Publicity Report

Publicity Committee Developments for December:

Received a few copies of the December issue of the NJ Jazz Society journal from editor Tony Mottola. They contain a two-page story and photos from the Frank Vignola Minstrel concert. Will bring them to board meeting for people to see.

Learned from Leigh Walker, Swingin’ Tern chairman, that there was an error in the Swingin’ Tern phone number in the Weekend Ticket section of the Star Ledger. I spoke to a contact there and he said he would fix it.

Attended a concert in November at the Carriage House in Fanwood (sponsored by the Fanwood Arts Council) and was pleasantly surprised to hear the emcee announce that there were Minstrel flyers on the back table (that I had placed). The announcement was her idea.

Represented the Folk Project at a meeting of Jersey Arts Marketers on Nov. 17 at Kean University. Discussion included new membership levels for the public, a list exchange of demographic information, and an open discussion of some of the highlights for each organization over the past year.

Asked for a copy of the September issue of Parent Guide News from a reference librarian at the Library of the Chathams. Received it a month later. Minstrel is listed in the Don’t Miss section; this was the magazine’s idea. Will bring it to the board meeting for people to see.

Lynn Miller, of US #1 Newspaper and West Windsor & Plainsboro News, asked for the 2012 Minstrel schedule for an events calendar they’re doing. Was surprised and pleased, since we are not in the central NJ area. I sent her the information.

Publicity Committee Highlights of the 2011 year:

The members of the publicity committee make the chairman look good, but it truly is a group effort. We covered approximately 70 publicity outlets, including newspapers, magazines, radio stations, organizations, libraries, and Internet calendars. Alice Weimer and Michael Mitsch handled performer photos. Carolyn Messina, Cheryl Cronk, Jim King, Joanne Cronin, Lynn Miles, Pat Brangs and Will Miles handled Internet postings. Debby Edelman handled Minstrel and Swingin’ Tern flyers. John Lamb served as webmaster.

Jim King wrote a detailed press release every month for one Minstrel concert. Lynn Miles has begun to write a detailed press release every month for a second Minstrel concert.

An article about the Folk Project appeared in the August issue of NJ Monthly magazine and another article about the Folk Project appeared in the September issue of NJ Skylands Visitor magazine.

Both Minstrel and Swingin’ Tern are listed on NJ Travel and Tourism website and will appear in the brochure next year.

The Folk Project joined Discover Jersey Arts as a Jersey Arts Marketer.

We placed a paid ad in the Hometown Quarterly but got no takers for either Minstrel or Swingin’ Tern. We will not do this again.

Minstrel and Swingin’ Tern were listed in the Morris County Tourism booklet. Swingin’ Tern was listed as one of “101 Things to Do in Morris County.”

Pam Robinson started posting Folk Project events on Facebook.

A new contact phone (Gloria Friedman’s) was put into use for Swingin’ Tern.

We developed a nice relationship with the NJ Jazz Society through its magazine editor and with Morristown Green through its editor.

Webmaster's Report for 2011

In 2011 the web team unveiled a completely redesigned site and switched our web hosting to DreamHost.com, which provides free hosting service to non-profit organizations. Chief among our goals were the following:

1) Produce a site with a consistent look and feel that promotes a unified brand image for the Folk Project across all pages.

2) Provide a set of tools for those who plan and produce events and services that allows them to publicize and market what they create with minimal help from the web team.

3) Use dynamic content in the form of information retrieved from a central database to make many of the pages self-updating, so as to reduce the day-to-day demands on the web team.

4) Meet the Internet requirements of various internal constituencies while keeping the needs of our end users (i.e., the general public accessing the site) paramount.

5) Minimize differences and incompatibilities across platforms (different combinations of computer hardware, operating systems and browsers).

Although improvements are ongoing, I believe we have accomplished much of what we set out to do. I would like to thank everyone involved, but particularly Cathy Thomas, Allan Kugel, Lori Falco, Liz Pagan, Rick Thomas, Barbara Moo, Mark Schaffer and our original webmaster, George Otto. Their hard work made the current website possible. As always, we welcome questions, comments and suggestions sent to webmaster@folkproject.org.