Publicity Report

6/5/11

Publicity Committee Report June 2011

From Webmaster John Lamb:

The website has settled into a more-or-less steady routine, with most of the issues caused by the change of design and change of hosts now under control. Events are (mostly) being entered by their respective coordinators, with only occasional tweaks required by the website developers. Past events find their way off the site and new ones find their way on by means of a (mostly) automated process. The design of the site made it very easy to turn off PayPal sales for Za Zu Zaz and put up a "Sold Out" notice on several pages once it became a full house. We have accomplished the goals of getting online the history of the Minstrel back into the '70s and of captioning the Projections photos. We have begun work on improvements to the Swingin' Tern page and await details from the Festival Committee that will allow us to rebuild the Festival portion of the website. In the long term, we may investigate the free services provided to non-profits by Google to augment or replace some of the services provided by our current web host. Many thanks to Allan Kugel and Lori Falco for their work and to Cathy Thomas for the occasional consult. As always, we welcome comments, concerns, and suggestions for improvement. If there is anyone with a legitimate need for an email address @folkproject.org, either a full-fledged mailbox or a forwarder that redirects mail to a different address, please send a request to webmaster@folkproject.org.

From Publicity Chairman Nancy Kelner:

The publicity committee shrunk by two members this past month. Cathy Ballard asked to be removed because Life is just too hectic right now and Alice Weimer decided that after many years, it was time for someone else to handle performer photos. Alice will continue to assist the Folk Project by handling head staff duties at the Minstrel.

Sent info to Aztec Two-Step’s PR person, at her request, about publicity outlets that may do interviews. Spoke to Melanie Thiel, Director of Development at WNTI, about the possibility of them interviewing any of our Minstrel performers. She said they’re more likely to interview a national performer than a local performer; hence, they’d be very interested in Aztec Two-Step. I let the PR person know that.

The June 17 and 24 Minstrels were printed in NJ Family magazine, Union County issue. This is the first time I’ve seen us in the Union County issue. Sent a thank-you email to our contact there.

Discovered the Black River Journal, a magazine about the towns and events in the Chester area. Emailed them and asked about listing our events, but no reply yet.

We are all mini-ambassadors for The Folk Project – if you’ve ever wanted to be a “mini” anything, here’s your chance! Carry FP business cards, talk about it at garage sales and anywhere else you can think of!

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