Archives Committee Annual Report 2022

Documenting our Place in NJ History

Due to the continuing closure of Rutgers University Special Collections department, the committee has been unable to donate our Folk Project historical items since early 2020. We have also reduced our efforts to collect materials because of space limitations in our homes. I’m currently housing several boxes of materials which I will donate when Special Collections reopens.

As the committee is in a holding pattern and has had limited activity in our capacity as a board committee, we requested to be reclassified from Director to Non-Director Administrator. The board approved this request, which will commence on January 1, 2023. Going forward, I will report directly to the president as “Archives Administrator.” This removes the committee’s vote and the requirement to attend board meetings.

Meanwhile, the committee is still active and we strongly encourage members to contact us if they want to donate FP historical items such as committee papers, photos, board minutes prior to 2006, newsletters, and the like. Work will continue when possible and developments will be reported to the president and through the newsletter. The committee thanks the board for their patience during this unprecedented interruption to our work.

For the record: Rutgers University Special Collections closed in 2020 because of Covid followed by flooding from Hurricane Ida. Thankfully, none of our collection was affected. The university is currently building a new archives facility.

Submitted by Lindsey Meyer

Archives Committee Chair

Committee members: Joanne Cronin, Bobbie Rosengarten

The Membership Committee has been very active this year. We decided to split into two smaller groups so we could be less effective. One group focused on recruiting people whose membership had lapsed over the last 12 years. This group was very successful and that work effort resulted in many people rejoining the Folk Project and lots of money in the bank. (Relatively speaking).

The other committee was less effective as they only achieved partial success with their goal of COMPLETELY automating the membership effort and moving the entire process up to the internet where membership is self-managed.

I have praised the first committee and chastised the second. I did receive promises that the automation work effort would be completed soon.

Thanks to John Lamb, Mark Schaffer and Peggy Karr for their support and help.

-Todd Dennison

Membership Chair

Newsletter Committee Report 2022-12

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

George Otto

Folk Project Newsletter Editor

newsletter@folkproject.org

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Newsletter Annual Report 2022

Things have been proceeding normally with only a few glitches this year.

Unfortunately, a couple of articles were submitted during the year that didn't make it into the newsletter due to their getting lost in my workflow. I have been working on improving my processing, including doing extra checks, to make sure that everything submitted has been properly taken care of.

I would like to remind everyone that, whenever you send in a submission to the newsletter, you should expect a confirmation email from me about it. If you don't get such a confirmation in a day or so, please get in touch with me to see if there has been a problem.

After the announcement by the US Post Office about the new FOREVER stamp honoring Pete Seeger, we have been using them on the newsletters that we mail out.

Unfortunately, an unclassified ad was submitted to the newsletter and mistakenly published about a free piano that turned out to be a scam. Emergency emails and Music Alerts were quickly sent out to the membership warning them of the situation. By the way, just this month the newsletter got another submission offering a free cello to anyone who could provide it a good home.

And finally, many thanks to Kathi Caccavale, Pat Brangs, Liz Pagan, Dave Kleiner, Bill Henderson, Gary Pratt, Todd Dennison, and John Lamb for helping me get the newsletter out, and more thanks to all of the FP members who have submitted articles and interesting information to help fill up the newsletter pages.

George Otto

Folk Project Newsletter Editor

newsletter@folkproject.org

Folk Project Board members,

The Nominations Committee is proposing the attached 2023 Nominations Slate for approval by the Board.

SUMMARY OF SLATE CHANGES: (see attached slate)

• Amend By-Laws: Officers may serve no more than THREE consecutive terms with the exception of the Treasurer who can serve up to four consecutive terms.

• Officers: President, Vice President, and Secretary nominated for an additional one year term

• Trustees whose terms end in 2022 are renominated for another three year term expiring in 2025.

• Non-Board Positions (at the request of the candidates):

  • Please note there is no requirement for committee chairs to be board members.

  • Lindsey Meyer as Archivist reporting to President

  • Pat Brangs as Community Services and Performer Resource ”chair” reporting to President

  • Susan Lembo as Membership “chair” reporting to Treasurer

BOARD AGENDA ITEMS:

11/1 Board Meeting

• Propose the change to the Bylaws (with notice to members). This proposed change will be voted on at a special meeting no sooner than 3 weeks (11/23 or later). A straw poll will be taken at the 11/2 meeting - if the Board is not in favor of the change, the Nominations Committee will need to continue its work.

• Present the Nominations Slate for discussion only - vote will be taken at special meeting since the slate is contingent on the change to the Bylaws.

11/23 Special Meeting

• Motion to approve the change to the Bylaws

• Motion to approve the Nominations Slate

BACKGROUND :

The Nominations Committee held 5 meetings to create the proposed slate. The process included confirming with all current board members their willingness to continue to serve on the Board, identifying vacancies to be filled, proposing and discussing potential candidates, calling potential candidates, and developing a slate based on the availability of qualified candidates.

