Rutgers Special Collections is still closed and I've sprained and fractured my ankle. So that's it, that's my report.

Lindsey Meyer, "definitely spending too much time in the" Chair

Hello, Everyone!

Happy New Year!

Community Service:

I missed reporting 2 Deaths in December:

Ev (Evelyn) Simpson, a long-time Folk Project member, has passed away on November 13th, at the age of 90. Ev has been actively involved, not only as a singer in many groups, but as the gracious Hostess of many FP gatherings, including several Holiday celebrations. She is survived by her children, Kami and David Simpson, and her many friends.

This is the obituary that ran in the Star Ledger:

https://obits.nj.com/us/obituaries/starledger/name/evelyn-simpson-obituary?id=31609426

Liz Pagan’s mother, Julia Pagan, passed away on Nov. 15, at age 93.

Liz thanks all who have been a support to her during this time.

Julia's Obituary:

danglerfuneralhomes.com/tribute/details/3592/Julia-Pagan/obituary.html?

I have been catching up on many cards to send on behalf of the Folk Project, for Sympathy, Illness, and Congratulations (Engagement & Wedding).

Wishing you all a Healthy, Happy New Year 2022!

Evelyn Maurer

FP Community Service

Folk Project board members,

As of 12/31/21, we have 237 memberships consisting of 370 people, a increase of 4 memberships and a increase of 7 people compared to December 7, 2021.

Rosters in PDF and Excel formats are attached to this message. Please note: rosters include active members and lapsed members within the last year.

Respectfully submitted,

Gary Pratt

Membership chair

The Folk Project

Newsletter Committee Report 2022-01

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

Newsletter operations have been getting back to normal over the past several months, but with the Troubadour announcing that they will be suspending their in-person shows for at least two months we may be taking a step backwards. The newsletter will continue to track and announce all the changes as they take place.

Thanks,

George Otto

Folk Project Newsletter Editor

newsletter@folkproject.org

December was another great month for the FP Open Stage!

We kicked off the show with a set by Fank Sole and Jenny Glenn.

The rest of the night was a nonstop, never-ending, rollicking, musical rollercoaster of talent.

Once again the slots at the FPOS were in high demand and we had to turn away many requests.

We also went an hour longer than the previous month to try to get as many people on stage as possible.

We had planned to open the Terrace Room in January and kick off the new year with some special events but have put that on hold.

We will be virtual in January.

Todd Dennison

Publicity Report for the January 4, 2022 Board Meeting

December 31, 2021

Publicity Committee Members

Alicia Weimer, Deborah Graham, 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, Rick Thomas (emeritus Member)

Reports

Chairperson’s Report – Sam Edelston

The big news of the month was going to be Troubadour publicity, with us doing special press releases for the scheduled in-person performances by John Forster, Robinson & Rohe, and Windborne – as well as our newly tweaked/updated (thank you, Deborah Graham!) flyer for the Troubadour. Unfortunately, omicron intervened and put the concert series on hold.

Thanks especially to John Lamb, Kathi Caccavale, and Mark Schaffer for turning on a dime to publicize the Troubadour’s suspension. With the Holidays past and the Troubadour paused, we’ll turn our attention to the Folk Project’s streamed events.

E-communications – Mark Schaffer

Mark turned on a dime with the Music Alert to announce that in-person shows are on hold.

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale

Kathi says:

Folk Project (NJ) page:

Likes and follows continue to tick upward.

Late December has been busy with the switch from in-person to online Troubadour concerts for January and February, plus posting January Streaming Tuesdays. The switch to online Troubadour will mean an additional stream test per week for the Gary/Kathi team. We posted an announcement about the in-person cancellation and responses have been positive, including one comment: Thanks for being responsible.

Likes: 4,062 (+39 in the past 4 weeks)

Followers: 5,132 (+44 in the past 4 weeks)

The Folk Project group:

Since Facebook changed the way groups operate, we have received a handful of requests to participate on the page. People can join or visit the page without approval but cannot participate unless they are approved.

Folk Project group: 1,457 members

Swingin’ Tern group: 576 members

NJ Uke Fest group: 235 members

Twitter, Instagram – Jean Scully

Nothing new to report.

YouTube – Joe Guzzo

Joe says:

YouTube Channel Report for the month ending December 31, 2021

· We have 268 subscribers as of the end of December. That’s a gain of 2 subscribers in the last month.

· This month, the channel got 100 views.

· Watch time was 14.4 hours.

· The holiday-themed show aired on December 19 and drew many viewers.

· I will be airing an interview featuring Circle Round the Sun on January 2.

