Archives Committee Annual Report 2023

Documenting our Place in NJ History

Committee Context

Our Folk Project archival collection resides at Rutgers University Special Collections. Unfortunately, the Rutgers archives closed in 2020 because of Covid followed by flooding from Hurricane Ida. Thankfully, none of our collection was affected. Due to the continuing closure of the department, the Archives Committee had been unable to donate our Folk Project historical items since early 2020. We had also reduced our efforts to collect materials because of space limitations in my home.

2023 Update

Good news on the Rutgers front! Their archives are now accepting donations on a limited scale. I’m in contact with the Head of Public Services at the Special Collections department and I plan to transfer the accumulated boxes of materials out of my house as soon as I’m able.

2024 Goals

The committee plans to return to active status in 2024 and I strongly encourage members to contact me if they want to donate physical Folk Project historical items such as committee papers, photographs, 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.

Submitted by Lindsey Meyer

Archives Committee Chair

Committee members:

(Joanne Cronin, in absentia)

(Bobbie Rosengarten, in memoriam) 

 Future Planning Committee

End of Year Report, Dec. 2023

Background

The Future Planning (FTPL) committee met for several years prior to COVID under the leadership of Bob McNally.  The committee mapped out the general principles of Folk Project sustainability vs. letting the organization age out. 

In 2023, the committee was resurrected with Robin Schaffer added as a co-chair. The committee set to work generating strategies, ideas, and experiments to reinvigorate the Project   under the new and challenging post-COVID environment.

2023 Accomplishments

● Workshop - Held a brainstorming session on July 22, where the committee with input from board members:

○ Defined and prioritized Folk Project benefits

○ Defined target audience groups

○ Developed a list of ideas and action items.
  

● FP Description - We created a formal description to be used as the base of marketing:

○ The Folk Project is a NJ organization of music lovers and music makers. We offer over 300 events a year: concerts, weekend retreats, dances, open stages, online programs, and plenty of opportunities to listen, learn, and make music together. People of all ages can see great acoustic performers, learn from experienced musicians, and engage with a supportive music and social community. We believe everybody’s music has value, and are committed to presenting a wide range of showcases for performers, from beginners to top professionals.  

● Projects Executed - We developed a comprehensive project plan to capture and prioritize strategies and tactics for improvements.  Priority items included:

○ Improving Social Media outreach

○ Renewing the Special Concert Series

○ Improving the presentation of our concerts and impression by the public, including lighting, lobby experience, dress. etc. 

Major Accomplishments so far:

○     Morristown Festival on the Green booth:  Exposed the FP to the public. Collected over 100 new emails.

○     NERFA Private showcase:  Strengthened our relationship with the artists and folk business community.

○     Presentation: Completed several successful experiments at Open Stage and Halloween

■     Lighting: found effective lighting solutions that create a much greater impact on the in-person and streaming concerts. (Thank you, Bob McNally & Todd Dennison, and especially for that astounding Halloween Show.)

■     Credit Cards:  Implemented successfully on an experimental basis. Beyond being well-received by guests, it will lead to easier accounting and smoother welcoming at the front desk. (Thank you Todd.)

○     Improved Email Campaigns: Interviewed professionals on how to increase clicks, resulting in a new format for the twice-weekly Music Alert. (Thank you, Mark Schaffer.)

○     Coming Attractions Reel:  Created a slideshow shown  before the concert  and during the break with information about the FP and upcoming events,

○     Open Stage hires for Troubadour Openers:  Made arrangement that the OS host (Todd Dennison) select six Troubadour openers. This offers more  gig opportunities for Folk Project and  OS  community members.

○     Social Media:  Held a brainstorming session in October. Conducted several experiments and worked on the overall strategy.  Secured  additional volunteer help. (Thank you, Marshal Chaifetz and Thomas Lachowicz.)

○     Professional Advisory:  Reached out to high profile performers and agents to understand  how the FP is perceived in the professional folk music industry  and ways to improve FP’s management with artists and agents.

○     More welcoming culture:  Started to build awareness of the need to be more inclusive of new people at FP events.

● Funding: 

○ Applied for seven grants: one success, four refusal, and five outstanding. (Thank you, Mark Schaffer and Robin Schaffer).

○ Received $1500 in operation funding from Morris Arts for 2024

○ Received an anonymous donation of $5000 for Special Concerts.

○ Pursuing a relationship with Sanofi-Aventis, who is moving their corporate headquarters to Morristown soon and looking to build relationships within the local community..

○ Secured Jeff Canter to lead Funding operations starting January. (Yay, Jeff!)

2024 Goal Highlights

● Special Concert series in conjunction with the SC chair (Mark Schaffer).  Mark has already begun executing on a 2024 plan.  We hope to present the four permitted Special Concerts at The Troubadour in 2024.  Peter Yarrow will be presented in April, John Gorka in July. The ultimate goal will be to attract new and younger audiences.

● Presentation:   Continue to develop improvements to audience experience and introduce successful ones to the Troubador.

● Marketing

○ Aggressive Social Media initiatives.

○ Review branding for wider public acceptance beyond the immediate folky community.

● Volunteers.  Build volunteer base through personal outreach and available e-channels.

● Special events - Draw new and younger audiences, such as an emerging artist showcase, music competitions, and Open Stage workshop. Explore additional education programs, similar to 2023’s Songwriters Day.

 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FP Future Planning Committee

December Board Report

Dec. 5, 2023

November Accomplishments

●     NERFA Private Showcase, Nov 9-11, Asbury Park
The showcase was a hit with the NERFA community!  We had the smallest room and stretched it to the limit. We got great feedback from the performers and guests about the quality of the music, and our general friendliness and hospitality (great food spread).  Big thanks to Tina Ross for organizing all the performers, Bob McNally for genius room optimization, and great help and hosting from Andy Hirsch, Robin Schaffer and Mark Schaffer. 

●     Presentation sub-committee
Work behind the scenes only. Stay tuned.

●     Improved Email Campaigns: Interviewed professionals on how to increase clicks, resulting in a new format for the twice-weekly Music Alert. (Thank you, Mark Schaffer.)

