November 2012

The November 2012 Folk Project Board meeting was called to order at 8:04 pm on November 13, 2012 at the home of Pam Robinson and Bob Safranek in New Providence. Although the meeting was originally pushed back one week to avoid Election Day, the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy would have blown it back anyway.

ROLL CALL

Present were Pat Brangs, Lois DeRitter, Allan Kugel, Elizabeth Lachowicz, 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, Mark Schaffer, Jean Scully, Rachel Streich, Leigh Walker (Other Board Members); Joanne Cronin and Grover Kemble (Guests). Absent were Carl Croce, Jim Gartner, Howie Goldman, Bob McNally, Scott Ross, and Robin Schaffer.

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

The Board accepted the slate of nominations by the Nominations Committee.

ADMINISTRATION

Secretary’s Report

The minutes were accepted as written.

Treasurer’s Report

Rachel reported that as of October 31, we had a checking account balance of $5,740.53 and a money market balance of $23,565.76. 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.

AD HOC COMMITTEE REPORT

Nominations Committee

Pam reviewed the nomination recommendations already emailed to board members. The Secretary’s position is still unfilled, Lindsey having accepted a chairmanship position in her state professional organization next year and unable to do both. A former secretary has indicated he would do it if no one else is found but would rather not, so the search continues. The Nominations Committee report is here.

Eddie reviewed the voting process: the general membership votes for trustees, the trustees vote for the officers (whether from the official slate or from nominations from the floor), then trustees and officers vote for committee chairs. If there are co-chairs, they get 1 vote between them. Also, if one person chairs two committees, they get only one vote total.

Mike moved to accept the slate of recommendations by the Nominations Committee and Pam seconded. Discussion: Nancy asked Grover, one of the Trustee nominees, if his schedule will allow him to attend meetings, since a quorum is required for voting. He indicated that he could make most of the meetings.

The motion passed unanimously. To a round of applause, Lori commended the committee for an excellent job.

NEW BUSINESS

Membership and Dues

Eddie said he appreciated all the response he got to his emails about membership dues and whether it should vary depending on whether members choose to receive a digital or a paper newsletter. Right now, the paper one costs about $16 per year to print and mail, which eats up most of the $20 per year membership cost. Eddie’s summary of the email responses is linked at the bottom of this page.

Eddie started tonight’s discussion by saying that over the past 20 years, membership has become less important because people can now access information for free via our website and the MinstrelGram. He sees the value of membership as having “as many people as possible emotionally aligned with the FP”. He wants to keep membership costs low and not raise the price just to subsidize the paper newsletter.

In comments around the room, we heard:

Allan: The eNewsletter file is very large and unwieldy and he likes receiving the paper newsletter.

Gloria asked why raise the price, since the current newsletter doesn’t cost more than the current membership fee. Instead, let’s just lower it for eNewsletter recipients.

Mark sees this as a communications issue rather than a membership issue. The price isn’t an issue since it’s already low. Hurdy Gurdy has 80 members now, down from 800, but they’re stronger because they communicate with thousands of people. He thinks we have a “Byzantine” structure because we’re not communicating with one voice: each committee communicates to their own people (e.g MinstrelGram goes out to Minstrel followers). We don’t need more members, we need more unified communications.

Lois pointed out that Hurdy Gurdy is a different kind of organization than the FP and also that the paper newsletter will age-out as younger people join.

Mike said that until now, dues were structured to support the newsletter. Maybe in future, we should think about having dues support the general operating costs.

Lori said we have 330 family memberships and 2,800 names in Constant Contact, so we’re like Hurdy Gurdy in this respect. She asked us to consider: What is membership? What are membership privileges and how will we enforce them? She also said the eNewsletter needs to be more user-friendly and that an eNewsletter should be designed to reflect its medium. Lindsey said we’re not alone, as many organizations are having membership issues right now due to the economy and the changing digital landscape.

Elizabeth is glad we’re taking an in-depth view because it’s not as simple as saving trees or increasing numbers and it may become more complicated in future due to the digital divide.

Eddie thanked everyone for their input then tabled the discussion, since there was no motion on the floor.

January Meeting Location

The meeting will be January 8, the second Tuesday. (The first Tuesday is New Year’s Day.) Gloria volunteered her home in Florham Park.

STANDING COMMITTEE REPORTS

Electronic Communications

Lori requested and received a drum roll for her announcement that the MinstrelGram is finally moving to Constant Contact. She credited Mike Agranoff, Allan Kugel, John Lamb, and Liz Pagan and asked that we give her any feedback. Her email report is here.

