FP Future Planning Committee

August Board Report

August 1, 2023

1. Workshop Outcome

The committee held a very productive half day workshop on July 22.  Attending were Robin Schaffer, Bob McNally, Mark Schaffer, Eitan Grunwald, Todd Dennison, Olga Alvarez, Peggy Karr, and Tina Ross.  The group defined and prioritized Folk Project benefits (including input from Board members), defined audience groups, and developed a list of action items.

At our monthly meeting on July 31, we worked on a short Folk Project description, based on the prioritized benefits.  We will present the final draft to the Board at the September meeting.

In addition we started to map out the project plan for “low hanging fruit.”  Some examples:

●     Improving the overall experience at FP concerts so events feel “magical.”  We are starting with Open Stage. This has to do with small changes to the lobby, concert, and intermission experience. A team is working on a plan for that and we plan to report on it at the next board meeting.

●     Creating a more welcoming culture.  We need all hands on deck for this one.  Every board member needs to model a more welcoming environment at all Folk Project events, reaching out and engaging new faces.

●     A Special Concert series to launch in spring or fall 2024.  The grant funding affects how and when we will execute. 

2. Grant Status

○     We were informed that we did not get the Investors Foundation Grant.

○     In process:

■     Martin Foundation grant to be used for the Getaway

■     M&T Bank Grant for Special Concert Series.

■     Morris Arts grant, objective TBD

Robin Schaffer

Bob McNally

Newsletter Committee Report 2023-08

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

George Otto

Folk Project Newsletter Editor

newsletter@folkproject.org 

Publicity Report for the August 1, 2023 Board Meeting

Sam Edelston, July 31, 2023

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, MaryLynn Schiavi

Web Team Members                                 

John Lamb, Allan Kugel, Charles Lamb, Lori Falco

Reports

Chairperson’s Report – Sam Edelston

I just saw a draft of MaryLynn Schiavi’s promotional video. I’ve been away for 13 of the 21 days since the last report.

E-communications – Mark Schaffer

(I’m awaiting Mark’s report.)

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale

Folk Project Page:  6,032 Followers (up from 6,003 last month). “4.8K” people Like this.

Folk Project group: 1,962 members, up from 1,957 last month.

Swingin’ Tern group: 640 members; up slightly from 637 last month.

NJ Uke Fest group: 275 members; up from 267 last month. (Larger-than-usual increase coincides with the first announcements being posted.)

Kathi writes, “I have no explanation for the above, other than the time of when I create and share events for the first time. The re-posts closer to the event happen regularly every week.” Sam adds that July didn’t have our usual big peaks for Streaming Tuesday concerts. Could this be related to our change in the streaming platform?

It’s notable that, while our Facebook Page Views are down, new Likes and Followers are up significantly.

Kathy also says, “Folk Project Group page has 1,692 members. We continue to add a few each week. [Five] joined within the last month. Some people don’t agree to the rules. I message them that I cannot approve them until they do, but I rarely hear back from them. Often, they are posting time sensitive comments.

“Uke Fest Group – the August event has been posted to FP page, FP group and Uke Fest group. The Uke Fest event is pinned to the Featured section on the Uke Fest group page.” Sam applauds loudly from the bleachers!

July Facebook/Instagram Page stats. We got the most views, by far, on Wednesday, 7/26. That’s the day we posted about the upcoming Birthday Show and also shared a great article in  Morristown Green about Uke Fest.

And here are the June Facebook/Instagram Page stats, for comparison. We commented last month, “Facebook Page visits rebounded another 29%, to 1,602 visits (from 1,445 in May). Our four biggest days were the month’s four Tuesdays, with 6/27 (the date of Pete McDonough’s Streaming Tuesdays show) towering nearly 50% above runner-up 6/20.”

Instagram – Ralph Pedicini

Sam says:

Content Overview (from Facebook/Instagram reports):

·         Instagram followers: 430, up from 421 last month.

·         Instagram – Down from December, but up compared to November.

o   Reach: 155 … similar to  154 last month

o   Profile visits: 16 … similar  to 18 last month, but down from 23, 49 and 55 in the previous three months

o   New Followers: 14 … up from 7 last month, but similar to 15 the month before

o   10 published posts and 3 published stories in June.

Twitter – Jean Scully

No report from Jean.

Web – John Lamb

Here’s John’s writeup. As usual, the website statistics from Google Analytics will be sent after the start of the new month. (They may be delayed a little, due to John’s travels, too.)

This is a report for most of August 2023 because I am departing for England on July 27, returning August 7. I will be reachable by email and will only be dealing with really important issues during this period. July has been a fairly slow month for the web team.  We did the following:

• edited Troubadour Calendar to correct a link

• assisted Troubadour Volunteer wranglers with an email issue

• assisted Newsletter Editor with getting the enewsletter online

• added an Event for Inside the Song

You may expect the usual numbers from Google Analytics for July and August in next month's report, but it appears that July's numbers will be up about 20% over June's in most categories.