●     Social Media
We advertised the Jay and Molly Family Band concert for just 2 days and had a reach of over 1500 and 65 link clicks.  These are great results.

●     Marketing Agencies
We received a very strong consultant proposal from El Kleiner (no relation to Dave), a folk music marketing expert we met at NERFA.  We are considering hiring El in a limited fashion for experienced, professional advice on improving our social media initiatives.

●     Grant and Sponsorship Status

○     We applied for a grant for a bluegrass concert with IBMA Foundation.  We learned they tend to award grants for educational initiatives, and they graciously offered to extend their deadline so we can re-submit for an education day.

○     Still pursuing a sponsorship from Sanofi.

○     Jeff Canter agreed to drive our Funding initiatives and Eitan Grunwald is providing his vast experience to help.

December Initiatives

●     Presentation Sub Committee

○     We are discussing staff shirts to use for the Open Stage.

○     The committee continues to explore, lighting, credit cards, the slideshow, shirts, and other features to improve the audience experience and their perception of our organization across all FP events.

●     More welcoming culture

○     Bob will write an article for the January newsletter and address this at the January Board meeting.

●     Volunteer needs

○     We will start reaching out on social media for volunteers for several open positions

●     Marketing/social media 

○     Robin Schaffer will be working with the existing social media volunteers (Kathi Caccavale and Ralph Pedicini) and new social media volunteers (Marshal Chaifetz and Thomas Lachowicz) to improve our efforts. The committee believes social media improvements will help significantly in building new audience. 

○     We are launching a “Click Clique,” a weekly email to members and especially board members that will make it extremely easy to like and share FP events on Facebook, and keep it top of mind.

As always, the Future Planning Committee is open to all suggestions and feedback. If you want to learn more about longer term ideas, please reach out to Robin.Schaffer@folkproject.org.

Thanks!

Robin Schaffer

Bob McNally

Dear Board Members,

I am pleased to share positive news regarding the growth of our membership at the Folk Project. Throughout the year, we have strategically focused on promoting membership at both in-person and online events, and the efforts have yielded remarkable results. Over the past twelve months, we've welcomed nearly 100 new members into our community.

As part of this initiative, new members now receive a comprehensive welcome email. This email serves as an introduction to the Folk Project, highlighting various venues and providing details on in-person concerts, music-making opportunities, and all upcoming online events.

Recognizing the need for a more streamlined approach to membership tracking, I have been diligently working on identifying a solution to replace the current manual process. 

Looking ahead, my primary objective for the remainder of the year is to transition our membership processes to an online platform. This shift will not only enhance efficiency but also bring us up to date with modern practices, freeing us from reliance on outdated methods.

I would like to thank Susan Lembo for her invaluable assistance with data input and to Peggy Karr for her calm, rational, and solution-oriented ideas. 

Regards, Todd Dennison

Membership Chair

Newsletter Annual Report 2023

Last month, email notices about the release of the December eNewsletter were received by 456 recipients, while 77 paper copies were mailed out.

There was an occasional problem delivering some of the paper newsletters during the year, with some arriving a week or two after the first of the month. This didn't happen often, however, only affected a few newsletters, and the problem stopped after a couple of months with no indication about wha caused the problem.

I would like to ask anyone who has been getting delayed newsletters (i.e., after the first of the month) to send me a note when that happens so I can study the problem and try to address it.

During the year, some recipients of the newsletter reported that the new stickers used to close our newsletters were harder to open than before. Kathi contacted the printer about the problem and they told her they would be returning to the previous stickers with the next newsletter.

And finally, many thanks to Kathi Caccavale, Pat Brangs, 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

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Newsletter Committee Report 2023-12

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 

Dear Board et al.,

As we wrap up the year, it's time to reflect on the incredible journey we've had at the Open Stage. The recent months have been nothing short of spectacular. At the last Open Stage we were thrilled to welcome nearly 80 attendees, creating a vibrant atmosphere on both the main stage and in the Terrace Room.

One of the most exciting developments is the continuous influx of new faces. Each month, we've been experiencing approximately 5 new performers signing up to perform. To better understand this , I'm currently working on a brief survey to gather insights on where our new participants are coming from and how they discovered the Open Stage.

Moreover, the quality of talent gracing our stage has reached new heights, with a few seasoned professionals making occasional appearances. This not only enriches the overall experience but also contributes to the diverse and dynamic performances we offer.

Collaborating with the Future Planning Committee, led by Robin Schaffer and Bob McNally, we've been utilizing the Open Stage as a testing ground for innovative ideas.

One notable success has been the introduction of a credit card kiosk, which not only facilitates ticket purchases but also streamlines membership applications and payments. The positive response has been overwhelming, with volunteers expressing how much easier it is compared to the traditional cash box. Comments like "FINALLY you take credit cards" echo through the venue, accompanied by good-natured jokes about entering the modern era.

Additionally, we've leveraged the Open Stage to experiment with new stage lighting concepts. Footlights, stage lights, and colored lights have been added to enhance the visual experience, providing a captivating backdrop on the wall.

Behind the scenes, I am grateful for the committed team that consistently pulls everything together for the Open Stage each month. My sincere apologies to anyone inadvertently omitted from this acknowledgment – my memory has its below average limitations.

Bob McNally- my idea man
Mark Schaffer - my other idea man
Scotty Rovner - runs the Terrace Room tribe
Diane Polledri - front desk and smiles
Bill Dodds - feeds us!
Alicia Weimer - counts the coins
John Mahon - can you hear me now
Bill Henderson - can you see me now
Tina/Elizabeth - amazing MC's
Gary Pratt - host the online
Joyce Pratt - keeps Gary inline
Amy Livingston - finds replacements when my team takes a hit

Thank you for your continued support!

Best Regards, , Todd Dennison

Publicity Committee Annual Report, December 2023

Sam Edelston, Publicity Chair, Submitted December 5, 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

Chair’s Report – Sam Edelston

I’ll begin with an updated version of the same three paragraphs I began with last year: In my first annual report two years 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’re making progress, but we haven’t gotten there yet, and neither have most 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.

