December 2015

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Folk Project Board Meeting • December 1, 2015

The Minutes

The December 1, 2015 Annual Meeting was called to order at 8pm at the Chimney Rock Inn in Gillette, NJ.

Roll Call:

Officers present were Andrew Hines, Chris Riemer and Barrett Wilson. Trustees present were: Lois DeRitter, Deborah Graham, Bob McNally, Lindsey Meyer, Grover Kemble, Allan Kugel and Jay Wilensky and Barrett Wilson.

Committee chairs present were Mike Agranoff, Pat Brangs, Ken Brody(voting), Christine DeLeon, Mike Del Vecchio, Lori Falco, Paul Fisher, George Otto, Sandie Reilly, Ed Roffman, and Mark Schaffer and Leigh Walker.

Guests present were: many.

Absent were Joanne Cronin, Scooter Ferguson and Elizabeth Lachowicz.

Acceptance of the November 20145 minutes was deferred until the January meeting due to corrections to be made.

PREZ’ REPORT: Barrett reviewed a range of topics including Trademarking, new sound equipment, active sound training program, both Getaways selling out in record time, formalizing our member concerts and the appointment of a coordinator (Elizabeth will be coordinating the 4 concerts); we celebrated our 40^th Minstrel Anniversary and celebrated by a concert with Tom Paxton held at the Sanctuary facility; we received the Morris Arts, Arts Organization Award for Morris County; We’ve experienced a big financial turnaround, and we are in the black; we have received, and are processing, a $10,000 anonymous grant to be utilized in upgrading the MUUF sound system; we have begun to change our financial methods and procedures to effect a healthier organization; and...we co-produced a fabulous new backdrop for our concert stage with MUUF. See report.

We also have an upcoming Holiday Concert to benefit MUUF and more.

November Minutes approval was deferred until the January Board meeting for corrections. Michael Agranoff mentioned 4 corrections which will be changed. Lindsey mentioned 2 items that had already been corrected.

TREASURER’S REPORT: Chris Riemer reported that the checking account stands at $3,884, there's another $31,617 in the Money Market and $230 in petty cash. Workers' Comp year end payment has been made, and we are ahead about $6,800 for the year to date. That's not counting the $10,000 Minstrel Sound grant. See the report and the files attached to the report.

VANGUARD REPORT: Andy Koenig described the genesis and the workings of the account which holds the Agranoff Fund, and how it subsidizes the Getaway. The fund has performed well. It was started 4/21/2008 with $74,000. The balance is currently $113,885.21. The Getaway “receives” 1.5% of the balance of the fund for each Getaway. See the report and the files attached to the report.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

MINSTREL BOOKING: Mike Agranoff reports, “We done good”. We achieved $4,043 net profit in 2015; adding the Paxton concert, we made $5,903. We had the benefit of the entire year at the $9 admission. We have been holding Open Stage in the Terrace Room which is $170 less in rent. We had the rip roaring successful Paxton Concert. We ceded the 3 Fridays for the Member Concerts. We have noticed that many seats are filled by non paying attendees and will look into that. The MUUF construction was put off, we have a new banner designed by Deborah Graham, we had great Member Concerts, AND we received a $10,000 anonymous grant from a very generous person to improve our sound in conjunction with the MUUF improvements. See report and other files attached.

MINSTREL STAFFING: Barrett is stepping down as staffing coordinator, and is being replaced by Deborah Graham (who will be resigning as a trustee). Look for great things next year, and incorporating changes to make volunteering even easier.

GETAWAY: Mark states, we are a 3 day musical community that is focused on entertainment, education and self expression. We have done that with the Vocallatto, skits, Fest Forward and other channels. Thanks to all the volunteers and the workshop leaders. Both Acoustic Getaway Weekends were a lot of fun and made money (about $4k per year), said Mark. They both sold out in record time, and we expect the same going forward. We are going to have the skit every other Getaway, and are looking into an extension. The lineup will be announced 1/1/16 and registration will be opened on 2/215/2016 2/15/2016. See December report and the Annual report.

SPECIAL CONCERTS: Scooter couldn’t attend but reported that for the year, we ended up in the black by $2,236.63. He will be stepping down, to be replaced by Pam Robinson. Scooter thanked all of the volunteers for all their hard work over the last few years. See report.

SWINGIN’ TERN: Leigh thanked the great group of volunteers and reported that they actually made money this year! This was due in part to $1,500 in contributions and donations. While they are ahead about $500, expectations for December are good led by a strong schedule. Leigh also notes that Contra Dancing is generally not doing well in the region. See report.

PUBLICITY: Paul explained that many new things have come under the wings of the Committee. They will be digging deeper into Social Media in a more organized fashion, taking over Merchandising with Margaret Crowl, and more. It was a very busy year with items such as the 40^th Anniversary concert, and we have grown from 16 to 20 members; 21 with our new YouTube channel and YouTuber Chris Riemer. Thanks to all of our great volunteers. See December report and Annual Report.

COMMUNITY SERVICES: Pat talked about sending cards, etc. She also mentioned 2 great gigs; one for Diane Perry at Whole Foods, and one for Mitch Radler for the day before Thanksgiving in Passaic. Memory Café continues to be a strong venue that we support. See December report and the Annual report.

