FEBRUARY 2014

BOARD MEETING MINUTES

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

The February Board Meeting was called to order at 8:00 pm at Steve Humphrey’s house in Randolph, NJ.

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

ADMINISTRATION:

TREASURER’S REPORT:

2013 books have been finalized, except for one $25 invoice to be paid. We lost approximately $1292, but our Vanguard investment value increased by $8,000. In January, we spent $4,363 more than we took in, mostly on insurance. We finalized our workers’ comp insurance and paid the deposit for the year, and also paid for liability insurance.

SECRETARY:

January 2014 minutes were accepted without correction.

OLD BUSINESS:

QUICKBOOKS SEMINAR:

The QuickBooks seminar originally scheduled to take place January 21 was rescheduled due to snow, and will take place at MUUF on February 18.

INSURANCE:

New Certificates of Insurance from our new insurance carrier have been sent to chairs of our various performance venues. Annual cost of insurance coverage for all FP events will be about $2575. Our new insurance carrier is K & K Events & Attractions. Mike A. asked if it made sense to allocate insurance costs to the various venues? “No”, said Elizabeth, as the insurance carrier does not provide that detailed breakdown. Lori pointed out that committee chairs should still keep insurance costs in mind when budgeting for events. Scooter asked if we could get an insurance rider should we need one for a larger event. “Yes”, said Elizabeth.

NEW BUSINESS:

INJURY AT THE MINSTREL:

A speaker on the stage fell over onto a first-time audience member at the Minstrel a few weeks ago. She did not require surgery; nothing was broken, and is receiving physical therapy. She’s mobile and working. We had insurance coverage, and our insurance carrier knows about the incident should we need to file a claim. Our new carrier is also aware of it (full disclosure). An anonymous donor has stepped up and volunteered to cover all of the woman's co-pays and other medical expenses not covered by her insurance, plus any medical claims lodged against the Folk Project as a result of this incident, so that the FP will not have to file any claims with its insurance carrier. Lindsey asked, what are we doing to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again? Scooter informed us that the speakers are being positioned further back on the stage. Steve suggested forming a Safety Committee to create practices and procedures to prevent future accidents. He would be happy to chair such a committee. Steve also recommended that we NOT have email discussions about issues like this in future – “don’t put it in writing”. Elizabeth noted that this is why we have an “Executive Board” mailing list. Scooter suggested we table Steve’s idea for a Safety Committee for further discussion next month.

ONE-DAY NERFA:

Wendy Keilin brought it to our attention that NERFA (North East Regional Folk Alliance) will be doing a 1-day conference in NJ, on April 5, at Sanctuary Concerts’ location in Chatham. There will be a music business conference for music venues, musicians, luthiers, and other music industry pros, etc, with workshops and a luncheon, followed by juried showcases (10 artists). The concert showcase will be open to the general public. Wendy would like the FP to co-sponsor the event to bring NJ area folkies together. FP members could be recruited to volunteer, and the FP could help publicize the event. Mike A. suggested that Wendy provide a list of jobs she would like FP volunteers to fill? Wendy would also like to record the event, either on audio, video or both. Scooter moved to co-sponsor, motion seconded and passed unanimously.

HOME MADE MUSIC PARTIES:

Dave Sherman, as Internal Affairs Chair, is changing the name of our monthly music parties from “Evenings of Music” to “ Home Made Music Parties”, which he feels is more descriptive of the events. We also revisited Dave’s motion, tabled from last month, to present a mini-concert or workshop starting at 7 pm, before the jamming portion of the Home Made Music Party. Performers would be drawn from both inside and outside the FP. Non-FP members would be welcome as guests of FP members but would be encouraged to join FP in order to continue attending future HMMP’s. Dave will discuss with Eddie whether or not to book performers at both music parties (second and fourth Saturdays), or just at the second Saturday parties.

Dave is asking for a budget of up to $1,000 to pay performers over the next 12 months. Discussion ensued. A vote was taken – 18 Yes, 1 Abstention. Dave has his performance budget.