· The top video for the month was from the December 5th program. The show featured a concert created for the Hunterdon County Library by Circle Round the Sun. They kindly let me rebroadcast it for the Folk Project members.

· With the acquisition of the new studio software, I began using “green-screen” technology to enhance the show’s look. Anyone interested in seeing my first effort can look at the January 2nd broadcast’s opening monologue.

· Since it appears that we are going to be in another extended use of virtual programming, would it be of interest to use FPTV more frequently? The long-term availability of the show could provide a new revenue stream for performers who participate in an interview and give a concert as part of the show.

Web – John Lamb

John says:

December was, as usual, a busy month for the website, with activity on many different fronts.

· We assisted Troubadour, Streaming Tuesdays, Swingin' Tern, Horses Sing None of It, Special Concerts, Inside the Song, Folk Project TV, the Holiday Show to benefit MUUF and the Valentine’s Day Extravaganza in adding items to various calendars and on the home page.

· We expanded the database format for individual events of all sorts so that they can now include a custom section at the bottom of each event on a per-event basis. Before, this was possible at the top of the event listing, now it can be done top, bottom or a separate content for both.

· After adding a number of events, we then had to cancel nearly as many as Swingin' Tern first lost its venue and then all live events scheduled for January and February 2022 were either canceled, rescheduled or moved online.

· There were a number of small tweaks and corrections, including rebranding the Stayaway email signup form to serve as the signup for our twice weekly Folk Project Music Alert, setting up a donation link for the Chorus Song Night song leaders, dealing with a Google listing that reported that we close at 5PM on weekdays and are closed entirely on weekends, and updating the Administration page to reflect the December elections.

· We held a training session with Doug Heacock to teach him how to enter Swingin' Tern events on his own.

· Finally, we restored the remaining entries on the Performers Resource Directory that had been on the old site prior to shutting it down in favor of the Stayaway site. We are in contact with all of those who had requested inclusion in 2020 and 2021 to get them added in. Once that is done, we will return the PRD to the main menu so that it can be more easily found by those looking to hire musicians.

In addition to the website, we assisted with a few other tech-related items, including updating the Advance Sale spreadsheet used by Troubadour, ordering a copy of Microsoft Office through TechSoup.org for Jeff Canter and suggesting to the Membership committee that they have a look at CiviCRM.org as a possibility for the membership database software they hope to start using.

We can still use another team member or two going forward, particularly one with WordPress experience. If you hear of anyone interested in helping out with the website, send them our way. We will gladly train.

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

[Secretary's Note: Web statistics added below]

Merch – Paul Fisher (acting)

Nothing going on.

Sound Reinforcement Committee – January 2022 Report

There is not much new to report. The month of December saw the successful presentation of Troubadour shows, and the monthly open stage complete with Facebook video broadcasts. We are still waiting for MUUF to realize their plan to renovate the audio and video system in the worship hall. This has held up our training plans as we don’t want to train on the old equipment and then have to retrain on the new equipment. We see the pause of live shows will cause a delay in MUUF’s plan to renovate the worship hall systems, and in our training plans.

John Mahon

January 2022 Report to Board

SPECIAL EVENTS COMMITTEE

Chairman Mark Schaffer

Jay did all the work last month.

GETAWAY COMMITTEE

Mark Schaffer

There will be a Getaway Weekend May 20-22, 2022 - the weekend before Memorial Weekend. It will be a "home version” in Rockaway, similar to Getaway Guitar Day and NJ 2021 Uke Fest, and follow or exceed all board COVID safety procedures.

NJ UKE FEST SUBCOMMITTEE

Mark Schaffer

There will be a NJ Uke Fest Weekend Friday-Sunday August 26-28, 2022 - the weekend before Labor Day Weekend. It will be a "home version” in Rockaway, similar to Getaway Guitar Day and 2021 NJ Uke Fest, and follow or exceed all board COVID safety procedures. Any board member interested in joining the leadership team of Mark Dutton, Kevin Coughlin and I is more than welcomed to contact me.

EVENT HOSTING & MEMBER CONCERTS SUBCOMMITEE

Jay Wilensky

The Monday virtual song circle continues to be a success. Our attendance remains strong and steady at 20-30 per session, and a number of participants have begun referring to the group as their “family by choice,” or just “the fam.” Our featured guests for December were Ina May Wool, Shanna In A Dress, and Allison Shapira, and Louise Mosrie Coombe just agreed to kick off the new year with her second appearance. There were no plans to discontinue the circle. But, now that all hell is breaking loose again, it seems more important than ever to keep it going. I’m very grateful for the support of the Project.