During this process, the Nominations Committee concluded that the best plan of action at this time is to recommend that the Board extend the term limits for the officers whose terms were expiring (President, Vice President, and Secretary) by one year. Those officers - Elizabeth Lachowicz, Paul Fisher, and Jeff Canter - agreed to continue if the term limits are extended.

The reasons for the above decision were manifold:

• Unlike chairmen, where experience and success can keep them in their positions for many years, the two-year limit means losing experienced and successful officers.

• COVID, aging, and competent chairmen retaining their positions have limited the choices available with the experience, skillset and desire to take on these positions.

• The current officers are not only the best slate we can propose. We’d also like to maintain the era of peaceful productivity that they’ve initiated.

To change the bylaws, a proposal has to be made at a board meeting and then voted upon at a board meeting occurring at least three weeks later at a second board meeting.

The NominatIons Committee invited Board members to discuss this proposal at a meeting on October 20. We did receive some positive comments via email and no one attended the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

The Nominations Committee

Gary (chair), Todd, Evelyn, Peg, Elizabeth and Mark

The Open Stage is slowly growing. I have seen a lot of new people this past year. The team that puts on the Open Stage every month has created an event that is of higher quality than other open mics in the area and that is making the FP Open Stage a desirable place to perform.

It is my hope that in the next 6 months if the growth keeps up we will be able to open the Terrace Room as a second place to perform.

Heartfelt thanks to Team Open Stage: John Mahon, Bill Henderson, Bill Dodds, Gerry Silk, Diane Polledri, Scotty Rovner, Bob McNally, Tina Ross, occasionally Mark Schaffer and John Hone. (who did I leave out OY)

Oh and Gary Pratt.

I plan to be less verbose in 2023.

Todd Dennison

Publicity Report for the December 6, 2022 Board Meeting

Sam Edelston, December 6, 2022

Publicity Committee Members

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

Web Team Members

John Lamb, Allan Kugel, Charles Lamb, Lori Falco

Reports

Chairperson’s Report – Sam Edelston

Because this report is late, I’ll summarize the high points here.

Ø Music Alert eletter open and click rates are similar to the previous month.

Ø I assume that the Music Alert’s two weeks of “Werner Warnings” were a major contributor to the paid attendance of 157 at her 11/18 concert.

Ø Our Facebook and Instagram audiences continue to grow steadily.

Ø Our Facebook Reach and Page Visits were significantly higher than the previous month. It turns out that the 11/15 Streaming Tuesday with Willy Porter drew some big numbers. Porter is a Wisconsin-based singer-songwriter-guitarist. He’s done a lot of online concerts, and he has 12K Followers on Facebook.

Ø John Lamb and the rest of the Web Team were busy, as ever.

Ø The website had its second-busiest month of the year, in terms of Sessions, Unique Users, and Page Views.

Ø As was mentioned at last month’s Board meeting, we recently received an extremely generous donation of $10,000 from an anonymous donor, to be used for announcements on WNYC radio. I’m in dialog with WNYC about the media schedule. Because of the quirky Troubadour schedule this time of year, it tentatively looks like the spots will run between mid-January and mid-February.

Ø Our big Holiday Benefit Concert supporting MUUF will take place on Friday, December 16. That and Carla Ulbrich on December 30 should be particularly wonderful evenings.

E-communications – Mark Schaffer

Here’s Mark’s e-Communications Report for December 2022 Board Meeting. Based on 30 days of email results:

DECEMBER REPORT, for the month, is

· 44,759 Sends

· 15,619 Opens … 34.9% open rate, up from 34.3% last month

· 534 Clicks … 3.4% click rate, down from 4.2% last month

By far, our Music Alert with the most Clicks was 11/17, the day before the big Susan Werner concert.

In addition, Sam assumes that having two weeks of “Werner Warnings” in the Music Alert must have been a significant factor in the 157 paid attendance at the November 18 Susan Werner concert.

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale

From Sam, filling in for Kathi:

Folk Project Page: 4,622 people Like this (up from 4,579 last month). 5,801 Followers (up from 5,738).

Folk Project group: 1,776 members, up from 1,744 last month.

Swingin’ Tern group: 607 members; same as last month.

NJ Uke Fest group: 250 members; Up from 248 last month.

Content Overview:

Facebook posts (past 90 days)

· Reach: 3200 … up 25%

· Engagement (reactions, comments, shares): 741 … up 35%

Sam says: “Our November Facebook total numbers were significantly higher than October, with a big spike happening on November 15. That evening, we had a Streaming Tuesdays concert with Willy Porter, and I don’t know who he is, but his Event had a Reach of 8440 with 186 Responses. That’s bigger than Christine Lavin (8276/163), Tom Chapin (6473/160), and Muriel Anderson (8087/125). The Folk Project’s only 2022 Events to score bigger Reach or Response numbers were Inside the Song with Dan Navarro (5972/217) and Dar Williams (9244/205), and the online concert by Trout Fishing back in March (6129/211).

