Hello, Everyone,

Community Service: No news this month.

Thanks,

Evelyn Maurer

FP Community Service

Membership Report

Membership had to take a back seat this month so that I could pull together 2 shows this month with many moving people and parts.

The membership software is up and running for online membership and I hope to move all our members to that system soon.

Membership renewals by check has been successfully transitioned from Deborah Graham to a PO box in Mt. Tabor where I collect and process the memberships.

Todd Dennison

Open Stage/Membership Chair

Newsletter Committee Report 2022-08

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

With the advent of the US Post Office FOREVER stamp honoring Peet Seeger, the newsletter team is looking into using them on the mailed newsletters. This is a little more complicated that simply going to the Post Office to buy them, however. Currently, they must be special ordered and shipped, plus we need to go through our current supply of stamps before we can begin using them. We'll keep the board informed about our progress on this front.

Thanks,

George Otto

Folk Project Newsletter Editor

newsletter@folkproject.org

The Open Stage Report

We ran 2 events this month. The July Open Stage and the Folk Project Birthday Show.

The July Open Stage event was a little smaller than the previous month before due to participants cancelling at the last-minute due to a variety of issues. The event ran for 2 hours and everyone had a good time.

There are already a half dozen signups for the next Open Stage.

I offered to take over the Birthday Show as Michael did not want to run it this year over concerns of the possible lack of participation by members. Special thanks to Elizabeth who gave me the opportunity to run the show.

The Birthday Show was produced by the Open Stage Committee this year and it was a big success.

Forty people signed up!

They were randomly matched into pairs or trios to perform.

There were a few duos who cancelled due to scheduling issues or health concerns. So ultimately, we ended up with 13 acts and the show ran for 2 hours.

The quality of the music was high. The members really stepped up and brought some wonderful music.

It was a great success and I received many, many emails thanking me for keeping it alive. People also mentioned what a fun night it was as well.

It was also the first event to make a profit since we returned to live events.

Publicity Report for the August 2, 2022 Board Meeting

Sam Edelston, July 31, 2022

Publicity Committee Members

Alicia Weimer, George Otto, Howard Goldman, Jean Scully, Jim Gartner, Joanne Cronin, Joe Guzzo, Kathi Caccavale, Liz Pagan, Loretta Brooks, Mark Schaffer, Michael Mitsch, Mike Rauchwerk, Olga Alvarez, Pat Brangs, Paul Fisher, Rebecca Rydell, Susan Lembo

Web Team Members

John Lamb, Allan Kugel, Charles Lamb, Lori Falco

Reports

Chairperson’s Report – Sam Edelston

In June and July, I was away 7 of the 9 weekends, plus a bunch of the weekdays in between, and the two big last-minute changes (the Eberhardt/Mosrie show and the Trout Fishing/Ulbrich cancellation) both happened when I was trying to get out of town, so it’s been interesting.

Swingin’ Tern has asked me to start publicizing its dances. Now that I’m back from my travels, I can start doing that (and some other things).

In July, I got press releases out for the Windborne, Trout Fishing, and Kemble shows. We got some nice coverage in Morristown Green for the 7/15 Windborne concert. I plan to get releases out in August for the McManus, rescheduled Trout Fishing, and Muriel Anderson concerts. Mike keeps booking great features.

Last month I mentioned Tina’s exciting 8/11 Inside the Song with Dar Williams. FYI, here are the numbers of people who “Responded” to the past few Facebook “Events” for Inside the Song. (I don’t know how closely “Responses” correlates to attendees, but it’s certainly an indicator of interest.)

• 4/14 with Tom Prasada-Rao got 114 Responses

• 5/11 with David Roth got 76 Responses

• 6/9 with Ellis Paul got 108 Responses

• 7/14 with Louise Mosrie got 74 Responses

• 8/11 with Dar Williams has 119 responses as of 7/31, a week and a half before the event. (Tina indicated that Dar would be doing some publicity to her followers.)

E-communications – Mark Schaffer

e-Communications Report for August 2022 Board Meeting.

Of Note:

** 1800 recipients opened the Thursday morning email announcing the Troubadours closing the next day, Friday 7/22/22.

[Sam adds: Notice that our Monday and Thursday Music Alerts (publicizing Streaming Tuesday s and Friday Troubadours, respectively) have similar Open rates – with the totally logical exception of the special headline about the cancelled show.]

