July 2016

The July 5th meeting of the Board of Directors was called to order at 8 pm at the home of Gloria Friedman in Florham Park.

ROLL CALL

Present were Kathi Caccavale, Joanne Cronin, Lois DeRitter, Grover Kemble, Allan Kugel, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Bob McNally, Lindsey Meyer, Chris Riemer, Jay Wilensky, and Barrett Wilson (officers and trustees); Mike Agranoff, Pat Brangs, Ken Brody, Christine DeLeon, Mike Del Vecchio, Lori Falco, Paul Fisher, Deborah Graham, George Otto, and Pam Robinson (committee chairs).

Guests: Gloria Friedman and Barbara Moo

Absent were Mitch Radler, Ed Roffman, Mark Schaffer, and Leigh Walker.

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

The board voted to create a new standing Archives committee, chaired by Lindsey Meyer, to begin functioning on January 1, 2017.

ADMINISTRATION REPORTS

Secretary

The May minutes were approved, with one addition by Christine.

Treasurer Written Report

Chris said we’re having a very good year, financially speaking.

President Written Report

1.) NERFA: Next month we need to discuss whether we want to continue NERFA subsidies for 2016 and for whom. In discussion, we learned that registration is open now and the price will rise in August and again in September. The hotel is the biggest cost.

HISTORY

In 2015, the Board subsidized Barrett Wilson $250, Elizabeth Lachowicz $250, and Sandy Reilly up to $500. Sandie books heavily at NERFA for HSNOI.

2.) MUUF’s construction of a commercial extension to the building and parking lot paving: Through the zoning board, neighbors have put constraints called “covenants of use” on all tenants, including the FP. One covenant says that there must be quiet by 11 pm. Mike said that the Minstrel’s current contract, which includes this covenant, states that patrons must be gone by 11 pm; staff (and musicians) must be gone by 11:30. He’s already changed the start and end times so that shows end by 10:30 instead of 11:00. He said that the start date for construction depends on the zoning and appeal processes. We discussed the importance of sticking to the requirements in order to support MUUF, as well as alternative parking possibilities. Start date for the construction depends on the zoning process and the appeal period.

OLD BUSINESS

Morris Arts Grant Written Report

Barbara Moo reported that she attended a Morris Arts (MA) grant writing workshop and has revised our application accordingly. The grant would cover “general operating support.” Morris Arts requested audio-visual material on CD or DVD that illustrates the artistic merit of events such as Minstrel, member shows, HSNOI, and evenings of music. Barbara asked that good quality recordings be sent to her by July 24 so she can add them to the grant proposal. She also requested comments on the draft that she just sent to the Board via email, also by July 24. The bad news is that 70 people showed up at the grant workshop and that last year, MA only awarded 24 grants. If we win a grant, we might expect between $1,000 and $3,000, so if we receive one, we’re not talking big money. We discussed the relative value of a sampler versus full-performance DVDs and whether the extra work would be worth it for a relatively small grant. Barbara will find out if they’ll accept a link to our YouTube page instead of hard copies. Joanne praised Barbara’s good work and we all applauded a job well done.

FP Archives – CAPES Grant - ad hoc committee Written Report

With George’s guidance, Lindsey submitted a final report for the ad hoc committee, thereby dissolving it. She made several recommendations in her final report to the Board, including the creation of a standing Archives Committee with her as chair, beginning in January 2017. George said that these recommendations automatically became a motion and that it’s automatically seconded by the committee. He amended and simplified the motion: “that we create a standing Archives Committee beginning in January 2017 with Lindsey as chair.” Lindsey accepted the amendment to the motion. Bob said that having an Archives committee would bolster our status as a cultural institution and provide examples of us as a “cultural treasure trove”. Although George values and supports an Archives Committee, he voiced a concern about whether the Board needs another committee, although he couldn’t think of an appropriate existing committee for which Archives could be a subcommittee. Chris suggested that Archives could be run as a workgroup, without having committee status. Lindsey replied that all the archivists she spoke to said that a FP archivist would need legal standing within the FP and that other institutions’ Boards would look to communicate with the FP Board, not with an individual who happens to be collecting material.

The Board voted in favor, with one “nay” vote.

Lindsey then gave notice that, due to time constraints, she will not continue as secretary in 2017 but that she’s willing to train the new secretary.

NEW BUSINESS

Volunteer Appreciation Event

Lori said that last year, when she chaired the Finance Committee, they set aside up to $1,500 per year in hopes that the Volunteer Appreciation Event would continue to be a yearly event. She recommended that we plan one for this year and announced that Deborah has volunteered to produce it, which elicited cheers from the Board.

Deborah is considering a picnic in September in a state or county park pavilion and asked for suggestions for pavilions that could accommodate at least 70 people. We discussed possible locations, reservations, and publicity deadlines.

Lois spoke about the irony of asking volunteers to work for the volunteer appreciation event. Elizabeth ran the event two years ago at the home of Mark and Robin Schaffer. She said it was expensive and although it was mostly catered, there was still a lot of work for volunteers. Mike A. said we shouldn’t feel guilty about accepting volunteer help for this event, since it makes many people feel happy to volunteer. For possibly the first time ever, Barbara Moo agreed with Mike A., which caused a minor commotion among Board members.

Money has already been allocated and George said we didn’t need a motion to enable the event to move ahead.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Comment: Mike A. requested that committees submit their monthly reports earlier than last minute. This month, most were submitted within a day or two of the meeting and that made it difficult, if not impossible, to read prior to the meeting. Mike suggested moving the meetings to the second Tuesday of the month (in order to give people time to submit reports) but several people indicated they wouldn’t be able to attend.