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

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

John Lamb, webmaster

Merch – Paul Fisher (acting)

Nothing new to report.

Sound Reinforcement Committee Report August 2023

We provided sound for the four Friday night shows scheduled in July. Three proceeded normally, without technical incidents. The new streaming service continues to provide incident free service.

One show, July 21 with Vance Gilbert and Carol Wise, had a 10 minute delay in starting the video broadcast. For unknown reasons, the OBS video software developed a fault in the definition of a “Scene”, which is a collection of pre-determined instructions of where to get the video and audio sources to combine together and send to the broadcast vender. The problem was solved by defining and using a new “Scene” and abandoning the old one. We have not been able to discover why the old scene got corrupted, but the new one is stable and works without incident.

The stage equipment restoration is still in process. The list is growing and will cover the mic stands, the microphones, and the mic cables. Once the entire collection is evaluated, I will put the refurbish, replace options into action.

John Mahon

Committee Chairperson

August 2023 Special Events Report to Board.

Mark Schaffer, Chair

Work is moving along too slowly, but quite surely on:

             Beatleology, NJ Uke Fest, and the 2023 Fall Acoustic Getaway.

(Note:

This last-minute Getaway discussion was prompted by work done today for a 2024 grant that requires budget answers and is due now.)

GETAWAY - Mark & Robin Schaffer

We’d like to discuss next year’s 2024 Getaway pricing, budget and endowments. Post-COVID inflation has caused a steep rise in food and lodging. We need a sense of the board to make programming decisions that affect grants applications we are filling out now.

BACKGROUND: 

Inflation:

The price in 2019 for the entire Getaway was $265. Based on this year’s pricing, which may change, of course, the price per guest is $328 for food and lodging without performers. The price jump seems acceptable because of inflation and because going back to bunk rooms is not being considered.

Three different prices to attend the Getaway are listed to get the board’s sense on the budgeting issue generally. Listing and discussing all six million pricing and programming options did not seem helpful. 

• Option 1 - $370

  • $1700 endowment

  • Same $8K performer budget

•  Option 2 - $359

  •  Double Endowment if approved

  • Same $8K performer budget

• Option 3 - $348

  • Double Endowment

  • $6K performer budget

We are asking for a sense of the board on the budget at this meeting. The committee will explore the many programming options after that budget is determined. If the budget is cut to six is workable, despite being a 25% that will cut down on the magic.

The financial risk is great if we get less than 120 guests, especially after a three-year hiatus.  We are applying for a Martin Foundation Grant. It is not part of this discussion because the request is specifically directed at budgeting for higher-profile performers to attract first-timers. In 2019, we received $2K per Getaway from Martin.

Mark Schaffer, Folk Project Special Events Chair

Mark.S

chaffer@folkproject.org

Board members,

This past month marked the start of Streaming Tuesdays on Afton LiveStream.

Other than one performer not being able to see the chat during the show (but still putting on a great show), the shows have been excellent!

Attendance and tips for the performers have exceeded our expectations!

The learning curve continues, but with the help of our performers, the training for each show goes a little smoother. It reminds Kathi and I of the beginning of The Folk Project Acoustic Stayaway when we were learning how to stream at the same time we were teaching performers to stream.

Respectfully submitted,

Gary Pratt

Folk Project Streaming Chair 

Swingin' Tern Report - July 2023

An excellent month. We are getting newcomers, and the dance is growing. Many people are also contributing financially.

On July 1 we hosted Christy Riehl calling to Smash the Windows, and on June 17 we hosted Michael Karcher calling to Riverside.

We made $465 for the month and are solidly in the black for the year.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern

Hello Everyone,

Things are looking a little better. Our losses are down to 17K (Keeping in mind the 10K advertising from last year and the deposit for Fall Getaway 6K)

The good news is the Vanguard account is doing well due to the stock market increases. It is up from 179K in March to 190K showing an increase of 11K.

I have not accessed the Vanguard yet but I just transferred 3K to our checking leaving only 3K in the Money Market. I think a 10K withdrawal should be enough to cover the money we need to cover the stipends.

We may want to think about raising some of our ticket prices. A cup of Starbucks is between $2.50-$5.00 A Big Mac Meal is over $10 A gallon of gas is $3.65. Just a thought?

We had some misunderstandings with Karen & the tip money for Streaming Tuesday. All has been straightened out.

Otherwise all is good.

Respectfully submitted

Peggy Karr Treasurer

The Troubadour continues to chug along at a sustainable level that would still benefit from more in-person attendees.  That is slowly improving, and every week we see one or two folks who are attending for the first time since COVID.  In July we averaged 58.8 paid attendees per show, and made a profit of $534, a lot of which came from the Birthday Show, which had no paid performers.  Year-to-date, our paid attendance has averaged a similar 60.2, and we’re $899 in the black.

Please note:  I’ve attached the usual P&L graph, but I’m having some trouble with the other attachment I usually put up with the attendance stats for the past 12 months.  If there’s anybody familiar with Excel with whom I might consult, please contact me.

