PUBLICITY

Pub com report November 2013

Nov. 11, 2013

Publicity Committee members: Alicia Weimer, Jeff Saxton, Jim Gartner, Jim King, Joanne Cronin, John Lamb, Karen Justin, Michael Mitsch, Nancy Kelner, Pam Robinson, Pat Brangs, Paul Fisher

Webmaster Report – John Lamb

The website continues on its merry way, working as designed in most cases. Your web team accomplished the following in the past month:

- We removed the featured home page link to Festival in favor of Swingin' Tern events and the Ronstadt Generations workshop. The Festival site remains accessible through the menu system and will be updated as information is received from the Festival Committee

- Discussed with Mark Schaffer the possibility of having a new non-member volunteer work on the Festival portion of the site. The web team stressed that any such contributions would have to fit in with the overall look and feel of the rest of the site so that it does not result in added maintenance work should this volunteer not be around for following festivals.

- Discussed ways of limiting access to the eNewsletter with Eddie Roffman. It was decided to keep things the way they are for now, but at some time in the future we may want to implement a reasonably simple way to prevent former members from accessing the current eNewsletter.

- Allan Kugel is looking into upgrading the site to PHP version 5.3. This may require a few changes on a small number of pages that use PHP.

- Helped Elizabeth Lachowicz and Bill Henderson resolve an issue resulting from a procedural error in counting Minstrel receipts that produced an imbalance on the Minstrel Tally Sheet for one show.

- Repaired some photos on the Minstrel calendar page that had not uploaded completely. We are still trying to figure out why this happens and how to prevent it, but it is easy to fix when we notice that it has occurred.

- Updated email forwarders to include board members and committee heads who will take over in the new year.

As always, many thanks to the web team - Allan, Lori and Charles. Please send any questions, comments or suggestions to webmaster@folkproject.org

Facebook Report – Pam Robinson

Folk Project's FaceBook Page has almost 850 "likes".

Chairman’s Report – Nancy Kelner

The committee did extra publicity work for Jim Hurst and Ronstadt Generations. I have started to work with Paul Fisher, chairman elect. Alice Weimer has asked to be relieved of her photo posting duties and I have begun to look for a replacement.

Online

The Bucks County Folk Song Society webmaster fixed their link to Swingin’ Tern last month. But on Nov. 10, the corrections weren’t there. Emailed him again Nov. 10 and await a reply and a fix.

Oct 5 Swingin’ Tern dance was one of Top Ten in Morris County Tourism Bureau (MCTB) email on Oct. 3.

Oct 25 Minstrel (Mulebone) was one of Top Ten in Oct. 17 and Oct. 24 email blasts from MCTB.

The Fall Festival was listed on NJ Skylands Visitor events calendar for October; this was the first time we were listed in quite a while.

In Print

The Oct. 4 special concert (Joni Mitchell’s Blue album) was listed in the NY Times events listing on Sept. 26.

Bill Nutt of the Daily Record did an article about the Fall Festival. I sent the link to the board and the publicity committee. It is: http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013310110005

Working with Performers and Their Publicists

Emailed Jim Hurst’s publicist one of Jim King’s press releases and a pared-down version of the big chart, at her request.

Sent radio station list and other info to the publicist for Buskin and Batteau.

Emailed Ronstadt Generations and asked that their Nov. 22 Minstrel appearance be listed on their website. They took care of it right away. Turns out FP member Stephanie Ledgin does publicity work for them.

On the Radio

Jim Hurst was interviewed on WFDU, Carol Beaugard’s show, on Nov. 1. They both mentioned the Minstrel and what a nice place it was.

Offered Joe Pszonek of Radio Station WMSU a pair of passes to the Minstrel for Ronstadt Generations, Nov. 22. He will send me the name of the winner by Nov. 18.

Saw in the FP bulletin that Michael Ronstadt was to be interviewed on WFDU and WNTI in mid-November; emailed the group to ask that he mention their Nov. 22 Minstrel appearance. Got a reply from Petie – “We will be sure to have Michael G. mention the show while he's doing his radio interviews (I believe we have a few as a group as well and will mention it then as well).”

Other Items

Emailed the Seton Hall public relations person I met at a Jersey Arts Marketers meeting last year and she gave me a contact to add to our mailing labels.

Attended a house concert in Chatham; the host (with no prompting from me) mentioned the Minstrel in his list of nearby music venues; he also had Folk Project cards set out even before I arrived.

Sent Nov 1 and Nov 22 Minstrel info to BOTMA (Bluegrass and Old Time Music Assoc.); learned they only send emails once a month. Got a due date from the person who sends the email so we can meet his deadline. Just sent him info on Ronstadt Generations. Will let you know if he uses it; should get his email later this week.

Got an email from Noah Swistak, assistant director of the Philadelphia Folk Song Society, asking if we’d like to place an in their program book. Bought a quarter-page ad for $125. Liz Pagan modified our MCTB ad (on rather short notice – thanks, Liz!) and I sent it to him. Here is part of his email to me: “The book will be mailed to over 5,000 PFS members and supporters and your logo would appear on all of our E-Blast communications over the next six months… It would be great to feature The Folk Project, as you've got a great deal of performers here that will appeal to our members.” I will be asking the treasurer for a check to pay for this ad.

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