(Looking at his Facebook page, it seems Willy Porter has done a ton of online concerts, and has 12,000 Followers on Facebook. The power of a loyal online community and fan base.)

The Willy Porter video has 677 views. (Then again, the 11/30 Streaming Tuesday with Todd and Annie has 706 views, albeit on much smaller Reach and Responses numbers.)

Instagram – Ralph Pedicini

Content Overview (from Facebook/Instagram reports):

· Instagram followers: 346, up from 327 last month.

· Instagram

o Reach: 175 … up 17%

o Profile visits: 36 … up 9%

o New Likes & Followers: 18 … down 10%

· Instagram posts (past 90 days)

o Reach: 260 … up 56%

o Engagement (likes, comments, shares): 142 … up 18%

· Instagram Stories (past 90 days)

o Reach: 78 … up from 0

o Engagement: 3 … up from 0

Ralph says:

Keeping up with my earlier plan. I’ve been focusing on Instagram Stories to promote Troubadour concerts, Getaway, Streaming Tuesdays, etc. Unlike regular posts that quickly slip way down people’s feeds, Stories always appear at the top, so people see them, but they disappear after 24 hours. I’ve been doing short videos as “Ralph from the Folk Project,“ telling about an upcoming event, and telling viewers to go to folkproject.org.

Next step will be implementing more ways to engage other FP IG users.

Twitter – Jean Scully

No report from Jean.

Web – John Lamb

Here’s John’s writeup on both October and November, since he didn’t have a chance to compile his usual full report last month:

October (for November meeting)

· solved video issue for Swingin’ Tern page

· forwarded info@folkproject.org messages to intended recipients as needed

· updated various internal mailing lists

· updated event listings for Inside the Song

· updated Acoustic Getaway listing

· updated COVID level banner and COVID Guidelines page

· resolved ticketing issues for non-computer savvy customers who were having problems ordering tickets online

· updated Valentine Extravaganza listing

· assisted George Otto in getting the newsletter up on the site

· updated our presence on Google Analytics to be compatible with Google Analytics 4, which is important because Google Analytics 3 (which we currently use) will be shut down next year

November (for December meeting)

· forwarded info@folkproject.org messages to intended recipients as needed

· provided suggested edits to Mike Agranoff's list of due dates for Special Events producers

· responded to various inquiries about online ticket orders for the Susan Werner concert from ticket purchasers and show producers

· updated event listings for Inside the Song

· passed along an ADA accommodation request for two extremely short people who needed front-row seats for The Loose Canons

· updated COVID Guidelines page

· updated Open Stage event listings

· assisted ticket holders for the Susan Warner concert with late requests to change live tickets to streaming tickets

· assisted George Otto in getting the newsletter up on the site

· helped update Troubadour event listings

· assisted with the investigation of an $80 shortfall between the expected and actual deposit amounts for the Susan Werner show. I was able to demonstrate that the difference was not due to any error on the Tally Sheet.

Also, I am the author of the Tally Sheet, an Excel spreadsheet used by Troubadour to track all income and expenses associated with a given Troubadour show, then calculate what is due to the performer(s), how much is expected to be deposited and various other quantities. An issue arose when Our Troubadour Chair believed the Tally Sheet to have incorrectly calculated the amount due to Susan Werner on the evening of her performance. The issue arose because Folk Project had paid a deposit when Susan was booked for the show, and the deposit turned out to be substantially more than the Folk Project wound up owing her for the performance. The Troubadour Chair attempted to resolve the issue by paying the performer less than all of the money that was deposited in the creel after making some of his own calculations on the spot.

I pointed out that the amounts in the creel are treated as tips both in our accounting and in income tax information that we provide to the performer. NJ Labor Law says that tips are the exclusive property of the intended recipient and they must be paid out in full to the recipient should an employer collect them on their behalf. The Tally Sheet had given the correct amounts with this in mind. To resolve the issue Mike sent Susan a check for the amount in question and requested that she return a check in the exact same amount as a partial refund of our deposit. This is counter-intuitive, but it is what is required by the law.

This does leave me wondering, however, what potential liability issues could have ensued had I made the requested changes and a performer subsequently reported us for withholding a portion of their tips. Presumably the Folk Project as a non-profit entity would be held responsible for any adverse judgments. I presume we have some form of board insurance to cover board members, but wonder if that insurance would pay after an adverse judgment in criminal rather than civil court. Finally, I wonder whether non-board members acting under the direction of board members have any coverage at all provided by Folk Project. [Note from Sam E.: I’ll ask Elizabeth who our expert on this is.]

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

John Lamb, webmaster

Sam adds, looking at John’s web statistics report, that November was our second-biggest month of the past year, trailing only August in Sessions, Unique Users, and Page Views. The Troubadour Calendar page had its second-biggest month of the year, behind only the month when we reopened in April.

With more than 350 views between October and November, the Susan Werner Event page outpulled all other 2022 concerts, including Tom Paxton. The Loose Canons Event page drew an impressive 216 views in November (and their generosity in donating their proceeds was impressive and beautiful).

