December 2012

Secretary's Note: Readers should understand that this evening actually features two meetings: The Annual General Meeting (which provides a year-in-review perspective and an opportunity to elect Directors for the following year), followed by the December Business Meeting (a brief and usually pro-forma session that lets us address any pressing issues).

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The meeting was called to order at 8:18 pm on December 4, 2012 in a dining room in the Chimney Rock Inn, in Gillette. Most attendees had just partaken of a delicious dinner together and the mood was festive.

ROLL CALL

Present were Pat Brangs, Lois DeRitter, Jim Gartner, Allan Kugel, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Bob McNally, Eddie Roffman, Bobbie Rosengarten, and Bob Safranek (Trustees); Mike Agranoff, Lori Falco, Gloria Friedman, Joe Graziano, Nancy Kelner, Lindsey Meyer, Pam Robinson, Kevin Redden, Sandie Reilly, Scott Ross, Mark Schaffer, Robin Schaffer, Jean Scully, Rachel Streich, (Other Board Members). Absent were Carl Croce, Howie Goldman, and Leigh Walker.

Guests included Barry Bontempo, Joanne Cronin, Christine DelVecchio, Mike DelVecchio, Marilyn Feldran, Scooter Ferguson, Jennifer Fischer, Bill Henderson, Gary Kazin, Grover Kemble, Mark Levanda, Robin Roffman, and Barrett Wilson.

ADMINISTRATION

Treasurer’s Report

Rachel reported the checking account balance as of November 30, 2012 was about $6,250 and the Money Market account balance as of July 31, 2012 was about $23,600. The approximately $92,100 in the Agranoff Endowment represents an increase of 13.68% from the November 30, 2011 balance, and an increase of 24.42% over the initial balance in April 2008. The email report is here.

Eddie thanked Rachel and reminded us that beyond monetary funds, the Folk Project’s most important currency is the volunteering, sharing, and music we create together. He then passed around the Staples tax exempt number for anyone who needs it for the other kind of currency.

REPORTS OF THE STANDING COMMITTEES

Minstrel Booking

Recapping his email yearly and monthly report, Mike told us the Minstrel held 46 shows in 2012, with an average attendance for regular shows of 91.4 over last year’s 87.0. The net profit of $1,804 was much lower than last year, owing to the rent increase and the rise in performer guarantees as he’s hired bigger name acts. Due to the rent increase, the door price will rise to $8 on January 1. Mike has been adding Miinstrel content to the FP webpage directly, rather than through John Lamb, with photos added by the Publicity Committee, and that’s working out well. He thanked Lori Falco, Allan Kugel, and John Lamb for moving the MinstrelGram to Constant Contact. The MUUF congregation appears to be staying put, so he’s in consultation with them about installing permanent sound gear.

In brief: The Phil Ochs movie night was a success. The Twofer flopped. The Post-Minstrel gatherings aren’t working so well. There was good Birthday Show involvement. Two shows cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. Four acts entered the “Comma Club”, each earning over $1,000 in fees.

Great upcoming shows include Rory Block, Christine Lavin, and Pat Donoghue, who was just booked today.

Minstrel Staffing

Jean told us 6 or so new people have signed up recently but she still needs more. It’s difficult to find people to staff the kitchen because people don’t want to miss the show. She cited Sandie Reilly for making “vast improvements” and Amy Livingston for her “tremendous amount of day-to-day” work and said she “could not do this without her.”

She asked us to be more friendly and talk to people we don’t know at Minstrel and said she’s making an effort to ask people about themselves. There was no email report.

Festival

Mark recapped his email yearly and monthly report. The committee produced two festivals in 2012, made money, and his and Robin’s marriage survived (applause all around). They made almost $2,000 plus $2,672 from the Agranoff Endowment = $5,285 profit. Next year, some of this will be used to hire performers. Donations from members and a generous “mystery donor” allowed families and those less fortunate to attend.

