DECEMBER 2013

BOARD MEETING MINUTES

DECEMBER 3, 2013

The FP Annual Meeting was called to order at 8:03 pm at Chimney Rock Inn, Gillette, NJ.

Present: Mike Agranoff, Pat Brangs, Joanne Cronin, Mike DelVecchio, Lois DeRitter, Lori Falco, Gloria Friedman, Jim Gartner, Bill Henderson, Nancy Kelner, Allan Kugel, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Bob McNally, Lindsey Meyer, Sandie Reilly, Pam Robinson, Eddie Roffman, Bobbie Rosengarten, Mark Schaffer, Robin Schaffer, Jean Scully, Rachel Streich, Leigh Walker, Barrett Wilson. Absent: Scooter Ferguson, Joe Graziano, Grover Kemble. Guests: Cathy Ballard, Ken Brody, Loretta Brooks, Bill Cox, Christine DelVecchio, Gloria Fisher, Paul Fisher, Steve Humphreys, Dave Kleiner, Andy Koenig, Shari Korenstein, Evelyn Maurer, Barbara Moo, Dave Ogens, Dawn Ogens, George Otto, Liz Pagan, Tom Picard, Bob Safranek, Dave Sherman, Cecelia Zeimetz.

ADMINISTRATION:

TREASURER'S REPORT:

As of the end of November, the FP shows a year-to-date net income of approximately $353. YTD gross revenues were approximately $111,000, of which $92,000 were for Admissions to various events, $8,000 in Membership dues, and $6,000 in Donations. Major expenses included $47,000 in various rental fees, and $44,000 in Performer Fees. As of November 30, 2013, our checking account balance was approximately $29,000. Bob McNally asked if there was a procedure in place to transfer excess cash into Savings on a regular basis? Elizabeth suggested we put that on the agenda to discuss in January or February 2014.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

MINSTREL BOOKING: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Mike A. reported that 2013 was “not a particularly good year”, with average weekly attendance at its lowest since 1991: average paid attendance of 78.7; if we include Open Stage, average attendance was 68.4. We are losing regulars but gaining new attendees thanks to the efforts of our Publicity committee. The Minstrel made a total of approximately $600 net income from December 2012 to November 2013.

We raised our door price from $7 to $8 in January 2013, and will increase the admission price again in July 2014. Our rent increased from $250 to $319 in July 2013, but we were subsequently able to negotiate a rollback to $280, deferring the remaining rent increase to 2014.

We bought a new laptop for Head Staff use in preparing tally sheets.

This year’s Birthday Party Show featured more performers and a bigger audience than last year’s.

PBS will be at the Minstrel on 12/27/13 to video the Shockenaw Mountain Boys concert for their “State of the Arts” program. Upcoming concerts in 2014 include: Tom Chapin, Bucky Pizzarelli, Beppe Gambetta, and John Gorka.

FESTIVAL: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Mark said that the three goals of Festival are: entertainment, education and self-expression.

He reported that in 2014, Festival has been attracting more first-timers, and he and Robin have been looking for ways to retain first-timers to come back as second and third-timers. They are working to improve the quality of workshops, and aiming to attract a younger crowd of 20-somethings. He noted that we have been getting more 40-somethings, so we ARE attracting a slightly younger crowd! Mark also noted that the name “Festival” is misleading, at least in our online advertising; for most people, the word “Festival” conjures up visions of “10,000 people sitting in the rain in front of an outdoor stage”, which is not what we are. He is looking for another, more descriptive name for our weekend events.

SPECIAL CONCERTS: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Scooter absent. Elizabeth reported that the Ronstadt Generations workshop was small but nice; we ran 5 events, for an overall loss of $295 including Uke Fest.

SWINGIN’ TERN: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Leigh reported that 2013 was a very good year, and November was a very good month. Kudos to Suzanne, Doug, Joel and Xander for all their hard work throughout the year. Leigh and his wife are sponsoring a special dance on 12/13/13 to celebrate their 30th anniversary.

PUBLICITY: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Nancy read her written report.

COMMUNITY SERVICES:

Joe Graziano absent. No report submitted. Prez Elizabeth noted that Joe is stepping down from the chairmanship of the committee, and thanked him for his hard work throughout the year.

NEWSLETTER: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Elizabeth thanked Liz Pagan on behalf of the entire FP for 2 decades of superlative service as Newsleditor, and led everyone in a standing ovation.

Pat reported that we are printing 350 newsletters per month; approximately 200 are mailed to members, and the rest are available on the literature table at the Minstrel and Swingn’ Tern, or distributed by Carl Croce at various open mike events throughout NJ. We spent approximately $1,100 on postage and $3,200 on printing for the year.

ZED MUSIC SERIES:

Tom Picard and Shari Korenstein’s house concert series on the first Saturday of every month in Livingston, NJ, featuring an open mike plus a featured performer, is now officially an activity of the FP.

MEMBERSHIP: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Eddie thanked Scott Ross for his excellent Membership record-keeping last year, and also thanked his co-chair, Carl Croce, for his efforts at outreach around NJ.

Eddie noted that membership in general is not as important in most peoples’ lives; more important, in his opinion, is the number of people we reach electronically. And in that area, we continue to grow “exponentially”.

In 2013, Eddie reports, he began sending confirmation letters to new members, improved renewal notices, and using FileMaker Pro and Constant Contact to track members. In the new year, he plans to work with the Community Services and Internal Affairs committees to drive membership efforts, and would like us to be more welcoming and creative in building community.

HSNOI: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Sandie reported that they’ve taped more than 25 episodes in 2013. Many thanks to Dave Kleiner for uploading videos of HSNOI to YouTube – more than 200 episodes from previous years are now available.