Merch – Paul Fisher (acting)

Nothing new.

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Publicity Committee Annual Report, December 2022

Sam Edelston, Publicity Chair, Submitted December 6, 2022

Publicity Committee Members

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

Web Team Members

John Lamb, Allan Kugel, Charles Lamb, Lori Falco

Reports

Chair’s Report – Sam Edelston

In my report a year ago, I wrote, “The #1 priority is to increase attendance at Troubadour / Open Stage / Special Concerts, because that’s a high-attendance, frequent, revenue-generating function. I would like to get it back at least to pre-pandemic levels, but realize that will take time.”

Three months later, Tom Paxton put a more quotable label on it during the leadup to his Special Concert: Our goal is to “PUT BUTTS IN SEATS.”

We haven’t gotten there yet, and neither have the other comparable venues that I’m aware of. I’ve been attending monthly Presenter sessions through NERFA. In addition, in my non-FP capacities, I network extensively in the dulcimer world. Everybody is looking for solutions.

Maybe we should do a well-constructed survey and see what the “customers” say. (In my former life, I did a fair amount of market research.) In fact, I think that would make a lot of sense.

In other news …

This fall, the Folk Project received an anonymous $10,000 donation from an extremely generous donor, to be used for on-air announcements on WNYC to publicize the Troubadour. (We received similar donations in 2020 and 2021.) I’m tweaking the schedule with WNYC, but currently expecting the announcements to begin airing in mid-January. Theoretically, we could have aimed for December, but Mike, Mark, and I all agree that we’ll get more bang for the bucks with the concerts we have during that time period.

Because I was late in sending report requests to the various subcommittee heads, I’ve written some of the sections that normally would have been written by others. As a result this report already gives well-deserved praise to Mark Schaffer (e-communications), Kathi Caccavale (Facebook), Ralph Pedicini (Instagram), Joe Guzzo (YouTube, emeritus).

I also want to give special thanks to Liz Pagan for taking over the Troubadour posters and redesigning them … Michael Mitsch for artist photos every month … Pat Brangs for submitting our events to multiple online event calendars.

And extra-special thanks to Paul Fisher, Mark Schaffer, Mike Agranoff, and President Elizabeth for looking over my shoulder, sending periodic suggestions, and answering my questions.

Last, but not least … I’ve been cranking out the press releases and posting our events to some of the listing websites. It would be great if I had somebody else who could handle those tasks, so I could do other things to expand our publicity efforts. I’ll reach out to Paul Fisher (who as offered to help) and to Mark Schaffer and George Otto (for their respective newsletters) today.

And now, on to the play-by-play.

E-communications – Mark Schaffer

Sam says:

Mark has been a true workhorse and godsend for the Folk Project – hosting Getaways and other FP events, and crunching out the semi-weekly Music Alert eletters, and maintaining other roles that I’m much less aware of.

The E-communication subcommittee members a year ago were Mark Schaffer (chair), Robin Schaffer, Jean Scully, Todd Dennison, Gary Pratt and Paul Fisher, and I’m not aware of any changes to that.

The Music Alert is consistently informative, light, and entertaining. As mentioned in the December Publicity report, I believe a good part of the attendance at the 11/18 Susan Werner concert must have been due to the two weeks of articles he wrote about it. The 12/5 eletter’s “PLAGIARISM ALERT” about the change in venue for the imminent Holiday party, is another, very present example of the light approach that, I think, does an effective job of calling attention to an urgent news item. And the eletter has done an excellent job of communicating current COVID policies.

A year ago, the Music Alert was going to 4,706 people. That list has narrowed slightly, to 4,484.

However, the full-year 2021 open rate was 21.4%, which rose to 27%-28% after Troubadour temporarily reopened late in the year. This December, our open rate was 34.9%. We’re engaging more people, and that’s important.

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale

Sam says:

Kathi continues to be an invaluable switch-hitter for the Folk Project – behind the scenes for our streaming concerts and soundchecks, and also posting to our Facebook. She creates the Events for the concerts and other FP happenings, posts about them, and early this year she got the semi-weekly Music Alerts posted onto our Facebook and Instagram.

So far in 2022, our Facebook Page has had 19,454 Visits, which is up 10% from last year.

We’ve gotten 579 new Page Likes and Follows, which is down 23% from last year – which could be due to Troubadour’s shift back to in-person performances. As noted in my December report, our Page now has 4,622 people who Like it, and 5,801 Followers.

Our Reach for the year has been 89,170 individuals, though that doesn’t tell how many times they saw our content.

Instagram – Ralph Pedicini

Ralph volunteered to take the reins of our Instagram just in the past few months, and he has plunged into it. He has focused on Stories, rather than Posts, feeling that people are more likely to see Story posts when they come out, even though they’re only visible for 24 hours. We’ve already started seeing a clear increase in views and Followers on Instagram – though the numbers are small compared to Facebook. This is an area of opportunity and potential growth for 2023.