This year, Festival moved to Camp Bernie, where it will remain for 2013. Coming soon: a concert stage and schedule changes that will limit the distances people have to lug instruments. In the ongoing search for a more ideal location, they’re looking for something “at least 20% better”. He recounted the amazing list of this year’s performers which included our newest Board member, Grover Kemble.

He said Festival is “really a FP-run deal”, not just the committee and that at least a third of attendees volunteer in some way. He credited Pat Brangs and Elizabeth Lachowicz for their extraordinary planning assistance and invited all who are interested to attend Festival meetings. They’re “looking for solutions” for the contradance and skit. Upcoming festivals are on Memorial Day and Columbus Day weekends (May 24-26 and Oct.11-13) .

Special Concerts

In Howie’s absence, Eddie read his email monthly report and said “buy TFIA tickets!”

Swingin’ Tern

The email monthly report is here. Eddie said S&T had competition with other dances in the fall but they’re holding their own. In answer to Mike’s request for financial figures, Eddie reminded him and all Board members that they’re available on QuickBooks. (Rachel then gave Mike a spreadsheet.)

Publicity

Nancy thanked her committee: Alice Weimer, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Joanne Cronin, John Lamb, Mike Mitsch, Pam Robinson, Pat Brangs, and Karen Justin and reviewed highlights of 2012 from her email yearly report.

1) Website: the web team’s greatest accomplishment was moving MinstrelGram over to Constant Contact and Nancy noted that the website stayed up during Hurricane Sandy.

2) Facebook: Pam Robinson became the administrator of the FB page, which has been seen in 9 languages and is reaching far beyond our membership. For instance, in the week ending June 26, the FB page and related stories were seen by 1,025 unique viewers. The page has been “liked” over 600 times.

3) Media, etc.: Information is being sent to approximately 6 dozen media outlets. New this year is a FP press pass for journalists and DJs in addition to a flyer about Horses Sing None of It, created by Sandie Reilly.

Mike added that if anyone’s having trouble getting the MinstrelGram, they should let him know.

Community Services

Joe said all is well. His email monthly report is here.

Newsletter

Eddie said he receives newsletters from 3 other folk groups and ours is best! There was no report.

Membership

Referring to his email yearly report, Scott echoed Rick Thomas’s “We have members!” and thanked Rick for getting him into this. He noted that the Filemaker database contains 1,266 member records, which is up by 62 since January 2012. These numbers go back to the time when Pam last purged the records when she was Membership Chair.

The current roster shows 502 listings, although that number includes couples and families. Of this number, 207 receive paper newsletters and 295 receive the e-newsletter. We have members in 15 states, including 8 people in Florida.

Horses Sing None of It

Sandie told us they’ve taped an incredible 558 shows over the past 28 years. April Verch was the most notable performer this year and she did it for free. Sandie noted that HSNOI represents our FP community to the world and is seen by viewers from Germany to Australia. She thanked Nancy for the leaflets this year and gave a huge thank you to Dave Kleiner for uploading 200+ shows (so far) to YouTube, which have received 4,000 views since June. If we can’t get it on our cable TV channels, we should call and request it because cable is public access. Scooter compared the HSNOI collection to NPR’s inventory. Eddie gave a shout-out to Ralph Litwin, who has volunteered for 26 years. The HSNOI monthly report is here.

Merchandising

Gloria reported that they began the year with $1,351 in inventory and ended with $957. Sales totaled $657, mostly via Carol Titus at Festival. Gloria said they’re getting a computer program to help with the bookkeeping and noted they need to sell off inventory before buying more. The undersized “Play Much?” Tee shirts will be reduced to $5. The yearly report is here.

Internal Affairs

Jean told us that the Evening of Music has lost 4 party hosts, including Heilbruns and Thomas’s, so she’s looking for new hosts. So far, only September has been booked for 2013. Thanks to Eddie and Robin Roffman for hosting the Bonus Evening of Music and the July 4 picnic. She also thanked Mark for running the well-attended Valentine’s Show and reminded us that the holiday party is this Saturday at the Schaffers’. There was no email report.

