APRIL 2013

NEWSLETTER MINUTES

APRIL 2, 2013

The FP Board Meeting was called to order at 8:01 pm at the home of Nancy and Russ Kelner in Cranford, NJ.

Present were: Nancy Kelner, Pam Robinson, Joe Graziano, Grover Kemble, Gloria Friedman, Scooter Ferguson, Mike Agranoff, Barrett Wilson, Bob McNally, Jim Gartner, Bill Henderson, Joanne Cronin, Rachel Streich, Lindsey Meyer, Mike DelVecchio, Lori Falco, and Lois DeRitter. Absent: Elizabeth Lachowicz, Eddie Roffman, Mark Schaffer, Sandie Reilly, Leigh Walker, Jean Scully, Pat Brangs, and Bobbie Rosengarten. Guests: Russ Kelner

In President Elizabeth’s absence, the meeting was chaired by Vice-Prez Pam Robinson.

ADMINISTRATION:

ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES:

January and February minutes were accepted as-is; in the March minutes, “Wayne Day” in the Community Services report was erroneously reported as “June Day”, to be corrected. Minutes for all three months were unanimously accepted subject to correction of March minutes.

TREASURER’S REPORT: LINK TO QUICKBOOKS

Bill reports that we’re doing OK financially. He has questions for Mark Schaffer re: Special Concerts finances.

NEW BUSINESS:

FP FINANCIAL DATA ACCESS:

Mike A. brought up the issue of who should have access to view FP financial data in QuickBooks. He wanted to establish a policy to make it the Treasurer’s responsibility to assign passwords for read-only access to QuickBooks and remove people from the list as necessary. In his opinion, access should be limited to current Board members plus anyone else the Board chooses, with former Board members’ access deleted when they leave the Board. Extensive discussion followed. Scooter asked, “as a non-profit, aren’t we obligated to make our financial information public?” To which it was pointed out that our monthly Treasurer’s financial reports are already available to the Fullboard mailing list, and our tax returns are posted on GuideStar for all to see. Secretary Rachel pointed out that the Minutes, available on the Wiki, do NOT include Treasurer’s financial reports. Treasurer Bill Henderson passed out copies of a list of all people who currently have read-only access to QuickBooks. Almost everyone on the list is currently a Board member. Bill offered to give QuickBooks access to anyone currently on the Board who does not already have it. Lori Falco questioned Mike: “what do you think people will do with this information if they were to look at QuickBooks?” Mike: “I’m just uncomfortable with it.” Lori pointed out that at present, very few people (Treasurer Bill, former Treasurer Rachel and Mike A.) ever log into QuickBooks, and that it would “behoove all of us” on the Board to take a look periodically to familiarize ourselves with the FP’s finances. Bob McNally suggested limiting access to current Board members, plus others at the discretion of the Treasurer. Treasurer Bill expressed discomfort with being solely responsible for deciding who gets access. Mike pointed out that Bill was free to consult with anyone he chose, including the Board. A motion was made: Read-only access to QuickBooks data should be limited to current Board members, plus anyone else who requests it, at the discretion of the Treasurer plus whoever the Treasurer chooses to consult with. The motion passed unanimously with 13 Yeas and no abstentions.

AMENDMENT TO BY-LAWS RE: PRESIDENTIAL EXPENDITURES:

At last month’s meeting, Eddie Roffman, in writing, proposed an amendment to our By-Laws. Current By-Laws state that “expenditures of $50 or less may be authorized by the President. Presidential expenditures of more than $50 must be approved by the Directors.” Eddie suggested that the amount be amended to “expenditures of $250 or less may be authorized by the President. Presidential expenditures of more than $250 must be approved by the Directors.” The proposed amendment was put to a vote and ratified unanimously.

NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS DUE DATE:

Vice-President Pam reminded everyone that newsletter submissions are due this month no later than 4/12/13 as Newsleditor Liz Pagan will be away.

GRANT APPLICATIONS FOR 2013:

The question came up about Grant Applications and fundraising for 2013. Pam, who has worked on grant applications for the ACMA and Dodge Foundation in previous years, estimated that it takes about 20 hours to gather the necessary data and prepare the applications. Mike A.asked, “Is anyone volunteering to do this?” Bob McNally suggested forming a committee to prepare the grant applications. Pam said that Diane Goodheart, who worked on our grant applications last year, is willing to complete the forms after the data is collected, but we still need someone to do the data collection. The maximum funds we’ve ever gotten in the form of grants is $2,500. Lindsey said she would rather see us solicit donations from FP members rather than apply for grants. If the maximum to be gotten is $2,500, Lindsey believes we could raise that much in some other way. She suggested an annual giving fundraising drive at the end of the year putting out an appeal to members and soliciting donations. Bob suggested asking FP members to donate unused/unwanted musical instruments, to be sold at Festival to raise money for the FP. He will talk to Mark Schaffer about setting this up. We will discuss this again at next month’s meeting. If we are going to pursue ACMA grant monies, we will need someone to gather the raw data for the application.