YouTube

Joe Guzzo put a lot of love and a lot of labor into producing the semimonthly Folk Project Television shows for more than two years during the pandemic, but he had to give that up this spring due to other responsibilities.

Our YouTube channel hasn’t had much activity since. Todd Dennison tried to upload our Inside the Song videos, but that stalled when they were getting flagged for copyright infringement, and the music publishers weren’t being responsive to our appeals.

Web – John Lamb

2022 Annual Highlights from John Lamb:

Overall, an excellent year for the website I think. Record numbers across all years for number of users and number of user sessions. Pageviews is not at a record high, mostly because the current web design tries to collect the most important stuff on the home page so that users don't have to hunt through the site unless they want more details. We averaged over 100 users per day for an entire year for the first time.

Also:

Ø Google Analytics 4 compatibility established

Ø major updates for UkeFest, Getaway, Swingin' Tern, and Troubadour pages

Ø renewed registry of folkproject.org domain

Ø helped the Membership Chair set up a separate website for CiviCRM, a free contact relationship management tracking package

Ø added the ability to put a custom note at the bottom of an event listing

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

Sam adds: I want to specifically acknowledge John for always being quick to respond to questions, effective at handling requests, sending monthly statistics at hours when only he and I are awake, managing such a strong team, and proposing constructive alternatives when I ask for something that should be done a different way.

Merch – Paul Fisher (acting)

Paul says:

The Merch Subcommittee has not had any activity this year. (It is possible that some mugs were taken out of the basement for the MUUF Silent Auction, in which case we take credit for that.)

We should seek a new Merchandise Chair to get things going again in 2023.

Sound Reinforcement Committee Report November 2022

We provided sound for the fall Getaway, the Open Stage, Gadan, and the FP Halloween Show. All the shows proceeded normally with no issues.

We completed the planned sound board training program with 4 new sound volunteers participating. We are looking for them to start to volunteer for the sound positions which will round out their experience.

The following completed the training session:

Chris Bukata, Paul Fisher, Greg More and Bernard Drury

John Mahon

Committee Chairperson

DECEMBER 2022 Special Events Report to Board:

Acoustic Getaways in 2023 are planned for Friday to Sunday, May 19-21, the weekend before Memorial Weekend, and Friday to Sunday, October 6-8, Columbus Weekend. Planning is fluid. If the pandemic, attendance and financial circumstances improve as the year progresses, we will adapt.

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Special Events 2022 Annual Report to Board.

ACOUSTIC GETAWAY REPORT:

We held two successful Getaways at Home in 2022.

The concerts and workshops were exceptional.

Performers and workshop leaders included:

Christine DeLeon

Ellis Paul

Frank Sole

Christie Lenée

Kyle Hancharick

James Cleveland & Ken Burgeon

Toby Walker

Diane Polledri

Dave Sherman

Mike Agranoff

Chris Bukata

The Heather Pierson Trio

Henry Nerenburg

Jeff Rantzer

Sam Edelston

Davy Sturtevant

Ernie Sites

Rob & Amy

Beppe Gambetta

The Stillhouse Junkies

Dave Rimelis

Muriel Anderson

Alan LeBoeuf

Michael Arthur

Robin Schaffer

Scott Rovner

Antje Duvekot

The Fermenters

Mark Schaffer

This is a tremendous and talented program for a house-concert-style weekend with an up-close audience of only 50 and then 42 guests. The At-Home version of Getaway budgets about $6700 per weekend versus upwards of $33,000 for the “Away” version. At-Home allows us to spend almost the entire budget on performers - food being the only other significant outlay. The Folk Project contributes $1700 to each Getaway. It should be noted that Scott Rovner contributed a significant gift that enabled us to break even for the year. Big thanks to Big Scotty.

Robin, Peggy Karr and Diane Polledri were key advanced planners. A large contingent of volunteers and attendees contributed time and energy during the weekend. We thank them all profusely.

SPECIAL CONCERTS REPORT:

We had one special concert featuring Tom Paxton & The Don Juans. In contrast to their 2019 concert for us, which sold out at 200 tickets in a few weeks, this year’s 2022 concert sold about 100 tickets in three and a half months. The event was planned with MidAtlantic Arts, which granted $3,000 to the Folk Project. With this grant, the concert broke even financially, but it points to the difficulties of attracting audiences at this time.

NJ UKE FEST REPORT:

NJ Uke Fest was a joy this year. It was hosted for the second year by Robin and I in our home.

Performers and workshop leaders included:

Yaniza

Lil’ Rev

Mark Dutton

Bill Wynne

Frank Sole

Skye Randazzo

Pete & Maura Kennedy

Kevin Coughlin

Once again, quality of the concerts and workshops are exceptional for such an intimate, house-concert style weekend of 40 guests. The At-Home format allows us to devote most of the $6,800 budget to performers - food being the only other significant expense. The Folk Project contributes $1700 to the budget and the event broke even.

EVENT HOSTING SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT:

Sub-chair Jay Wilensky will submit a more detailed report below.