Highlights of the year:

Early this year, we benefited from an anonymous donor’s extremely generous $10,000 donation, which was used to buy on-air announcements on WNYC to publicize the Troubadour. We used this to promote  our concerts by Amy Engelhard (formerly of The Bobs), Tracy Grammer, Dead to the Core, and Christine Lavin.

In the spring, we were introduced to MaryLynn Schiavi, a volunteer with publicity/communications experience. She wrote some press releases and tested some online ad buys.

Then, MaryLynn offered to make a short video to promote the Folk Project. When an award-winning video maker offers to make a video for you, the answer is Yes. The project took longer than we envisioned, because of workloads, the Folk Project having so many different facets, input from multiple people, and some details that I didn’t anticipate. She sent me the link to the finished product last night. It’s beautiful. Next step will be to put it to good use.

Recently, Robin Schaffer and the Future Planning Committee have been doing some breakthrough thinking about how the Folk Project can bring its publicity efforts to the next level and attract new participants and members. I applaud the fact that they’re looking at the bigger picture while we’ve been focused more on the basics. So far, I’ve just had some preliminary conversations with Future Planning, but I’m excited to see what will come from the collaboration between them and Publicity.

I want to give thanks to Publicity’s various subcommittee heads,  Mark Schaffer (e-communications), Kathi Caccavale (Facebook), Ralph Pedicini (Instagram), Webmaster John Lamb and the entire Web Team – for everything they do.

Also, special thanks to Liz Pagan for creating the monthly Troubadour posters … Michael Mitsch for artist photos every month … Pat Brangs who recently had to step down from 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. Also, thanks in advance to the new Troubadour Booking Committee; I realize they’re still learning how to dance as a unit, and I’m looking forward to us dancing with them.

I have an immediate need to replace Pat at submitting event listings to websites. I anticipate that we might need additional Team members for new efforts, as well.

E-communications – Mark Schaffer

In 2023 The Folk Project, through Constant Contact, our mail delivery platform:

•         Sent 534,377 emails.

o         The vast majority were the twice-weekly Music Alert.

•         Got 200,169 opens, a 40% open rate.

o         Music & Dance Alert opens were double the industry average.

o         Music Alerts, Dance Alerts and Volunteer opens were around 40-45%.

o         The Monthly Newsletter has a 55% open rate.

•         Experienced 8,732 clicks, a 4% rate.

o         Music Alert clicks are low.

•         97% of our opens are on desktop computers.

The Music Alert continues to impress music and email industry professionals with its extensive reach and open rate. We are communicating with 1,500 people twice weekly. Since beginning the consolidated all-venue Music Alert, every Folk Project venue gets at least triple the views compared to before (i.e. Troubadour), and sporadic events like Getaway, NJ Uke Fest, Special Concerts, membership pitches, open stage signups, etc. get up to 20 times the views.

I have consulted with a number of professionals recently on how to generate more clicks. Although there’s minor changes in format all the time, what I’ve learned should result in the third major format change since the Alert began three years ago.

I’d like to thank my support team, who’ve been very helpful twice a week and more.

•                     Jean Scully proofs and edits every pixel and link twice a week. She is indispensable.

•                     Sandy Jackson spent long hours doing online prep work for most of the year. She worked very hard to master computer skills that didn’t come naturally, and that made the many hours she spent that much more precious.

•                     Loretta Brooks has replaced Sandy and has begun putting in hours that I don’t have to.

•                     Gary Pratt and Paul Fisher proofed, while Gary monitored the sidebar calendar for much of the year — a big help. Todd Dennison and Gary helped with content and occasionally monitored the content and jokes — a sometime necessary function.

•                     Robin is always at my side in everything I do. Thanks, Babe.

Producing a publicity email twice a week isn’t easy, but I really like doing it. It keeps our larger community feeling like a community, and lets everyone know where and when the music is. I enjoy working with everyone.

I consulted with a number of professionals recently on how to generate more clicks per email. Although there’s minor changes in format all the time, what I’ve learned resulted in the third major format change since the Music Alert began three years ago. The first email in the new format went out on November 30th. Early results for this one and only email sample show a 7% click rate, up from 2% and 3% in previous emails. Better data will be available next month.

Mark Schaffer

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale

Sam says:

Our three Facebook Groups had steady growth during the year, with the Folk Project Group growing 24% and Uke Fest growing 20%. All three had particularly big growth in October – suggesting that it might have been related to the FP booth at the October 1 Morristown Festival on the Green. (Swingin’ Tern’s biggest month actually was January.)

In the Folk Project Group, we post FP concerts and Events, but group members post their gigs and other things, as well.

The place that’s specifically devoted to FP Events, newsletters, and announcements is the Folk Project Page. We steadily gained Followers and “Page Likes” throughout the year. (* The total number of Followers decreased In May, but I suspect that could have been when we switched to Facebook’s new “Pages” format. We actually had 24 new Follows that month.) Our net Followers increased by 5% for the year – or is we adjust for the decrease in May, it could have been about 6½%.

Month FP Page FP Page FP Group Swingin' Tern NJ Uke Fest 

 Followers Likes Group Group

Nov-22 5801 4622 1776 607 250

Dec-22 5823 4645 1786 611 251

Jan-23 5898 4707 1821 620 255

Feb-23 5948 4759 1855 624 259

Mar-23 5993 4799 1891 627 261

Apr-23 6035 4835 1948 631 263

May-23 5977* 4855 1949 633 264

Jun-23 6003 4861 1957 637 267

Jul-23 6032 4880 1962 640 275

Aug-23 6043 4886 1981 642 275

Sep-23 6064 4904 2029 643 281

Oct-23 6082 4912 2135 649 299

Nov-23 6109 4929 2208 656 301

1-year +5% +7% +24% +8% +20%

Though technically a December 1 event, I should also mention that a short video of Jay Ungar playing Ashokan Farewell in last Friday’s concert was posted on our Facebook Page and got a big “share” from somebody (Jay & Molly?). That post has reached (i.e., been seen by, though not necessarily noticed) 16,200 people so far, and gotten 171 reactions (i.e., Likes, comments,  shares, etc.).

In my December monthly report, I mentioned that the Future Planning Committee is raising the subject of ways we might build the Folk Project’s audience through social media and other means. It’s still on the horizon, and we don’t know what shape that will take yet, but in today’s new world, social media is an area of  opportunity.

