July 2011

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

The board agreed to initiate the process of amending the Constitution to change the language related to the appointment of replacement Trustees.

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:07 PM on June 7th, at the home of Ed and Robin Roffman. No quorum at the kick off, but a few late arrivals gave us one in short order.

Roll Call

Present were Lois DeRitter, Nancy Dugan, Gloria Freidman Friedman, Jim Gartner, Allan Kugel and Ed Roffman (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Carl Croce, Scooter Ferguson, Nancy Kelner, Sandie Reilly, Chris Riemer, Pam Robinson, Bob Safranek, Rachel Streich, Rick Thomas and Jean Scully (Other Board Members), and Kelvin Domovs, Diane Goodheart, Evelyn Maurer, Mary Beattie Patrick, Robin Roffman, Mark Schaffer and Ellen Schwartz (Guests). Also note that while Ms. Schwartz began the evening as a guest, she ended it as a Trustee!

Absent were Connie Crawford, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Bob McNally, Bobbie Rosengarten and Robin Schaffer.

Secretary’s Report

Nancy "Hawkeye" Kelner found one typo and one spelling mistake in the June minutes. The minutes were approved as amended.

Treasurer’s Report

The checking account balance stands at about $6,600 and we have $23,300 in the Money Market. (Remember that interested parties can look at the financials and run their own, customized reports, by logging in at QuickBooks Online. If you don't have a login (or don't remember your password), contact Rachel and she can set you up.)

BUSINESS ITEMS

Clarification on the Terms of Trustees

As mentioned at the June meeting, the resignation of three trustees last month has revealed a weak link in our record-keeping. Chris reviewed the situation, as he had described it in an email sent earlier.

Our Constitution stipulates that when the board appoints a replacement Trustee mid-term, that replacement will "complete the remaining term" of the person replaced. The problem is that while we have good records showing when a Trustee came onboard, the records are less clear about whether these incoming Trustees are replacements (serving abbreviated terms) or regular Trustees (with three full years ahead of them). The Trustees themselves are not entirely clear about it, and our official documents (such as they are) are in conflict with the memories of at least some of those involved.

It’s also been brought to our attention that the state laws related to non-profits indicate that replacement Trustees should only serve until the next general election (since in principle, they’re supposed to be elected by the general membership, not appointed by the board). The statutes include a general escape clause (“unless otherwise provided in the certificate of incorporation or bylaws”) that would get us off the hook, but Chris felt changing the language in the Constitution would both eliminate some of this procedural confusion, and also be more in keeping with the spirit of the Trustee’s role. They should be elected, not appointed, except in cases of emergency.

He therefore moved that we initiate the process to revise the Folk Project constitution, replacing the phrase “successors will complete the remaining term” with “successors shall hold office until the next annual meeting." This motion was seconded.

Much discussion ensued.

Several in the room were strongly opposed to this change, and Scooter was the most vocally so. He felt this would lead to a “nightmare” of confusion, and imagined a situation in which we’d need to replace all nine trustees in a single cycle. He felt the process of revising the Constitution was actually far more complex than the Board understood, and also let us know that if we went ahead with the motion he would no longer participate in the nominations process. Lois, Mike and others liked our current model in which three trustees are replaced each year in a staggered sequence, and were concerned that this change might somehow undermine it.

Rick Thomas didn’t see how the change would make things more complicated; in either case, all we need to do is go back to the prior year’s nominating committee report. Chris agreed, arguing out that in some ways, it would make things simpler. We could be more causal about mid-term replacements, if they were going to be relatively brief in nature, and the nominations committee would only need to do the heavy lifting once each year. Bob Safranek thought it would be a good idea to comply with the law too, and saw no down side in doing so.

Chris also pointed out that in practice, the nominations process would be exactly the same. At the end of the year, the nominations committee would survey the current board and make a list of folks who needed to be replaced (either because of term limits or because they were ready to step down). It would then look for new directors, recommend shifts in responsibility or make other changes necessary to produce a slate for the board’s approval. Every November, we’ll have some number of slots to be filled, and we’ll fill them the same way we always do. This year would be an outlier, given that we’ve lost three mid-term trustees in a single year. But that’s very unusual. And since the Trustees are not term-limited, any mid-term replacements can be officially voted in at the next general election, if that's appropriate. If they only want to serve two more years (or six more months), they can and will resign, just the way they always have.

