February 2013

BOARD MEETING

February 5, 2013

The monthly meeting of the Folk Project Board was called to order at 8:07pm at the home of Grover Kemble, in Morris Plains, NJ.

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

ADMINISTRATION:

Minutes to the January 8, 2013 meeting were circulated via email to the Board as Secretary Rachel had some technical difficulties uploading them to the Wiki. Mike A. suggested adding synopses of committee meeting reports to the minutes. Acceptance of minutes was tabled till next month as several Board members could not read them in Word format. Treasurer Bill assured us that the Folk Project was in fine shape, financially. Former Treasurer Rachel will prepare the Forms 1099 for 2012.

OLD BUSINESS:

There was no New Business. In Old Business, Board meeting dates and locations were amended as follows: the 6/4/13 meeting will be at Mark & Robin’s, not Lindsey’s; the 7/2/13 meeting will be at the Roffmans’, not Mark & Robin’s; the 8/6/13 meeting will be at Joe Graziano’s, not Lindsey’s; the 10/1/13 meeting will be at Allan & Cecilia’s, and the 11/5/13 meeting will be at Pam & Bob’s.

Regarding creation of updated job descriptions for Board positions, Mike Agranoff suggested having them done by Fall to aid in recruiting new Board members, and also suggested that committee chairs jot down notes every time they do something for their committee. Lori Falco said that the E-Communications committee chair job is still evolving, so she will need several months to firm up her job description. Elizabeth suggested having them done by the June meeting.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

FESTIVAL: committee report

Registration for Spring Festival opened on February 1 and as of February 4, there were 32 registered.

Work has begun on workshops. They are still booking performers. There will not be a skit for this festival, but there may be one for the Fall festival in October.

SPECIAL CONCERTS: committee report

There is a House Concert on Sunday, April 21, at Mark and Robin’s featuring Raina Rose.

Scooter says: I have spoken to David Gans about a Day Of The Deadheads concert/radio broadcast and he's VERY enthusiastic. We're slowly working on details.

I've asked Mike to hold August 23rd for Special Concerts for the opening night of a Ukulele Event that will continue on Saturday the 24th. I'm waiting to hear back from MUUF on availability of their facilities for that Saturday and have made initial inquiries to some performers.

SWINGIN’ TERN: committee report

The dances on January 19 and February 2 were profitable. Net income was $75 after all expenses.

We are attracting many new dancers, 15 at the last dance, including a number of college students.

On April 6, there will be a double dance with Perpetual E-Motion. From 4-6 PM there will be an experienced dance we are advertising only to the contra community. From 8-11 PM will be our normal dance, with a higher admission of $15 (vs. $10 normally). The performer fees are much more than usual, but many people have already told us they will attend these dances.

PUBLICITY: committee report

Webmaster Report - John Lamb:

The Festival section of the FP website has been updated to reflect the performers for the Spring Festival and activate the link to the registration forms. The Minstrel’s HTML-based Tally Sheet form has been updated. Eddie Roffman, the Membership Chair, has taken over the job of sending out monthly eNewsletter notifications and keeping track of who should receive such notifications.

No report from Pam Robinson re: Facebook this month.

Publicity Report – Nancy Kelner:

]Swingin’ Tern was listed as one of the Top Ten in Morris County Tourism Bureau’s email blast of Jan. 9th. This goes to more than 5000 people. Both January Swingin’ Terns were listed in the January issue of NJ Family magazine, Morris County edition.

All February Minstrels and Swingin’ Terns are on the NJ Family website calendar.

Natural Awakenings (north central NJ) lists Minstrel and Swingin’ Tern every month as ongoing events; emailed them to ask they change Minstrel admission to $8; they said they’d change it in the March issue; will keep an eye out for it.

All February Minstrels are listed in the Bucks County Folk Song Society newsletter for February.

COMMUNITY SERVICES: committee report

Joe is cross-referencing the updated membership roster with the FP performer page, and will send gentle reminders to any performer who isn’t current with their dues.

Wayne Day is Sunday, June 9. He has 2 or 3 Folk Project member groups performing. He would like to set up a booth near the stage to help promote FP. There was general agreement that having a booth would be good for the FP. Mike Agranoff suggested moving the booth away from the stage to encourage jamming, which Joe thought was a good idea. Joe will need people to set up and staff the booth. Pat Brangs has the table, chairs and a canopy for the booth.

Grover Kemble asked about opportunities for FP performers to play at nursing homes, hospitals, assisted living facilities, and so on. Joe said he would reach out to facilities in the area to find out about such performing opportunities.

