May 2019
The meeting was called to order at 8:05 p.m on May 7, 2019 at the Chatham-Summit Friends Meetinghouse, 158 Southern Blvd, Chatham, NJ. The opening song was “Last April” led by Christine. Mitch will lead next month’s song.
MOTIONS MADE
The board agreed to defer the approval of the April minutes until next month.
The board unanimously approved Gary Pratt's motion to use the Friends Meetinghouse as the regular site for Board Meetings, until further notice.
ACTION ITEMS
Starting this month, the Action Items will be presented as an attachment, rather than within the body of the minutes themselves. See below.
ROLL CALL
Present: Trustees: Mike Agranoff, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Todd Dennison, Lois DeRitter, Dave Heistand, Christine DeLeon, Ken Brody, Allan Kugel, Evelyn McNally; Officers: Paul Fisher, Jay Wilensky, Jean Scully, Chris Riemer; Committees: Lindsey Meyer, Sandie Reilly, Jay Wilensky, Mike Agranoff, Jean Scully, Gary Pratt, George Otto, Lisa Hallman, John Mahon, Pam Robinson, Mitch Radler, Leigh Walker
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS
TREASURER’S REPORT: Chris announced that as he is term-limited and must step down after this year, he has begun creating job descriptions for the probably 3 people to replace him and asked for help finding possible recruits. The treasurer position is now sufficiently complex to warrant splitting the work in the future among the treasurer and several assistants: regular bookkeeping functions, Paypay/online sales, and ASCAP/BMI royalties (Mike A make might take over this the ASCAP/BMI function as he is already doing it for Troubadour).
COMMITTEE REPORTS
OPENSTAGE: 9 openers for Troubadour have come from the OpenStage, among other crossovers! Still great energy and fun happening every month, but a lot of volunteer help is needed. Mitch is going to introduce some new features, including an instructional workshop and a song circle in the Terrace Room, and someone entertaining in the lobby (a troubadour!) before the shows begin. Mike and Mitch are working on a date for a showcase of Best of OpenStage under auspices of the Troubadour. The OpenStage will be re-branded as Folk Project OpenStage. OS got $1K grant from Morris Arts, and he will send info to Publicity about blurb/restrictions.
SWINGIN’ TERN: Somewhat low attendance recently (as at many local dances), but volunteers have been strong. The dance is now starting at 7:30 rather than 8 p.m. Each dance has a dance manager, similar to head staff/bookkeeper at Troubadour, and Leigh would like to recruit more people for that. There have been some new regular attendees.
NEWSLETTER: George has been considering whether list of events/gigs should be reorganized to reflect local and distant events. Should we continue to list distant gigs of members? Several members felt it provided value. Allan pointed out that we could provide info on the website that could be more searchable. We will be changing Feets Don’t Fail Me Now page title to something unoffensive.
MINSTREL STAFFING: Pam has secured 3 pairs of all-weekend tickets for the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, to be gifted via a drawing to volunteers at any and all FP venues between now and July 15. Anyone volunteering at any venue will be entered into the drawing; the first 3 winners will be notified and asked if they want the tickets; if they reject them we will move on to the next name drawn (drawing will be virtual, via random number generator versus the numbered list of names).
MEMBERSHIP: Gary is beginning to send out renewal letters. They were formerly sent out quarterly, but he will be sending them out monthly. We have members in 16 states. Mitch asked whether we could sell gift memberships in December, possibly with annualized memberships? Chris noted that we had considered this annualized membership idea years ago and decided it wouldn’t work for reasons he couldn’t quite recall. Mike noted that starting all memberships in January just means that no one will join starting in August or September. Gary noted that most renewals come just before Getaways. Membership has fallen from over 600 several years ago to around 450 now, and there was a discussion of past successful tactics to boost membership, such as campaigns. Jean and Mark are working on a Welcome Packet for new members, including free entrance to all our various venues and activities. All board members should send Gary their ideas regarding building membership.
SPECIAL CONCERTS: Mike A is working on a show with Greg Greenway and Reggie Harris called “Deeper Than Skin,” on either Friday 11/22 or Saturday 11/23. It will be either in addition to the regular Troubadour concert on Friday 11/22 or instead of it, depending upon other scheduling issues.They will be doing the Sunday service on 11/24 at MUF. Livingston Taylor will play Friday 11/29.
Pam encouraged everyone to come to Uke Fest! NJ Uke fest has been approved for 6 hours of NJ teacher continuing education credits. Pam received several valuable ukuleles for the silent auction from one the sponsors, including a finished ukulele and a DIY kit.
MINSTREL BOOKING: Minstrel will be dark for 6/7 and 6/14 for the parking lot repaving project and will reopen as The Troubadour on 6/21, hopefully with a new revised backdrop as well.
EVENT HOSTING: The July 4th picnic will be held at Lewis Morris Park, the area called Sugarloaf A. Good parking, good access, charcoal grills (but no electricity). There is a lake for swimming also for a very nominal fee. We have it from 9 a.m. until dusk, so time TBD.
SOUND REINFORCEMENT: John is continuing training for new sound volunteers. Concert Window still shuts down on occasion. Planning sound for Getaway.
ARCHIVES: Now that Lindsey has retired, she will be throwing herself into the project.
NEW BUSINESS
Gary’s motion to continue to meet at the Chatham/Summit Friends Meetinghouse until further notice was unanimously passed. After a discussion regarding refreshments, Mike volunteered to get donuts next month, using the new FP credit card; anyone wanting something other than deep-fried sugar bombs is on their own and can coordinate among themselves.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting was adjourned at 9:52 p.m. As noted above, future meetings are planned to be in the Chatham Summit Friends Meetinghouse, 158 Southern Boulevard, Chatham.