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 more.

Instagram – Ralph Pedicini

Ralph took over our Instagram a little over a year ago. He has continued to focus 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. In addition to this, Kathi has our Music Alert eletters getting posted there. 

The good news is that our Instagram has experienced significant growth on a percentage basis: It has 33% more Followers than a year ago. But the numbers are small.

A challenge is that many FP members don’t use Instagram, or at least not regularly. We need to appeal to members who use it to share our posts and, more  importantly, Ralph has said that he’ll reach out to performers who use that platform, to encourage them to share our posts.

Month Instagram Instagram

Followers Reach

Nov-22 346 175

Dec-22 358 293

Jan-23 374 243

Feb-23 374 243

Mar-23 393 202

Apr-23 404 197

May-23 419 165

Jun-23 421 154

Jul-23 430 155

Aug-23 433 240

Sep-23 437 252

Oct-23 446 161

Nov-23 461 241

1-year +33% +38%

Web – John Lamb

Annual Highlights from John Lamb:

2023 saw some important changes and updates, including

• website header changes

• preparations for accepting credit cards at Troubadour

• selection and setup of a new laptop for Troubadour

• maintenance and finally removal of COVID-related information on the website

• improvement of the online ticketing process by using an updated WooCommerce plugin for

WordPress

• renewal of the swingintern.org domain registration

Merch – Paul Fisher (acting)

Paul says:

The Merch Subcommittee has not had any activity this year. We should seek a new Merchandise

Chair to get things going again in 2024.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Publicity Report for the December 5, 2023 Board Meeting 

Sam Edelston, December 4, 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’m in dialog with Robin Schaffer / Future Planning Committee about ways we might build the Folk Project’s audience through social media and other means. She’s being a real dynamo for this, and I applaud it. We’re working toward a consensus of vision. See the Future Planning Committee’s report.

Robin also, separately, informed me this month that the Folk Project received a $1500 grant from Morris Arts for operational support. As a result, our marketing materials and announcements for 2024 will include the statement, “Funding has been made possible in part by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.”

Promotional video: I’ve talked about this over the past few months. Barring any technical breakdowns, I expect to have a concrete follow-up report on this in the morning. 

Help wanted – somebody:

• We lost an excellent volunteer who was posting online listings. I’d like to add a couple of people in that area.

• We also need a merch person

Help wanted – YOU:

• Facebook users: Put the Folk Project’s Events page on your Bookmark Bar, where it will be visible. www.facebook.com/FolkProject/events  Once a week, share any Events that appeal to you, and tag the Folk Project.,  This will get our Events seen more.

• And Instagram users, please tag @thefolkprojectnj to raise our visibility there. 

E-communications – Mark Schaffer 

Mark says:

The statistics I normally submit monthly for Music Alert are not relevant this month because of an authentication issue:

First, Constant Contact changed their authentication process.

1,400 out of 4,500 recipients did not receive their Music Alerts for two weeks.

The problem was solved after two days, several hours on the phone,

and three attempts by the Constant Contact Help Desk.

Also, Robin and I spent two lovely weeks in New Zealand,

where the calendar is one day ahead of New Jersey’s calendar.

Hence, the Music Alert went out only four out of the five times it should have.

In my defense, that makes 381 out of 382 sent out correctly.

Of course, there is no defense. Sorry.

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale 

Folk Project Page:  6,109 Followers (up from 6,082 last month). 4,929 people Like this.

Folk Project group: 2,208 members, up from 2,135 last month 2,029 the month before – That’s another 3.4% this month, or two-month growth of 8.8%.

Swingin’ Tern group: 656 members; up slightly from 649 last month.

NJ Uke Fest group: 301 members; up from 299 last month.

I’ll put some month-by-month statistics in my Annual Report this evening.

Kathi says: 

Big picture is that both the page and the group continue to grow. [At the 12/1 Jay & Molly concert,] when Mike A. asked how people heard about the Jay and Molly concert last night, I heard several people call out “Facebook.” [Sam adds, Jay & Molly have 11,000 followers on Facebook.]

Instagram – Ralph Pedicini

Content Overview (from Facebook/Instagram reports):

• Instagram followers: 461, up from 446 last month.

• Reach: 241 … Back up from 161 last month, which was down from 252 the previous month

• I’ll put some month-by-month statistics in my Annual Report this evening.

Ralph continues to post Story content (multiple Stories per event) for performers upcoming that have an active Instagram account. Also posting story content for Open Stage and the Halloween event.

Ralph urges: When you attend one of our events, please post about it and tag the Folk Project. 

Twitter – Jean Scully 

No report from Jean.

Web – John Lamb 

Here’s John’s writeup.

November was busy month for the web team.  We did the following:

• created and/or updated show listings for the Maui Benefit, Open Stage shows, the MUUF Benefit show, the Swingin' Tern New Years Eve Dance, Chorus Night at Troubadour, and the January Inside the Song show, 

• updated the website header to provide links to each of our operating internal venues

• updated web pages for Membership, Troubadour Booking, and Administration

• added the acknowledgment required for the Morris Arts grant

• assisted the new Swingin' Tern chair with some email issues

• updated email forwarders as needed for the Swingin' Tern and Troubadour Chairs

• assisted the Electronic Communications Chair with a Constant Contact issue

• assisted the Newsletter Editor with getting this month's edition online

• added Swingin' Tern 40th Anniversary buttons as a merchandise item that can be purchased online

• began to study the effects of accepting credit cards at Troubadour on the Excel Tally Sheet that tracks income and expense of shows

• made a minor change on the existing Tally Sheet to correct an error in a formula

• connected Robin Schaffer with our existing Google Ads account

• assisted Amy Livingston with exporting a list of online ticket purchasers for a Troubadour show

• assisted an online ticket purchaser who had inadvertently selected a Child ticket instead of a General Admission ticket

• helped reset some passwords on folkproject.org for users of Google Apps

Analytics shows web statistics for November bouncing back from lows in October.  2023 numbers show a record number of user sessions.  Page views continue to climb toward pre-COVID levels

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

Also, send anyone our way who you know of who may be interested in joining the web team.

