship. Some discussion ensued. Carolyn Messina was mentioned as a potential new Trustee; Connie would like to see a representative from the dance community, since Swingin' Tern is the group's second largest activity. Scooter had been trying to reduce the size of the board, but he will follow up with the current nominees and may have alternatives to propose come December.

A final note is that the nominations committee is recommending the dissolution of the Fellowship Committee, with the support of its chair Scooter Ferguson. This body was created in April 2009 as a mechanism for distributing internal grants. And while it seemed like a good idea at the time, the process has never actually been activated. Committee-level expense reimbursement decisions will again be made by the committee chairs, as they had been for the previous quarter century.

The board moved to accept the slate as proposed (with one abstention), and Scooter will report on the details for the November newsletter.

The December Meeting

The December Meeting will again be held at the Chimney Rock Inn (in Gillette) and Eddie will take point on making the arrangements and collecting RSVPs. As usual, attendees will be asked to buy their own drinks and contribute $15 toward the cost of the meal. The Folk Project will pick up the rest. Mike made his traditional objection to this policy, as he has every October since we started having the annual meetings at local restaurants.

Possible Email Enhancements

Mike has made an arrangement with his ISP to allow for two additional accounts (president@ and membership@) that would be able to send bulk emails using a BCC function. He's been doing this himself for some time.

Chris cautioned that this might not be quite that simple, since his own ISP (verizon.net) blocks access to any outgoing mail server that's not within the Verizon domain. That way, Verizon can be sure its customers aren't sending spam. Also, Mike's approach doesn't address the question of maintaining and centralizing email addresses.

Lori added that the Festival Committee has established a subscription with Constant Contact, and she "loved" working with it for this past festival. Easy to use, and very professional output. She'd like to look into it a bit more, and will report at the next meeting.

Folk Project Apologies Finale

Speaking in his role as co-chair of a special presidential commission created last June, Jim Gartner asked the board to convene a committee of the whole. Upon adjournment of that committee, the board supported its recommendations and agreed that no further action need be taken.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Minstrel Booking

Mike recapped the developments covered by his email report. Still no word on when the planned custodial surcharge will kick in at MUF, and we paid ASCAP $108 in license fees for the past quarter. He followed up with Jacob Johnson (who failed to appear for his opening act gig last week) and learned that Jacob had the Minstrel booked in his calendar for the same date in 2011. In a Twilight Zone touch, Jacob was playing in Morristown, Tennessee, on the night he was supposed to be playing for us in Morristown, New Jersey. (Cue music.)

Mark felt the open stages have steadily improved over the past 18 months, and credits the trend to Scooter's work as Open Stage MC. Ruth wondered what Scooter was "doing," and Mike felt he was "just being his charming self." Scooter tended to agree, in that he hasn't made any significant policy changes. He's added two performing slots, so the music runs a little longer. And he tries to negotiate with those who come, so that everyone who wants to play gets at least one song. Mostly he just tries to be a good host, and make everyone feel welcome.

Minstrel Staffing

Sandie is booked at Horses tonight, and had previously submitted her report via email

Horses Sing

No report, beyond that submitted earlier by Ralph, via email.

Membership

Rick is happy to report that we still have members.

Newsletter

Carl recapped the appreciation and spending details that are regularly included in his monthly report. There was a bit of a glitch this month, in that Staples accidentally printed the original version of the newsletter, instead of a corrected copy submitted later. No harm done, but a slight delay in mailing.

Merchandising

No report, beyond that sent by Margaret back in mid-September.

Internal Affairs

An email report was submitted earlier by the absent Jean Scully.

Community Services

Pat summarized the information from her email report, and emphasized her suggestion that the Festival consider a "young adult" discount as a way to attract 20-somethings. Jim Gartner wondered if we could establish a Seniors discount, but all present agreed that would probably bankrupt us.

Sound Reinforcement

Bob is happy to announce that "we'll soon sound better again."

Swingin' Tern

No report from the present Connie Crawford, beyond what she included in her email.

Special Concerts

On the concert front, Pam can only say "Hi." She also has some Folk Project cards for those who want them.

Publicity

Mark welcomed Joanne Cronin and Pat Brangs as new members of the expanding Publicity Committee. They're working on the "Projections" project, to establish a virtual scrapbook of past performers. This would appear as a He's also considering the addition of a "Minstrel History" gadget for the home page, that would spotlight acts of prior years on a rotating basis. The emphasis would be on big-name acts like Robin and Linda Williams or John Gorka, but our local performers would appear as well, if less frequently. Allan is wrapping up work on a Content Management System that will let non-programmers maintain the content on their own pages. "It's a great team!" said Mark.

Pam mentioned that our Facebook page now has 340 fans. Chris added that the Facebook page he built for the band known as Headlong Retreat gets most of its band information from a third-party engine called ReverbNation. It's a Web marketing tool for musicians, and he's pretty impressed with what it delivers. Working musicians in the room might want to check it out. The basic features are free.

Festival

Before she could get a word out, Lori was greeted with a round of applause for the success of this past Festival. Some people were standing, too!

Lori began by reading a nice thank you note from one of the performers, and then went on to recap the information in her email report. The numbers are still a little scattered, but she thinks we lost about $500, before considering the impact of the Agranoff endowment. She also confirmed that while "it's been a pleasure," she is looking forward to stepping down as the chair of this committee.

There was some discussion of the Festival's future, since after being told that they didn't want us back after this fall, they may have changed their mind. Bobbie has always felt the staff at Star Lake liked us, and that the disconnect was coming from higher up in the organization. Whether we stay for another Festival or not, Allan pointed out that Star Lake is "frictional," adding extra complexities in terms of parking, rule changes and so forth. Staying there will always be a "mixed blessing," so he thinks we should still keep scouting around.

Lori also expressed the opinion that the dance at Festival does not appear to be sustainable, since even with lots of outreach, special discounts and focused marketing programs, the dance activities at this past weekend were only drawing 18 to 30 people. She thinks that when dances are this small, they don't have the critical mass needed to draw new people in. Even some of the folks who came in on a dancer's discount were opting to do other things instead. Plus, having a dance is both expensive and logistically complicated, with a second sound system, more sound people on staff, a caller, a band, and so forth.

Connie seriously hopes we can work out some option to preserve the dance, and feels it would be exclusionary to drop it. She'd never have come to her first Festival if it didn't have a dance component, and thinks that even if there are only a dozen or so people like her, we might risk losing a significant part of our audience. Jim King took issue with the term "exclusionary" and felt the real problem was a lack of support from the dance community. We're just not getting enough dancers on the floor. Lois thinks it would be great if we could keep the dance, and she'd like to see it continue. But the numbers have to work, too.

Mike pointed out that there was no one on the Festival committee who was primarily a dancer, and Lori agreed that we should definitely recruit such a person if the dance at festival is to continue. Scooter will put this item on the agenda for November.

Connie also raised an interesting point, as one of the newer members of the board. She feels the Project as a whole is a kind of organizational black box, with very little transparency into how each committee operates. She thought it would have seemed presumptuous for her to ask the Festival committee to include a dancer on their team, for example. We've all been working together for so long that we can appear impenetrable to new Directors. Some in the room took issue with this, but Chris and Evelyn agreed. While we do have a drop or two of new blood from time to time, most of those in the room have served on the board for decades, in one position or another.

Carl got the last word on this, as incoming Festival chair. His philosophy will be to "eschew negativity." He thinks the key is to emphasize an inclusionary mindset and market directly to the dance community. That second point took Jim King by surprise.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 10:15. Next month’s meeting is at the home of Mark and Robin Schaffer.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Riemer

Secretary