Newsletter Annual Report

Newsletter Committee Annual Report 2015-12 Things are proceeding as usual with the invaluable help of Pat Brangs, Nancy Kelner, Liz Pagan, Bill Henderson, Paul Fisher, Deborah Graham, and Eddie Roffman. Pat, Nancy, Liz, and Bill are excellent proofreaders, catching many errors that slip through my fumble fingers and past my spelling- and grammar-checking programs. Pat Brangs currently prints out 230 paper copies of the newsletter each month, mailing 173. The rest mostly go to Minstrel, but now that we do not put out the latest newsletter on the literature table any more, the take rate at the Minstrel is getting smaller. A year ago we were printing 330 copies each month. The system of putting venue and member-gig information into a FileMaker database as they are sent to me, then pulling the complete, formatted monthly listings out as I am organizing the newsletter, has resulted in much greater accuracy and more complete information being displayed for these sections each month. I posted a Constant Contact questionnaire to the newsletter asking readers to rank various aspects of it. > Of those who chose to respond, 70% received electronic copies of the newsletter, while 30% received paper copies. > The most-liked traditional items were these: 1) Calendar 2) Music Venues 3) Gigs & Friends/Board Meeting Summary (tie) > The most-liked new items were these: 1) Meet the Board 2) The Prez Sez 3) Table of Contents/Web links (tie) To help everyone become better acquainted with the correct spellings of the member and performer names that are often misspelled in newsletter submissions, I have begun showing recently corrected spellings in the email reminder sent out prior to each month’s deadline. And the honor of being the most-misspelled name in the newsletters of 2015 goes to . . . (drum roll please) . . . FERGUSON! With second place going to . . . CECILIA! Better luck next time all you other misspelled names. Sincerely,

George Otto Folk Project Newsletter Editor (908) 604-4623 newsletter@folkproject.org -----------------------------------