John Lamb, webmaster

Looking at John’s web report, Sam notes:

• Mad Agnes’s website referred 28 people to ours, which is the second-largest monthly number of any referrer all year.

• The Troubadour Calendar page had one of its biggest months of the year, with 383 visits.

• Swingin’ Tern got 230 visits, which was 15% more than the next highest month. And the New Year’s Eve Event page is already over 120 visits.

• The Jay & Molly Event page got 281 visits – significantly more than single-month totals for runner-up concerts by Dead to the Core (243) and Buskin & Batteau (237).

Merch – Paul Fisher (acting)

Nothing new to report.

We’re looking for someone who wants to take over Merch and make it go somewhere.  We have had inquiries for t-shirts when people see someone wearing our old designs and have had to turn them away.

Sound Reinforcement Committee Report Annual Report 2023

A big change this year was the change-over for broadcasting from Facebook to Afton. The Facebook platform had a changing and difficult to follow procedure for establishing the broadcast which led to frequent misstarts in connecting with our broadcast audience. These misstarts led to confusion and delay within our technical staff as we would attempt to broadcast a Friday night show.  The Afton platform was solid, repeatable, and reliable right from the beginning as we started using the new platform.

Another big project for 2023 was the evaluation and restoration of our sound equipment for the live stage at MUUF. The past few years with shows moving out of MUUF into various homes for remote broadcasting has been very hard on this equipment as it followed these shows. The fact that it was removed and replaced to storage many times by many different hands aged this equipment significantly, and some of it remains dispersed.  This led to a shortage of equipment for doing shows, as well as just beat up equipment starting to fail.

I evaluated all the missing and non-functioning equipment and purchased replacements in October. This was the first large sound equipment purchase since 2015. We now have a fully equipped stage with all working equipment.

The Chorus Night show differs from our usual fare where we have a round robin of performers do songs that are intended to be sung with enthusiastic audience participation. Before Covid, this was done without any sound amplification. With our journey through the Covid years, we accumulated a remote audience that is interested in hearing what we do without being present.  We designed a stage setup which allowed us to mic and broadcast the live singing at Chorus Night without changing the acoustic feel for the audience in the concert hall. The broadcast result met with positive reviews and a call to include it for future shows.

In another advance back to normalcy, we provided sound for the Fall Getaway which was held in its normal format for the first time in three years. At the Stony Point Center, we were able to duplicate the sound system that was successful there in 2019, the last time we had a full frame 3-day Getaway. We further extended this by adding a broadcast of the Friday night concert stage for the first time. This gives me the confidence that we will be able to reliably achieve this in the future.

John Mahon 

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Sound Reinforcement Committee Report December 2023

In November we provided live and broadcast sound for 4 Friday night shows. This included 2 regular shows for Sam Robbins and Laura Herscovitch on Nov. 3, and Mad Agnes with Shawna Caspi on Nov. 17, The Open Stage on Nov. 10, and the Chorus Night on Nov. 24.

The Chorus Night marked an advance for sound in the FP. We provided sound service for the evening for only the broadcast. This allowed our broadcast audience to enjoy the music without the need to travel to MUUF. This was accomplished by placing area microphones in strategic positions in the room to pick up the song leaders, and the audience. The overall effect gave the broadcast audience a similar experience to being present in the room. The broadcast met positive acclaim and it was decided to continue broadcasting future shows of this nature.

John Mahon

Special Events Committee’s 2023 Annual Report to Board

EVENT HOSTING SUBCOMMITTEE

The Event Hosting Subcommittee had a successful year under the able guidance of Jay Wilensky. In response to the COVID downturn in 2022, Evenings of Music were moved to Mark & Robin Schaffer’s home every month. The strategy worked and attendance returned to two dozen attendees monthly. The music was back to high energy and wonderful, and the camaraderie and conversation was back to The Project community’s high standards.

November’s Evening of Music was held at Dave Kleiner and Liz Pagan’s home. December’s Holiday Party EoM will be held at Steve & Christine Humphrey’s home. Starting January, they will be back at the Schaffer’s until further notice.

Afternoons of Music at Lewis Morris Park in Morristown have been a highlight of recent summers. The July 4th Picnic was moved last minute to MUFF due to threatening thunderstorms. There was a large and enthusiastic turnout. The result was another successful event where the spirit of friendship, the music, and the food surpassed all very-high expectations.

NJ UKE FEST

The NJ Uke Fest on September 8th and 9th in Rockaway was an absolute thrill. (One well-travelled attendee said Saturday’s was “the best concert I ever attended.”) The Sunday Sing on Morristown Green was unfortunately rained out. 

To ameliorate lower post-COVID attendance and still maintain the same high performer budget and standards, NJ Uke was once again a commuter event at the Schaffer’s with minimum staffing. Featured Performers were Stu Fuchs, Danielle Ate the Sandwich, Curt Sheller, Steve Gibb, and Laura L. Wootton.

Three hours before Uke Fest began, due to weather all flights to Newark were cancelled, and Danielle couldn’t get here. She arranged a substitute, Liz Chidester, who, with her music partner Nilko Andreas, astounded everyone with a spectacular concert set.

Thanks to Uke Community Leaders Mark Dutton and Kevin Coughlin for planning and publicity.

Special thanks to the Morristown Green Trust, who was overly kind and cooperative in their dealings with us.

Supreme thanks go to Frank Sole, Robin Schaffer, Peggy Karr, Dave Heistand, Jean Scully, and Mary Capacelatro for the endless hours they spent making NJ Uke Fest financially possible, and a spiritual and musical success.

Originally, NJ Uke Fest was held at MUUF. Next year may be the right time to move back. We will explore that possibility.

SPECIAL CONCERTS

THE FOLK PROJECT’S GOLDEN JUBILEE WEEKEND

The Project’s 50th Anniversary weekend was held at MUUF on Friday & Saturday, May 19 & 20, 2023. Unofficially, we were a social and musical community that actually preceded 1973. However, our first “formal activity” under Project 21 was The Acoustic Getaway (formerly The Festival), held 50 years ago this May. Most importantly, this was our last chance to officially mark the contributions of our founders, Jay Gibbs and especially Laurie Riley, the founding workhorse and spirit of what The Folk Project is today. Hence, we celebrated this weekend as our 50th.

