September 2011

OPENING CEREMONIES

The meeting was called to order at 8:12 PM on September 6, at the Highland Park home of Cecilia Rowedder and Allan Kugel. It was a dark and stormy night, with heavy rain, terrible traffic and memories of Hurricane Irene only a few days old. Hence the late start.

Roll Call

Present were Lois DeRitter, Jim Gartner, Allan Kugel, Ed Roffman, Bobbie Rosengarten and Ellen Schwartz (Trustees), Mike Agranoff, Pat Brangs, Carl Croce, Chris Riemer, Pam Robinson, Bob Safranek, Robin Schaffer, Rachel Streich, Rick Thomas and Leigh Walker (Other Board Members), and Diane Goodheart, Evelyn Maurer and Mark Schaffer (Guests). Absent were Nancy Dugan, Gloria Friedman, Scooter Ferguson, Nancy Kelner, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Bob McNally, Sandie Reilly and Jean Scully.

Secretary’s Report

There was one correction to the minutes for August: Nancy Kelner believes it was actually Gloria Friedman, not Nancy herself, who mentioned that Doug Heacock was working on a dance flyer aimed at college students. The minutes were approved as amended.

Treasurer’s Report

As of August 31, our checking account balance was about $10,000, with $23,400 in the Money Market “We’re doing well,” said Rachel.

Rick Thomas asked if we had enough cash to cover a possible catastrophic loss at Festival. Assuming this would be no more than $25,000, we can handle it. We have the operating account, the Money Market and also the Agranoff Endowment in reserve.

On a related topic, Pam mentioned that she spent some time working directly in QuickBooks On-Line, analyzing Special Concerts data. She particularly liked being able to generate little pie charts, and found it both easy to use and very informative. All the Directors should make an effort to look at the numbers this way. (It’s the only way Mike looks at them, in fact. He only uses Rachel’s email as a notification that the database is ready. Then he runs his own reports.)

BUSINESS ITEMS

Folk Project Email Communications

The first item of business tonight was a review and discussion of Robin Schaffer’s ad-hoc committee report, presenting the team’s findings and recommendations in the area of electronic communications.

Eddie let us know he had two goals for tonight. He wanted everyone to have an opportunity to ask questions and clarify anything they didn’t understand, and then hoped to get a general statement of support for continued development. (That is, he didn’t want people to use this meeting as a brainstorming session, which would be more appropriate in a smaller group.) Much discussion ensued though, and it fell into several categories.

• • On the question of scope, several people disagreed with the committee’s recommendation to leave the volunteer lists out of the mix for now. Mike felt Scooter was not fully satisfied with the Minstrel’s Yahoo Groups approach and Evelyn thought Constant Contact would be a good tool for managing the Performer Resource List, which Pat Brangs now handles with a spreadsheet.

  • On the question of functionality, it was confirmed that Constant Contact can find and eliminate duplicates, allow individuals to subscribe to multiple lists, support single or double opt-in protocols, allow for a self-service approach to contact detail administration and keep subscribers from seeing email addresses other than their own. Ultimately, there will be a page at folkproject.org, at which people will be able to submit their email addresses and sign up for various communications options. Allan’s questions as to whether you could submit multiple emails (send Swingin’ Tern mail here and Minstrel mail there) or opt for text-only emails was left unanswered, as was Leigh’s question about local backups of the Constant Contact data. Robin will investigate and report back next month.

  • On the question of message formats, Mike was opposed to the idea of including “other Project activities” information as a sidebar in our message templates. He would prefer that whatever replaces his Minstrel Gram deal only with the Minstrel, since he regards any additional content as clutter.

  • On the question of operations, several people felt the role of Email Communications Manager was important enough to warrant a seat on the board, but it didn’t have to be that way if the person in question didn’t want to attend the meetings. Others felt there should be two, or even three expert users with Constant Contact access, so we can cover any absences.

  • On the question of policy, Ed Roffman felt we should have a formal privacy statement. Andy Koenig had advised against this (in emails to Robin), believing it’s better to have no policy than to have one we can’t really enforce. Robin agreed to put something of this nature in writing, and run it by our pro-bono legal advisors.

After these points were made, the Board expressed its support for Robin’s team with a hearty round of applause. And Eddie reiterated a point he’s made before: raising the bar for our electronic communications is probably the most important thing we can do this year to help grow The Folk Project.

ACMA Grant Submission

Diane Goodheart was on hand to answer questions related to the ACMA grant she prepared (and submitted) last month. There were none, and Eddie is hoping for a good outcome in October. He’ll also scan the final grant paperwork and provide a PDF file that can be stored in the back office for future reference. Diane added that if we continue to apply for grants in the future, it might be better to come up with a team approach. Perhaps even formalize an email group alias, such as grantwriting@folkproject.org.

Chris pointed out that we should probably try to keep The Story As Told by the Grant in synch with The Story as Told by GuideStar, since the same audience might be looking at both. Eddie agreed, and he’ll make that happen in the next 30 days.