We went round and round on this for quite some time, without making much progress. Eddie was in favor of tabling it for another month or forming a subcommittee to consider further. However, Chris called the question, believing we should just vote it up or down. He was surprised such a simple change was so controversial, but didn’t feel it was important enough for the board to fight over.

The board voted in favor of calling the question, thereby ending discussion. The motion was then approved, with eight in favor and seven opposed, on a tie-breaker vote cast by President Ed Roffman.

Nominations and Election of New Trustee

Ed Roffman introduced Ellen Schwartz to the group, who despite the somewhat heated discussion described above, was still willing to join the board as a Trustee, replacing Brad Pryor. She has a background in marketing, event management and music production, and was quickly voted in with the approval of all present. This brings us back to our full complement of nine Trustees.

Grant Writing Update

Ed reminded the group that in years past, we have applied for (and secured) grants from the Arts Council of the Morris Area. Last year, though, no one was ready to step up to the job of filing the paperwork, so we lost our opportunity to capture some extra funding. Tonight, he introduced us to Diane Goodheart, who together with Pat McDonnell, is hard at work on an ACMA grant request for funding in 2012.

Diane thanked us for giving her and Pat the opportunity, and had a draft of the current application to circulate. She’s gotten good input from Ed and Pam Robinson, but wanted us to understand that she’s relatively new to the group and might benefit from some high-level background. The act of writing a grant sometimes leads an organization to think about itself in new ways, too, and she intends to focus on some of our recent ideas for potential new programs aimed at children and young families. In answering a question from Pam, she confirmed that we’d be seeking an Operational Grant, as opposed to one that would fund a special project alone.

Chris suggested that Diane take a look at our GuideStar record, which is a pretty good overview of the organization's background and history. Rick also thought our Special Concert/Workshop series deserved a highlight, for its educational aspects. And in answering a question from Diane, Sandie said Horses Sing None of It tapes about 40 shows a year.

Diane expects to finalize the paperwork next month, and will circulate for comments when it's ready.

Electronic Communications for the Folk Project

No report at this time, but Robin Schaffer expects to have some recommendations next month.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Community Services

Since the last meeting, there’s been some discussion via email about whether this committee was called Community Services or Community Affairs. In fact, it’s gone by both names at different times over the years. Chair Pat Brangs prefers the former, so we agreed to standardize on Community Services. Chris will notify Webmaster John Lamb.

Otherwise, Pat recapped the information in her email report. The canopy acquired for Wayne Day is currently stored in Ed Roffman’s garage, but Pat would like folks to remember it’s there for any activity that might make use of it.

Membership

Rick Thomas recapped the information in his email report. The only point for discussion had to do with how we should best account for "premium memberships," something that was instituted last year. Rick’s feeling is that since the premium involved is a copy of the Best of the Blues DVD produced by Horses Sing None of It, the extra $15 should be counted as Horses income. Treasurer Rachel Streich tended to agree.

Carl wasn’t so sure about that. When he opted to take a premium membership, his intent was to support the entire organization, not just one committee. Both Rick and Rachel explained, though, that committees don’t have separate accounts. All monies are deposited into general funds, and the only impact of this decision would be at the level of "bragging rights." The group was OK with that, although Mike expressed some concern that this adds one more bit of complexity to the jobs of Membership Chair and Treasurer. Rick disagreed, contending that the complexity was created when we established a third tier of membership. This decision is just a matter of accounting for it appropriately.

Pam took this opportunity to urge all the committee chairs to document what they do in some fashion and get it into the Folk Project’s back office website. Before we had our own wiki, it was easy to understand that things might get lost in the shuffle. Now we really have no excuse.

Rick also had two hard copies of an updated roster, for any who might want them. Lois and Carl were happy to accept.

Publicity

Nancy recapped the information from her (updated) email report. New Jersey Monthly is going to do a feature article on us in the August issue, which is published in mid July. She thanked all those who are engaged in supporting Publicity’s work, but asked for some additional volunteers. If any Director wanted to take on the job of communicating with just a single outlet, it would be a great help.

Minstrel Booking

Mike recapped the information in his email report. Participation in the Birthday Party show is up slightly this year, but Mike is still disappointed that many of the Folk Project's better performers continue to stay away. Jean mentioned some of her interactions with members at the Fourth of July Party, and suggested that this name-in-the-hat performing opportunity really addresses a number of our core values. That is, it serves a purpose beyond the quality of the music itself.