The Golden Jubilee featured musicians and speakers that represented  50 years of Folk Project community and accomplishments. It was a very impressive display of who we’ve been and who we are.

Friday Evening featured a Mocktail Hour and hors d’oeuvres, with music provided by The Folk Project Jazz Ensemble with Frank Sole, Jeff Rantzer, Henry Nerenberg, Darrell Courtley, Todd Denison, and John Hone. Mocktails were provided and served by Robin Schaffer.

The Friday Evening Concert featured The Robinson Rohe Band and a Cavalcade of Folk Project Performers, including WSAGNBSCLRME - The Rolstons & Nerenberg, Peter Fischman & Deb O’Hanlon, Jean Scully, Glen Coleman, Diane Polledri & John Hone, Dave Kleiner & Liz Pagan, Todd Dennison, Bill Hall, Christine DeLeon, Steve Gibb, and Folk Project President Elizabeth “Betsy Rose” Lachowicz.

Friday Evening’s Cavalcade of Guest Speakers MC’ed the evening, and featured President Elizabeth Lachowicz, Chris Reimer, Mike Agranoff, Ed Roffman, Jeff Canter, Bob Cole, John Mahon, Bill Dodds, Jeff Rantzer, Paul Fisher, Dave Heistand, and Gary Pratt via video. Opening remarks by Laurie Riley were read to open the event.

Saturday Afternoon Workshops were led by Jeff Loy, Spook Handy, Frank Sole, Teddy Parker Vinny Raniolo, Mike Agranoff,  and Frank Vignola.

Thanks to Bob Cole and Jean Scully for plotting and piloting a fabulous sit-down dinner for 75 in the Terrace Room, and to their team of dozens for making the food happen.

The Saturday Evening Concert featured The Frank Vignola & Vinnie Raniolo and a Cavalcade of Folk Project Performers, including Teddy Parker, Mark Schaffer, Tina Ross & Andy Hirsch, Scott Rovner, Andrew Dunn, Todd Dennison & Annie Donohue, Jay Wilensky & Marie Trontell, Ken Galipeau, Michael Arthur, Frank and Hank, The Flukes, and Grover Kemble.

The Saturday Evening Concert was MC’ed by another Cavalcade of Guest Speakers, including Lindsey Meyer, Amy Livingston, Margy Capecelatro, Larry Flanagan, Robin Schaffer, Alicia Weimer, Chris Bukata, Pat Brangs, Jean Scully, and Doug Heacock.

A special note of thank you to The Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, who contributed handsomely to the event with a $1,000 reduction in rent.

We intend run a similar weekend again in 50 years.

SPECIAL CONCERTS

SONGWRITERS DAY

Subcommittee Chairs Diane Polledri and Tina Ross did an outstanding job on their first foray as leaders of a large and complex Folk Project event. Getaway Songwriters Day featured Dan Navarro and Abbie Gardner. It was held at MUUF on  Saturday, April 15th, 2023. The Day included workshops, lunch, dinner, and an evening concert.

The onsite excitement was palpable, and the surveys came back overwhelmingly positive. The workshops had about 40 attendees, the number expected. The concert-only attendance was another 39 attendees and less than expected. The event lost about $900, which, as a first-time event of such magnitude and success, seems a reasonable investment. Our intention is to bolster publicity for the evening concert tickets and do it again in Spring of 2024. 

Going forward, it will be called “The Folk Project Songwriters Day.” It is scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 15, 2024.

GETAWAY COMMITTEE

NO SPRING ACOUSTIC GETAWAY

The Golden Anniversary Weekend was held in place of a Spring Acoustic Getaway.

Getaways at Home, a commuter weekend held the past three years at the Schaffers for attendance and financial reasons due to COVID challenges, has been officially retired. It’s time for Getaways to get away.

GETAWAY COMMITTEE

THE FALL ACOUSTIC GETAWAY 

Getaway was held at Stony Point Center for the first time since 2019. Guest attendance was limited to 75 in order to limit financial risk.

Getaway was an overwhelming success. Despite the half attendance, guests on site and in their surveys showed that the spirit, music, friendships, and joy of the “Old Getaway” were back.

Concert performances were outstanding. Friday’s concert featured Sam Robbins, Circle Round the Sun, and Jacob Johnson. Saturday’s concert featured Bill Hall, Carolann Solebello, and Christine Lavin.

The Sunday Concert Finale was great -- a random pairing of guests, exquisitely hosted by Sam Robinson and Jacob Johnson called The Duo Vocalotto. The show featured Diane Polledri & Tina Ross, Henry Nerenberg & John Hone, John Hicks & Alicia Weimer, Sam Edelston & Steve Garfinkel, Bob McNally & Andy Hirsch, Pamela Zave & Yolanda Fundora, Dave Hisstand & Joel Glassman, Mike Agranoff & Jerry Krantman, Cecilia Rowedder with Mark Schaffer & Bob Rosensweet, Michael Arthur & Greg Erbach, with a final sing-along led by Sam & Jacob. 

We experimented with two successful adaptations. The first was a less-jam-packed schedule. Workshops were an hour and 15 minutes, and then there was 15 minutes in between. The longer workshops and slower pace added to everyone’s enjoyment and the weekend still felt quite active, so this improvement will be the new norm for future Getaways.

Also, the limited attendance of 75 guests did not allow us to reserve the entire facility. Sharing the facility was not a preference, but was a financial necessity. This weekend proved that sharing the facility is a viable option for a great Getaway if it becomes a financial necessity in the future. 

Although post-COVID economic realities are a severe threat to the Getaway program, it is noted that returning to a children’s sleep-away camp is not a viable option going forward.

So in response to the inflationary and adult facility issues, the Folk Project Board passed motions in October, 2023 that represent an all-in effort to kickstart a successful 150-guest Getaway for the spring of 2024. Additional Project support to the Getaway program include the entire performer budget of $8,000, plus a special fund of $2,500 for previous attendees affected by the inflationary room and board price increases. The “previous-attendee fund" will reduce the price of registration back to 2019 prices for Getaway veterans who request such relief.

