Publicity/Web

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)

The website continues to function as expected with the help of all involved. In addition to all the normal activities for Minstrel, HSNOI, Special Concerts, and Swingin' Tern, the site was updated to reflect the changes in board membership and committee chairs for 2013. This includes updates to the Administration page and changes to where email addressed to position-specific addresses (e.g. president@folkproject.org and sound@folkproject.org) gets forwarded. We also spent some effort in updating the Festival portion of the site in preparation for the spring festival. Many of these updates already appear on the site and the rest should be going live within the next several days. We have received a number of suggestions for the site from Mike Agranoff. We are evaluating those suggestions and expect to implement some of them over the next month or two. During December, our web host (DreamHost) moved our server from a machine in Los Angeles to one in Ashton, Virginia. There was minimal disruption and no changes required to the site. I have yet to notice much difference at all between the old server and the new and there should be fewer opportunities for time synchronization problems now that we are in the same time zone as our server. As always, particular thanks to Lori Falco and Allan Kugel for their contributions to the design and operation of the site. Please address any questions, comments or suggestions to webmaster@folkproject.org.

FaceBook Report (Pam Robinson)

The Folk Project FaceBook page is rolling along. Anyone willing to help maintain the page should contact Pam at vicepresident@FolkProject.org

Publicity Chairman Report (Nancy Kelner)The members of the publicity committee who are not in charge of the website or the FaceBook page have been hard at work, gathering performer photos, writing press releases, emailing outlets, and mailing flyers.

Since my last report in November, we have had publicity in The Collection, Vicinity Magazine, Cranford Chronicle, Daily Record (two Minstrel articles by Bill Nutt), NJ Monthly (two Minstrel concerts listed in Dec. issue, one Swingin’ Tern dance in Jan. issue), Suburban News, Morris County Tourism Bureau website (two e-blasts listed the special concert; the e-blasts go to more than 5000 people), Bucks County Folk Song society newsletter and Morristown Green website. When I find errors, I contact the publication and try to get them fixed. Vicinity Magazine’s errors were particularly egregious this month – they had Minstrel concerts from last year mixed in with this year’s and showed us open on Fridays and Sundays!

Jennifer Nelson of Daily Record emailed me regarding including the Swingin’ Tern New Year’s Eve dance in an article about end of year events. I told her to call or email Leigh Walker before she does, since Swingin’ Tern did not want to publicize this dance. She contacted Leigh and did not include the dance.

I am almost finished sending out press passes for 2013.

Gwen Orel of the Irish Examiner told me she put the RUNA Minstrel concert in the last New York Irish Arts Center newsletter. Haven’t been able to find it and asked her for the link.

Emailed NJ Family and asked that the information to be corrected on the Minstrel listing in their directory. Also emailed Kids Guide and asked them to correct the Swingin’ Tern phone number on their website and in their print issue.

Leigh Walker let me know about a Star Ledger list of weekend events for early January that mentioned the Jan. 5^th dance. Link is: http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/01/nj_events_jan_5_jan_6.html

Found an article about Swingin’ Tern in the Daily Record on line by Karen Mancinelli, a part-time reporter I have not worked with. Here is the link: www.dailyrecord.com/article/20130107/NJENT/301070032/DANCING-EAST-HANOVER

A recent check of our events postings on the ACMA website showed no errors. This is very good news!