Publicity Written Report

Paul said the Joe Crookston Minstrel concert got a good write-up on www.nj.com and that Vicinity magazine gave us a half-page for the Muriel Anderson special concert. Barrett gave kudos to Paul and the committee and we supplied a round of applause. Pat said that Kevin Coughlin gives us lots of free publicity and she suggested we all comment, “like”, and share Kevin’s Facebook posts in order to increase visibility for both Kevin and the FP. Mike D. said that we should consider buying an ad on his morristowngreen.com site. Many people agreed and Paul will check it out and let us know next month.

Horses Sing None of It Written Report

Ken reported that Cablevision’s new management has left HSNOI’s future up in the air after the next couple of months and they may have to move. Horses has been using Cablevision’s equipment, which is breaking down. They’d like to find funding to purchase their own equipment to be used either at Cablevision’s studios or at another location. Part of Cablevision’s access grant includes producing public access shows, such as HSNOI. Grover pointed out that Ralph Litwin has been doing fine work for 40 years and suggested we find a way to honor him.

Getaway Written Report

Elizabeth had nothing to add. Pam said that Mark’s report is very light on financial details and she requested information such as performer budgets, financial reports, etc. on upcoming events rather than just past ones. She referenced the financial kaflooey where the camp took our deposit for fall Getaway and mistakenly applied it to the spring bill. She said that Mark should have included this is his report. Chris pointed out that there’s a Quickbooks function that shows historical data for any committee, but Pam was looking for current and future financial figures.

Special Concerts Special Concerts Written Report UkeFest Written Report

Ukefest: Pam had nothing to add to her report.

Special Concerts: The committee is planning a joint show with Sanctuary Concerts on Dec. 3 at the Chatham Presbyterian Church. She can’t reveal the performer’s name yet, since they’re still in negotiations. The cost exceeded her budget so Mike D. suggested a co-sponsorship and she agreed. She formally released the Friday, Nov. 25 date, which gives Mike A. a new date to book for Minstrel. If the show makes money, Sanctuary Concerts and the FP will split it.

Electronic Communications Written Report

Lori had nothing to add to her report.

Minstrel Booking Written Report

Mike A. reported that no shows went into the red in June, the first all-in-the-black month this year.

Referring to the new 7:45 pm start time for the Minstrel, Pam suggested that the FP send representatives to the zoning board meetings just to listen and asked if Mike had tried to get an extension on time restraints. Many people said that, although the meetings are public, FP attendance was not a good idea since it’s unusual for non-residents to attend zoning board meetings and because MUUF had specifically requested that their tenants not get involved. Mike said he communicates information to all parties as he receives it from MUUF and that all performers have been informed about the time limitations. He has no say in these matters because all changes are dictated by the zoning board. Special Concerts will not be affected by the time limitations, since the concerts end earlier than Minstrel. Barbara observed that the new start time was communicated effectively by Publicity, Minstrel, and Electronic Communications and that she saw no more stragglers on July 1 than at a normal Minstrel. Barrett thanked Mike and Deborah for doing a great job in quickly making adjustments, communicating, and coordinating the changes.

Christine reported that Open Stage will now start at 7:30 pm (rather than the Minstrel’s new 7:45 start time) in order to avoid losing performer slots lose 2 performer slots rather than 3, due to the 10:30 end time. The decision to hold the OS in the Meeting Room or the Terrace Room will be made on the day of the event, based on the weather forecast: it’s $90 cheaper in the Terrace Room but there’s no air conditioning.

Minstrel Staffing Written Report

Deborah spoke about efforts to cut down on the number of free seats by reducing the number of ticks given out to volunteers and requested input from the Board. There was much discussion, including talk of eliminating the ticks altogether. Excess ticks have negatively affected the Minstrel budgeting and performer payments, many board members believe that we give out too many ticks, and some jobs may not warrant a tick at all. Every volunteer currently gets free admission on the night they volunteer but should they also earn a tick for a second free admission? For some jobs that require the volunteer to miss (or miss part of) the show, a tick may make sense, but many people said that a baker shouldn’t get a tick because they already get to see the show free on the night they volunteer. Deborah pointed out that people volunteer regardless of ticks and that many people don’t use their ticks at all.

Mike A. stated that at high attendance shows, the ticks cost the FP $6.75 per person. This is because the percentage of the gate that’s paid to the performer increases once we pass 100 paid audience members. We count redeemed ticks (and 2nd-timer passes) in the paid attendance count because we don't want to penalize the performers for our freebie policies. So after 100 paid come in the door, each redeemed tick generates 75% x $9.00, or $6.75 in performer fees we give to the headline act.

Community Services Written Report

Pat had nothing to add to her report.

Swingin’ Tern Written Report

Leigh was absent.

Newsletter Written Report

George said the FP’s YouTube channel has been added to the masthead.

Membership

Eddie was absent and there was no written report.

Event Hosting Written Report

Christine thanked Lori for sending emails to the volunteer list requesting people to come early to prep for the July 4 picnic.

Sound Reinforcement

Mike D. said that Swingin’ Tern has reported sound issues but that all is smooth at Minstrel. There was no written report.

Workers’ Compensation Insurance ad hoc committee

Barrett reported that they’re still working with lawyers and are not ready to give a report.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:57 pm. Next month’s meeting is at 8 pm on August 2 at the Summit home of Pamela Zave and Yolanda Fundora.

Respectfully submitted,

Lindsey Meyer, Secretary