Festival Report

Dear Board and General Members,

Our only festival this year was the Fall Festival. It was an great success. We featured Christine Lavin and John Carlini. We got huge survey ratings for: Gathering Time's performances, Mara Levine's earring-making workshop and our new performance lottery, The Big Vocalotto.

Thanks to first-time organizers: Chairman Carl Croce & Core Team Leader Joe Petratis for their huge and creative efforts at management and sales. Thanks to Festival Leaders and Team Members: Lori Falco & Barbara Moo, for coming out of retirement, and without whom we would not have had a festival.

This time we limited the dance program for budget reasons. We devoted those funds to the music program. We believe that better program helped draw first timers and draw our some-time attenders. Against all odds, we actually made money this fall.

Looking Forward:

Robin & Mark Schaffer are the new co-chairs.

Star Lake is not available for Spring Festival. We found a new site, Camp Bernie, near Hackettstown, NJ. In many ways it is a better site. One way is the very strong support by the camp's management to our festival. We'll make small adjustments because of the new site, but we think overall the site lends itself more to the core of what makes the Project festival a special weekend. For example: we have better workshop rooms and more outdoor activities.

The next festival will be Memorial Weekend, 5/25-27/2012, Friday night thru Sunday afternoon.

We had limited choices on the calendar. We think Memorial Weekend will add to our attendance because it's a "destination" weekend where people are looking to get away, and we can provide a low-cost alternative. We do recognize that this will be a conflict for some and we apologize for any inconvenience.

We attended NERFA and learned a lot about performers and increasing attendance. We have started hiring performers. We'll announce that good news at the general meeting.

Pat Brangs is on our core team. The website will launch this week thanks to John Lamb's excellent support. Lori Falco is helping with festival mailings on Constant Contact. Facebook plans are in process We've already sent our "Reserve the Date" email to the festival email list.

We are introducing the idea of Pre-registration, which provides an early "call to action" and gives us valuable information for planning.

On Tuesday, January 24th, 8 pm we'll have a festival meeting at Mark & Robin's. We invite all people who want to hear the details of the plans and share their thoughts. We are especially eager to include those who want to participate in the many, many tasks and jobs that make festival happen.

You should all know that we're having lots of fun putting the festival puzzle together, and we're grateful for the hours and talent that others are contributing.

Enthusiastically yours,

Mark & Robin