Newsletter Committee Report 2022-10

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

Publicity Report for the October 4, 2022 Board Meeting

Sam Edelston, October 3, 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, Ralph Pedicini, Rebecca Rydell

Web Team Members

John Lamb, Allan Kugel, Charles Lamb, Lori Falco

Reports

Chairperson’s Report – Sam Edelston

In a recent Board meeting, it was mentioned that the Folk Project was going to receive a generous gift, to be used for publicity on the radio, as was done last year. That gift has now come in, and we will put it to use in the near future.

We have a new addition to the Publicity Team. Ralph Pedicini is a newer Folk Project member, and in the past couple of weeks he has taken the reins on the Folk Project Instagram account, thefolkprojectnj. If you or your kids are on Instagram, we’d appreciate all the Likes, Tags, Shares, and Followers we can get.

If you’re more of a Facebook type, please Like, Share, and Comment on our posts and events there. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising, so if you have something nice to say, please do!

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Volunteer Appreciation dinner on October 23.

E-communications – Mark Schaffer

Here’s Mark’s e-Communications Report for October 2022 Board Meeting, from Constant Contact.

Sends Opens Open Pct

Music Alert 264 02922 4486 1249 29.5%

Music Alert 263 09622 4489 1432 33.8%

Music Alert 262 09222 4490 1488 35.3%

Music Alert 261 091922 4492 1514 35.9%

Music Alert 260 091522 4492 1554 36.8%

Music Alert 259 091222 4495 1514 35.8%

Music Alert 258 090822 4497 1613 38.1%

Music Alert 257 090522 4495 1614 38.2%

Music Alert 256 090222 4498 1584 37.5%

In addition to the Music Alert, Constant Contact is used for a variety of other Folk Project purposes: The member newsletter, volunteers, dancers, specific events’ attendees, and membership communications.

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale

Sam, filling in for Kathi:

Folk Project Page: 4,536 people Like this (up from 4,481 last month). 5,699 Followers (up from 5,637).

Instagram followers: 309 as of when Kathi sent the statistics on Saturday. 313 as of when Sam is writing this report two days later.

Folk Project group: 1,712 members, up from 1,694 last month.

Swingin’ Tern group: 609 members; up from 603 from last month.

NJ Uke Fest group: 245 members; Up from 244 last month.

Content Overview:

Reach Engagement Definition of “engagement”

Facebook 2400 (down 4%) 509 (down 0.4%) Reactions, comments, shares

Instagram Posts 172 (up 9%) 132 (up 45%) Likes, comments, shares

Instagram Stories 21 1 Replies, shares

Instagram – Ralph Pedicini

Ralph says:

Just easing in. Looking to address 3 areas:

1) Looking for FP performers and their talent promoters or schedulers to cross promote. A performer that “tags” FP on their Instagram account permits FP to post on their account. Now a performer (such as Tom Chapin) is letting their IG fan base know about FP, and that fan may see what’s coming up at the Folk Project.

2) Get message out that FP is a community and a fellowship. This can be done by focusing on members and volunteers.

a) Have a “People of the Folk Project” highlight, and show the workings behind the scenes.

b) Quick interviews with open stage performers on musical topics.

c) Highlight FP events and outings.

3) Create an interactive environment between the Instagram account and FP membership. This is done by letting all members know that we are on IG and encouraging them to download the app and join in on the community by posting comments to particular related story lines.

Next couple of weeks:

1) Push the Getaway.

2) Promote open stage and events.

3) Get an article into the Music Alert to tell members about our Instagram presence.

Twitter – Jean Scully

No report from Jean.

YouTube – Joe Guzzo

Sam says: As Joe Guzzo mentioned at the September Board meeting, he will be stepping down from this position after a replacement is chosen. During the past year, I had the opportunity to talk with him, especially about Folk Project Television, and I appeared as a guest in that series, so I’ve seen up close how much the dedication and love he put into it, and I thank him for that.

Web – John Lamb

Here’s John’s written report. His web statistics are attached. (In the website stats, September wasn’t as huge as August, but was still our second-biggest month in the past year in terms of User Sessions and Total Page Views, as well as in Unique Users per Day. Tom Chapin’s website referred 110 users in the past 3 months.)

The webmaster continues to be out of town frequently, but we did the following in September:

• assisted with new show postings for Inside the Song

• verified reports of problems with the back-end interface to our events database in WordPress. Determined the cause was a change in how WordPress handles a particular data type, introduced in their latest product update. Designed a temporary fix for the problem for Inside The Song, Streaming Tuesdays and Swingin' Tern, and instructed Gary Pratt and Doug Heacock on how to use the workaround. I enter shows for Tina Ross, so no instruction was necessary there. The rest of the website does not use this particular data type, so no additional work is needed there. I intend to rework the temporary fix when I have time into something more permanent and elegant.

• did major updates for Getaway

• evaluated the Troubadour laptop after receiving complaints that it was running slow. My opinion is that a laptop that is 10 years or more old does not really have the horsepower to run Windows 10 and a modern Web Browser and suggested replacing it with a newer, more powerful model. Mike Agranoff does not wish to spend money for a new computer at this time. I then updated several device drivers and suggested turning off WiFi when the laptop was plugged in directly to the MUUF router via an Ethernet cable. Mike preferred not to have to change current procedures. The net result is that the laptop is still very slow. Many thanks to Bill Henderson for delivering the laptop right to my front door and later returning it to MUUF.

• suggested revisions for Mike Agranoff's document for producers of Member Shows.

• updated the COVID banner on the home page and the procedures page that it links to

• handled some inquiries that came in via info@folkproject.org and forwarded the ones that I could not handle to the responsible parties

• helped George Otto with the usual update of the newsletter distribution page

• made the usual mailing list updates

• ordered Norton Antivirus from TechSoup.org for use on the Troubadour laptop, subsequently installed by Mike Agranoff.