Music Alert stats include:

Sends Opens Open Rate

Mon 2022/07/25 2:05 PM Music Alert 245 072522 4497 1524 35.7%

Thurs 2022/07/21 11:07 AM Music Alert 244 072122 4499 1797 42.4%**

Mon 2022/07/18 6:17 PM Music Alert 243 071822 4499 1546 36.5%

Thurs 2022/07/14 7:29 PM Music Alert 242 071422 4502 1572 37.0%

Mon 2022/07/11 2:06 PM Music Alert 241 071122 4503 1598 37.7%

Thurs 2022/07/07 5:02 PM Music Alert 240 070722 4507 1527 36.0%

Mon 2022/07/04 5:35 PM Music Alert 239 070422 4514 1568 36.8%

Proofers Jean Scully, Gary Pratt and Paul Fisher work hard and do great.

Robin Schaffer and Todd Dennison help with humor approval.

Mark Schaffer, e-Communications Subchair.

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale

Kathi says:

Folk Project Page: 4,352 people Like this. 5,468 Followers.

Folk Project group: 1,644 members, up 26 from 1,618 last month.

NJ Uke Fest group: 243 members; same as 243 last month.

Swingin’ Tern group: 597 members; up from 593 from last month.

We continue to create FP events on the FP (NJ) page, share the to The Folk Project group page, post and re-post, pin them to the top of the FP(NJ) page a couple of days ahead of the concert date (timing driven by when previous events can be unpinned).

The Music Alert emails (twice weekly) are shared to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The share to the FP(NJ) page is then shared to the Folk Project group page.

The Events and Music Alerts are also pinned to the featured section of The Folk Project Group page.

When I am available, I monitor the comments and messages that come in around concert time on Tuesdays and Fridays (excluding Open Stage, which Todd monitors).

We send out a welcome post to new members of The Folk Project Group page. And I continue to monitor requests to join or post to the group page. Most people are willing to answer 2 to 3 of the screening questions asked when a request to join is made.

I continue to review the notifications on the Folk Project (NJ) page and invite any new people that show up in the notifications re people who have reacted to posts on the page.

Gary and I continue to do stream tests with every Streaming Tuesday performer.

Recent stats:

Folk Project Group: 1.7K members

• 55% female, 45% male; majority are over 65, followed by 55-64

• Many are from NYC, NJ and PA area, but we have 48 from Canada and 27 from the UK, with a few from other countries.

• 27 people joined in the last 28 days, 118 posted & commented and 4,015 viewed. All these #s are down from last month.

Folk Project (NJ): 4,407 likes (up from 4352 last month); 5633 followers (up from 5468 last month). So, both Likes and Followers continue to trend upward.

• Actions on page are up, all other insights are down relative to last month: page views, page likes, post engagement, page followers, videos and post reach. This despite earlier re-posting of upcoming events.

• The post that had the most reach and engagement was the cancelled Trout Fishing concert (reach: 798; engagement: 87) followed by 7/12 post re Windborne and the Rolstons (reach: 392; engagement: 64).

Uke Fest Group: 244 members

Note this event has been posted/shared to the FP(NJ) and FP Group pages.

Swingin’ Tern: 597 members

Swingin’ Tern events are posted to FP(NJ) and Group once FB admin receives notification that the event has been created by the Swingin’ Tern admin. The event is pinned to featured during the week before the event happens.

Twitter, Instagram – Jean Scully

No report from Jean.

YouTube – Joe Guzzo

Sam summarizing: 7 of Tina Ross’s 10 “Inside the Song” shows have been uploaded. As of 7/31, 3 videos are visible, and 4 others are uploaded but haven’t yet been made visible.

Web – John Lamb

Here’s John’s written report. His web statistics will follow Monday.

July has been about an average month for web updates.

We updated the indicator for the Morris County COVID risk level twice on the site, once from Orange to Yellow and later back to Orange.

We added the word Menu in small type underneath the hamburger-style (three short horizontal lines) menu icon, since some people still don't seem to realize that symbol has become the default icon for opening a menu. We also added explicit items to the main menu for becoming a Folk Project member and subscribing to the twice-weekly email announcements.

