AUGUST 2014

BOARD MEETING MINUTES

AUGUST 5, 2014

The August 5, 2014 Board Meeting was called to order by Vice-President Barrett Wilson in the absence of President Elizabeth Lachowicz at 8:01 pm at the home of Mark and Robin Schaffer in Rockaway, NJ.

Present: Mark Schaffer, Grover Kemble, Rachel Streich, Barrett Wilson, Lori Falco, George Otto, Lois DeRitter, Jim Gartner, Eddie Roffman, Mike Agranoff, Paul Fisher, Lindsey Meyer, Jean Scully, Bill Henderson, Bob McNally. Absent: Elizabeth Lachowicz, Leigh Walker, Sandie Reilly, Joanne Cronin, Allan Kugel, Mike DelVecchio, Dave Sherman, Shari Korenstein, Tom Picard, Scooter Ferguson, Gloria Friedman, Steve Humphreys. Guests: Pat Brangs, Andrew Hines, Barbara Hall.

ADMINISTRATION:

July 2014 Minutes were accepted without corrections.

TREASURER’S REPORT:

Bill reported that we currently have a total of $16,000 in our checking and Money Market accounts combined. Our current P & L shows a year-to-date loss of about $5,500.00. Mike A. asked, “Is some of that loss attributable to advance deposits for Fall Getaway?” “No”, said Bill.

NEW BUSINESS:

POOL PARTY:

Barbara Hall is looking to host a pool party at her home this coming Sunday, 8/10/14. She originally intended to place a notice about the party in the Newsletter but it didn’t appear. Lori offered to send an email blast tomorrow to the FP membership to let everyone know about the party.

NEXT MEETING LOCATION:

The September meeting was originally scheduled to be held at Gloria Friedman’s house, but she can’t host it. Scooter has reserved a back room for us at Frank’s Pizza, on Route 206 in Flanders. We will meet early before the official meeting begins, to enjoy Frank’s excellent pizza.

OLD BUSINESS:

AD-HOC COMMITTEES:

Elizabeth asks that we wait for her return to give our reports.

AD-HOC TECHNOLOGY AWARENESS REPORT IS HERE

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

ACOUSTIC GETAWAY: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Mark reported that they are “doing fine”. Some registrations are coming in, but he expects most registrations will not come till after Labor Day. He and Robin re-organized the Registrar’s responsibilities to make the job easier. And they checked out a number of musicians at Falcon Ridge for possible Spring 2015 bookings.

SOUND REINFORCEMENT: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Mike D. absent, see written report.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE:

All Board positions have nominees for 2015. Barrett Wilson has been nominated to succeed Elizabeth Lachowicz as President; Elizabeth nominated for Vice-Prez; Andrew Hines as Secretary, and Chris Reimer as Treasurer.

NEWSLETTER: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

George reported that they reduced the number of hard copies printed to 300, same as last month, to save money. 190 were mailed out. There were only 2 misspellings in newsletter submissions this month; we’re getting better! He included live links in the e-newsletter, including the Table of Contents. George also noted that he was short of articles for this month’s newsletter – so please send him stuff to publish!!

MEMBERSHIP:

Eddie noted that we have approximately 550 members as of the end of last quarter. He sent out renewal notices. Eddie pointed out that the number of members is not as important as the number of people subscribed to Constant Contact emails about our activities. People may not be joining, but they are getting the emails and are showing up to events.

E-COMMUNICATIONS: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Our total number of contacts is down slightly from last month. We get about 2 or 3 new signups to the Minstrelgram list every week. Lori asked that the MC or Door people remind new Minstrel attendees to sign up for the Minstrelgrams when we give them their First-timer ticks. Mark noted that the Minstrelgrams do not mention other venues like the Getaway, Special Concerts, and so on; could there be a way to tastefully mention other FP events, maybe in a sidebar? Mike A. pointed out that the Minstrelgrams are automatically generated to minimize the amount of work needed to create them every week. Discussion followed. Mike pointed out that someone would actually have to do the work of including these other events, without cluttering up the page, figuring out where to put the additional information, and coding is “clumsy”. Mark agreed with everything Mike just said. Bill suggested we just give readers a link to the FP website. Lois commented that we encourage newbies to sign up for Minstrelgram by promising not to spam them with lots of extra info. Bob asked, is it technically feasible to add this additional info to the Minstrelgram? Barrett asked that the web team look into it and let us know if its feasible and/or worth doing? Lori asked Mark to send her a sketch of what he would want the revised Minstrelgram to look like.

PUBLICITY: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Paul reported, they are working to update the UkeFest and Fall Getaway pages on the FP website. Alan has been working on fixing problems with pics on the website. We are up over 1000 “likes” on FaceBook, and over 500 followers on Twitter. Lots of good writeups of FP events in local media. Jim King has been writing a full page review of one Minstrel a month, but wants to expand to a page on each show. Mke A. asks, is this a good idea??

HSNOI: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Sandie absent. See written report. Grover asked, “how many Minstrel artists have also appeared on HSNOI?”. “Quite a few”, Mike said, but their HSNOI broadcasts are not coordinated with their Minstrel appearances. Eddie noted that HSNOI’s penetration on local cable access channels is very small, but our potential reach via YouTube is great.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Dave absent, see written report.

SWINGIN’ TERN:

Leigh absent, no report.

ZED MUSIC:

Shari and Tom absent. No report.

COMMUNITY SERVICES:

Shari absent, no report.

MINSTREL BOOKING: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

There was only one “normal” show with paid performers in July, considering the July 4^th Picnic, Open Stage, and the Birthday Show. We were $453 in the black for the month, according to Mike. We had a total of 40 participants onstage for the Birthday Show, with paid attendance of 92, said Mike A. He gave away 2 pairs of tickets to the Fill-A-Seat program for Cliff Eberhardt.

Tom Paxton is confirmed for 7/25/15 as our special concert to celebrate the Minstrel’s 40^th Birthday next year. We will use the Sanctuary Concerts venue in Chatham, along with their sound equipment, sound techs, mailing list, and getting reduced rent. We may also use their venue while MUF’s parking lot is being repaved next year; alternatively, Mike is also looking at a Ukrainian church in Whippany as a temporary home while the parking lot is being repaved.

New Bookings: 8/15/14/ Josh Joffen opening for Suzzy Roche and Lucy Wainright Roche; 11/14/14: split bill with Jim Kweskin and Happy Traum (no Open Stage that month). 11//28/14: Mike Agranoff CD release concert with Ken and Pat Rolston opening.

MINSTREL STAFFING:

“Nothing to report”, said Jean.

SPECIAL CONCERTS: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Scooter absent, see written report. Mark reported that Scooter (Special Concerts) and Dave (Internal Affairs) are collaborating on a special Halloween event, featuring Grover Kemble as Jimmy Durante, then featuring 3 different FP member bands with FP singers in costume.

MERCHANDISING:

Gloria absent, no report.

Next meeting will be at Frank’s Pizza, on Route 206 in Flanders, NJ, on September 2, 2014.

Meeting adjourned, 9:15 pm!!