July 2012

The July 2012 Folk Project Board meeting was called to order at 8:12 pm on July 3, 2012 at the home of Joe and Laura Graziano in Wayne.

ROLL CALL

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

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

1) The Board voted “to accept Robin Schaffer’s resignation as chair of the Email Policy ad hoc committee and to appoint Lori Falco as its new chair.”

2) The Board voted “to make the ad hoc Email Policy Committee into a permanent standing committee and to change its name to Electronic Communications Committee”.

ADMINISTRATION

Secretary’s Report

The May minutes were approved as written. The June minutes approval was postponed to the August meeting due to an incomplete correction from Michael, who was absent.

Treasurer’s Report

In recapping her email report, Rachel told the Board that our checking account balance as of June 30 was $5,201.82 and the Money Market balance as of May 31 was $23,573.86. An extension was filed on our tax return, which is going out in the mail this week. The $16,000 check to Camp Bernie hasn’t been cashed yet because although she deposited funds to cover the check, they hadn’t cleared before the check was presented to the bank. It’s been taken care of and there are no charges. Rachel reported that she recorded the Filemaker Pro purchase in the Fixed Assets account reported in the Balance Sheet, rather than as a current expense on the Profit + Loss Statement. Several people said they would like to use the FP’s sales tax exemption ID when making FP purchases, so Eddie will send it to Sandie, Kevin, and to the secretary, who will add it to the FP wiki. [Secretary's note: it’s done. You can find it under "Key Documents".]

Interested Board members can look at the financials and run their own, customized reports, by logging in at QuickBooksOnline: https://qbo.intuit.com/c1/v34.125/0/login?redirect=true . If you don't have a login (or don't remember your password), contact Rachel and she can set you up.

Ad Hoc Email Policy Committee

Lori gave a summary of ongoing committee activity and reported that with John Lamb's and Allan’s help, she’s been working on a privacy policy as more and more FP communications move into Constant Contact. This committee crosses over many other committees and we all agreed that it’s important to have centralized, consistent communications policies and procedures.

Robin Schaffer, who started this committee, has submitted her resignation as she is now working on Festival Committee. Since she’s leaving, Lori has taken over and has been doing a tremendous amount of work. She stated that she was willing to chair the committee in Robin’s place, so Joe moved “to accept Robin Schaffer’s resignation as chair of the Email Policy ad hoc committee and to appoint Lori Falco as its new chair.” Sandie seconded and all voted in favor. “Welcome back to the Board, Lori!” said Eddie. And many thanks to Robin for getting this committee off the ground.

Then Sandie moved and Alan seconded “to elevate the committee to permanent status.” Discussion ensued. Pat wanted to amend the title to “Electronic Communications”, which met with general agreement. Allan thought it might be premature to make the committee permanent and questions were raised about how and when to create a committee. The secretary read aloud the relevant part of the Constitution and it was agreed that the motion to create a standing committee was valid. Sandie accepted an amendment from Lori to amend the motion “to make the ad hoc Email Policy Committee into a permanent standing committee and to change its name to Electronic Communications Committee.” The motion passed unanimously.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

Minstrel Staffing

Jean Scully just took over from Scooter this month. She and Mike are working with the new FileMaker software and he created a staffing database with an application that he discovered that works well for the committee’s needs. (See Mike's report, below.) She’s happy that several new volunteers have recently materialized, including 3 sound volunteers. There was discussion about sound workshops which in the past have been taught by Alison Goessling. Since she is a pro, Kevin would like to teach the newbies himself and only ask Alison to step in to work with Head Sound when needed. Jean has revived “The Book”, the volunteer book for people to sign up for jobs, and it will be at its old post at the Minstrel admissions desk.

There was no email report.

Swingin’ Tern

Leigh was absent, so Gloria recapped his email report. The booker, Dan Black, announced his resignation and 2 replacements were quickly found in the form of Suzanne Patnaude as booker and Xander Kastan as assistant booker. Dances are booked through January and the committee is planning all-day events with the AIS money. Allan said he hasn’t received any future publicity for the website from SnT.

Minstrel Booking

In Michael’s absence, Eddie recapped M’s email report. The so-so attendance for Beppe Gambetta was offset by the crowd who showed up for Carla Ulbrich. Headliners are fully booked through the end of the year with a strong lineup for July, including Mike himself.

The average paid attendance for June was 79.8, up from 65.3 last June, with an average paid attendance of 95.7 over the past 12 months, up from 85.1 for the previous 12 months. Minstrel is $2,870 in the black for the past 12 months but $330 in the red for the month of June, mostly from the annual ASCAP fee of $245.