“Outside” artists were fully booked for the 2024 Spring Getaway, but just this week there was a well-intentioned cancellation that we honored graciously. The Spring Getaway, as always, will be the weekend before Memorial Day Weekend: May 17, 18 and 19, 2024. Artists are lining up for the 2024 Fall Getaway already. The Fall Getaway is always Columbus Weekend: October 11, 12 and 13, 2024. 

SPECIAL CONCERTS

HOUSE CONCERTS:

Bill Hall and Rachel Marie put on a great show at the Schaffer’s on Saturday, January 21st, 2023. It was a full house and Bill generously donated a larger portion than necessary to The Folk Project. 

A Beatlemania house concert featuring Elaine Silver was held on Saturday, August 19 at Mark & Robin Schaffer’s home. Elaine is a certified Beatleologist through Beatles University. It was a full house and a great show. 

House Concerts, which were frequent during the COVID comeback years, will be less often going forward.

SPECIAL CONCERTS

FUTURE PLANNING

In 2024, The Special Concerts will re-launch the Special Concerts at The Troubadour program, which has been on COVID hiaitus. Peter Yarrow is scheduled for April 5, 2024 and John Gorka is scheduled for July 26th.

Per board motion, every year the Special Concerts Committee can run up to four such concerts on Fridays. In addition to creating exciting experiences for our members with higher-profile artists in our home theater, these concerts bring in the artist’s fans who are first-timers from the general public. This makes Special Concerts at The Troubadour an attendance turnaround tool for our regular nights at the Troubadour, a benefit that is of special interest to Robin, Bob, and the Future Planning Committee. That committee has encouraged applying for grants for this program in particular, in addition to their grant efforts elsewhere. We are applying to various outside organizations for grants, and have secured private donor funding for 2024 concerts.

We are exploring a Folk Project Guitar Day on the model of Songwriters Day for fall of 2024.

IN CONCLUSION:

2023 was a successful and exhausting year. Thanks to everyone who pitched in and made the music happen. The Project does an outstanding job of serving music makers and music lovers. The fun will continue in 2024.

Thanks for all the support. It’s a treasure.

Mark 

Mark Schaffer, Special Events Chair

Mark Schaffer, Folk Project Special Events Chair

201-207-8696

Mark.Schaffer@folkproject.org

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December 2023 Monthly Report to Board

Nothing to add.

Mark Schaffer, Special Events Chair

2023 has been a very pivotal year for the Streaming Committee.

As the year began, there were hopes that the pandemic was subsiding and performers and audiences would return to live venues. As we learned, that wasn’t quite the case yet.

Streaming Tuesdays and Troubadour webcasts continued to provide entertainment to audience members and income to performers (including those that weren’t ready and/or able to get back out on the road).

In February, we learned that Facebook was no longer going to allow paid online events in May. At a NERFA Presenters Peer Group meeting, I asked if anyone could suggest an alternative streaming platform. Bracha Lieberman from People's Voice Cafe said they were using Afton Livestream and were very satisfied with it. She connected me to Lev Pinsky, PVC's streaming chair, who gave me a comprehensive walkthrough of Afton's platform.

On March 8, I reached out to Jared Surasky, VP of sales at Afton, and on April 7 we presented Christine Lavin with Billy Hall on Afton. On July 11, we added Streaming Tuesdays to Afton.

We have been very pleased with Afton, as have our performers, audience members, and the sound crew at Troubadour.

As always, I am very grateful for Kathi Caccavale's invaluable support.

Respectfully submitted,

Gary

Folk Project Streaming chair 

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Highlights and a lowlight for Folk Project Streaming in November:

Let's get the lowlight out of the way first. Trapper Schoepp's 11/7 Streaming Tuesdays concert had to be rescheduled since there was an internet outage in Milwaukee. The new ticker link was sent to all ticket holders.

Highlights included the Maui Benefit Show and (for the first time) Chorus Song Night. 

December shows:

12/5 - Trapper Schoepp https://aftontickets.com/TrapperSchoepp

12/12 - Ellis Paul https://aftontickets.com/EllisPaul

12/19 - Danielle Miraglia https://aftontickets.com/DanielleMiraglia

Respectfully submitted,

Gary

Folk Project Streaming chair

Swingin' Tern Dances Annual 2023 Report

Swingin' Tern has had a year of excellent dances held on the first and third Saturday evenings along with Double Dances in September and November.  The Double Dances feature Afternoon Advanced Contras and the Evening All-Level Dance.  The move in May of last year to our new dance home at St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Main Street, Chatham has been a huge success.  Dancers and performers love the wooden floor, windows on four sides plus air-conditioning when we need it, deep stage, and excellent acoustics.  

Swingin' Tern has moved at a quicker pace compared to other area dances in relaxing Covid restrictions.  Our last mask-required dance was on January 7th when Morris County was last at the CDC Orange level.  Although vaccinations are advised, we dropped the vaccination requirement in March.

Following its intermittent use, in October Swingin' Tern moved exclusively to calling the non-gendered terms Larks & Robins rather than the traditional Gents & Ladies.  "Larks and Robins" gives everyone the freedom to dance any role with any partner.  With minimal criticism, the change has been well-received.

We are exploring various avenues to increase attendance with a concentration on attracting younger dancers to our dance.

After twelve years of service, Leigh Walker resigned as chairperson for Swingin' Tern in October.  Doug Heacock was approved as the new chair at the November board meeting.  This brings Doug full-circle as he was the co-founder and co-chair of Swingin' Tern forty years ago.  Doug has done the dance publicity for all forty years.

Financially, with the aid of some generous donations, we had a net profit of $234 for the first 11 months of the year [$297 for Dec 2022 through Nov 2023].

After last being held in 2019, our New Year's Eve Dance returns this year with a pot-luck supper at 6:30pm and dancing from 8pm to 12:30am.

Our 40th Anniversary [woohoo!] Double Dance will be held on January 6th, 2024. 

Many thanks to all of the hard working committee members who ensure that the Swingin' Tern dance floor is a place of unbridled joy.