Minstrel Staffing

Scooter reported that all is well with Minstrel Staffing. He’s had a few new volunteers sign up, and also created the new position of “Designated Setup/Breakdown Person” for Jeff Saxton, since Jeff’s been doing it anyway without being an official volunteer. Many thanks to Amy Livingston, who Scooter described as the person who really knows what’s going on.

He’s figured out why he was having trouble sending email to the Folk Project Volunteer Yahoo Group, and is considering a thank-you event for all the volunteers (not just the Minstrel volunteers) sometime in the Fall.

Festival

Carl recapped the information in his email report, and felt everything was under control for the upcoming October weekend. He also asked Mark to expand on some of the concepts behind the Festival's Open Mike promotion, and passed around copies of the flyer (attached below) that’s being used to promote the Festival at such venues around north New Jersey.

Mark explained that Festival is assuming the Folk Project has several things in common with the community of people who perform at open mikes: a love of performance, a desire to share and an interest in "more opportunities to show off." So the plan is to end the Saturday concert with something called "The Big Vocalado:" a set in which nine individual performers will do one song each, either on their own, with friends of their selection or by fronting a band assembled by the Festival committee. It will be a kind of lottery, in which those interested will drop their names in a hat to ask for a slot in one of three categories. Those categories are (tentatively): First Timers, Bob Dylan Songs, and Songs About Getting in Trouble. You can put your name in more than one hat, but can only perform once.

In another new wrinkle, the committee traditionally chooses three Folk Project performers for each Festival, but this year they’re going to use the survey forms to let attendees vote on one of the slots for Spring 2012. That’s another way to build community and make the event more inclusive.

Mike asked if we had a firm date for Spring, since he has a possible Phil Ochs Song Night on May 1. We do not, but Carl expects to nail that down at the next committee meeting.

In answer to a question from Gloria, Mark explained that the dance options will be curtailed sharply at the Fall Festival, for budgetary reasons. At the last Festival, almost 1/3 of the budget went to dances and dance workshops, which were sadly under attended. It’s not a sustainable model, and the committee feels it needs to refocus its investments. He’d like to consider ways to rebuild the dance component, but for this fall they’re planning only a contra-dance tune arrangement and performance workshop (which will serve as a band rehearsal) and then a contra-dance workshop (at which the band workshop participants will provide the music).

Newsletter

Carl recapped the information in his email report, and IN A LOUD VOICE, reminded everyone of the early deadline of July 7 this month. That’s only two days away…

He also mentioned two errors in the printed version of the July newsletter: the wrong starting time for the regular evening of music and the wrong location for the fourth Saturday evening of music. Jean is less concerned about the former, and Eddie has printed special post cards to alert people about the latter. (The electronic version of the newsletter included the second correction.)

Mike wondered what committee should be responsible for sending general member email updates like this, since not every committee has the technical capabilities. Membership chair Rick Thomas does, and agreed to support such efforts as necessary.

Swingin’ Tern

Gloria recapped the information in Connie’s email report, and hoped that everyone would come out to support the Tern Swings event at the end of July.

Special Concerts

Pam recapped the information in her email report. Tickets for Aztec Two-Step are on sale, and she still has some volunteer slots open.

Horses Sing None of It

Sandie didn’t have Internet access at Eddie’s, and couldn’t give us the details from Ralph’s report. However, she assumed we’ve all read it.

Merchandising

Reporting for the absent Robin Schaffer, Mark recapped her email report. He said Merchandising will have something new for the Minstrel Birthday Party, and intends to keep generating "limited edition" merchandise rather than going for one giant run of something that takes a year to sell out. He also confessed that while the committee is overflowing with clever marketing ideas, it faces an "artist deficit." If anyone knows someone who might like to generate artwork in support of Merchandising (using either the committee's ideas or coming up with some of their own), please send them Robin’s way.

Internal Affairs

Jean reported that we had a "lovely" Fourth of July party, and ran down the Evening of Music locations for the next few months. November and December are still open.

Sound Reinforcement

Bob was doing sound for the Kleiner-Pagan show two weeks ago, and discovered one of the casters on the cable cart was broken. He was going out of town on vacation, but thanks to the irrepressible Bill Henderson, that caster has already been replaced, as have those on the sound cart, for good measure. (Applause for Bill ensued.)

ADJOURNMENT

Respectfully submitted,

Recording Secretary