MERCHANDISING:

Gloria is ordering new “mandala” shirts for Spring Festival.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS:

Jean is stepping down as committee chair as of December 31. We’ve lost several of our regular party venues due to people moving; if you know anyone with a suitable party house, please suggest they host an Evening of Music! Jean notes that EoM’s are as important as Festivals to creating that FP “warm and fuzzy” community feeling.

MINSTREL STAFFING: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

They are struggling to put together 10 – 12 people per week to staff the Minstrel. Jean praised Amy Livingston for all her indispensable efforts throughout the year. There are currently 158 people on the Constant Contact volunteer list – about ½ dozen people are new.

She pointed out that its hard to get people to volunteer for Kitchen, Door, and Head Staff jobs, as these people miss most of the show while performing their duties. We are working to get a sound feed from the concert piped out to the lobby so that Door, Head Staff and Kitchen volunteers can listen to the show while they work. Jean also noted that its harder to get people to volunteer for lesser known acts.

SOUND REINFORCEMENT:

Mike D. reported that it was a good year for the Sound crew. They’d gotten a number of new Sound volunteers in 2013 to provide sound for 50 Minstrels, 2 Festivals and a number of house concerts. We acquired a new-to-us sound board this year from Sanctuary Concerts, and are now using it for Minstrel.

E-COMMUNICATIONS: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Lori reported that we’ve only been using Constant Contact for 3 years, but we’ve been very successful with it. We are using it for email communications, Membership renewals, Minstrel volunteer recruitment, and Festival registrations and surveys. We were chosen as a Constant Contact “All-Star” organization for 2013, and look to be on-target for “All-Star” status in 2014 as well.

Lori then read various statistics on Constant Contact usage from her report.

She noted that UkeFest brought in 47 new contacts to our lists.

We created a link between Constant Contact and Facebook, and we created and implemented a new privacy policy which is now on our website.

WEBMASTER:

Kudos to John Lamb for all his hard work.

FINANCE:

Andy Koenig reported on the Vanguard investment account. He reminded us that Mike A. had donated funds a number of years ago to the Folk Project to be used for Festival. As a non-profit, we were looking for an investment vehicle that would be a reasonable balance between risk and returns, with low expenses. Andy chose the Vanguard Wellington Fund, which has been in existence since 1929. Two-thirds of the Fund’s assets are in stocks, with the remaining one-third invested in bonds. The Fund currently charges .25% per year in fees. In April 2008, we transferred $74,000 to the Vanguard Wellington Fund. Over the first 6 months, our investment lost value, due to the poor economy, but over the last 5 years, the value has risen steadily and now stands at approximately $108,000. The Wellington Fund has earned approximately 8.5% per year over the last 10 years; by comparison, the Standard and Poor’s average earned only 7.5% over the same period.

Our current policy is to allocate 1.5% of the Vanguard balance to each Festival to offset expenses. Andy reminded us that we do not actually transfer cash from Vanguard to checking in order to do this; we simply make bookkeeping entries.

As of December 2, 2013, our Vanguard balance was $108,958. Total allocated to Festival is $16,688, leaving $92, 270 remaining for future Festivals.

ELECTIONS:

A round of applause and praise to outgoing Vice President Pam Robinson.

TRUSTEES THROUGH 2016:

Nominated: Lindsey Meyer, Grover Kemble and Allan Kugel

Unanimously elected.

TRUSTEE TO REPLACE BARRETT WILSON THROUGH 2015:

Nominated: Steve Humphreys

Unanimously elected.

OFFICERS:

Nominated to continue in office: President -- Elizabeth Lachowicz; Secretary -- Rachel Streich; Treasurer – Bill Henderson.

Nominated to replace Pam Robinson: Vice President – Barrett Wilson.

All unanimously elected.

NEW COMMITTEE CHAIRS:

Nominated: Community Affairs -- Shari Korenstein; Internal Affairs -- Dave Sherman; Newsletter -- George Otto; Publicity, Paul Fisher.

All unanimously elected.

CONTINUING COMMITTEE CHAIRS:

E-Communications – Lori Falco; Festival – Mark and Robin Schaffer; HSNOI – Sandie Reilly; Membership – Eddie Roffman and Carl Croce (co-chairs); Merchandising – Gloria Friedman; Minstrel Booking – Mike Agranoff; Minstrel Staffing – Jean Scully; Sound Reinforcement – Mike DelVecchio; Special Concerts – Scooter Ferguson; Swingin’ Tern – Leigh Walker; Webmaster – John Lamb.

All unanimously re-elected.

RECOGNITION AND APPRECIATION:

President Elizabeth noted our accomplishments for 2013 – the JAM Award (yay us!). We pulled together and rescheduled the Feb. 2013 Valentines Day show when it was snowed out (yay us, for handling emergencies so well!). Recently, UkeFest was successful beyond our wildest expectations (yay to Scooter and Pam Robinson!) . The Swingin’ Tern Perpetual E-Motion techno contra dance was a great success (yay to the SnT committee!) As an organization we put on 49 Minstrels, 2 Festivals, 22 Swingin’ Tern dances, and taped more than 25 HSNOI shows in 2013, and already have 27 events scheduled for 2014. Mike A. suggested we recognize Elizabeth for her hard work as Prez in 2013 and led the enthusiastic standing ovation.

Annual Meeting was adjourned 9:42 pm.

DECEMBER 2013 MONTHLY MEETING FOLLOWED:

ADMINISTRATION:

Minutes of October 2013 meeting were accepted unanimously.

Minutes of November 2013 meeting were accepted unanimously as amended.

NEXT MEETING will be at Tom Picard and Shari Korenstein’s home in Livingston, NJ on Tuesday 1/7/14.

Adjourned, 9:45 pm.