Yours in dance,

Doug Heacock

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Swingin' Tern Dances November 2023 Report

In November we held one evening dance and one double dance [afternoon advanced contras + evening all-level dance]

11/2                     Paul Morris & Torrent                                29 attendees [20 paid/7 staff/2 free]   

11/2                      Net loss -$215.  Attendance was hampered by a concurrent major NYC Contrashock dance                                                                                

11/18 afternoon   Alex Deis-Lauby & Dead Sea Squirrels     38 attendees [28 paid/8 staff/2 free]    

11/18 evening      Qwill Duvall & Dead Sea Squirrels               35 attendees [26 paid/7 staff/2 free] 

11/18 combined   Net loss -$205   

November            Net loss -$420 + $500 donation = $80 profit            

We had a committee meeting on November 30th at Doug & Brian's home with 9 attending in-person and 10 via Zoom.  The meeting was very productive.  Plans were discussed for our upcoming New Year's Eve Dance, and our 40th Anniversary Dance on January 6, 2024.  40th Anniversary name buttons are being made by Doug as orders come in.

The decision was made to form a steering committee comprised of a few key members of the committee at large.  The smaller size of the steering committee will ensure that different viewpoints are considered on any decision while having the agility to move quickly when need be.

Several ideas were floated to increase attendance, especially among the young ages.  Sandy DeSmedt will explore ways to engage the area colleges.  Virginia Nordberg is in discussion with a local high school music/theater group to provide sound tech interns to help Andrew Warner and Jon Justin who carry the weight of our sound needs.

Our plans are to have committee meetings on a regular basis.       

Doug Heacock                         

Annual Report

This year has been fairly normal in terms of Finances and Bookkeeping.

Karen Buchanan, our Bookkeeper, has been indispensable in keeping things together. The only problems we have had have been mostly miss categorized numbers put in the wrong place. We got our 2022 990 taxes and CRI reports out with no problems.

We have a lot of new numbers to keep track of. We added Afton, Stripe, and Square along with our PayPal account so we can stream and take credit cards. There are endless fee's for each transaction for all these accounts. Karen downloads all these single transactions, groups them together to get them in Quickbooks. Sometimes the numbers don't match Mike's tally sheet. I get dizzy thinking about how to find those errors in the hundreds of transactions. To date they have been small. It is not worth paying Karen $50/hr to track down a $3.00 error. 

A reminder, for those who buy things for the Folk Project. Please save your receipts for when you ask for reimbursement. It is General Accounting Practices to need receipts in order for me to write a check. Karen always asks. I don't need the actual receipt just a photo, email/credit card receipt or screen shot is fine.

There are two main anomalies in our Profit & Loss numbers this year. First, we got a 10K pass through donation for WNYC. We got the money and had to spend in on advertising with WNYC. We got the money in 2022 and it shows a 10K profit for 2022. However, we spent the money this year so it shows as a 10K loss for 2023. Second, We have changed how we account for Vanguard. We can't show the stipend money for Special Events in the books like we have in the past. The stipend was about 2K each for the Getaways and Uke Fest with a total of 6K. So when you see the losses for this year remember the 16K anomalies and it doesn't look that bad.

One funny story. I had to take 5K out of Vanguard to replace some money in our Money Market account. I have been dreading and putting off doing the transaction. Every time I try to do something in Vanguard it turns into a major headache because of their security protocols and the fact that we are a nonprofit and don't have an "owner". So I finally go in to do the transaction and it was a piece of cake. Thank you Vanguard... I don't hate you anymore.

Respectfully submitted

Peggy Karr / Treasurer

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Monthly Report

Attached it the current Profit & Loss.

Nothing special to report. Things are moving along as normal. We had one missed Tip check that got lost in a spam folder. The check and an apology was sent. I took 5K out of the Vanguard account and put it into our money market account which was down to below 1K. I like to keep it as a cash back up if we have an unexpected large expense. 

Now is the time of year that I encourage everyone to dig out any receipts they need a reimbursement check for. It is much easier to reimburse someone the same year the purchase was made. It would make myself and Karen's job much easier. A simple rule of thumb is to take a photo or screen shot at the time of any transaction that will need reimbursement. I don't need the original receipt, the photo will work just fine. Easy to find, easy to remember, and easy to send to me for reimbursement.

Respectfully submitted

Peggy Karr / Treasurer

As in all facets of the Project, our volunteer staff have been affected by aftereffects of the pandemic, as well as our general graying and creeping decrepitude.   Amy Livingston has had to work a lot harder since our reopening to fill our positions, despite our working generally leaner, with fewer staff.

That being said, in the last few months, we have gotten some new faces who have proven to be very enthusiastic, and I'm hopeful that they'll stay with us.

As always, Sound is the most challenging position to fill, and the only one that neither I, Elizabeth nor Mark can fill in for at the last minute.  I've explored some possible solutions with John Mahon going forward during some conversations, including floating some ideas with him about getting students from CCM or another college who are studying theatre or sound design.  John can speak more to this, but it appears that the current equipment we have is not up-to-date enough to give a learning opportunity to young people for their future.  I expressed my feelings to John that if our free equipment from MUUF is holding us back in any way, maybe it's time we explored getting our equipment so we can attract young talent.  I know this is out of my wheelhouse, but I'm just addressing the aspect of it that is affecting getting volunteers for Sound every week.

The revamp of the Troubadour and other efforts of the Future Planning Committee should always, in my opinion, put volunteers in a leading position, because without them, we have nothing.  Ditto any special shows or benefits:  No planning should be taking place without Amy and me being in the loop from the beginning, so we can marshal our forces effectively.   The fact that we need between eight and ten volunteers for every event means that we need to be top of mind.

I don't want to single out any volunteers by name, but there are a handful that show up week after week, and they have my undying gratitude.   The one exception I will name is the marvelous and talented Bob Cole, who has been an incredible partner and co-conspirator in getting beautiful refreshments for various events this year.  He did the yeoman's share of the work for most of them, and even when he was in the background, he was an invaluable resource and sounding board for me in terms of menu planning and logistics. The 50th Anniversary Weekend stands out especially, where the two of us cooked and/or catered two sit-down meals for 75 people, as well as hot hors d'oeuvres for the Friday night cocktail hour. 

Jean Scully

Troubadour Volunteer Chair