Embedded Files
Meeting called to order at 8:10 p.m. on February 5, with Jay leading a singalong of Witchy-Tai-To, a favorite of FP founder Laurie Reilly. Mike A will lead next month’s song.
MOTIONS MADE
Motion to postpone acceptance of January minutes until March meeting was carried with 4 abstentions.
Motion to make a donation to the Old Songs Festival was carried.
Motion to authorize the cost of parking at the Morris Museum while the MUF lot is being repaved, tabled until next month.
Motion to charge the likely use of Morris Museum parking expense to the general fund, rather than to the Minstrel, carried.
ROLL CALL
Present: Trustees: Lois DeRitter, Bob McNally, Dave Heistand, Christine DeLeon, Ken Brody, Allen Kugel, Evelyn McNally; Officers: Paul Fisher, Jay Wilensky, Jean Scully, Chris Riemer; Committees: Lindsey Meyer, Pat Brangs, Mark Schaffer, Sandie Reilly, Jay, Gary Pratt, Mike Agranoff, George Otto, Mitch Radler, Pam Robinson, Robin Schaffer (telephonically), Lisa Hallman Absent: Elizabeth Lachowicz, Todd Dennison, Elly Faden, John Mahon.
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS
Motion to donate $250 to Old Songs Festival in response to their request was carried. We will ask for FP to be published on list of sponsors.
PRESIDENT'S REPORT
Thanks for letting Paul know if you have a conflict or an issue with another FP member or process, so that he can help mediate/ameliorate the situation, rather than getting confrontational.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Very successful January, three shows averaging 127 paid, and a monthly profit of $586. Advance ticket sales are working well. Concert Window is not as great as we’d like it to be, but Mike has gotten no response from their tech team. If there were an alternative that would allow us to collect fees, Mike might give it a try. We now have a designated piano tuner, David Thomson, who has agreed to come a few times a year or as needed. The Morris Museum has agreed to let us use their parking lot for $100 per night while MUF’s is being paved, although we don’t know yet when that’s going to happen. Several members expressed concern about walking back and forth in the dark; Mike will (under protest) get a legal opinion about whether this will give us any legal liability. Two motions made by Mike: that the Board approve the concept of the overflow spending for $100 per night at the Museum (6-12 weeks); and that the $100 cost come out of the general fund, not a Minstrel line item; both were approved. the motion to carry the cost at the general level was approved, and the motion to actually use the lot was tabled until next month.
Long-time FP members Jim Rohe and Norman Cohen passed away in the last week; both very sad losses to the FP community. Pat will send cards. Pat is working with Allen and Gary on bringing the performer directory up to date, both technically and content-wise. Pat will be sending Gary a list of performers listed in the directory whose memberships have lapsed, for him to contact. Due to the age of the programming, no one has been added to the online directory in several years, per Allen; he has the backend coding done but the interface is not yet ready. Gary noted that the online and paper membership forms are different; there’s a place to capture new members’ performance level and interests in the database, but the forms don’t consistently capture that. It was agreed that we should be capturing this info. Mike A noted that he started collecting that data to collect performers for the Birthday Show.
The above discussion overlapped with membership issues; when a person joins FP would be a logical time to gather info about people’s interests/performance level for the Performers Directory, and those listed must be current members. Pat will forward Gary a copy of a letter that a previous Membership Chair used to send in acknowledgement to new members, outlining what we do. This could be modified to gather the above information. Discussion will continue on the committee level.
MINSTREL STAFFING
Jean thanked the volunteers for a wonderful Valentine’s Day show, despite frozen drains in the MUF kitchen that wreaked havoc with food preparations. This show is always a big undertaking, and it went off pretty much without a hitch, thanks to the volunteers and Chris Bukata’s organization. The music was top-notch! Pam noted that there is a second kitchen on the second floor, much smaller but okay in a pinch, and we do have permission to use it. She would like to move toward more eco-friendly supplies, like compostable plasticware, and away from Styrofoam (which lives 1000 years in landfills), although it is significantly more expensive.