Swingin’ Tern Leadership

Leigh Walker has agreed to take on the job of Swingin’ Tern chair, having had a month to think it over. Bob Safranek was happy to nominate him, and with a second from Allan, he was elected by acclimation.

Welcome aboard, Leigh.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Festival

Summarizing his email report, Carl thinks we’re on track for a great festival, even though the registration numbers are not quite what he’d like to see at F-minus-24 days. He thanked Mark Schaffer, who’s been "working day and night," as well as Barb Moo and Lori Falco. He also asked the Board’s help in addressing his one concern. He’s heard that some of our “old guard” members have decided not to attend, because they’re not happy with how we’ve been treated by Fairview Star Lake. He’d like to dispel any such rumor, and assured the group that there’s no conflict in our relationship with the camp.

Mark added his personal thanks to the “old crew,” which has been very supportive of the newbies who are running the event this fall. “You are the wind beneath our wings,” said Mark. He also felt that until ten days ago, when the economy seemed to take a tumble, the Festival numbers were slightly ahead of normal. He attributes some of the fall-off to a general decline in consumer confidence.

However, Mark also conceded that his Open Stage outreach idea doesn't seem to be working since it hasn’t generated the increase in first timer attendance he’d expected. Advice and suggestions are welcome. He’s happy that we decided to keep Festival alive, and is hopeful that we may still see a burst of interest in the next three weeks.

In general discussion, Lois thought the Open Stage Outreach was a "brilliant" idea, which shouldn’t be discredited because of a bad economy. Diane agreed.

Mike was unhappy that the committee hasn’t set a date for a Spring 2012 Festival. He’s started to accept bookings in this period, and that may mean he’ll miss one of our own festivals for the first time in Folk Project history. Mark explained that since we may take a big loss in Fall 2011, there may be no Festival next Spring. He thinks it would be better to wait a month than to schedule one and cancel it.

Newsletter

Carl recapped the information in his email report, and offered a special thanks to Rick Thomas, who replied to a phone call about a lost PDF, even though he was vacationing in the Pacific Northwest.

Pam asked that something be done with how telephone numbers are printed in the newsletter. She’s gotten calls about the Minstrel schedule, and believes it’s because her number is relatively visible and Mike’s number is in teeny, tiny type.

Minstrel Booking

Mike recapped the information in his email report. August was a month with low average attendance, and only one “regular” show, but we finished about $60 in the black. The upcoming Phil Ochs Song Night will be preceded by a showing of the Phil Ochs movie, hosted by Phil’s sister Sonny.

Mark also gave a special plug for Ilusha Tsinadze, who’ll be bringing his Georgian fusion band to the Minstrel on September 23.

Minstrel Staffing

No report from the absent Scooter Ferguson.

Publicity

No report from the absent Nancy Kelner, beyond that submitted via email.

Pam added that 472 people now “like” our page on Facebook. Ellen suggested that once our Electronic Communications sign-up page is ready at folkproject.org, we should add its URL to our Facebook profile information. Another good way to help get the word out.

Membership

Per Rick’s earlier email, he’ll be forwarding us a report in a week or so, once he sorts out his remaining post-hurricane power and Internet issues.

Community Services

Pat summarized the information in her earlier email.

Swingin’ Tern

Leigh summarized the information in his earlier email. Rick noted that Leigh hadn’t been a Folk Project member prior to accepting this seat on the board, although he has been active in the dance for several years. Given this observation, should we be doing something more to try to engage dancers in the larger organization?

Leigh isn’t sure what could be done. The relationship is explained at every dance, but it may be that people who are primarily interested in dancing don’t see any reason to become Folk Project members. He’s not sure why. (Mike added that you probably see more Swingin Tern regulars at Minstrel than vice versa.) Leigh also credits the “extraordinarily persuasive” Connie Crawford for his decision to take on the dance chair.

Special Concerts

Pam recapped the information from her email report. She added that an analysis of the Aztec Two Step survey responses has provided the top four answers to the “how did you hear about this concert” question: the Folk Project Website (17), a friend (16), announcement at the Minstrel (13) and the performer’s Website (10). Interesting.

Robin Schaffer added an impassioned plug for the upcoming Raina Rose house concert.

Horses Sing None of It

No report from the absent Sandie Reilly (who sent her regrets), other than that submitted by Ralph via email. Eddie thinks we should really try to take advantage of the video training opportunity that Horses has made available. “Careers have been launched that way,” he said! You don't need to volunteer for every show in order to qualify, and if we get enough trainees, Cablevision will offer a class just for Folk Project people.

Merchandising

Robin has lots of stuff ready for Festival, including a classy new water bottle. She plans to talk to Doug Heacock in his role as Swingin’ Tern Marketing Advisor, to see if she can procure S&T branded items for the dance.

Internal Affairs

No report from the absent Jean Scully, beyond that submitted via email.

Sound Reinforcement

“Hi,” says Bob.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:57. Next month’s meeting is October 4th, at the home of Pam Robinson and Bob Safranek, in New Providence.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Riemer

Recording Secretary