From this chair’s view, Jay has done an exceptional job adapting to the changing pandemic difficulties. The outdoor Afternoons of Music held monthly during the fair-weather months at Lewis Morris Park have been exceptionally well-attended, energetic, fun and a highlight of our post-pandemic The monthly Evenings of Music held indoors during the less-clement seasons have been generally successful and modestly attended.

Event Hosting Subcommittee 2022 Annual Report

Jay Wilensky, Subchair

This has been a difficult year for Evenings of Music, marked by disappointingly low attendance. It was always going to be a dicey proposition to re-start large gatherings in peoples’ homes after (actually during) the pandemic.

Attendance has also been held down by the scheduling of Eves O’ on a different day of the month, during an afternoon, and at locations out of the Project’s immediate area. I take responsibility for a number of those decisions. Of course, we don’t have control over the course of the pandemic. But people’s skittishness about gathering should ease as Covid becomes more manageable.

Mark and Robin have graciously agreed to address the location issue by holding the majority of upcoming Eves O’ at their home. And, I hope that we will all do some personal salesmanship (salespersonship?) to encourage people to give this great Project tradition another try.

Since the inception of The Folk Project Acoustic Stayaway almost 3 years ago, Streaming has become (and will continue to be) an integral part of The Folk Project.

In 2022, The Folk Project has streamed well over 400 hours of entertainment from hundreds of performers across the globe (from Morristown to Motown, Australia to Alberta, Wisconsin to Wales, New Orleans to New Zealand, and many points in between). Thousands of audience members have watched these streamed events from all over the world.

Those hours came from a broad cross-section of The Folk Project, which includes:

Monday - Songs That Sing to Me weekly song circle** (Jay Wilensky, John Hone)

Tuesdays - Streaming Tuesdays concert series (Gary Pratt, Kathi Caccavale)

Thursdays - Songwriters' Circle (Dave Kleiner)

Thursdays (2nd of the month) Inside the Song (Tina Ross, Todd Dennison)

Fridays - Troubadour (Mike Agranoff, John Mahon, Bill Henderson)

Fridays (2nd of the month) - Open Stage (Todd Dennison)

Performances were also streamed from the two Acoustic Getaways:Home Edition and NJ UkeFest (Mark and Robin Schaffer).

See report from the Monday Song Circle below.

These Streaming events have generated income to The Folk Project via online paid events, donations, and new memberships.

An added benefit is that streaming events enable senior and/or disabled performers and audience members to be a part of The Folk Project community.

On a personal note, booking and hosting the Streaming Tuesdays concert series is a win-win-win-win situation for me. The concerts provide income for performers (win!), entertainment for the audience (win!), income and exposure for The Folk Project (win!), and given me purpose while being self-isolated during the pandemic. It has truly become a calling for me, for which I am very grateful.

Thank to everyone who makes these Streaming events happen!

Respectfully submitted,

Gary Pratt

Folk Project Streaming Chair

The Monday Zoom song circle had a hugely successful 2022. As of this writing we have held 140 consecutive meetings, with no end in sight.

What began as a stopgap to give Projectiles an opportunity to play and stay in touch during the earliest days of the pandemic has become a continent-wide community of musicians, wannabes, and appreciators. Attendance most weeks is between 25 and 30 people, and most of the frequent fliers are or have become Project members.

The vibe of the group, many of whose members call it their “family by choice,” is extraordinary. The ability level of participants ranges from professional to … enthusiastic, and the least accomplished Circler receives the same attentive and affectionate listening as the most. People are willing to spend 2-1/2 hours to play two songs, for the sake of being with the fam. People who may never have otherwise met have formed genuine friendships. And, a few Projectiles have become more involved in the Project, and gotten bookings, because of their participation.

Additionally, we present a featured performer nearly every week. This year, they’ve included Tom Kimmel, Cliff Eberhardt, Pat Wictor, Peppino D’Agostino, Joe Jencks, Megon McDonough – the list goes on. I’ve been amazed at the willingness of name musicians to play for the group for free, the warmth of the reception they receive, and the willingness of many to come back for a second and even third time.

There doesn’t seem to be any reason for the consecutive-meeting streak to end, particularly given John Hone’s expert leading of the circle when I can’t. I’m deeply grateful for the Project’s ongoing support.

Jay Wilensky, Circlemeister.

November Swingin' Tern report

Our best month so far at our new venue.

On November 5, we hosted Don Flaherty calling to Jaybird, both of which are old favorites at Swingin' Tern.

On November 19, Quenna Crain called to Chimney Swift. It was our first double dance since the virus changed everything. Chimney Swift is popular with our dancers and had performed at our last dance in 2020, on March 7. Quenna was also a big hit and we hope she returns many times.

Financially we finished ahead $90 for the month. Voluntary contributions pushed us over the top, and we appreciate all our supporters.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern

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Swingin Tern' 2022 Report

2022 Swingin' Tern report

We had our first dance on May 7. As usual for dance reopenings, it was well attended. After the following drop off, attendance has increased overall, and in November we finished ahead financially.