Sound Reinforcement

Recapping his yearly email report, Kevin reviewed the major changes this year. The severe noise problem that affected the Finest Kind performance was found to be a bad mic cable that was subsequently replaced. Among other improvements, they upgraded the power amp at Minstrel to one that was more powerful and lighter in weight. The biggest work item for the year was the preparation of the Hyde and Watson Foundation grant request which, unfortunately, they didn’t receive. Looking into next year, they’re starting discussions with MUUF concerning sound system enhancements. Due to a promotion at work, Kevin is stepping down as committee chair. The Board congratulated him and thanked him for his service.

Electronic Communications

Lori reviewed the very busy year of the newest FP committee. By shifting communications to Constant Contact (a subscription software program), the committee “brought all FP communications under one roof.” She quoted some pretty impressive statistics, which are available in her yearly email report, including almost 3,000 contacts with an average “open rate” of almost 30%. In response to a question by Bob McNally, she stated that the MinstrelGram goes to over 1,200 people weekly, Swingin’ Tern notices go to 500, and Festival ones go to 500. She thanked Robin Schaffer, Allan Kugel, John Lamb, Liz Pagan, and Mike Agranoff for their help during the year.

NEW BUSINESS - ELECTIONS

Formation of the 2013 Board

Eddie began by explaining the election process as laid out in the FP Constitution. There are three parts of the election: trustees are elected by the general membership, then officers are elected by the trustees, then committee chairs are elected by the Board. In October, a Nominations Committee was formed to field a slate of recommended candidates. Nominations are also accepted from the floor, although there were none this evening.

Trustee Election: The FP has 9 trustees, with 3 year terms that overlap, so 3 trusteeships expire every year. For trustee positions through 2015, Joanne Cronin and Barrett Wilson were nominated to replace Pat Brangs and Bob Safranek, who chose to step down. Bob McNally was nominated to continue for another term. This year, there were also two openings for 1-year terms, due to resignations by Bobbie Rosengarten and Eddie Roffman. Lindsey Meyer and Grover Kemble were recommended to complete their terms. All five recommended candidates were elected by acclamation by the general membership.

Officer Election: The trustees then elected the officers. (The president must be a trustee; president and treasurer are limited to 2 consecutive terms.) This year, both president Eddie and treasurer Rachel Streich were term limited. Elizabeth Lachowicz and Bill Henderson (respectively) were nominated to replace them. Secretary Lindsey Meyer stepped down and Rachel Streich was nominated to replace her. All 3 candidates were elected by acclamation.

Committee Chair Election: Following this vote, new committee chairs were elected by the newly elected Board of Directors, consisting of 9 trustees, 3 officers (the president counts as a trustee), and committee chairs. In the case of co-chairmanship, each co-chair is eligible to vote. Most of the current committee chairs had agreed to continue. Changes included Eddie Roffman & Carl Croce nominated to replace Scott Ross as membership co-chairs, Pat Brangs nominated to replace Carl Croce as newsletter chair, Mike DelVecchio nominated to replace Kevin Redden as sound chair, and Scooter Ferguson nominated to replace Howie Goldman as special concerts chair. The slate was elected by acclamation.

Recognition and Appreciation

After the election, president Eddie said, “Imagine an organization that produces about 150 activities each year with only volunteers: 50 Minstrels, 24 Swingin’ Terns, 3 Special Concerts, 28 TV shows, 6 days of Festival, 24 Evenings of Music, 12 Board meetings, and a holiday party. It’s amazing how we do that – and we have fun doing it!” He concluded by saying, “Each of you is a vital part of this organization.” New president Elizabeth then thanked Eddie for his presidency, which triggered a standing ovation, with strains of “Hail to the Chief” flowing about the room.

ADJOURNMENT

The Annual Meeting was adjourned at 9:40 pm.

THE MONTHLY BUSINESS MEETING

The December business meeting was called to order at 9:41 pm.

Secretary’s Report

The November minutes were accepted as written.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:43. The January meeting will be at Gloria Friedman’s in Florham Park.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lindsey Meyer

Recording Secretary