Newsletter

ANNUAL REPORT

Over the course of the year, the question of how to handle announcements regarding Folk Project members who had passed was discussed and various options were tried. As a result, a new section of the newsletter called In Memoriam was created, and a new email address (obits@folkproject.org) was set up to allow FP members to request that timely messages about such events be sent to them in advance of the newsletter announcements. Thanks to Jay Wilensky and Evelyn Maurer for setting this up.

Due to the onset of COVID-19 and the resulting suspension of many FP activities, various parts of the newsletter were revised during the year. The Troubadour flyer page became the Stayaway page, summarizing the performers and times of all the weekly Zoom events organized by Mark Schaffer and the Special Concerts Committee. The Swinging' Tern flyer page became a retrospective of the many past wordplay announcements written by Doug Heacock over the years. The monthly Evening of Music announcement became the call to join the weekly Virtual Song Circle, with Jay Wilensky's enthusiastic write-ups helping to build up a large and supportive group of attendees.

Unfortunately, owing to the overload of work associated with COVID-19, several issues of the newsletter were released during the year without the summary minutes of the monthly board meetings. After a rebalancing of workloads, however, that problem appears to be behind us. Many thanks to Jeff Canter for his help in this.

The October newsletter was delayed for about a week due to the video board in my computer getting fried. Repairing the computer took about two weeks. Thankfully, those who got the electronic version of the newsletter received it before the end of September, but those who got paper copies didn't receive them until about the 5th of October.

And I want to give special thanks to all those who have taken it upon themselves to periodically contribute specialty articles to the newsletter, such as Todd Dennison, Mike Agranoff, and Pelvis Burlapp. They always bring a smile (or puzzled expression) to the faces of our readers and lighten the mood of our monthly broadsheet. I like to think these articles show the special creativity that is a hallmark of the Folk Project.

Thanks,

George Otto

Folk Project Newsletter Editor

MONTHLY REPORT

Things are proceeding as usual with the invaluable help of Kathi Caccavale, Pat Brangs, Liz Pagan, Bill Henderson, and Gary Pratt.

Because Ralph and Stephanie Litwin are going to be moving out of the area and up to Massachusetts, Evelyn Maurer wrote an article pointing out Ralph's long involvement with and many contributions to the Folk Project over the years. Included with the article was a list of the many musicians that Ralph has played with in his various bands, and therein lay a problem. One of the musicians listed was Henry Nerenberg. Why should this be a problem? Well, after taking over the newsletter from Liz Pagan many year ago, I would occasionally get a note from Liz during the proofreading phase regarding not just spelling errors or mistakes in grammar, but also deviations from accepted standards of writing style such as the AP Style Guide or historic Folk Project precedent. And in the case of Henry Nerenberg, she made it quite clear that precedent dictated that, in the newsletter, his first name should always be spelled Hen3ry with an internal '3'.

Having lots to do to get the newsletter out, I never questioned this recommendation and routinely made the suggested change. This was obviously a part of Folk Project lore. But with the article about Ralph, I felt it was time to get to the bottom of this recommendation. I wanted to make sure this was handled right. Where did this spelling come from and was it actually important to Folk Project history? So I reached out to Henry and asked what spelling he preferred and where it came from. Unfortunately, he didn't get back to me before the newsletter was sent out, so I had to fall back on the advice I routinely send out every month in my newsletter reminders: check the spelling against the membership roster. When I checked the roster, I saw that Henry's first name was actually listed as Hen3ry, so that was the spelling I used in the article.

Eventually, Henry got back to me and told me that the use of the internal '3' was based in an old Tom Lehrer song where the 3 was treated as a silent letter. He said that it caught on with the early Folk Project crowd and as been associated with him ever since. So now we know.

Thanks,

George Otto

Folk Project Newsletter Editor

newsletter@folkproject.org