Many people have contributed to our successful comeback.

Sasha Forgoston volunteered to be co-chair all year. She represented ST at several FP board meetings and contributed to ST internal discussions. All this despite not being ready to return yet to the dance herself. We hope to see her soon!

Jon Justin and Andrew Warner have set up sound at nearly every dance and have started training others.

Karen Justin, Gloria Friedman, Ralph Zelman, Sandy Desmedt, George Rogers, Gary Szelc, Christy Cook, Roz Kendellen, Gary Kendellen and Alice Tempel have volunteered at nearly every dance.

Xander Kastan has booked the performers, which sometimes became a very lengthy process, and he's also volunteered at all the dances he's attended.

Doug Heacock landed our new site and has done our publicity.

Lin Goetz had continued her long-term, consistent support.

We thank of all these people and the rest of our volunteers and supporters.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I didn't get this out sooner. I got hit this weekend with a low grade fever with a horrible cough and the usual aches and pains. Not sure what it is but after testing twice it's not Covid.

Not a lot to report. There were several mix ups with tally sheets for the Troubadour and I am missing numbers for Swingin' Tern so we are not as up to date as I would like to be. I will go over some significant things in the P&L

The deceiving number is $382.21 in profit to date.

That number includes a 10K pass through donation earmarked as advertising with NPR. None of that money has been spent yet so we can't count that towards income.

That number includes a 5K money transfer from our money market that was not part of income.

That number does not include $6,210 as regular stipends from the Vanguard account for Spring & Fall Getaways and Ukefest (1.5% of the endowment portion of the Vanguard $138,005.77 which came to $2070 for each event) We can not account for it in Quickbooks like Chris used to since it is not actually taken out of the Vanguard account. We still have 18K in our money market so we don't need to access the Vanguard.

Which means we have lost $8,407.79 If you don't count my 5K transfer its only $3,407.79 which is excellent considering how badly Covid has effected our attendance.

I should also point out it has been a banner year for donations. $25,016.79 in total. Michael in particular has carried the Troubadour's losses

If anyone wants a more detailed report I will be happy to send one to you or answer any questions you may have.

I try to make this as simple and understandable as possible. We are still getting a few miss categorized entries. So far all have been found and fixed.

Respectfully submitted

Peggy Karr Treasurer

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Hello Everyone,

No one wants to read financial reports so I won't post anything. I should also point out the year hasn't closed so I don't have any final numbers to go over. I have gone over the most recent report in the December Treasurers Report which required some explaining.

I will say we are on track to loose money again this year. We are in no financial jeopardy. We have overcome the negative effects of Covid and have remained active and vital and stay healthy as an organization.

The new Bookkeeper has been a god send for me. There has been a learning curve for both of us. There has mostly been mis categorized items which have all been found and moved to their correct venue.I enjoy working with Karen Buchanan very much. She has made the job easier and understandable.

We are finally current with our CRI reports with the state. It took a while but I got the Vanguard updated with new signatories. I have learned to hate Wells Fargo but changing banks is easier said than done. There were 100 other little things I did not worth making this report any longer than it needs to be.

Respectfully submitted

Peggy Karr Treasurer

December 2022 Report to the Board

Well! What a difference a month makes. It didn’t hurt that two of our three shows in November were traditional block-busters in the past. Nor did it hurt that the Loose Canons graciously donated both their Creel and their streaming viewer’s donations to the Folk Project. But as a result, November was the first month since COVID in which we’ve run a profit, and a whopping big profit of $1,225 at that. Average attendance for the three shows was 85.3, which felt pretty good. See the attached Chart and P&L graphs for further details.

The Susan Werner show of November 18 was pretty spectacular and fraught with problems. I touted Werner as my favorite currently performing solo artist, and she did not disappoint. Her paid attendance of 148 brought back memories of full houses pre-COVID, although she undoubtedly would have sold out were it not for COVID. We were unable to separate the audience into mask-mandatory and mask-optional sections, because there were more unmasked attendees than would have fit in half the room. The problems arose in the area of financial calculations, brought on because we had paid her an advance deposit, which turned out to be more than the Folk Project’s share of her earnings. That led to a week’s worth of head-scratching and number-juggling, causing untold hours of effort between John Lamb, Peggy Karr, Karen Buchwald (our Bookkeeper) and myself before we got it straightened out. The details are too technical and confusing to be elaborated in this report, but finally did get them straightened out. My apologies to those folks for putting them through all the extra work. The show made a profit of $558

The Loose Canons’ show of Nov. 25 was also respectably attended with 81 paid. Carla Ulbrich, who was scheduled to open the show was unable to attend, having contracted a mild case of COVID. The Canons publicly expressed a great gratitude to the Folk Project for offering them such a welcoming and attentive audience over the years, and in return donated both their Creel and their donations from streaming viewers to the Project, for a whopping total of $618. That, plus the proceeds from their relatively high attendance resulted in a profit of $1,066 from their show alone

