PUBLICITY

March 30, 2013

PUBLICITY COMMITTEE REPORT

Publicity Committee members: Alice Weimer, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Joanne Cronin, John Lamb, Karen Justin, Michael Mitsch, Nancy Kelner, Pam Robinson, Pat Brangs

Webmaster Report – John Lamb

It's been another busy month for the website crew. We have supported Swingin' Tern by teaching Doug Heacock to use the special events editor to enter information, which he did successfully for the April 6 dance. We have updated various Festival pages. We have tidied up a couple of things on the new version of the tally sheet and answered questions about how to use it to store data and produce pdf files. We have corrected a couple of minor typos on the website.

In our auxiliary roles as technology advisors, Lori, Allan and I have investigated reported signal strength problems in the WiFi service at MUF and helped Mike Agranoff choose a new laptop to replace the old Minstrel computer. It was discovered that the WiFi signal seen by both the old Minstrel computer and a laptop computer was sufficiently strong to support reliable Internet access, so we needed to take no further action to improve it. The initial problem was noted with a smartphone, and such small devices tend to have less capable WiFi receivers than laptops. The new Minstrel computer has been chosen and ordered, and should arrive in April.

Allan and Lori have responded to several questions from Mike concerning the Minstrelgram, the Minstrelgram editor page and the Minstrel calendar editor page.

As always, many thanks to my team: Lori and Allan. Please send any questions, comments or suggestions to webmaster@folkproject.org.

Facebook Report – Pam Robinson

Gloria Friedman has joined the FaceBook team; she is posting Events to the Folk Project's Wall weekly.

Chairman Report – Nancy Kelner

Vicinity Magazine printed the Minstrels for March 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29.

Went to a concert at the Long Hill Library and gave them flyers to post; they agreed to receive our flyers every month. Went to a lecture at the Springfield Library and they agreed to receive our flyers, too.

Joe Graziano offered to do a podcast (free of charge) about the Folk Project at a future date. He and I will start talking about it in a few weeks.

Sent the radio station list to The Stray Birds publicist at her request.

Sent our Annie and the Hedonists Press release to the jazz niches; Linda Lobdell of the Jazz Journal said she’d try to mention it in the April issue. I will check with her and see if she did. Added Jazz Journal editor Tony Mottola to our list for monthly emails.

The woman who runs the NJ Arts Maven website asked for the Raina Rose house concert flyer in jpg format. Thanks to Robin and Liz for providing it. The March 22 and 29 Minstrels were on the opening page of this website recently. (www.njartsmaven.com)

Wrote a short press release for the Raina Rose house concert and the publicity committee sent it around. Robin asked me to send it to her local paper, Neighbor News, which I did.

The March 29 Minstrel was one of the Top Ten Things to Do in the March 20^th email from Morris County Tourism Bureau. Sent a thank-you email to our contact there.

Got some emails from Indie on the Move, which uses Eventful.com to list events. Signed up with Eventful.com to post our events. Will use it for a while and determine if it’s worth the time.

Read an article in NJ Skylands Visitor magazine about the new Farmstead Arts Center in Basking Ridge, which runs an art gallery and concerts. Emailed the center to let them know that Folk Project performers are available.

Discovered that Bill Nutt of the Daily Record did a story about Pat Donohue. Here’s the link: www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013303070001

Discovered that the NY Times published us in their Feb 2 issue - “MORRISTOWN - Valentine’s Day Extravaganza, 24 members of the Folk Project perform songs about love. Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. $9. The Minstrel, Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, 21 Normandy Heights Road. (973) 335-9489; folkproject.org.”

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