November 2016

The November 1st meeting of the Folk Project Board of Directors was called to order at 8 pm at the home of Allan Kugel and Cecilia Rowedder in Highland Park.

Present: Kathi Caccavale, Joanne Cronin, Lois DeRitter, Grover Kemble, Allan Kugel, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Lindsey Meyer, Chris Riemer, Jay Wilensky, and Barrett Wilson (officers and trustees); Mike Agranoff, Christine DeLeon, Lori Falco, Paul Fisher, Deborah Graham, George Otto, Mitch Radler, Pam Robinson, Ed Roffman, Mark Schaffer, and Leigh Walker (committee chairs).

Absent: Pat Brangs, Ken Brody, Mike Del Vecchio, and Bob McNally

Guests: Olga Alvarez, Sandy Jackson, Barbara Moo, and Tom Taylor

MOTIONS THIS MONTH

We voted to accept the Nominating Committee’s recommended slate of officers and trustees for 2017.

We voted to spend $800 to subsidize Pam and Bob to attend the Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City in 2017.

ADMINISTRATION REPORTS

Secretary

The minutes were accepted as written.

Treasurer Written Report

Chris had nothing to add to his report.

OLD BUSINESS

Nominating Committee Written Report

Deborah distributed the proposed slate of officers and trustees for 2017. We voted to accept the slate with the following changes:

Officers and Trustees:

1. Elizabeth requested to fill Joanne’s unexpired trustee term and her request was accepted by the committee. (Joanne will become Membership Committee chair and declined to continue as trustee as well.)

Committee Chairs:

2. The new Archives Committee was added to the list, with Lindsey as chair. (The committee was created in July 2016, to begin functioning in January 2017.)

3. The Merchandising Committee was deleted from the list, as it no longer exists, having been absorbed into Publicity.

4. Mark's Getaway co-chair is Elizabeth, not Robin.

There was a question about whether Sandie is chair of HSNOI or if Sandie and Ken are co-chairs. Past minutes aren’t clear, the board members weren’t certain, and neither party was present.

Chris clarified that he will train the new treasurer (Mike A.) and will also oversee the finances and continue to bookkeep. Chris is term-limited and although he cannot continue as treasurer, he can advise Mike in an unofficial capacity.

Pam moved and Mike A. seconded a motion to accept the committee’s recommendations for officers and trustees. The motion passed.

Workers’ Compensation (ad hoc) Commission (WCC) Written Report

The committee’s report, which had been emailed to the board, stood as an automatic motion. We then voted by a clear majority to accept the recommendations in the report. There were five abstentions. By this vote, we agreed to continue purchasing Workers’ Compensation insurance and to develop a working relationship with a knowledgeable agent. Lori has agreed to work with a particular agent familiar with Workers’ Comp insurance. George urged us to pursue Directors’ and Officers’ insurance next and said this is an omission that needs to be addressed.

Lindsey praised the work of the committee, as she has been following the committee’s progress by watching the board’s wiki updates. She pointed out that anyone can read committee updates on the wiki by clicking on the committee pages on the left side of the home page https://sites.google.com/site/folkprojectbackoffice/. Chris added that board members can request notification any time the wiki is updated or just click on “Recent Site Activity” at the bottom of the home page. Barrett urged all committees to post their work as it happens so that board members can get a snapshot of work in progress. To post, committees should send items to Chris or the secretary.

The board expressed praise and thanks to committee members Barrett Wilson (chair), George Otto, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Lori Falco, and Chris Riemer. This was an important, difficult, multi-faceted, and time-consuming job that needed to be done.

Morris Arts Grant Written Report

Barbara announced that Morris Arts (MA) awarded the FP a grant of $2,500 for 2017, after a request for $3,000. The money comes with certain stipulations: 1) We need to send MA a letter at the beginning of January 2018 stating how we used the money, which Barbara volunteered to do. 2) Someone on the board has to go to an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) meeting. 3) The money must be used for general operating expenses and can NOT be used to pay salaries (not a problem!), individual artists, hospitality costs, travel, or capital expenditures. 4) Anything we use it for must include a specific blurb acknowledging the MA grant. Barbara will ask if we can use it for insurance but warned that if our grant expenditure affects every activity of the organization, then every single piece of publicity would be required to carry the MA blurb. This could potentially have a major impact on publicity efforts.

The deadline for the 2018 grant is fast approaching and Barbara volunteered to write this one, too. She needs 2016 data from each committee chair by the end of February, so she suggested that committees include it in their year-end reports. Kathi suggested that committee chairs think about specific proposals to spend the money. We gave Barbara a big round of applause for a job well done!

NEW BUSINESS

Folk Alliance International (FAI) Written Proposal

Pam moved that the Folk Project subsidize herself and Bob Safranek in the amount of $300 each to attend the Folk Alliance International 2017 Conference in Kansas City, MO. Joanne seconded.