We responded to the late cancellation of the Trout Fishing In America show at Troubadour by updating the site with cancellation notices and contacting those who had purchased tickets for the live show. We gave them the option of getting refunds or having tickets reissued for the reschedule show and provided refunds or tickets as requested.

We helped Tina Ross enter a new show for Inside the Song.

We noticed that a full-priced subscription for Norton Antivirus was being renewed. Mike Agranoff had ordered the package some years back and it was set to auto-renew. Realizing that we could get a substantial discount on this product from techsoup.org, we had Mike cancel the subscription and get a refund for the recent update which is not needed until well into September. Before then we will order the product through TechSoup. Instead of paying $106 per year for a single license, we will be paying $17 for a package of 5 renewals (unfortunately only valid for renewals in 2022.) If anyone needs Norton Antivirus for a computer used even partially for Folk Project purposes, let me know and we can let you use one of the other four available licenses.

We did the usual update to add a link to the upcoming month's edition on the eNewsletter download page.

As always, many thanks to Allan, Charles, Liz and Lori. Please send questions, comments and suggestions to webmaster@folkproject.org.

John Lamb, Folk Project Webmaster

Merch – Paul Fisher (acting)

Nothing new.

Sound Reinforcement Committee Report August 2022

We covered 4 Friday night concerts in July. A fifth concert was canceled due to Covid issues with the performers.

In July we saw a significant improvement for sound personnel coverage for Friday night concerts. We had two concerts where the sound coverage was provided by people not regularly performing this role. The Open Stage was covered by Todd Dennison and the Troubadour concert the next week was covered by Mike Agranoff. There are still details to be worked out as to a consistent procedure for connecting to the Facebook broadcast, but I anticipate that this will be finalized in August.

The last show of the month, the Birthday Show, had a significant failure in the video system that affected the live broadcast and the video recording. This first happened 10 min before the show started and was remediated by rebooting the entire video system. This caused a loss of video for the first 10 to 15 minutes of the show. It reappeared several times through out the night were the video would freeze. Todd worked out a work around that allowed us to reset the video in 5 to 10 seconds, and this is how we finished the night. All in all, this was a totally unacceptable performance from the video equipment

Alex West, who is MUUF’s technical expert, was informed of this problem the next day, and he reported back that it is most likely caused by a mechanical failure of an electronic connection. He had a solution involving replacing equipment and promised that it would be resolved for our next show on Friday.

John Mahon

Committee Chairperson

Board members,

Ongoing activities:

1. Booking and hosting Folk Project Streaming Tuesdays concert series (with Kathi Caccavale providing technical assistance to performers)

2. Hosting Troubadour, Open Stage, Getaway, and NJ Uke Fest streaming concerts

Current activities:

1. Facilitating meeting with key stakeholders regarding streaming issues from MUUF (Troubadour, Open Stage, Sound Reinforcement, and Troubadour Staffing/Volunteers) to develop and implement action plan

2. Collaborating with Kathi Caccavale and John Lamb on Folk Project Facebook page and website to refine event listings, streamline access to in-person advance ticket sales, and access to streaming shows.

Respectfully submitted,

Gary Pratt

Folk Project Streaming Chair

Swingin' Tern report -- July 2022

We had a good month.

On July 2, Dan Black called to Smash the Windows and on July 16, Michael

Karcher called to the Brooklyn Swing Ensemble.

We're attracting newcomers and slowly growing. We want to grow more.

Our volunteers are great and we are seeking more.

For the month, we lost $90.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern

Hello Board Members

I am trying something different. It seems someone always has a problem with the Profit & Loss by class report. I have tried to explain that the numbers are always fluid and change every day. Many things carry over from month to month because people don't submit timely reimbursement requests, or checks don't get cashed, or Karen didn't post things quickly enough (She has other clients and does not work on our books daily). She is also still getting used to how we do business and all our nuances so sometimes things get put in the wrong place. And lastly paying Karen $45/hr. to track down a $2.38 problem just isn't worth all the effort. The problem often fixes itself with time. If the Board is not comfortable with this solution I will happily switch things back and continue to reiterate what I said above.