Great start to the year with the January EOM at Jay & Marie’s; Elly Faden will host in February. Several months are covered, but May, July, November and December are still up for grabs, as well as the July 4th picnic (no EOM in October due to Getaway). Anyone wanting to host, please contact Jay. He is also open to new events under Event Hosting; bring any and all ideas. Mike suggested that at the next EOM, go around and ask anyone if they’d like to host. They’d like to move the start time up to 7:30. Mike A suggested county parks as a possible site for the July 4th picnic if we don’t find someone to host.
ARCHIVES
Both Pam and Jean have stuff for the archives. Lindsey is not collecting things in electronic format, nor plaques, awards etc. unless they are in paper form.
Mark was thrilled to announce a Sunday Sundae concert (a standalone Sunday ticket at Getaway for $20 or $25) with the Slambovian Underground, a trio from the Slambovian Circus of Dreams. FP regulars should consider registering early for Getaway in case Slambovian fans register in large numbers; FP members who have attended Getaway in the last few years will get a couple of days prior notice before reservations are opened to the general public. Two special concerts to be held at Minstrel will (hopefully) raise money for Getaway and garner new FP members: Tom Paxton & the Don Juans and Livingston Taylor. Mark is planning a $35 ticket price; if we fill the 200 seats Getaway will make a nice profit. Bob M raised the question of whether a perk of membership should be early notice of special events like these. Mike A noted that Getaway will not have to pay for Workers Comp insurance since it is being held in NY state, a savings of $450; thanks to Steve Humphreys for doing pro bono legal work on this issue.
OPEN STAGE
Shows are still booming and even making money. Mitch thanked his great army of volunteers. He’s working to get better audio mix to the camera for performer recordings, because this is a great thing to offer folks, especially new performers. He’s working towards getting an audio intern from a local college. Many Open Stage alum are being offered opening acts at Minstrel, and many also took part in the Valentine’s Day show. Mark noted that about 10% of the audience for Valentine’s Day were from the Open Stage community. The feature act part of the Open Stage program is working very well also. Mitch has had some positive feedback on the temporary logo he put on the web page, but it’s still a work in progress. Jean urged everyone to get to Open Stage if they haven’t already; the buzz and the energy is wonderful, really reminiscent of Minstrel “back in the day” when we had to set up and tear down the room and stage from scratch every night. Ken B suggested getting a second camera operator to take some of the work off of Bill Henderson, as he’s running between the two rooms now.
Bob McNally presented proposed goals for the Folk Project as a whole, aimed at taking us into the future as a healthy, growing and vibrant organization, and a Statement of Intention (similar to a mission statement), to be used as part of the evaluation process for ideas and propositions coming before the Board in the future. One of the key takeaways from all the meetings, brainstorming and work of the committee has been that volunteers are the lifeblood of the organization, and the care of nurture of volunteers and making FP a resource for the larger community are vital for our future. After a lively debate on the wording of the statements, it was agreed that an edited version will be presented next month.
BUSINESS ITEMS
Robin delivered a thorough summary of the E-Comm committee’s work over the last several months to develop a new e-mail policy aimed at creating a common look and feel to all the various venues’ and events’ e-mails, establish rules as to who can send e-mails to our various lists, as well as to “cross-pollinate” information on other FP events between all our various interest groups, as we have become increasingly Balkanized, with very little communication between the various venues’ populations compared to days past. The ongoing effort will also involve Lisa Hallman and Gary Pratt coordinating on Constant Contact issues. The Board expressed its appreciation to the E-Comm committee for its hard work on this ongoing project, and to Robin for delivering her report at 3 a.m. European time!
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 10:15 p.m.
The March meeting will be held at the Chatham-Summit Friends (Quaker) Meetinghouse, 158 Southern Boulevard in Chatham, just down the road from the former site of the Sanctuary concerts. We have booked the meetinghouse for the next 3 months at a reduced cost of $60 per evening. It is fully accessible, with an ADA-compliant bathroom as well! If it passes muster, we’ll be booking it for the rest of the year.
The meetinghouse is set back from the road, with only a smallish sign next to its driveway. GPS will get you there, but the best physical landmark is that it is across the road from a large cleared area with very large high-tension towers running across the road. We’ll be meeting in the all-purpose room, which is to the right if you come in the main door of the meetinghouse.
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