We have been streaming our shows on FaceBook live since we’ve resumed post-COVID. We’ve chosen that platform primarily because that is the one which we’ve been using for Streaming Tuesdays. Unlike the Streaming Tuesdays webcasts, however, we charge a $4.99 ticket price for the Troubadour webcasts. Facebook has charged us no fee for that service, and they have guaranteed that until the end of 2022. We’ve not had any word on what their policy will be in 2023 and beyond. It has been a not-insignificant source of income for us, averaging a little over $100 per show. If they start to take a substantial cut of the take in 2023, (Other platforms take a cut in the order of 25% to 30%.) I’ll raise that ticket price accordingly. The video and audio quality of the webcasts has been excellent. Kudos to the sound techs and to Bill Henderson, who’s done all the camerawork. And to Kathi Caccavale, who has been masterfully handling all the administrative details involved in creating and posting the Facebook events.

There is one thing, however, that has troubled me about the streaming shows. The free-will donations to the performers have been disappointingly small, roughly averaging around $50 per show. (With a big exception of Tom Chapin, who got a whopping $286.) Apparently the spirit of the “Creel” has not filtered through to our online audience. The Creel routinely contributes half to two thirds of our performers’ pay from the in-person audience.

New bookings this past month:

1. Jan. 20: Amy Engelhardt: Satiric songwriter and ex-member of The Bobs

2. Feb, 24: Owen Walsh: Songwriter , opening for Heather Pierson

3. March 3: Erin Ash Sullivan: Songwriter (specifically plugged by Susan Werner at her show) opening for David Roth.

4. March 31: Columba: 5-member vocal group doing choral harmony material from many traditions.

Highlight in December

1. December 30: Carla Ulbrich: Comedic Songwriter, finally gets to perform after having her shows either canceled or postponed about 4 times over the past year.

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org

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Mike Agranoff

Troubadour Program Chairman

December 4, 2022

THE TROUBADOUR

2022 YEAR END REPORT

After reopening the Troubadour in September of 2021, we were forced to close down agan at the end of the year due to the Omicron surge. We resumed concerts in April of 2022, under COVID guidelines recommended by the Folk Project’s Reopening Committee. Those initial guidelines, revised about a month later, specify that masking and proof of vaccination would be required if the CDC COVID risk factor was ORANGE (High), but would be relaxed to not require proof of vaccination, and making masking recommended, rather than mandatory, when the Risk Factor was YELLOW (Medium) or GREEN (Low). The Risk Level remained ORANGE until mid-August, and has vascillated between YELLOW and GREEN since then, with an general downward trend, except for a bump after Thanksgiving. To provide some reassurance to nervous patrons, we have divided the audience into Mask-Mandatory and Mask-Optional sections when there were enough empty seats to permit that. Thus far, we have received no confirmed reports of people actually getting infected at the Troubadour.

Unfortunately almost all of our shows have had enough empty seats to permit the masking segregation. Our attendance continues to hover at roughly half our pre-COVID level, averaging 47.8 paid. Even the best-attended show of the year with Susan Werner drew 157 paid, whereas before COVID, she would have sold out at 180 with who knows how many would-be patrons turned away. Consequently we have continued to run at a considerable loss of $5,300 YTD. Fortunately this has been offset by personal donations from myself and others, totaling $6,600. Particularly notable amongst those donations came from the Loose Canons, who donated their entire Creel and donations from streaming viewers for a grand total of $1,066. One aid to the Troubadour’s balance sheet (if not to the balance sheet of the Project as a whole) was our decision to designate its Liability Insurance as an Overhead expense, rather than assigning portions of that cost to each activity of the Project based upon that activity’s attendance.

Our live streaming webcasts of Troubadour shows have been modestly successful, drawing an average viewership of 21.8, and an average income of $100 per show for us and $83 in tips for our Feature Acts. There have been occasional delays and glitches in our ability to connect to Facebook, but once we do connect, the quality of the broadcasts have been excellent, both in video and audio. This has been thanks to the excellent equipment installed by MUUF, and the fine work of cameraman Bill Henderson and the volunteer sound crew under the leadership of John Mahon. MUUF improved the entire video/sound console with the installation of a state-of-the-art 3-camera system (currently reduced to 2 cameras), and a re-positioning of the sound board to face the stage.

John Mahon has put great effort into improving our sound. We now operate with two trained techs on sound, one to mix the house sound, and another to provide an independent mix to the camera. He has standardized operating procedures, and (with my help) documented them in a revised operator’s manual specific to our current setup. We’ve recruited new sound techs, and held live training sessions to bring them up to speed. And John himself has been on the crew for almost every show.

We will continue on the same basis into 2023. Many folk venues around the county have either folded or remained on hiatus after COVID. While we are not exactly thriving, we can hold on under current conditions, in the hopes that patrons will return, and new ones will discover us. With the advent of Sam Edelston now taking a proactive approach to publicity, there’s a better chance for the latter to happen.

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chairman