Regarding the privacy policy, attorney and FP member Tom Taylor said it’s not a binding legal document, so Lori plans to write a shorter, user-friendly version based on Board feedback. Kevin asked, “What’s a MinstrelGram?” and said that if he doesn’t know, then others don’t either. After Mike explained, Kevin suggested sending notice to all members so they can sign up. Pam pointed out that her Facebook posts include the same wording as MinstrelGrams and that redundancy is a good thing because people pay attention to some media and not others.

Publicity

Nancy recapped her email report and said that our servers on the West Coast were unaffected by Hurricane Sandy and the distributed design allowed emergency messages to be posted without webmaster John Lamb, whose internet was down. She thanked Lori, Allan, and Mike for completing the MinstrelGram project. Michael Mitch represented the FP at a recent Morris County Freeholders meeting as they proclaimed October as Arts Month.

Membership

Scott was absent and there was no report.

Newsletter

Eddie said the newsletter will be out on time this month. Carl was absent and there was no email report.

Community Service

Referring to his email report, Joe said he received a performer request from the Schiff Nature Preserve. He also attended services for Mike Mitch’s dad and sent a sympathy card from the FP.

Horses Sing None of It

Sandie went to NERFA and picked up several artists to record next year. Pam acknowledged Dave Kleiner, who has uploaded over 200 shows to YouTube so far (out of over 560 shows over a 23-year period). Mike recommended renaming the show with a more descriptive name to attract new listeners. Ralph’s report is here.

Merchandising

Gloria reported that Carol sold very little at Festival. Carol recommends lowering T-shirt prices and not buying more till they sell out. The “Play Much?” T’s run very small and are apparently sized for children. There was no email report.

Sound Reinforcement

Kevin reported that the soundboard died during the Finest Kind show at the Minstrel but that they carried on without it. The board went to the shop and then the Berrymans were canceled due to the hurricane. Kevin hopes the board will be up and running by next Friday. There was no email report.

Special Concerts

In Howie’s absence, Eddie read his report. Trout Fishing in America is coming in December and Pam has tickets.

Festival

Mark’s email report is here. He said that there were 15-17 people at the post-festival meeting, with a lot of positive energy. They tweaked staffing. They broke even. About a third of attendees volunteered in some way. He learned a lot at NERFA. At the next festival at Bernie, there will be a stage. They’re more familiar with the staff and whom to work with. Next two festivals will be at Bernie, on Memorial weekend and Columbus weekend.

Possible new location: “Crossroads” has a gigantic concert hall. They’re interested in having us and would change their schedule for us. He spoke about a business plan spanning several years and wondered if the committee could budget for multiple festivals over several years. Rachel said she’d talk with them about accounting.

Minstrel Booking

Recapping his email report, Mike announced that in order to cover increased rent, the Minstrel door price will rise to $8 as of January 1. The Unitarian Fellowship is planning to upgrade the existing meeting hall so we will discuss with them the possibility of installing a permanent sound system. October was a disappointing month financially, with an average audience of only 68 for the 2 regular shows.

Mike and Mark have the opportunity to book the same act for both the Minstrel and Festival, so we discussed the pros and cons of order, i.e. what order would draw down or improve the attendance at the other. The consensus was that the performer should appear at Festival first, then Minstrel. The Past Presidents Concert is expected to be a blast, although coordinator Barrett Wilson may miss it: since the hurricane, he’s been pulling 16-hour days working as a lineman for JCP&L.

Minstrel Staffing

Jean said she’s been head staff several times per month so she needs to recruit more actively. She said she’s heard from audience members who feel ignored by us regulars. She urged us to make an effort to talk to audience member we don’t know and said that we’re not as friendly as we like to think. Pam suggested taking five minutes during break to talk to people we don’t know. Mark suggested that people on the desk spend less time “selling” the Minstrel and instead, engaging people by asking them about themselves. There was no email report.

Swingin’ Tern

Leigh reported a positive cash flow, which was a bit of a surprise. A wedding pulled dancers away from one dance and Hurricane Sandy challenged the Harvest Hoot. The show DID go on, however, and the Hoot was held in spite of the hurricane aftermath, as intrepid dancers and musicians scrambled for gasoline, then danced and played their hearts out. The first Techno Contra is next Saturday, with black lights and glow sticks, followed by the holiday party and New Year’s Eve dance. The email report is here.

Internal Affairs

Jean said the last Evening of Music was lightly attended. The Christmas party is at Heilbruns’ [secretary’s note: this was later changed to Schaffers’] and the January one is at Margaret Crowl’s. There was no email report.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 pm. The General Membership Meeting will be on December 4 at the Chimney Rock Inn in Gillette. Dinner at 6:30, meeting at 8:00. In addition to elections, committee chairs will give annual reports of accomplishments for 2012.

The January meeting will be at Gloria Friedman’s in Florham Park on Jan. 8.

Respectfully submitted,

Lindsey Meyer, Secretary