With that said, I have included a Balance Sheet which shows how we stand financially with all our assets and liabilities. I have included the Quarterly Vanguard Report, It has not been updated in Quickbooks yet. There is a significant loss. I have also included a Profit & Loss Summary only. Anyone who wants to see the details and go over them please send a text and I will run any report you need. Several venue chairs have look & report access only in Quickbooks. If you see any problems with your venue please let me know. If you are on the Board or a Venue Chair and would like Look and Report access and know how to navigate QuickBooks let me know.

As you can see we are loosing money. It is on all fronts. The only venue not showing a loss is the Troubadour because of Michaels donations to cover losses. To date he has donated over 3 thousand dollars. Thank you very much Michael. Membership does not cover enough of our operation costs. Todd has adjusted the cost of the Printed Newsletter so it covers our cost. We still have almost a year before all the memberships transition over. Special Events shows a loss because we never actually take the funds out of Vanguard, we use past profits to fund the stipend. Chris was able to manipulate the books to show those adjustments. Karen is strictly by the books and will not do that. Our money market account is being drawn down. We sill have cash but next year I anticipate having to access the Vanguard if things don't change.

The Finance Committee will be meeting next week to look at ways to boost income and limit losses. I hope to have more information for August's Report. It's been hard to gather people with summer vacations. I am continuing to do battle with Vanguard and getting both myself and Elizabeth on as Signatories. They have now lost our last Organization Resolution forms and I have to re-send all the paperwork again. Oh joy.

Respectfully Submitted,

Peggy Karr Treasurer

Troubadour Booking Report, August 2022

The Troubadour continues operating at roughly the same level it has been at since reopening in April. Paid attendance hovering around 35, and losses averaging around $350 / show. We nearly broke even at the Windborne show with 49 paid attendees and a $46 loss, but that was negated by the Dana Cooper show with only 19 paid attendees and a $604 loss. Dana was a virtual unknown in our area.

As it turned out, those were the only two shows we held in July. The Trout Fishing in America show scheduled for July 22^nd had to be canceled at the last minute. And the cancellation was messy and complicated, and resulted in a lot of scrambling for many of the Project apparatchiks who had to handle the details.

It started out when I got the word on from the Trouts’ agent Wednesday the 20^th that one of their members had come down with COVID, and could not appear. Assuming he would recover fully in a couple of weeks, we looked around for an open date to reschedule them. None of our available dates matched their availabilities. But an idea occurred to me: Carla Ulbrich had been scheduled to open for them on July 22 as a teaser for her headline set scheduled on August 26. If Trout Fishing would be available to take Carla’s date of August 26, we could promote Carla from opener to feature on July 22 with no opening act. After a lot of phone calls by the Trouts’ agent he determined that 3 of the 4 eastern gigs they had scheduled for the end of July could be shifted to the end of August. Carla was also willing to make the switch, so we set to work making it happen.

Making it happen was more work than anyone had imagined. Between updating the website and the FaceBook events and offering refunds advance ticket sales, both virtual and in-person, and putting out publicity releases, it occupied much of the day Wednesday for John Lamb and Kathi Caccavale and Sam Edelston, and me. But finally all the details were in place.

And then Thursday morning I got an email from Carla that her husband Joe had been exposed to someone who later tested positive, and, in an abundance of caution, she could not risk doing a show on Friday. By that time it was too late to try to put together a whole new show for Friday, so we pulled the plug. There went another day of scrambling by the operating team to undo half of the changes we had made the previous day. And poor Carla got jobbed out of two gigs in the process. We’ll find a date for her.

The Birthday Show, normally an event run by the Troubadour, will be run this year by the Open Stage Committee on July 29^th as described in last month’s report.

New Bookings made this month:

1. August 19: Jean Scully & Friends opening for Tony McManus

2. September 1: Dulcimer wizard Carol Walker opening for guitar wizard Muriel Anderson

3. September 16: Fingerstyle guitar duo Flip Peters & Larry Maltz opening for Happy Traum

4. October 21: Fiona Tyndall & Friends opening for Gadan.

Highlights in August

1. August 19: The aforementioned Tony McManus: world-renowned Irish guitarist and singer. He’s pretty spectacular.

2. August 26: The aforementioned Trout Fishing in America (God willin’ an’ the COVID don’t rise.)

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org