SEE DAVE SHERMAN'S PROPOSAL HERE

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

INTERNAL AFFAIRS:

There were two Home Made Music Parties in January – second Saturday at Marie Trontell’s, co-hosted by Marie and Jay Wilensky; and the fourth Saturday at Eddie and Robin Roffman’s. Dave is looking for more venues.

SOUND REINFORCEMENT: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Mike D reported that the newly purchased wireless sound system intended to pipe concert sound out to the Lobby, has been tested and works as intended. See his written report.

E-COMMUNICATIONS: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

“Not much new” to report, said Lori. In mid-January, she sent out a special email on behalf of Zed Music re: cancellation due to bad weather and rescheduling. Mike A used Constant Contact to email Minstrel flyers in .pdf format for interested people to print out at home and post at their local libraries, supermarket bulletin boards, etc to help publicize the Minstrel.

MINSTREL BOOKING: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

2 very big shows last month, resulting in a profit of $512 for the month. They had to evacuate the room due to a gas smell during Jean Rohe’s concert. She missed her second set, but will be coming back March 2015.

New Bookings: 10/3/14: Sloan Wainright; 10/17/14: Woody Mann; 11/7/14: Sally Rogers and Claudia Schmidt.

MINSTREL STAFFING:

Jean absent, no report.

FESTIVAL: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Spring Festival registration is set to launch 2/15/14. Joanne Cronin came up with a new name for our semi-annual weekend event – it will now be called the “FP Acoustic Getaway”, which is felt to be more accurately descriptive. Allan noted that we will need to re-brand the Festival on the FP website.

SWINGIN’ TERN: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Leigh absent. See written report.

PUBLICITY: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Paul is getting caught up. Webmaster John Lamb is very busy working with graphic design, and adding Zed Music to the FP website.

Our Festival (now “FP Acoustic Getaway”) is listed in Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s “50 Best” list, and Acoustic Guitar Magazine is starting to add upcoming Minstrel events on their website.

NEWSLETTER: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

George reported that 350 hard copies of the Newsletter were printed, 188 of them mailed to members. He noted that he still has “more to learn”, but that he hopes to develop more streamlined procedures as time goes by.

MEMBERSHIP: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

A new membership dues structure will go into effect in March: $25/year for Individual ($20 for eNewsletter), $30/year for Family ($25 for eNewsletter), plus 4 levels of Premium Membership from $50/year up to $500 year, most of which is tax-deductible and includes gifts of DVDs of great performances from HSNOI. Bill noted that dues over $50 are tax-deductible to the donor, and require a confirmation letter from the FP. Eddie said he would send out the letters as needed.

SPECIAL CONCERTS: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Scooter reported that he has booked David Gans’s string band for a special concert on May 10, the second Saturday of the month, which is ordinarily the evening of the Home Made Music Party. The HMMP will move to the third Saturday instead. Scooter is working on Uke New Jersey Too!, to be held on August 29 - 30.. He has already booked performers: Honor Finnegan, Stuart Fuchs, Jim Beloff, and the Stringbusters (Pete and Maura Kennedy). He’s also thinking about a Halloween Party on October 31, and has booked Jonathan Edwards and Lucy Kaplansky for a special concert at the Minstrel on November 21. Tickets will be $30 in advance or $35 at the door. Jonathan Edwards gets a bonus if we sell out, and that would be 180 tickets.

HSNOI: SEE COMMITTEE REPORT

Sandie reported that a training session scheduled for new volunteers was completely booked up by others, so another training session will be scheduled specifically for HSNOI volunteers. Next Thursday, they are taping two shows with Brooks Williams and Spuyten Duyvil.

MERCHANDISING:

Gloria absent, no report.

COMMUNITY SERVICES:

SCAN concert being held at MUUF this coming Saturday, with The Kennedys and Liza and AJ, has only sold 50 tickets so far. Please come out and support this worthy cause.

ZED MUSIC:

Shari absent, no report.

Meeting adjourned 10:15 pm. Next meeting on March 4, 2014, at Bob McNally’s home in Mt Tabot, NJ.