From her earlier email, Pam said they “plan to attend the 2017 Conference hoping to learn better ways to produce concert events and festivals in small to mid-sized venues. We also expect to see a larger pool of performers than we normally see at NERFA or other east coast festivals, which will expand our options for booking Special Concerts and the New Jersey Uke Fest. We plan to attend workshops that will help the Folk Project overall do what it does best, better.”

George asked whether this outlay might put us at risk of fiscal overreach, as it did a few years ago. Lori stated that the Finance Committee had allocated money for 2016 NERFA expenses and since $250 of it hasn’t been spent, it could be repurposed for FAI. Pam said she and Bob expect to spend about $3,400 total, so the $600 total request is a fraction of that amount. They also have secured scholarships from FAI which will require them to work at the event. Chris stated that we’re having an outstanding year financially, so he saw no problem with the expense.

Grover then requested an amendment to Pam’s motion, to increase the amount to $400 apiece. Discussion ensued.

The vote to accept the amendment passed with 10 “yes" and 6 “no” votes, plus 2 abstentions. (If the vote had been “no”, we would have reverted to the original motion.)

We then voted on the new motion of $400 each. The motion passed with a clear majority, meaning that many or all of those who voted “no” to the higher allocation amendment, still voted “yes” on the final motion.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Membership Written Report

Eddie reported that he’s working with Joanne toward a smooth chairship transition. He laid out his vision of a shared contact resource that would serve Membership, Minstrel, Swingin’ Tern, and Getaway so they wouldn’t need separate databases. He compared this need to Quickbooks and noted how easily all board members can share our financial info.

Eddie’s been using his own Filemaker software but he can’t pass it on to Joanne. We discussed various ideas, such as purchasing Filemaker through TechSoup, which offers software discounts to non-profits. Chris said we should find out if anyone offers this as a hosted service (so we wouldn’t need our own server) and asked if we could use Constant Contact. Lori will work with Eddie to investigate CC options.

Kathi suggested creating a subcommittee to locate a single place to store and share information. She offered to chair one in 2017 as long as other subcommittee members have the knowledge base that she lacks. Allan pointed out that centralization of information can create a security issue. This should be addressed by any future subcommittee.

Horses Sing None of It Written Report

Ken was absent, as they’re producing a show tonight.

Special Concerts Written Reports

Pam and Mark had nothing to add to their reports.

Getaway Written Report

Mark stated that Getaway received very high ratings on the survey and almost half of the attendees responded. There’s been one meeting about issues that cropped up at this Getaway. He’s not ready to give a financial report yet, since the financial dust is still settling. Board members can always check figures on the FP Quickbooks page.

Minstrel Staffing Written Report

Deborah reported several new volunteers, following her plea from the stage at the Halloween show. Perhaps the Maleficent costume provided inspiration! Due to issues with the tally sheet, she’ll include financial information in her December report. Mike A. said there was roughly a $500 profit and that all the delicious food was donated. The audience was around 75, compared to 100 last year, although it was noted that we were competing with a playoff. We applauded Deborah for a successful show.

The Cubs are up 7-0.

Minstrel Booking Written Report

Mike A. reported a glitch in the new tally sheet, which is being worked out. A side effect of too few volunteers: at the Christine Lavin show, he was so involved in both emcee-ing and bookkeeping that the show ended while he was still working on the books. Apparently, the audience left on their own. At least, we haven’t heard complaints from MUUF!

Newsletter Written Report

George received a note for next month’s newsletter about a book being published about folk music in NJ, with a chapter about the FP. He suggested we consider selling the book at the Minstrel and other venues but Lindsey strongly suggested we read the book before promoting it. The author interviewed Mike A. and Barrett, and Christine had her photo taken.

Electronic Communications Written Report

Lori had nothing to add.

Swingin’ Tern Written Report

Leigh reported that five dances are coming up, four of which are special dances.

Publicity Written Report

Paul said he’s been handling merchandise in addition to running the committee. 80% of the merch work happens during Getaway and they need a volunteer to do this. Chris pointed out that we don’t need someone to purchase merch, just to sell it at Getaway. Purch merch?

Community Services Written Report

Pat was absent.

Event Hosting Written Report

Christine had nothing to add.

Sound Reinforcement

Mike D. was absent and there was no written report.

Intentions and Resources (ad hoc) Committee

Bob was absent and there was no written report.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 9:33 pm. Next month is the annual meeting on December 6 at the Chimney Rock Inn in Gillette. Dinner is at 6 pm followed by the annual and monthly meetings at 8 pm. Dinner will be $15 prix fixe for members, with the FP picking up the remainder, not including alcohol. Committee chairs will please include the info Barbara needs to apply for the 2018 MA grant.

Respectfully submitted,

Lindsey Meyer

Secretary