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A relatively good month at the Minstrel. Average paid attendance was 89.5 for regular shows for the month. 71.8 including the Open Stage. However, I was very surprised to see that the profit over the past 12 months was only $533. That surprised and puzzled me, so I dug into the finances a bit in Quickbooks. And I discovered I've been asleep at the switch. 2012 was not a good year for us financially. And all during the year the "Past 12 months" figures were being heavily influenced by including some very good performance in the early part of 2012 and the later part of 2011. Now that the 12 month figures are leaving those good times behind, the bad times are showing themselves. I've attached another graph showing the profits month by month over the past 12 months. It says it all. I need to be more cognizant of draw in my booking.
I got a letter from ASCAP informing me that our fees were going up by " approximately 2.16234% per cost of living". Approximately 2.16234%. I wonder what the exact increase was. All I can say was that it did not affect our quoted rate of 0.8% of our ticket sales. (In other words we give them the value of one ticket for every 125 tickets sold.) Came to $60 for the first quarter of 2013.
We will be purchasing a new inexpensive laptop for $400 to replace the mini-notebook the Minstrel is currently using to calculate and store our Tally Sheets. The current notebook is extremely slow, and the screen is so small as to make using it difficult. We have determined that MUF's wifi signal is sufficient that we can distribute the Tally Sheets to the Treasurer and myself directly over the web, rather than having the Head Staff take it home via a memory stick and email it out from their home computer. This will save some time onsite, and get the figures to Bill and me right away.
I received an email on Friday that Deneise Murad, the MUF Administrator who has been my main liaison with MUF will be leaving her job this week. I do not know who her replacement will be.
New bookings since last month
· Oct 25: Mulebone: Highly entertaining blues duo on guitar and flute (?!) Opening will be ex FP President Rick Ilowite
· Nov 1: Guitarist Jim Hurst. On a skill level with Pat Donohue, but from a bluegrass / country background
· Jan 3, 2014: Split bill with John Flynn and Reggie Harris (as in Kim & Reggie Harris).
A bunch of highlights for next month:
· Lou & Peter Berryman this Friday; two of the funniest performers in the folk world today
· The reschedule of the snowed out Valentines Day Extravaganza on a special Sunday, April 14.
· Christine Lavin on April 26
Respectfully submitted
Mike Agranoff
Program Chair
The Minstrel Acoustic Concert Series
Morristown, NJ 07960, USA
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