January 2012

The January 2012 Folk Project Board meeting was held on January 3, 2012 at the home of Nancy Dugan and George Leszczuk in Madison. Many new members were welcomed to the Board and the atmosphere was seasonally festive.

ROLL CALL

Present were Pat Brangs, Lois DeRitter, Nancy Dugan, Alan Kugel, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Bob McNally, Ed Roffman, and Bobbie Rosengarten (Trustees); Mike Agranoff, Scooter Ferguson, Gloria Friedman, Howie Goldman, Joe Graziano, Nancy Kelner, Lindsey Meyer, Kevin Redden, Sandy Reilly, Pam Robinson, Scott Ross, Mark Schaffer, Robin Schaffer, Jean Scully, and Rachel Streich (Other Board Members); and Bill Cox, George Leszczuk, Lori Falco and Rick Thomas (Guests). Absent were Carl Croce, Jim Gartner, and Leigh Walker.

As there were so many new faces on the Board, Eddie began the meeting by asking us to introduce ourselves and tell what we want out of the FP. One of his goals as president is to involve more young families in the Project.

ADMINISTRATION

Secretary’s Report

Following Lindsey’s read-aloud of minor corrections already made online by outgoing secretary Chris Riemer, the Board accepted the minutes. Pam moved, Mike seconded.

Treasurer’s Report

Rachel reported a positive balance for the year of $2,677.40. In response to a request from Mike Agranoff, she made a change to the P & L (Profit & Loss) Statement: Bob Safranek’s purchase of Minstrel mic cables was moved from an “expense” in the Minstrel “Maintenance and Repair” account to an “increase” in the Fixed Assets account. This moved the expenditure from the P&L to the Balance Sheet. In addition, a $200 software expense that was entered by Rick on a Minstrel tally sheet was moved by Rachel to the Membership fund.

Interested parties can look at the financials and run their own, customized reports, by logging in at QuickBooksOnline. If you don't have a login (or don't remember your password), contact Rachel and she can set you up.

Meeting Locations

Ed passed around a sign-up sheet for 2012 meeting hosts. He pointed out that the meetings are all on the first Tuesday except for November, when Election Day moves us to the 2^nd Tuesday.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

Membership

Rick reported that we have 358 memberships representing 545 individuals and that he’s working on a smooth transfer of duties to incoming chair Scott Ross. Recapping his email report, Rick said he purchased FileMaker Pro software for the FP for $200 because it’s useful for ad hoc reporting such as changes to memberships and is compatible with both Mac (which Scott owns) and PC. Mike offered to help Scott with the software

Scott asked the Board for guidance on confidentiality such as what restrictions there are or should be on access to the membership contact list and how to respond to people who ask for access, including FP members. Discussion ensued, ranging from privacy to computer security to musician networking. Ed said the Board policy is not to share the list with the general public. Bob suggested an opt-in/opt-out choice for members. Lindsey said that the easiest way to avoid awkwardness over requests would be to simply state the policy. Due to the level of interest and complexity of the topic, Ed tabled it for future discussion and clarified to Scott that he’s in charge of the committee. Scott replied that he’s not in favor of distributing the list outside of the Board and “I know where you all live,” which elicited an outburst of laughter from the Board.

Festival

Updating his email report, Mark said that over 130 people are pre-registered out of a maximum of 180 guests. Due to the popularity of Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, he expects to sell out to all-weekend attendees with no openings left for day passes. Referring to past experience of attendees leaving on Sunday morning before the final concert, Mark stated: “The heart of the Festival is the attendees. Our goal isn’t to get performers to stay all weekend, the goal is to keep attendees all weekend.” To this end, he announced that Shockenaw Mountain Boys will play the Sunday concert with Jay and Molly, eliciting applause and approval by the Board. SMB would play only that concert, no workshops. Dance band Annie and the Hedonists will play Friday-Sunday, and FP performers are Matt Broady and Julie Edelston.

Echoing Ed’s goal to bring more families into the Project, Robin said they are focusing on ways to attract young people to Festival, especially families with young children. She pointed out that 50% of Festival attendees only come once. She and Mark are working with MUUF because they have a strong family outreach. Robin and Mark want to pull in families before the Festival news gets out to Jay & Molly’s and Shockenaw’s fan lists. Scooter suggested keeping 20 or so tickets for family members of Shockenaw. Mark gave much Committee credit to Robin, saying “This Festival, I feel like I’m holding onto Wonder Woman’s cape.” Next Festival meeting is at Schaffers’ on Jan. 24 at 8 pm and is open to all.

Minstrel Bookings

Mike reported that in 2011, the average paid attendance for regular shows was 90.7. The average for all shows was 77.2, which includes open stages and the birthday show, etc. where part of the audience count included unpaid performers.

The Minstrel is $2,780 in the black for 2011 (that is door admissions only). excluding monies taken in for non-Minstrel activities (such as memberships and special concerts tix). December’s average audience was 136 with $417 in the black.