MUUF BENEFIT ADDENDUM

Jay Wilensky

Under trying circumstances, including the Covid-related cancellation by our featured performer and of the traditional spread of refreshments, the holiday show to benefit the Fellowship was successful. I made a unilateral, but unopposed, decision to cancel food service because of the Covid risk posed by people who would be eating, and accordingly unmasked, milling around. And, our truly exceptional featured performer, Gen Evieve, had to cancel, literally an hour before showtime, because a family member was sick and tested positive. However, our Project performers stepped up and added a song to their sets, the attendees seemed to be understanding about the lack of refreshments, Todd Dennison and Andrew Dunn led the finale in Gen’s stead, and the show was an artistic success. The show was a financial success as well. Despite attendance being held down by Covid, we raised just over $1200 for donation to the Fellowship.

Thanks are due to all the (volunteer) performers: Andrew Dunn (Caroling), Lindsey Meyer (Reading), Susan Lembo (MC), Tina Ross, Kathy Moser, Todd Dennison and Annie Donouhe, Dave Heistand and Jean Scully, and Chrissy Roberts. Special thanks to Tina for a particularly beautiful lighting of the Shabbat candle. Major thanks also to Deborah Graham (decorations), Diane Polledri (baking), and to Bob Cole (for arranging the refreshments that we ultimately had to cancel); a great staff; and Amy Livingston for keeping the ship afloat.

FP Board members,

The primary focus of the Streaming Committee this past month was working with Mike Agranoff regarding the suspension of in-person Troubadour shows. A plan was developed and implemented to offer streaming shows to performers whose shows were cancelled and/or book replacement performers. The details of this plan are contained in the Troubadour Booking Report: January 2021. This plan will be in place until Troubadour reopens.

The next initiative of the committee is to test the feasibility of utilizing a standard platform for streaming shows. This platform is StreamYard (www.streamyard.com).

Some of the benefits of StreamYard are:

• Branding - all streaming events can be branded with the Folk Project logo, colors, backgrounds, etc.

• Banners - donation links and other information can be displayed across the screen.

• Setup - concert information and settings are set by the Folk Project host

• Flexibility - StreamYard allows streaming to Facebook, Zoom, YouTube, websites, etc.

• On-screen hosting - the host can introduce the performer on camera and switch to performer screen, or interact with performer on-screen. Host can also appear on-screen during intermissions.

• Browser based

After initial testing is completed by committee members (and if it is determined that StreamYard is a viable product), Streaming Tuesdays concerts will be the first events to use StreamYard. The committee will develop an operations manual and training materials, which will then enable StreamYard to be rolled out to other venues.

Gary Pratt

Streaming Committee chair

The Folk Project

Swingin' Tern December report

We had one dance, as scheduled, on December 4. Dan Black called to the music of The Contra Rebels, and people were happy to get back to dancing. Financially, we broke even with the help of at-the-dance contributions.

The church was unhappy with the "powder" left on the floor and elsewhere and has disinvited us from using their parish hall. Several ST volunteers believe that the finish applied to the floor inevitably becomes powder when danced on, but at this point there's nothing to be done. We are grateful to have had use of the facility for about ten years -- I think

roughly early 2010 to early 2020 -- plus two dances this year.

Even had we found a new venue in time, we weren't planning to dance in January and February because Omicron was coming. The first February dance would have been February 5, and while the bulk of Omicron is expected be over in the tri-state area then, it probably won't be near to vanishing completely. The February 19 dance would have been when the Dance Flurry was scheduled, so we won't be dancing then either, regardless of what the virus is doing.

In the meantime, the FP board more recently decided not to host in-person events for now, so the board agrees with us.

Finally and the best news -- Doug Heacock has taken the lead in finding a new venue, and he has some leads. Thanks to Doug for his work on this.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern

Hello Everyone,

Not much to report.

Attached is the P&L through the end of the year. There may be some numbers missing.

I want to remind everyone to get in any last minute expenses for 2021 as soon as possible so Karen and I can close out the year.

Karen and I got the classes down so I am in the process of down-grading Quickbooks. Looks like we will save around $1000.

I am also in the process of renewing our insurance.

Respectfully submitted,

Peggy Karr

Treasurer

The Troubadour held only one show in December: our annual Chorus song night. It was marred by the absence of one of the scheduled songleaders. More on that later. The paid attendance was 27 (38 total attendance). While relatively low as usual since reopening, it was actually not that much lower than our usual attendance for a Chorus Song Night. We lost $282 on the night. Year to date we would be $4,080 in the red based on just our operations. However that has been more than offset by personal donations of $4,800 over the course of the past year from Bill Henderson and Jules Schneider. (Jules send us another $500 check in December. He seems determined to relieve me of my pledge to cover the Troubadour’s losses.) There will be some additional bills from ASCAP and BMI. Both those organizations have minimum annual fees, which we normally exceed for a full year of operations. However, with only 4 months of operation this year with greatly diminished attendance (Fees are based on ticket revenue.) we have not reached those minimums, and they will bill us for the balance. I would anticipate that balance to total $408, which would bring our total operational losses for the year to -$4,488, still more than covered by those personal donations.