NEWSLETTER: committee report

210 newsletters were mailed for February 2013. Printing costs were $291.00 for 375 copies, postage costs totaled $95.00, for a total of $386.00.

70 newsletters are left at Minstrel for distribution; 60 to Carl Croce for distribution at various Open Mike events; 10 to Membership Chair for distribution to new members; and 25 to Swingin’ Tern for distribution.

MEMBERSHIP: committee report

Renewal reminders went out last week to all whose membership expired within the last 18 months. Lori Falco sent out about 200 email renewal notices in Constant Contact; Eddie sent out 25 paper notices to people we don’t have email data for.

HSNOI: committee report

Two shows were taped in January – singer/songwriter Dan Pelletier, and Belarusian/Lithuanian klezmer band Litvakus, both on 1/17/13.

Upcoming in February: Brooklyn, NY-based jugband, country blues and old-time musicians Brotherhood of the Jugband Blues, and Plum Run (Lisa Godino and Chuck Winch), who play music incorporating folk, bluegrass, old-time and traditional country with a fresh contemporary sound.

They are holding a spot to tape a show with Bob McNally next month but he doesn’t know yet if he can make it. If not, they will ask Grover Kemble.

Joe Jenks will tape a show in April, along with a second show with Brother Sun.

MERCHANDISING:

Gloria said she sold 9 of the small black “Play much?” T-shirts; she wore one herself and 3 people asked her about the Folk Project.

She said she’s looking to buy more T-shirts after Spring Festival after selling out the existing shirt inventory, and reminded us that we can still order custom FP products from Embroid-Me in Morristown.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS:

The Valentines Day show is this Friday, featuring special desserts like mini-pastries and fruit for a special admission price of $9.00. Jean will be one of the performers. There will be an after-party with sandwiches in the Terrace Room and jamming in the Library. Pam Robinson and Bob Safranek are emceeing the show.

The March second Saturday Evening of Music is still open – no location booked yet!!

April’s EoM will be at Allan Kugel and Cecilia Rowedder’s. There WILL be a May EoM as there is no scheduling conflict with Spring Festival.

MINSTREL STAFFING:

Jean said she’s gotten a “couple of new people” – 4 new volunteers in the last month.

She would like to get a half dozen people trained to do Head Staff on a rotating basis. Barrett Wilson said he’s only done Head Staff for Open Stage but would like to start doing regular shows as well. Doing Head Staff for Open Stage is a good way to ease into doing the job, as there are no paid performers, no creel and no merchandise sales to keep track of.

SOUND REINFORCEMENT: committee report

]Since last month, one more person has been added to the committee; here is the current roster:

Mike Agranoff

Larry Flannigan

Greg More

Bob Safranek

Mike Del Vecchio, chair

Mike D. hopes to produce a newsletter for the “soundies” with a copy to the President. Others outside the committee can run sound as well.

As for MUF improvements to the Sanctuary: Mike D. reported that since our last Board meeting, he brought some stage lighting to MUF, at their request, for them to play with. In the next few weeks, MUF people are meeting with the music director of the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Twp for a demonstration of their new digital speaker system and console and permanent snake, and a date with Stirling Audio Services to look at installing speakers and acoustic curtains at MUF will likely occur later in February.

Keep in mind that all plans to help MUF with their sound system improvements is speculative. Nothing has been decided; all we are doing right now is research.

E-COMMUNICATIONS: committee report

Registration for Spring Festival is once again being done through Constant Contact. The January printed newsletter went out without the address and phone number of Margaret Crowl, who hosted the January EOM. We sent an email to all active members with the missing information.

And last week, Mike A. sent out a Minstrelgram without help from Lori or Constant Contact! J

MINSTREL BOOKING: committee report

The “Agranoff Imperative” show with Runa, unfortunately, did not do well, financially. It was the first event run to take advantage of the AIS (“Asses in Seats”) grant, set up to attract more attendees. Mike A. was expecting an attendance of around 170 but actual paid attendance was only 96, due to the threat of a snowstorm that night, and very few attendees were newcomers. Mike had agreed to a $2,000 guarantee for the band, expecting to use between $500 and $800 of Folk Project general funds in the form of the AIS grant to make the guarantee, but ended up needing $1149 to make the guarantee instead. So the show cost the FP an $810 loss.

On the other hand, the show with the Kennedys on January 4 did very well, drawing 145 paid attendance.

For January 2013, average paid attendance was 101, not counting Open Stage. With Open Stage included, it was 80.5.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:52 pm. Next month’s meeting is March 5, 2013, at Pam Robinson and Bob Safranek’s home in New Providence.