In addition to Mike's email report of 2012 bookings to date, upcoming shows of note are Feb. 24 with Rich Deans as main act, Aquaria playing trad music from Sicily will open for Beppe Gambetta, Vance Gilbert on Jan. 20, and Archie Fisher on Feb. 17. The Phil Ochs movie night on May 3^rd will be followed by a Q&A with his sister, Sonny Ochs. The movie starts at 8 pm, although several people suggested starting at 7:30, as it is a work night.

Mike anticipates MUUF will be getting WiFi since he made them happy by getting Frank Vignola to play for SCAN on Jan. 28. WiFi will allow head staff to send tally sheets directly on concert nights rather than saving data to flash drives. This will be more efficient and safer, since a flash drive with Minstrel data was once lost before transfer to computer. Rick voiced security concerns about opening Minstrel computer to WiFi access. Scooter suggested using iPad since no one has ever hacked into an iPad. He said that memory stick’s technology is an “unnecessary pain in the ass” which led to various suggestions from the assemblage about abacuses and wooden sticks with notches.

Discussion ensued about how to best handle turn-aways when Minstrel is sold out, as happened at the Dugan’s Hooligan’s Farewell Concert. Staff was very responsive, helping to seat people and giving out free passes for future concerts. Perhaps the Cotillion Singers (opening act) should have been asked not to sit in the audience, which would have freed up some seats.

Minstrel Staffing

Scooter expressed thanks to Pam, Rick, and Bob for taking over for him at the Hooligan’s concert when a family emergency called him home. Mark praised the adaptability and pleasantness of the staff when faced with the sell-out concert. Staff gave out free passes to those who weren’t able to get in and Nancy D. suggested keeping a reserve of free passes at the front desk in case this happens in future. In clarifying the tally procedure, Rick said we should count “Two for One’s” the same as “Second Time Free”.

Newsletter

Carl was absent but here is his email report . 291 newsletters were mailed out along with 10 sent to the Morris Council of the Arts. Several people requested that the paper newsletter be mailed out earlier and some said they still haven’t received this month’s NL.

Publicity

Nancy K. expanded on her email report, telling us that NJ Monthly and Princeton Online eNewsletter have both listed FP events and the Daily Record listed Swingin’ Tern as a “Top 10” place to go on New Year’s Eve (applause from the group). Inaccuracies continue on the ACMA calendar even with correction feedback from Nancy. She’s making a chart of all publicity outlets and their due dates and encourages good will by sending thank you emails to media who post our listings. Ed mentioned the value of Tweeting to reach out to new people and said that people were Tweeting at the Minstrel prior to the Hooligans concert.

Most of the web work in December involved Festival and prep for moving MinstrelGram to Constant Contact. According to Pam, 507 people “Like” our Facebook page and last week’s posts reached 233 people.

Swingin’ Tern

165 people attended the New Year’s Eve dance with a paid attendance of 123. Leigh was absent sent this email report.

Special Concerts

Howie recapped his email report and told us that 7 people have volunteered for the committee and he’s looking for more. He’s planning to do performer outreach, is considering holding Special Concerts on Friday nights in place of Minstrels, and is looking for crew for concert logistics and ticketing. His first meeting as chair will be on January 16^th to discuss volunteers’ roles, performers, and house concerts. Lindsey reported that her upcoming Jan. 7 house concert with Peter Spencer still has tickets for sale, which triggered a flurry of purchases.

Community Service

Adding to Pat Brangs' email report, Bobbie and Pam informed us that Donna Hunt’s dad and Melanie Axel-Lute’s dad both died recently and Mark said that a group of people with disabilities, the Aktion Club of Denville, will reschedule their benefit concert featuring Folk Project performers

HSNOI

All’s well. Here's the email report.

Merchandising

Gloria recapped her email report and told us she just sold her first Tee shirt, prompting a “yay” from the group. She’s ordering magnetic versions of bumper stickers and likes Bob’s idea of die-cut guitar pick business cards. Ed reminded us that FP merch is for publicity, not profit.

Internal Affairs

Jean reported that a lovely time was had by all at the Halloween party at Judy Hagan’s house. The Heilbruns will host February and there’s a host for November but she needs hosts for the rest of the year. If your house can hold 30-40 people, please consider hosting. The parties usually begin at 8 pm and the end time is up to the host. Ed volunteered to host Jan. and Lindsey volunteered for a month TBD.

Sound Reinforcement

Kevin installed a light on the mixing board to help the sound staff see the knobs and sliders. Pam gave Kevin a heads-up that MUUF will borrow the sound system for the SCAN concert. Pat added that we also loan the system for Wayne Day and Waynestock. A qualified FP member always goes with the system if it’s loaned.

APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE

In light of Rick and Cathy Thomas’ upcoming move to Washington State, Rick received a hearty thank you and a round of applause from the crowd.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 10:05 pm and was followed by The Good of the Order. Next month’s meeting is on February 7 at the home of Pam Robinson and Bob Safranek in New Providence.

Respectfully submitted,

Lindsey Meyer

Recording Secretary