I have received, signed, and returned our yearly contract with the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship with no change in terms from the previous year.

The computer used to process the Tally Sheets at MUUF has, after 15 or so years, “…gone to meet its maker and joined the Choir Invisible.”  We are in process of ordering a new one, but it will not be usable until John Lamb gets back from vacation to re-install Excel on the machine under our current software license.  He says that is a messy procedure.  In the meanwhile, ask the Exchequers to bring their own computers in or I will bring mine.

I had a devil of a time booking September.  That was due to in part my falling behind in my booking, and exacerbated by my being away on vacation the first two weeks in July.  I eventually did get it booked, except for September 1st, which nobody wanted because it was Labor Day weekend.  Since we often have difficulties in getting volunteers that week, I decided, in consultation with Jean, to close the Troubadour on that date.  I do not want this to become a precedent. 

The Birthday Show started out as a disappointment.  We only had enough people sign up for a slot to field 10 performing groups, one of which subsequently backed out.  Pre COVID, we normally got roughly twice that many.  It redeemed itself somewhat bye proving to be a surprisingly good show.  I increased the time allotted for each group from the conventional 6 minutes to 12, and most groups responded by doing 2, or in one case, 3 songs.  The performances themselves surprised me by being quite entertaining.  I attribute the low participation to a number of causes.

1. Remaining fallout from COVID.

2. The disappointing reluctance to participate by many of our more accomplished members.  This is not a new problem; a lot of our “stars” have not taken part in the Birthday Show for many years.

3. Many of our newer performing members do not seem to be tuned into the opportunity we offer to take part in the larger Folk Project community the way they used to.  I’ve spoken to a few of them, and, despite our outreach in the Newsletter and Music Alert, they weren’t aware it was happening.

4. Competition with the Falcon Ridge Festival, which takes place on the same weekend.

With regards to this last point, I have decided, with great reluctance, to move the Birthday Show a week later next year to remove the conflict.  I’ve always resisted that.  One should celebrate one’s birthday on the birthday (Or as close as possible), not a week and a half later.  But practicality will at last prevail, however much it irks me.

Speaking of regular events moving from their usual dates, I’ve also had to move Chorus Song Night from its conventional first Friday in December.  What brought this about was that Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, whom I was much anticipating on November 3, learned that their agent had found them a very profitable weekend fiddle camp on that weekend.  Knowing that he was doing us a big favor in playing for us for well below his usual rates, I ceded him the date.  The only other Friday available to him this year was December 1st, the date of Chorus Song Night.  So I moved Chorus song night a week earlier to November 24, Thanksgiving weekend.  Ah, the trials and tribulations of a Program Chairman.

New Bookings in July

First, to fill in our empty September, I’ve booked.

1. Sept. 15:  Billy Tanglewood, Folk Project member singer-songwriter, to open for Silk City

2. Sept. 22:  Reeds, Rhythm, & All That Brass, a 17-piece big band featuring Jay Wilensky and other FP members, with swing guitar/bass duo Flip Peters & Kevin Brown opening

3. Sept. 29:  Dulcimer virtuoso Sam Edelston to open for harp & guitar virtuosi Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman

Then, further on down the road…

1. October 20: English songwriter and wordsmith Vic Lennard to open for Abbie Gardner.  You can get a sneak preview of Vic this Tuesday on Streaming Tuesdays before the Board Meeting.

2. Dec. 29 Mike Agranoff.  (I sleep with the guy who books the place.)

3. Jan. 5:  Deni Bonet & Chris Flynn high energy fiddle & guitar singer songwriters, who earned a standing ovation when they opened for Toby Walker on June 30.

And lastly, although it’s too far in the future to put up on the schedule, I’ve managed to book the legendary Scottish super-group, The Tannahill Weavers to do a Troubadour on April 26 for our regular 10 bucks plus creel ticket price.

Highlights for August:

1. Aug. 18:  FP favorite, songwriter Joe Crookston

2. Aug. 25:  Passionate singer-songwriter Greg Greenway

And on a personal note:

1. I will be doing a Streaming Tuesdays concert on August 8, a week after the meeting.  I would ask of you to tune in.  I’ll be doing a bunch of material from the back drawer of my repertoire, so you’ll likely hear a lot of stuff you’ve not heard from me.

Respectfully submitted

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org

Folks,

I have hundreds of pages of proofreading on my desk that I need to get done...

My report is that we are slowly rebuilding our volunteer base.   I have been making an effort to be there as many Fridays as possible, usually as Head Staff, to just

keep things moving along and reestablish some standards that I think are important (i.e., not putting perishable food to go bad in the kitchen storage box...)

But things are moving in the right direction, I think. 

Jean Scully

Coldwell Banker Real Estate

Rt 46 & Crane Road

Mt. Lakes, NJ 07046

201-486-1366 (cell-preferred)

973-263-0400 (Office)
jean.scully1@verizon.net