• answered questions from Mike Agranoff and Amy Livingston concerning the Troubadour ticket pre-sale report generated for use at the box office. We discovered there were problems when shows on different dates have identical show names. such as when a show gets rescheduled to a later date with the same performers. I helped them get the report they needed for the Tom Chapin show and will look into whether it is possible to select report results by date rather than by name.

As always, many thanks to Charles, Liz, Lori and Allan. 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 October 2022

We covered 5 Friday night concerts in September.

All five concerts were presented normally with respects to live sound in the room and sound for the video broadcast. There was one minor difficulty where the house speakers were not functioning. We replaced them with portable speakers on stands and proceeded with the normal program. This is very similar to the sound system used before the 2016 MUUF sound renovation. The system was restored to its normal configuration the next week.

We have scheduled training for new sound techs in the operation of the new digital mixer on Oct 11 and 18. Hopefully this will result in a dramatic increase in available sound techs.

John Mahon

Committee Chairperson

Dear Board,

Plans for the October Getaway are underway for this coming weekend. We learned only last week that Chris Newman & Máire Ní Chathasaigh were unable to perform as planned because they did not get their visa in time.

We were able to replace their concert set and six workshops at the last minute, but at a cost.

The concert lineup is strong and the workshops should be fun and educational.

The support team has been wonderful, Thanks to Frank, Henry, Peg, Margie, Steve, Chris B, Robin, and my downstairs neighbor Chris.

Mark Schaffer Special Events Chair.

Folk Project Board Members,

The Folk Project continues to produce over 30 hours of streaming every month with performers and audience members from around the world.

Gary

Swingin' Tern September report

We had two good dances. On September 3, Michael Karcher called to A-Rhythmic Heart and and September 17, Dave Rupp called to Strings on Wings.

Financially we were unsuccessful, losing $275 for the month.

Attendance is down at area contra dances. At Swingin' Tern, we also have fewer dancers and fewer volunteers.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern

Hello Everyone,

I have attached a Profit & Loss statement from 2019 so you can see how we have changed financially.

Some of the numbers explained:

Other Income at the bottom of the page is our Vanguard Account. In 2019 we were up $13K. The current stock market is in decline. Yes, we lost $34K in value but its only on paper and operationally we are holding our own.

Operationally we are in the black for $8,567 Normally I would shout HURRAY except we got our pass-through donation of $10K earmarked for advertising with NPR and that money hasn't been allocated yet. So, we are in the red but only $1,433 so hurray. This is due in part to Michael Subsidizing the troubadour for over $5K Thank You Michael Agranoff. Another Hero is Todd Dennison who has brought in record numbers due to all his work with Membership. We are ahead of 2019 and that was our banner year. Thank you Todd.

Donations have also been excellent this year even if you take the 10K. A big Thank You to Mark Schaffer for getting us another Grant for 3K

Vanguard Stipend I have to point out the both Getaways and the Uke Fest were granted their normal stipends from the Vanguard account which amounted to about $1700 each based on the standard formula. If you look at those venues in Quickbooks you will see those events as losses because we can't credit those funds unless we actually take them out of the Vanguard Fund. We don't do it because we have had enough money in our Money Market to cover these cost. Better to leave the money in the Vanguard where it normally earns more interest.

All in all I have to say congratulations Folk Project and Kudos for all the volunteers who make it all happen. I don't think we could have done anything better. I think we need to keep putting in the efforts. Our reward is the music and community we love.

Behind the scene I have been working on our Liability insurance. I have done some research and not yet ready to say if it is a good option for us yet. I need to confirm a few more things. I have also put in a request to The Fellowship to reduce our rent. That is still in the works. As soon as I know more I will let you all know.

Respectfully submitted

Peggy Karr

Treasurer

The Troubadour in September pretty much followed the lackluster pattern of the previous months with the notable and happy exception of the final show in the month featuring Tom Chapin. That exception will be immediately obvious with examination of the attached Profit & Loss graph. That show featured a paid attendance of 117, almost 3 times the average paid attendance and over twice the previous high paid attendance since reopening after COVID. It also was the first show since reopening that made a profit ($241). That could be attributed to his name recognition to the general public, and his relatively modest guarantee. (I will release the amount of that guarantee in a separate email to the Board, so as not to include it in the minutes, which are in public records.) It was quite a treat to be in the room that was well-filled again, and to hear so much singing coming from the audience. The Chapin show also had the unusual and counter-intuitive situation of our paid attendance (117) being less than our total attendance of 116. That is explained by the fact that there were 13 no-shows among the advance ticket-holders, which exceeded the total number of volunteers and other non-paying attendees by one.

Overall over the past 12 months, our average paid attendance was 43, and our operations lost $8, 324 net (not including personal donations to the Troubadour). For September, paid attendance averaged 69.0, and we ran at a $537 loss, again excluding personal donations.

New bookings made last month:

Dec. 2: The song-leaders booked for Chorus Song Night will be Wendy Britton (of the Britton Sisters), Scott Rovner, Bob McParland, and Mike Agranoff

Jan. 6: Gathering Time: vocal harmony driven trio.

Highlights for October

Oct. 21: Seeing that there will be only one Troubadour show in October (The other Fridays will be occupied by the Getaway, the Open Stage, and the Halloween Member Concert.) Gadan would be the highlight by default. But they would be the highlight even if it ware not the default. Gadan is a very hot Celtic and Old-Timey band from Italy, that would be well beyond our range of affordability were it not for the fact that this is their first trip to the US, and they are hungry for bookings. Check out their video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDmiPgj_dcA

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org