I had a little personal excitement shortly before the Chorus Song night. on Thursday, before the show I got an email from Toby Walker, who had performed at the Troubadour the week before, that he had COVID. He first felt symptoms the Monday after his performance, got tested, and confirmed positive. I had been sitting in the Green Room with him unmasked on the night of his show. (My bad!) I was scheduled to be one of the song leaders at the Chorus Song Night the following evening. The next morning I got a rapid test (They were more readily available then.) and tested myself. That test proved negative, but one must take a second test a day later in order to confirm the negative reading. So I had to quarantine myself until the following day, and was unable to attend and perform that night. The show went off well with just the three remaining songleaders. My second test on Saturday also showed negative. Toby’s symptoms were primarily that of extreme fatigue. He described them as being like a mild flu. He stayed in bed for 3 or 4 days, and is pretty much recovered now. He was vaccinated, but not boosted.

The other major news is that the ever more alarming news about the spread of Omicron COVID through the country convinced me that we could no longer safely present concerts for a live audience. Last week, after consulting with the Committee Chairs of Open Stage and Member Concerts, I decided to pull the plug on future concerts. I canceled January and February immediately. Since the COVID situation is still very much in flux, we do not know for sure what the situation will be beyond that point. There are unconfirmed indications that the Omicron variant, while highly contagious, produces milder symptoms, particularly in vaccinated people. So to allow for us to react quickly as new information is available, I propose that we extend the cancellation on a rolling 2-month basis. That is, we make a decision whether or not to cancel March concerts by January 15. We make a decision about April concerts by February 15, and so on. This way, when it is safe to reopen, we will have a schedule of performers already in place, and not have to scramble to book acts on short notice. We will also have time to publicize the reopening when it occurs. Decisions will be based, as before, on CID and NJ Department of Health advisories. At the January meeting, I will make a motion the Board convene an ad hoc Reopening Committee to evaluate the situation on a monthly basis. When that Committee feels it safe to do so a month and a half in the future, we will convene a special full Board Meeting shortly before the 15^th of the month to ratify or reject that Ad Hoc Committee’s decision. (See below,) I feel that will be a more efficient way of coming to a full Board decision, rather than discussing the subject at every Board meeting. It will also permit us to reopen sooner after the decision is made, because our Board meetings are a week or two before the 15^th of the month

Feature acts who have been canceled have been offered a rescheduled date to be chosen immediately if they desire. They also have been offered a streaming show on the date of their originally scheduled Troubadour show. Openers will also be rebooked, and offered a streaming show, but their dates will need to be determined later. For rescheduled live shows, I will try to book the same matchup of opener with feature as the canceled show if possible. Gary Pratt has reestablished a series of Friday streaming shows called Troubadour Online to run while the in-person Troubadour shows are closed. Those nights where the originally scheduled Troubadour headliner has declined to do a streaming show will be filled by the canceled Openers or other acts of Gary’s choosing.

MUUF is in agreement with the closure and reopening plan as I’ve described.

I have received excellent cooperation from Open Stage and Member Concerts Chairs, as well as form the Publicity, Streaming, and Web Committees and Subcommittees in quickly implementing this plan on very short notice, and thank them for their help.

Hang in there, folks . We’ll get through this eventually.

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org

***********************************************************************************************************************

Motion On Procedures To Resume Live In Person Events At MUUF

To be presented at the January Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Folk Project

Currently, Folk Project operations at the Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship have been suspended due to COVID for January and February 2022. (With the possible exception of Open Stage on February 11, which has yet to be decided.) I move that the decision to resume events at MUUF be made as follows:

· We will make a decision as to whether to resume in March by January 15.

· We will make a decision as to whether to resume in April by February 15.

· And so forth, on a rolling month-and-a-half basis.

The process of making that decision is as follows: The Board will convene an Ad Hoc Reopening Committee to examine the situation monthly shortly before the 15^th of each month. When that Ad Hoc Committee deems it will be safe to reopen a month and a half later, based upon information from CDC, NJ Department of Health, and other established bodies, they will report that decision to the President by a written report giving reasons for their decision. The President will then convene a special full Board meeting as soon as possible to ratify or reject the Ad Hoc Committee’s decision based upon their report.

Mike Agranoff

Troubadour Booking Committee Chairman

December 29, 2021