PROPOSED E-COMMUNICATIONS PRIVACY POLICY: PROPOSED PRIVACY POLICY

Lori had emailed a revised draft of her proposed privacy policy to the Board and asked us to review it before tonight’s meeting. She noted that she’d asked attorney and FP member Tom Taylor to review it, and that according to Tom, this is not a legally binding document. If someone were to sue us for violating their privacy, they would have to demonstrate that they’d been harmed in some way. The purpose of the policy is simply to make people feel comfortable about giving us their email address. A suggestion was made to add the following sentence to the policy: “The FP never sees your credit card and billing address.” Mike A. moved we accept the privacy policy as amended. The motion passed unanimously.

JAM AWARDS:

Mike A. informed us that the Jersey Acoustic Music awards ceremony is this coming Sunday from 2 – 9 pm: free admission includes dinner and is open to any FP Board member that wants to attend. The FP is nominated for an award as an organization that promotes folk music. Christine DeLeon is also nominated in several categories, along with Dave Kleiner.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

SWINGIN’ TERN: COMMITTEE REPORT

Leigh was absent. Gloria Friedman reminded everyone to come to the dance this Saturday with Perpetual E-Motion.

PUBLICITY: COMMITTEE REPORT

Nancy reported that Webmaster John Lamb has been working hard. Pam has also been working hard on our Facebook page. Joe Graziano will be doing a podcast about the FP. Nancy also told us that her contact at the Jazz Journal published an article recently about Annie and the Hedonists.

COMMUNITY SERVICE: COMMITTEE REPORT

Joe reported that Wayne Day’s musical lineup is set. The School of Rock in Wayne may possibly be sponsoring another stage to showcase some of their musicians; this might provide an opportunity for more FP musicians to perform as well.

NEWSLETTER:

Pat Brangs was absent. Pam noted “We have newsletters.”

MEMBERSHIP: COMMITTEE REPORT

Eddie was absent. Pam commented, “Our membership is growing.”

HSNOI: COMMITTEE REPORT

Sandie was absent, no verbal report.

MERCHANDISING:

“Nothing new to report”, said Gloria. She will find out more about possibly ordering sweatbands with the FP name or logo and will report her findings next month.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS:

Jean absent, no report.

SOUND REINFORCEMENT: COMMITTEE REPORT

Mike D. brought up the possibility of purchasing a portable sound system for use at house concerts and other off-site events. The question was, where would we keep it? Scooter suggested that any such system should have a minimum of 6 inputs. A brief discussion of technical requirements ensued; Pam suggested it be taken offline.

E-COMMUNICATIONS: COMMITTEE REPORT

Lori reported she sent out emails to publicize the Anne Hills/Michael Smith and Raina Rose concerts. Bobbie Rosengarten has volunteered to help with administrative work in Constant Contact. Constant Contact recently named the FP as an “All-Star” in the top 10% of CC customers.

MINSTREL BOOKING: COMMITTEE REPORT

Mike reported that the average attendance for the month was 89.5. Over the previous 12 months, our profit was “surprisingly low”; after all expenses were accounted for, we lost money for half of the 12 months. Mike noted that ASCAP fees recently went up by “approximately” 2.1634% from the previous 0.8% of ticket revenue, which still amounts to 1 admission out of every 125 sold. Mike ordered a new Dell laptop computer for use by Head Staff and front desk staff, to be used to prepare the weekly Minstrel tally sheets. Other possible uses suggested: to keep track of volunteer “ticks” online, and allow people to sign up online for Minstrelgrams. Mike reported that the wi-fi signal at MUF is adequate for our needs. Nancy asked, “What will become of the old notebook computer we were using?” “Landfill”, said Mike. Bob McNally suggested we sell it at Festival along with the donated instruments; we will consider it.

MUF administrator Denise Murad is resigning, effective tomorrow, no word yet on who will be replacing her. Susan Werner, originally scheduled for 10/23/13, has been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts. New Bookings: 9/20/13 Ian Hicks is opening for Mara Levine, 10/4/13 John Forster (Cindy Mangsen/Steve Gillette moved to 2/7/14), 10/25/13 Mule Bone (blues band), 1/3/14 John Flynn and Reggie Harris. Upcoming Minstrel headliners of note: this Friday, Lou & Peter Berryman; 4/26/13 Christine Lavin.

MINSTREL STAFFING:

Jean absent, no report.

FESTIVAL: COMMITTEE REPORT

Mark absent; nothing to add to written report.

SPECIAL CONCERTS: COMMITTEE REPORT

Scooter reported that the Anne Hills/Michael Smith concert was “delightful”. The performers were paid $550 and sold lots of performer merchandise. Pam asked, “Did we hold back money to cover FP expenses like PayPal fees?” “Probably not”, said Scooter.

Plans are underway for a Grateful Dead event on Sunday, 7/21/13 with a daytime concert at 4 pm, followed by a live radio call-in show featuring David Gans, who hosts 2 XM Radio shows about the Grateful Dead. The radio show will give the FP worldwide exposure, said Scooter. He is looking for a venue for the event, as MUF is not available till 3 pm on Sunday. Scooter is also planning a Labor Day Weekend ukulele event at MUF, starting with a film, “The Mighty Uke” on Friday night followed by a Q & A session with uke gurus Jim and Liz Beloff. Saturday will feature uke workshops, jams, a round robin, and vendors, and a concert Saturday night with uke virtuoso James Hill. Workshop leaders will include L’il Rev, James Hill, and a representative from Martin Guitar Co.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:54 pm. Next meeting will be 5/7/13 at Lindsey Meyer’s.