NEWSLETTER: George reports finally getting the hang of the job. He offered huge thanks to the “proofreaders” Pat Brangs, Nancy Kelner and Bill Henderson.. They are printing only 230 newsletters per month which saves considerable money. Our current distribution is about 70% “E” newsletters and 30% printed. George uses a database now to reduce the amount of errors…and to save time as well. In response to a survey about what people like best in the newsletter, the highest ranked traditional items are calendar followed by music venues, Gigs & friends and finally the Board Meeting Summary. The top two items among "new" things in the newsletter are…Meet The Board and The Prez Sez, both written by Barrett. The Table of Contents on the front page is also much appreciated along with clickable links. The two most misspelled names this year were: Ferguson and Cecilia. See the Annual report.

MEMBERSHIP: Eddie reported that as of 12/1/15, we had 358 families, or 554 members as members. The number has stayed pretty steady over the last few years. “We’re holding our own,” says Eddie. It’s a challenge for volunteer organizations and we are doing well compared to many others. Even though we send renewal reminders, many seem to overlook renewing. Premium classes of membership have been effective in raising about $1,000. See Annual report.

HSNOI: Ken reported that they have a dedicated core of 9-10 volunteers, from which about 7 volunteers are needed for each taping. They can always use more, especially in the area of graphics and sound. Ralph has done such an outstanding job over the years. It takes an average of seven people to record a show, for a total 1,120 man-hours of volunteer time this year. Grover Kemble complimented the show. See the NERFA report and Annual report including grant information.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS: Christine reported a terrific 2015. They have solidified that there will be 4 member shows per year with an operating plan in place. Christine thanked Barbara Moo for her hard word encapsulating everything into words, and major thanks to the folks who run our shows. These are a favorite of many people. Special thanks went to Mark Schaffer for producing the Valentines Show and Summer Songs, a new format. A production “newcomer”, Deborah Graham did a fabulous job with the Halloween Show. And...thanks to Mike Agranoff for his work producing the Birthday Show. We had 10 great Evening’s Evenings of Music hosted by members, and a terrific 4^th of July party courtesy of Eddie Roffman. After a short name-change trial as Homemade Music Party in 2014, we reverted back to our former name; Evening of Music. Speaking of name changes, our biggest change is the renaming of the Internal Affairs Committee to: Event Hosting as of 1/1/2016. We also have yet to set all the locations of Evenings of Music for 2016. See report.

SOUND REINFORCEMENT: Mike DelVecchio thanked his Sound crew for all their hard work this year: It’s been a busy year with our new sound system, a new training program, and the coming of the new MUUF sound system. We have volunteers signed up through February for Open Stages. The room at MUUF still needs work to produce better sound through acoustic enhancement. There will be new baffles, carpet and more.

E-COMMUNICATONS: We have over 4,100 contacts in Constant Contact and again…are Constant Contact “All-Stars” this year for 3 years running, and again in the top 10% of CC users. We continue to experience great “open” rates. Over the last 3 months, for example, we sent out 32,190 emails. We experimented with sending out an “invitation to perform” for the Birthday Show and it was highly effective. We did the same for the Halloween Show and experienced a great open rate of 40%. So we suggest using this method for other emails in the future. Event Spot in Constant Contact functions very well with Getaway and other projects. We tried a Facebook ad that didn’t really pan out and so we probably won’t do that again. See December report and the Annual report.

ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING

ELECTIONS

NOTE: Use these links to the Nominating Committee notes and the Report for your review, if desired.

All of the Nominating Committee suggestions are being voted upon with the exception of one. For the position of “Trustee for 1 year”, Ken Brody placed his name in contention with the Committee’s selection of Mitch Radler. A secret ballot was held; the ballots were counted by the Secretary, and Mitch Radler was elected to fill this position.

The fully approved and voted upon slate is as follows:

ELECTION OF TRUSTEES:

(1) FOR JAN 2016 THRU DEC 2016 due to Lindsey Meyer stepping down to become Secretary: Mitch Radler

(1) FOR JAN 2016 THRU DEC 2017 due to Deborah Graham stepping down to become Volunteer Coordinator: Kathleen Caccavale

(3) FOR JAN 2016 THRU DEC 2019 (All Renewals are for additional 3 years): Bob McNally, Jay Wilensky and Joanne Cronin

ELECTION OF OFFICERS:

(By unanimous vote of 8 Trustees present):

President: Barrett Wilson, term limited to 2016

Vice President: Elizabeth Lachowicz, term limited to 2016

Treasurer: Chris Riemer, term limited to 2016

Secretary: Lindsey Meyer, for 2016 with term limitation through 2017

APPOINMENT OF COMMITTEE CHAIRS:

(by unanimous vote of 2016 Board):

Special Concerts: Pam Robinson (Scooter has resigned)

Minstrel Staffing: Deborah Graham (Barrett has resigned)

All other committee chairs will continue as in 2015

OTHER BUSINESS:

Barrett bestowed Special Recognition awards as follows:

Amy Livingston - for her support of the Minstrel Staffing process.

Deborah Graham - for stepping up and running a highly successful Halloween Show; her first.

John Lamb - as a hidden hero for our Web Services

Christine DeLeon - as Rookie of the Year for all her work

Barrett also thanked outgoing volunteers Scooter Ferguson and Andrew Hines for their services.

Meeting adjourned, 10:00pm.

Next Meeting, January 5, 2016, 8 PM at the home of ­­­­­­­­­­­Pam Robinson & Bob Safranek - 20 Fairmount Road, New Providence, NJ 07974