With his copious free time, Mike created a database with new FileMaker software for the Minstrel Staffing Committee to keep track of volunteers. Two copies were purchased and installed on Jean Scully’s and Amy Livingston’s computers. Mike expects them to be bug-free and operational by next month and then volunteer calls will go out via Constant Contact instead of the current Yahoo Group. A welcome feature of the new database is that it will generate an upcoming Minstrel calendar showing volunteer positions with blank spaces for the unfilled positions. Rachel capitalized the software purchase price of $363, therefore it doesn’t show up as part of the Minstrel budget.

MUUF again asked Mike to help them secure a headliner for their upcoming SCAN 2013 concert. In the process of booking Christine Lavin for MUUF, he also booked her for the Minstrel. He’s still waiting to hear from Richard Shindell for a possible February Special Concert.

Internal Affairs

Jean’s still looking for a location for November’s Evening of Music. The July one is at the home of Kathy Callahan and Tom Rodgers. There was no email report.

Publicity

Nancy is still recovering, so Eddie recapped her email report. Lori is working with Allan and John Lamb to move the MinstrelGram into Constant Contact. The FP’s Facebook page had an amazing 1,025 unique viewers for the week ending 6/26/12. The committee continued to cover approximately six dozen outlets. And Nancy thanked everyone who called and emailed following her recent fall.

Email Policy Committee – an ad hoc committee (old name, old status)

Electronic Communications Committee – standing committee (new name, new status)

Referring to her email report, Lori said that using Constant Contact for Festival and Festival Survey worked out well. In future, Monthly newsletter notifications will continue to be sent (to alert members that the latest newsletter is available) and the MinstrelGram will move to CC. She’s working on sending members multiple notices when they’re about to expire so they don’t expire accidentally. She sent renewal notices to everyone who expired in the past 2 years: 43% opened the email and 20% clicked on links to the membership form. This is an excellent result and proves its marketing value.

Carl expressed concern that he sent out 60 fewer paper newsletters this month and wondered about the fall-off. Eddie replied that he’s working with Scott to close gaps between members, lapsed members, no-longer-members, and members who have switched to email newsletters.

Allan Kugel, Mike A. and John Lamb are working on the Minstrel mailings, and Special Concerts is in the mix, too. If any committee needs to send an email blast, this is the way to go.

Eddie sees this as an important way to grow our FP brand and expressed satisfaction with the direction that this newly-permanent committee is headed.

Festival

Mark and Robin sent greetings from Nova Scotia, so Eddie recapped their email report: pre-registration is open for fall festival and improvements are being made based on the spring fest wrap-up meeting and comments on the surveys.

Membership

Scott was absent, so Eddie recapped his email report. There are currently 318 memberships representing 483 individuals. Rick Thomas may have moved to Washington State but he’s still helping out with Membership and Scott acknowledged his input. A non-renewal list was generated, which Lori used to email lapsed members, as mentioned above.

Newsletter

Carl recapped his email report, stating that 400 paper copies were printed for a cost of $253. He stated that it didn’t work out to have Staples (the printer) do the stapling and folding. The Board indicated general satisfaction that this month's newsletters were sent out on time and received by the end of the month.

Community Services

Joe recapped his email report and said he’s reaching out to expired members who are still on the performers’ list and asking them to re-up if they want to remain on the list.

Horses

Sandie gave big props to Dave Kleiner for uploading numerous shows to YouTube, enabling those without local cable to see these wonderful shows. He’ll be uploading more shows as Ralph sends them. The email report is here.

Merchandising

Gloria reported nothing new but when she asked whether we should pay tax on the relatively small amount of sales we make, the response turned into a discussion about sales tax and when and how to pay it. Several Board members remembered (former president and secretary) Chris Riemer looking into this question in the past and they suggested asking for his input. Gloria will research and get back to the Board. There was no email report.

Sound Reinforcement

Kevin reported a “lazy month”. He’s now working on the Hyde and Watson grant application, which is due on Sept. 15. There was no email report.

Special Concerts

In Howie’s absence, Eddie reported that Trout Fishing in America is booked for Friday, Dec. 28 at MUUF, in lieu of the Minstrel. Advance tickets will be $17 and door tickets $20. The email report is here.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 pm. Next month’s meeting will be on August 7 at Schaffers’ in Rockaway.

Respectfully submitted,

Lindsey Meyer, Secretary